HBOThe Last of Season 2 Episode 1 kicks things off with a tense, emotional premiere, with Ellie and Joel’s relationship fractured by an unclear rift and a dangerous figure looming on the horizon: Abby.
In the finale of Season 1, Joel and Ellie arrived at the Fireflies hospital, ready to use Ellie’s immunity to make a cure. There was just one catch: the operation to develop a vaccine would have been fatal.
Joel refused to see the bigger picture. He murdered everyone, including the doctor and Marlene – “You’d just come after her,” he said, coldly, before pulling the trigger – and lied to Ellie about the whole thing.
That’s exactly where The Last of Us Season 2 begins, with Joel promising that everything he said about the events at the hospital (how raiders apparently came in and they had to flee, and that there were other immune people out there) was true.
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 introduces Abby
HBOAs giraffes chomp the trees near the hospital, Abby and her group stand by the graves of the Fireflies who died in the Season 1 finale. They talk about (and dismiss) the rumor that there was an immune girl, and try to decide what to do next – apparently, there’s a man called Isaac who runs an outfit in Seattle.
“Not until we find Joel,” Abby says. “We’re finding him… yes, we are.”
Here’s the problem: they know a few details about him, but he fled in their only working vehicle and he has a three-day jump on them. He could be anywhere.
“None of this is f**king fair,” Abby tells everyone. “Maybe the Seattle crew has resources; they could help us get some sort of lead,” Owen suggests, and promises to help her find and kill him.
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She hangs a Firefly pendant on the grave of… someone. “Slowly… when we kill him, we kill him slowly,” she vows.
Episode 1 skips ahead five years
HBOAfter a time-jump, we see Ellie fighting a man in a barn. Thankfully (despite how bloody and aggressive it gets), she’s just training. Jesse walks in and tells her to stop. “Boom, motherf**ker,” she quips.
It turns out her opponent pulled his punch on Jesse’s instruction, as he could have knocked her out and Jesse didn’t want to explain that to Joel. “Don’t do that again,” she warns. There’s also a brief mention of a “thing” that night, presumably a social event for Jackson’s locals.
Before we cut to Joel, we see someone sawing open one of the main pipes that runs through the town, and it’s full of roots… remember that for later.
Meanwhile, Joel tries to fix breakers. This is when we’re introduced to Dina (who has a closer relationship with Joel compared to the game), and she asks him to teach her what he’s doing.
“Can I ask a question? Why is she angry at you?” Dina asks, referencing Ellie. “You’re her best friend, I reckon she would have told you,” he says, but she doesn’t know anything. Joel tries to play it off, and he admits he’s a “hardass and over-protective… but what did I do?”
That’s the question: does Ellie know that Joel killed the Fireflies and prevented them from making a cure, or has something else happened in that five-year gap?
“I can’t hold myself responsible for another person’s emotional state,” he says, and Dina immediately picks up on that therapy-speak. “Are you seeing Gail?” she asks, and he tells her to leave. Before she walks out, he asks her not to tell anyone he’s in therapy.
Ellie and Tommy hunt infected
HBOElsewhere, Ellie and Tommy pick off Clickers and other infected from a hilltop (she’s become a talented shooter). It’s a quick line, but they note there are lots of them out there.
Tommy says they should get back so he can send a patrol out, but when Ellie offers to do it, he reveals she’s been put on gate watch for a while. “It’s an important job… he’s concerned about you,” Tommy says, and Ellie reacts, “Un-f**king-real.”
According to Tommy, Ellie has been reckless on other patrols. “I’m an adult, he can’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” she says. Also, as she points out, she’s immune – why is it a big deal if she puts herself at risk with infected? Tommy tells her they don’t speak about that, and he eventually agrees to put her on the Alpine Run patrol.
Joel goes to therapy
HBOJackson is hitting capacity with its constant inflow of refugees. Maria tells Joel they need to build faster, but Joel suggests they should stop letting so many people in. “If I could, I’d let them all in… but you gotta look after your own first or you’re no good to anyone,” he says.
After a brief, cute scene with Joel and his nephew Benji, he leaves – but Maria reminds him: “You were a refugee too.”
