This is a recap and review of the fifth episode of the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us. Expect spoilers for season 1 and game 1 (and the episode itself, of course), but also some references to and comments about the second game (though without spoilers).
In the fifth episode of the second season — titled Feel Her Love — Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) and Dina (played by Isabela Merced) opt to move through a warehouse that WLF soldiers are strangely leaving unguarded. Meanwhile, WLF Sergeant Elise Park (played by Hettienne Park) reveals why she had to lock her own soldiers inside of an infected zone. Feel Her Love was written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and directed by Stephen Williams (Lost; Westworld).
The cold open finally introduces a key element from the game
Just like with last week’s episode, Feel Her Love (named after the Seraphite writing on the wall that Dina and Ellie spot later in the episode — though with, perhaps, a dual meaning that I can get into later) opens with a powerful show-invention cold open. Here we see Alanna Ubach’s Hanrahan confront Sergeant Elise Park about why she opted to lock her own men inside of an infected zone, thus sentencing them to their deaths. It is a very well-acted scene that sees Hettienne Park deliver some chilling dialogue, as she reveals that the infection is spreading through airborne spores in the basement of the hospital, and, heartbreakingly, that she had to lock away her own son, as he struggled to breathe.
It’s a chilling moment that, however, also functions really well as a comparison to what Joel did. Joel sacrificed all and went on a rampage to save the person that he loved, regardless of the consequences to the wider world. Whereas Elise did what was right for the greater good, even though it meant sacrificing her son in the process. That said, it’s not a perfect comparison, of course, as her son, Leon, was basically dead the moment he breathed in the spores, whereas Ellie was saved, from Joel’s perspective, because she could live on.
In my recap and review of the second episode of season one, I remarked how the fact that the HBO adaptation had opted to leave out airborne spores from the series was the most controversial change to the narrative at that time. Now, more than two years later, the showrunners have backtracked and found a way to introduce it into the game. It’s a good decision that I definitely welcome, as it would be difficult to the end this episode without spores, but I also think it’s strange that they didn’t see this coming a while back. Was it really that much of a problem to have characters wear gas masks from time to time on the show? But I digress. Let’s now shift to the a-plot.
If I ever were to lose you…
The adaptation has really gone to great lengths to emphasize Dina’s talents as a strategist, which, we presume, she learned through her friendship with Joel, which was teased in the first episodes of the season. In their first scene in this episode, we see how Dina is the one pointing her and Ellie in a direction using hr skills with triangulation. However, this scene also sees Ellie noticeably more upbeat than she was at this point in the game, and she comes across as far less competent than the game version. She’s obviously giddy because of her blossoming romance with Dina, but the fact that she isn’t interested in tracking down the location of the WLFs herself and the fact that she calls herself stupid feels like a misstep. Ellie isn’t a child anymore, and she isn’t dumb, even though this scene frames her that way.
Anyway, as Ellie leaves Dina to what she is apparently much better at, Ellie explores the theater and finds multiple guitars on a stage. As the iconic music from the games plays, you can almost imagine how Ellie is thinking to herself that a life on stage would have been exciting and something for her. She then goes to pick up a guitar, tunes it, strums it, and sings the line: “If I ever were to lose you,” but then stops, as we hear a slight rumbling effect during a close-up of her face. Ellie is here being reminded of the thirst for vengeance that the loss of Joel has awakened inside of her, but she is perhaps also starting to think about how she’d feel if she were to lose Dina as well.
The song that she is singing is “Future Days,” by Pearl Jam, which is featured prominently in the game. However, in the timeline of the show, it is an anachronism, since that song didn’t come out until ten years after the initial outbreak (2003 in the show, unlike the game). However, given the importance of this song, I can understand why they kept it in. However, again, you have to ask why they changed the timeline in the first place.
Dina and Ellie are caught off guard
Our duo here decides to go through a warehouse, which is strangely unguarded by the WLFs. To be fair, they do realize that it is probably overrun by infected and that they are being reckless, but they decide to go regardless. This is strange given the fact that Dina is pregnant, though the show does point this out by way of Ellie, who suggests that she should go back to the theater. Ellie is right, but Dina, in a pretty strong scene, communicates that she can relate to Ellie’s desire for justice no matter what. We have to understand that this is the world that these characters grew up in, so the infected being a threat is not exactly uncommon for them. They’ve learned to live with it and probably feel fairly confident in handling them, which helps to explain why Dina is unafraid of going with Ellie.
Dina explains how a raider had killed her family when she was only eight years old and that she had to pull the trigger to take his life. She essentially says that she can relate to Ellie’s feelings, because it has been on her mind before how she would’ve reacted if she had gotten home too late or even earlier, if she had been held down to witness their being beaten to death. This is exactly what happened to Ellie. She was held down and helpless as her father-figure was brutalized and killed. “Would it have made a difference if my family had hurt his people first? No. No. And if I hadn’t killed him. If he had gotten away, I promise you that I would’ve hunted him forever.” Dina stresses. It is a very well-acted scene from Isabela Merced, who is really the shining star this season thus far. When Dina tells Ellie that it won’t be Ellie’s fault if she were to die in the process, Ellie agrees to keep going. Though they probably regret that, only a few minutes into their exploration of the warehouse.
There, they are ambushed by multiple ‘stalker-type’ infected, which is too much for show-Ellie to handle in the open without risking Dina’s life, so she directs Dina to a convenient cage. Even still, the intensity of the stalkers is too much, as they almost get through to Dina and basically overwhelm Ellie. There to rescue our duo is good ol’ Jesse (played by Young Mazino), who also has a memorable moment when he teams up with Ellie in the game (though in a different section). I think it was deliberate for his entrance to be blurry so as to emphasize how Ellie feels like she is almost seeing Joel as the ‘deus ex machina’ figure, as it parallels a switcheroo that the early marketing for the second video game pulled on us.
