The Last Of Us Season 2 Recap
The Last of Us Season 2 dropped on HBO Max on April 13th and picked right up with Ellie’s storyline after the first season. The season received super low approvals from Rotten Tomatoes and even dropped as low as 39% after the sixth episode. The fourth episode was the lowest-rated on IMDb with over 20% giving it a 1/10. From what I’ve personally seen, opinions have been split between viewers enjoying the TV adaptation and viewers hating it even more than the controversial game.
If you’re new to my recaps, I will be mentioning specifics from the storyline. If you haven’t finished watching, make sure to pause this video if you don’t want any spoilers.
The season began with Ellie still being mad at Joel for saving her life in the Firefly hospital five years ago. We’re reintroduced to the quaint city of Jackson, Wyoming, where the city has grown and flourished while remaining safe from the zombies. It was an example of a nation rebuilding itself and included a council to make decisions, a wall for security, and even electricity and running water to keep citizens happy and healthy.
We met Ellie’s friends Dina and Jesse and got a little preview of her role in the small society. She was constantly angry, irritable, and reckless due to the unresolved resentment she carried toward Joel. One of the episodes showed exactly how their relationship deteriorated over time and just how reluctant Ellie was to actually address Joel. Unfortunately, she waited too late to let him know how she really felt and ran out of time to make things right.
There were sporadic moments of her sexual orientation being mentioned and emphasized throughout this season. I don’t think it was exactly necessary for Ellie’s character development and the story honestly would have progressed without even bringing it to viewers’ forefront. It was seen during the New Year’s Eve party when Seth got disrespectful, when Dina announced her pregnancy, and even to explain why Ellie moved out of her room and into the garage.
The season started with a blizzard stranding Joel and a few of the security patrols outside of the city sanctuary. Concurrently, Abby, the leader of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) militia group from Seattle, closed in on finding Joel, who they tracked down for killing her dad in the Firefly hospital at the end of season 1. After escaping a horde of zombies headed to overrun the town, Joel saves Abby, who offers the group shelter with her friends in a lodge at the top of the mountain.
Once getting to the lodge, Abby revealed to Joel that she was the daughter of the Firefly doctor he killed and brutally beat him to death. Ellie, who snuck into the lodge and was immediately restrained, witnessed Abby kill Joel and was determined to get justice for the man she considered a father figure. The scene in the video game was a lot more graphic and shocking than the TV adaptation, which added to the overall experience and weight of the scene.
Ellie fought the council in Jackson for support to go after Abby, but unfortunately was struck down due to the immense risk. She decided to head to Seattle with just Dina to make Abby pay, but ultimately ran into Jesse and Tommy after running into some trouble. Along the way, she shared that she’s immune to Dina and gave her the full story on why she was so angry with Joel.
Once in Seattle, the pair realized that there was a war going on between the WLF and Seraphites and had to be extremely careful how they traversed the city. As they moved around, they saw the leftover carnage from the two groups and eventually stole a WLF radio to track their location. We also saw the origin of the militia group and how it began from a rogue FEDRA agent named Isaac.
Slowly, Ellie tracked down and killed members of Abby’s crew to find her. She found and chased Nora into the quarantined basement of the Lakehill hospital, where she beat her for information. In the midst of also becoming infected, Nora realized that Elie was the immune girl they had heard about.
After regrouping with Dina and Jesse, Ellie shared what Joel did to make Abby kill him, and the idea is floated that they should return home. They overheard a WLF radio call about a sniper, who is later revealed to be Tommy. At a crossroads, Jesse and Ellie have a volatile disagreement about doing what’s right for the betterment of the group. Refusing to drop her grudge, Ellie took off to a nearby aquarium to continue searching for Abby while Jessie went to go help Tommy from the WLF reinforcements.
She found Owen and Mel arguing in the aquarium and held them at gunpoint for information. Unfortunately, Owen lunged for the gun and caused Ellie to shoot both him and Mel. In the video game, Ellie shot Owen but had to stab Mel after she rushed her with a knife. Quite frankly, I get that the directors didn’t necessarily want people to see that in live action, but that two-for-one kill just completely watered down the entire scene. Plus, they completely left out the part with Abby’s dog, Alice, which humanized her in the video game.
Jesse and Tommy rescued Ellie from the grave scene and returned to their hideout until Abby ambushed them. She immediately shot and killed Jesse, injured Tommy, and held Ellie at gunpoint. The screen cut to black for dramatic intent before another gunshot was fired. The season ended with the perspective jumping to Abby being summoned by Isaac.
Throughout the entire season, I was comparing the TV show adaptation to the original video game because there were some key differences that stood out. It was really interesting to watch at first because I already knew how the story would end, but then it became too much when all the extra TV filler and time wasting tactics got added in.
First and foremost, the order of events was switched around in the TV show that I didn’t particularly care for, especially early on. Looking back, I think the whole build up to Joel’s death was watered down for TV consumption, because, objectively speaking, it was rather gory, inhumane, and graphic in the video game, but it roped you into why Ellie felt so strongly to go after Abby. Abby’s personal vengeance towards Joel killing her father in Part I drove her to hunt Joel down, not understanding that Ellie also had that same vengeance driving her to seek justice.
As the show progressed, I became less and less interested in the storyline. Back when The Last of Us Part II video game was released, there was negative backlash surrounding the plot and the choice of taboo character preferences. I knew going in that the story was problematic and a lot of people didn’t like it, but to see that plus the extra TV adaptation made it almost unbearable for me to watch.
Truth be told, I didn’t even realize the season ended until after my husband told me a few days later. It’s weird realizing that you’re done with a show after the end credits roll. There’s no preemptive hope that it will leave you wanting more or the unspoken requirement to pay super close attention to savor the episode since you know it’ll be a while before you get any more content.
Last of Us Season 2 didn’t leave me feigning for more. In fact, I was more glad that it was over than anything. I hope Naughty Dog is working on writing a phenomenal story for the third game to save the title. If they put out another piece of garbage, they may get more people jumping off the bandwagon than they realize.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Last of Us Part I and II had amazing game play, jump scares, and intense fighting scenes, but none of that helped players gloss over that beast of a plot. In my opinion, the TV show just didn’t give you that shock factor that the video game did. There were twists and turns that kept you on your feet that were just lost in TV translation. People who played The Last of Us Part I loved Joel and Ellie’s dynamic and were completely distraught when Joel got killed off super early in the game, but season 2 threatened to absolutely obliterate that sentiment.
My next flaw with the TV show was casting. Ellie in the TV show, objectively, doesn’t look anything like Ellie in the video game. The only characters that were spot on were Jesse, Joel, and maybe Tommy. Everyone else was either changed drastically like Maria or were a complete mismatch that it was difficult to ignore like Dina. I thought the casting was more spot-on in season 1, but it left me a little perturbed in season 2.
HBO has already announced that season 2 will only cover half of the events from the second game and another season, as of April 9, 2025, is confirmed to be in the works. I don’t have a problem since the video game was extremely long. There were so many moving parts that I definitely don’t want the producers skipping steps just to cram it into 8 or 12 episodes. Some content just requires more time and episodes to flesh out properly.
Overall, The Last of Us gave us something to look forward to each week, but I’m excited to see how they’ll wrap things up in the next season. Regardless, I think a replay of the games is in my near future.
If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by giving this video a thumbs up, leaving a comment, and subscribing to my channel. I’ll see you in the next episode!
Signed,
Jessica Marie
