Warning: major spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 2, “Through the Valley".
HBO is back in action with The Last of Us season 2, and as we head into the events of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are doing their best to keep gaming fans on their toes. While the big story of the week is the shock demise of Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller just two episodes in, that’s not the only controversy facing April 20’s “Through the Valley”.
It’s not just the mushroom monsters of the Cordyceps infection looming over The Last of Us with the specter of death, as both the show and the game have taught us that the other survivors are just as deadly. There was a lot to pack into the first two episodes, with Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby Anderson cementing herself as the show’s big bad following her five-year mission of vengeance against Joel finally coming to a close. Joel’s grisly death is sure to cement The Last of Us up there with Game of Thrones as one of the most shocking shows around, but with it, an important LGBTQ+ moment from Part II has been pushed to the sidelines.
Unlike Joel’s expanded death scene being changed from the games and Abby jamming a broken golf club into his neck for an even more shocking take, the fact that episode 2 is missing the important ‘couch scene’ is irking fans. Like a lack of spores, tweaking the death of Tess (Ana Torv), and making more of Bill and Frank, Mazin and Druckmann have never been afraid of using the games as more background reading rather than a completely faithful adaptation. Still, changing the story so Ellie (Bella Ramsey) goes on patrol with Jesse (Young Mazino) instead of Dina (Isabela Merced) means we miss out on Ellie and Dina taking their relationship to the next level.
The Last of Us season 2 is missing an iconic gay scene
Early in The Last of Us Part II, Ellie and Dina head to an abandoned cannabis farm and make love for the first time on an old couch. Considering the episode aired on 4/20, fans say it would’ve been apt to include the couch scene here. Alas, it’s nowhere to be seen, with viewers taking to social media to complain about its absence. One angry critic raged, “DID THE LESBIANS JUST GOT ROBBED???? where's the couch scene?” while another added, “Pot smoking lesbian erasure in the new Last of Us episode." A third suggested it’s part of a bigger trend and concluded: “The switch to cut SO much queer content in The Last of Us has me fuming. No lookout scene. No weed scene. No couch scene."
Some have clung onto hope that the scene could appear later in the season, but as well as us having already covered this part of the game, Druckmann seemingly shut down the idea when he explained to The Wrap why the couch scene was cut. The showrunner told the outlet how they’re building up more of Jesse than in the games, while the relationship between Ellie and Dina will take ‘a few different turns’ across the season. He went on to expand:
“So if you’re familiar with the game, in that weed grow house, that relationship goes somewhere else that has not happened in the show." Mazin suggested it could appear elsewhere when he chimed in, “Maybe we scrapped the location, but we didn’t necessarily scrap the scene. I can see people getting very angry and saying, ‘Oh, these guys aren’t going to do it.’”
Reiterating that season 1 got around to everything it needed to but not necessarily in the order of the game, he reminded us, “In Episode one, Ellie and Dina’s kiss at the dance happens like 90 per cent of the way in on the game. So all I’d say to people is Neil made the game, I’m a fan of the game.”
Considering The Last of Us season 1 did so much for LGBTQ+ representation with its lauded Bill and Frank episode, as well as the Storm Reid-led episode 7, it’s a shame that it’s accused of diluting that message. Despite season 1 getting review-bombed and taking flak for its queer episodes, it’s doubtful that this was the reason the couch scene was cut. The writers just can’t win, with a vocal minority already complaining that The Last of Us is pushing a ‘lesbian agenda’.
It seems that some haven’t played the games and don’t know how things are supposed to pan out with Ellie and Dina, but while there are some notable changes from the source material, a love story like theirs was always going to be a crucial part of season 2. Even if we’re not going to get another episode on a par with the heart-wrenching story of Bill and Frank or the equally tragic Riley outing, we’re reminded of Merced telling IMDb, “Our chemistry is sort of undeniable, and the gays are going to be fed.”
With the star also championing Emily Mendez’s editing as a gay woman, expect the rainbows to shine brightly in the gloomy The Last of Us season 2.