As they avoid getting struck by the WLFs’ gunfire, perhaps a little bit too easily, as they exit the building, they hide in a local park area where they catch their breath. Here we learn that Jesse is (naturally) angry with Ellie and Dina for having left Jackson like they did, but we also learn that Jesse and Tommy followed in their footsteps after our duo left Jackson (which is essentially a reversal of what happened in the game, where Dina and Ellie follow in Tommy’s footsteps). Before they can explain themselves, they witness a group of Seraphites who are disemboweling a WLF soldier, and, unluckily, right as they’re done, whistles are heard, an arrow is fired at Dina’s leg, and Ellie decides to risk her life by creating a diversion on her own. As Jesse presumably carries Dina to the theater, Ellie stealthily makes her way to the hospital, where she confronts Nora (played by Tati Gabrielle).
Ellie sees red — Nora is made to pay for her sins
In a scene that is very close to the one in the game, Ellie has Nora at gunpoint and asks for Abby’s location. Ellie is trying to be menacing, which, although I think Ramsey is doing a good job here, is somewhat more convincing in the game, in part, given how many people you’ve come across at this point in the game. Nora makes a cruel remark about Joel and then runs with Ellie following in pursuit. As other WLFs shoot in Ellie’s general direction, Ellie is in danger, and yet her fierce determination and firing of bullets in Nora’s direction is enough to keep her out of harm’s way. Eventually, though somewhat differently than in the game, Ellie follows Nora into the basement area with airborne spores, to which Ellie is, of course, immune.
Huge praise should go out to the production designers and artists who created this infected zone with growths in the walls and human victims stuck in the walls as if they were victims of a Xenomorph in Alien. It is extremely well done and quite spooky to see the spores come out of Leon Park’s mouth, as Ellie studies this new development. Eventually, with Ellie bathed in red light, our protagonist makes her way to Nora, who is significantly weakened by the airborne spores. It’s a very interesting scene that Bella Ramsey, I think, plays very well. It is the most frightening TV-Ellie has been, and the visuals are astounding. Seeing Ellie bathed in red light, with her eyes darkened, and pointing a gun confidently is a really strong image. Nora is reluctant to say anything about Abby, and, when she puts two and two together and realizes that Ellie is the famous immune girl, Nora tries to get through to Ellie about what Joel actually did to Abby, to the world. Ellie remains unshaken — she claims that she knows this information.
Then she grabs a weapon and starts punishing Nora with it as a way to torture out information on Abby. It is a very memorable moment from the game, wherein you basically see Ellie through the eyes of one of her victims, so that you may realize exactly how far gone she is, how inhumane her thirst for vengeance has made her. Frankly, I think the game does a better job with the moment, as I think it was the wrong movie to cut away from what Ellie does here.
Looking forward to next week’s episode
But they do cut away, and then suddenly, we’re back in Joel’s house in Jackson, as we see Ellie wake up and be greeted by Joel (played by Pedro Pascal). If what comes next is anything like the game, it should be an indication that the next episode will be flashback-heavy. Without revealing too much, I will say that I am super excited about the next episode because of the strength of the flashbacks in the game, though time will tell whether or not the entire episode is dedicated to flashbacks. In any case, I also think it is very exciting that the upcoming penultimate episode of the season was directed by Neil Druckmann, who co-directed both games, and co-written by both Druckmann and Halley Gross, who wrote The Last of Us: Part II.
Some issues that I have with the adaptation as a game-first viewer
On the whole, and taken on its own, I think this is a rather strong season thus far. It’s got movie-level visual effects, incredible production design, and some really committed performances from the expanding cast. However, I think it should be emphasized this time around that it, as an adaptation, is rubbing some people the wrong way. Indeed, even though I’ve mostly really liked the season, slight issues have started to build up to an extent that, to me, means that the second season narrative will probably end up struggling to be as impactful as the video game ultimately was.
As I’ve stated before, I am intrigued by the structural changes and character reshuffling this season, which is to say that I have concerns but am also just largely intrigued to see what it’ll ultimately mean and thus largely non-judgmental. That said, it is more so the impact that it has left on the central character, Ellie, and the arc and pacing of the second season that sometimes makes me react with a furrowed brow.
I think the fact that the second season adaptation is only seven episodes long (three of which were largely set in Jackson — and included a curious three month time jump) has meant that too much of Ellie’s emotional character journey has thus far been pressed together, which means that when they were, in Day One, trying to make up for lost ground, given Dina was with Joel and not Ellie during the attack, it meant that you didn’t really see the anger that gamers felt playing as Ellie and that they showcased as they hunted down WLFs on their path. That is, until this episode, as I predicted in Day One, finally let Ellie show her anger on her own with Nora as the victim of her pent-up anger. It is an effective season, but I think the decision to cut away from Ellie’s violence as quickly as filmmakers did does a disservice to the adaptation’s evocation of the game’s themes.
Moreover, I am concerned that, since I am expecting the penultimate episode to be flashback-heavy (or possibly even feature only flashback scenes), this season will bow out in an unsatisfying manner, with us then having to possibly wait until 2027 to see more, which is just too long given the way The Last of Us Part II is structured. Again, I really like the show despite its issues from a game-first perspective, so I hope I’m wrong about how this season will end. But I think this episode spent too long getting to Ellie’s anger and, unwisely, made Ellie appear stupid or incompetent in her early scene with Dina. I think that with that Dina-Ellie scene, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the character on the part of the writer, and it makes her feel too much like a child, when the game does a good job of showcasing how good Ellie has become at overcoming the fact that she isn’t Joel in Part II.
B+
– Review and recap written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 