Recap: An Epic Battle and a Tragic Loss Kick-Off a Tale of Revenge on "The Last of Us"
Everything Changes on The Last of Us season 2 episode 3: "Through the Valley"
Well, folks, it finally happened. If you, like me, were still scarred by “that scene” from “The Last of Us” Part II, and anticipating/dreading being hurt all over again, well, it finally happened, they did it. That's right. The moment we’ve all been dreading: Ellie accepted a sandwich made by that bigot Seth. Yuck.
Oh, and Joel is dead.
When last we left off, the tension between Joel and Ellie hit a breaking point when anti-LGBT+/sandwich maker Seth interrupeted Eilloi and Dina’s first romantic moment during the New Years Dace. Joel took on the role as Ellie’s protector once again, but this time Ellie wasn’t having it – telling him she could handle herself without his help. Later that night, Joel is playing the guitar on the porch when Ellie returns and walks past him without saying a word.
The next morning Dina’s ex, Jesse picks Ellie up for their patrol shift, and after some light razing over teasing over her and Dina asks how she and Joel are doing. Ellie says it’s complicated, but all good.
Wait, didn’t she just call him out in front of the entire town? For now, keep that moment on the porch in your back pocket for later.
But before all that, the episode begins with Abby reliving the aftermath of Joel’s massacre of the Fireflies. Later she reveals what was already heavily implied, that one of the victims was her father – specifically, the doctor who was supposed to perform the surgery on Ellie, who Joel shot point-blank while unarmed.
In the game, this revelation about Abby’s connection top those events come later I’m not sure how I feel about it being revealed so early on here. My opinion on Abby’s portrayal so far this season has been mixed. Okay, okay, I know it’s only been two episodes so far, and I’m hoping that by the end I’ll look back on all this in a more positive light, and I do really like Kaitlyn Dever’s take on the character. It’s a hard thing to get right, because she’s meant to be unlikable at the start, then as the players take control of her and begin to see the story from her eyes, come to a deeper understanding of the far-reaching effects Joel’s actions had. I think Dever is doing a good job sowing those seeds in her performance, but the writing and structure concern me. We’ll have to hope for true best and see.
Abby goes out on her own morining patrol, but slips further down the mountain, and, starting a series of terrible coincidences, stumbles upon not a small group, but a whole horde of infected. As she makes her way toward a nearby town, we see that group of dozens reveal itself to be a horde of hundreds, maybe thousands of infected.
At that very town, in yet another unfortunate contrivance, she ends up running into Joel, who, later it ironically turns out saves her life. I’m reminded of the famous Pixar rules of storytelling: “Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.”
And so Abby brings Joel and Dina back with her to the lodge and that’s when his slow torture begins. Dina, meanwhile, is put to sleep — Abby and her friends are bloodthirsty, but don’t want anyone except Joel to get hurt — but not before noticing a very conspicuous wolf-looking patch that will come in handy later.
Meanwhile Ellie and Jesse get caught out in a snow storm and take shelter at the weed greenhouse of a former Firefly. Once they learn Joel and Dina haven’t reported in, Ellie immediately takes action to search for them, eventually bringing her to the lodge.
While all that is happening, the town of Jackson Hole comes under siege from the horde Abby had set up. Again, out of sheer bad luck for them, but good luck for her, the defenses they were were trying to figure out getting around procide the perfect cover.
The town employ a variety of traps and large-scale defenses, but eventually the horde breaks through the wall. The fight ends up in the streets, and we get a pretty terrifying showdown between Joel’s brother and the Bloater.
It’s the kind of large-scale set piece that shows how HBO is still head and shoulders above most television producers when it comes to sheer production values. A lot of it reminded me of the White Walker invasion from the last season of “Game of Thrones”, but instead of being set in the pitch black of night, it’s all in the daytime and you can actually *gasp* see what the hell is happening. I can’t help but wonder if the way this episode was filmed was a direct response to the critical and audience reaction to that “Game of Thrones” episode.
Back at the lodge, Abby starts to take out years of pent-up anger on Joel, brutally. Ellie tries for a rescue, but she’s quickly overpowered by the rest of the team. Abby has taken her time beating and torturing Joel, and her friends, though they agree that there should be justice for their fallen comrades, don’t seem nearly as into this part of it as Abby. Eventually they convince her to end it, and with a jagged piece of broken golf club piercing his neck, she does.
In the game (sorry, I’m sure it’s annoying that I keep bringing this up, but they are almost parallel at times) Joel’s reaction when he realizes what’s about to happen is to tell Abby “Down what you gotta do.” Here, he interrupts her monologuing, one she’s obviously been rehearsing for years: “Just fucking do it already.” I prefer the former. Joel accepts his fate, almost like he knew this was inevitable, and he’s ready for it. Most importantly, he doesn’t seem to hold any ire towards Abby. He gets it.
Ellie, on the other hand, swears vengeance. Eventually Ellie and Dina are found by Jesse who bring them back. The last shot we see is Joel’s wrapped corpse being dragged through the snow by horse.
Putting aside comparisons to the source material, I thought this was handled well. This episode’s events will be the flashpoint for everything else that happens this season, most likely, so it was important they got it right, although having it take place during the day rather than at night like in the original did strike me as an odd choice.
Safe to say we’re in for a much different show from this point on. I, like many fans, were counting down the days since this show began for when we would get to this moment, and I don’t think it disappointed. I was ready to be hurt again, and hurt I was. Until next week…