He heads over to see Gail, Jackson’s psychotherapist. He pays her fee – a bag of weed – and after a swig of whisky, they begin. “We’re not allowed to drink in these things but I woke up feeling sad. It’s my first birthday without my husband [Eugene] in 41 years,” she says.
In short, Joel and Ellie don’t have much of a relationship at all right now. She ignores him or barely acknowledges his existence, while Dina is perfectly nice to him, like she’s “his kid or something.”
“Neither is Ellie,” Gail says, and she refuses to keep validating Joel. She believes he’s hiding something from her.
“Shall I just say it out loud?” she says. “I’m scared to say it, which is why I have to. You shot and killed my husband. You killed Eugene and I resent you for it – no, maybe a little more than that, I hate you for it. And yes, I know you had no choice. I know I should forgive you, but I’ve tried and I can’t… because of how you did it. And looking at your face, sitting in our home, makes me so f**king angry.”
There’s a reason Gail told Joel: she wants to make things right with him, just as he should say the thing he’s afraid to say so they can work through it. She asks if he hurt her, and after tearfully considering his next words, he says, “I saved her.”
Ellie and Dina go on patrol
HBOOver in her garage, Ellie cleans her gun (we also see a pretty gnarly scar on her arm under her tattoo). Dina arrives to join her on patrol (there’s definitely chemistry between them). “Look at you with all that hardware, you’re like Curtis and Viper,” Dina says.
Dina tells Ellie she’s going to watch one of the Curtis and Viper movies with Joel tomorrow night and asks if she wants to enjoy. She pretty much ignores what she says and they head out on patrol. Before they leave, Jesse tells them not to take on too many infected.
“Jokes aside, can you take things a little more seriously. The others look up to you two for some f**king reason,” he says.
Dina asks if she’s “going tonight” and if she’s taking anyone. “Tell you what, you can go with me. We can get baked, dance to the smooth tunes,” she says, and it becomes clear it’s New Year’s Eve. She also reveals that she and Jesse have broken up… again.
They catch sight of a blood trail, which leads to a load of dead infected and the carcass of a bear. Ellie and Dina climb inside the nearby Greenplace Market, where they hear at least two infected. No encounter with a Clicker is easy, but they handle it.
Unfortunately, Ellie falls through the floor down to the shop floor, where she faces off against a new type of infected for the first time: a Stalker (they’re more intelligent than Runners, to the point it knows how to flank its prey). It manages to bite Ellie, but she’s able to pull out her other gun and kill it. When Dina arrives, she keeps her bite private, so Dina still doesn’t know about her immunity.
Ellie and Dina report what happened to the council (even though Dina didn’t see anything), who are quietly suspicious (and disturbed) by the possibility of smarter infected.
Ellie kisses Dina and pushes Joel away
HBOBack home, Ellie stitches her bite wound. Joel knocks on her door and asks if she’s attending the New Year’s Eve party. He notices her guitar on the ground and offers to restring it, and he hastily leaves; it’s very uncomfortable between them.
When she arrives at the party, it’s not long before Dina pulls her onto the dancefloor, and they sway together. “I have a very serious question for you: how bad do I smell?” she asks. “Like a hot pile of garbage,” Ellie tells her.
Ellie thinks she’s drunk, but Dina says she’s just high. As they dance, Ellie says every man is staring at her. “Maybe they’re jealous of you… oh Ellie, I think they should be terrified of you,” Dina says, and they kiss.
Their romantic moment is ruined by one of the locals, who calls them “dikes.” Before Ellie can confront him, Joel pushes him to the floor and tells him to leave. He asks if she’s okay, but she’s furious. “What is wrong with you? I don’t need your f**king help,” she tells him, and he leaves.
Later that night, as the clocks hit midnight, Ellie sees Joel playing guitar on the porch. They lock eyes, but no words are spoken, and she walks past him. We also get a quick shot of the pipe from the start of the episode: it’s not just roots inside it, there’s Cordyceps too.
Miles away, a group walks through the snow and arrives at a hilltop, where they see Jackson in the distance. It’s Abby and her crew.
Find out when The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 drops, and until next week, check out our breakdown on when The Last of Us takes place, the show’s soundtrack, and the differences between HBO’s series and the game.
