The Last of Us season 2 has arrived and its premiere is perfect. Yes, perfection is a bold opinion of anything, especially a TV show adapted from a popular video game. Nevertheless, you have to give credit where it’s due. In this case, the creative team behind The Last of Us have taken things that people loved about the PlayStation game and adapted what they needed to deliver a flawless season premiere.
One of the things that The Last of Us podcast discusses is how HBO requests changes from the source material where necessary. This is due to some of the things that worked in a game not necessarily transitioning well for TV. Clearly, the writers, directors, and more have taken this advice and made it work. That much is obvious by the various things that were altered to get people invested in season 2.
The Last of Us Part II video game opened with Tommy and Joel having a conversation about Ellie’s immunity and how he saved her life. Good for the video game, but this comes up in the first season of the TV show. So we needed a new intro in the HBO adaptation, and we got it. Instead of a scene between Joel and Tommy, viewers are thrown into the aftermath of Joel killing the Fireflies to save Ellie.
"When we kill him, we kill him slowly."Abby
The season 2 premiere, titled "Future Days", opens with Abby, Owen, Nora, and others standing at the freshly dug graves of their loved ones. Those same loved ones are the Fireflies that Joel murdered in the season 1 finale. They are emotional, and angry; it wasn’t just that the people they cared about were killed (even though that was important), the only ones capable of saving the world are dead and gone. As sad as that was, they had to move on. With that, they decided to go to Seattle, but one condition: The Fireflies there help them with resources as they begin their plan to kill Joel.
Unlike in the game, the show provides a reason as to why they all abandoned the Fireflies and went to Seattle right from the jump. It was needed to get a clear understanding of Abby and why she wants revenge. That happens later in the game, but here, you now have an emotional attachment to someone new, and a clear motivation for their actions. This early explanation could stop people from hating Abby as much as they did in the game.
The Infected
If there is one complaint that people could make about HBO’s The Last of Us, it’s the lack of focus infected people. There were certainly moments in the first season where there were a lot of them at once (in episode 5, for example), but there wasn't as much focus on the world around Ellie and Joel as there was in the video game. That’s not the case in the season 2 premiere. Not only do you see the classic clickers and runners, you are gifted with a new one that was introduced in the game’s sequel called a stalker.
Ellie encounters the creature when she goes off-book (again!) on a recon mission and it bites her. She doesn't tell anyone, but has to report back about her run-in. This also leads to something that couldn’t have happened in the game, and that’s the introduction of the town's council.
It appears that the council in Jackson, Wyoming, is used to keep everyone informed on what happened during patrols. That would have been hard to dramatise in the game, and may have come off as boring, but it's interesting to see here. It’s also realistic; when something new and dangerous happens, you need a group of people to discuss what to do next. I love that this was brought into the series.
Ellie and Joel's dynamic has evolved
While it’s clear that there’s tension between Joel and Ellie in the season 2 premiere of The Last of Us, it isn’t nearly as bad as it was in the game. Since part of the opening of the season is Joel lying about what he did in the hospital in Utah, you can guess why there is so much unsaid friction between them. However, that’s an assumption. Five years have passed since then. A lot of things could have happened between then and now. Plus, as it's mentioned in the show, Ellie is 19 years old. They're going to act that way.
"I can’t hold myself responsible for another person’s emotional state."Joel
They’re not completely avoiding each other, but Ellie isn’t happy with him, and Joel is taking it personally. He is angry, and it isn't helping the situation. The good part about this is the characters close to Joel continue to mention that they can see and feel the tension. It was a nice way to keep that in the minds of viewers without beating us over the head with the situation.
Ellie rarely mentions Joel throughout the episode, only responding to others whenever they tell her that he's trying to keep her safe. She isn't happy about that, and she isn't afraid to show it. Meanwhile, Joel has taken up going to therapy with Gail (Catherine O'Hara), a town resident who is also a psychotherapist. He's trying to get in touch with his feelings to break down that wall between him and Ellie, but Gail calls him out for lying to her in their five therapy sessions thus far. She tells him that he's going to get nowhere until he says whatever it is he is hiding out loud. Of course, we know that the guilt of lying to Ellie all those years ago is what is eating him up.
In the end, you see Ellie let Joel know how she really feels when he intervenes with a bigot in their community. Ellie and Dina shared a moment at the New Year's Eve party when the bigoted man calls them out for it. But when Joel pushed him on Ellie's behalf, she isn't happy and tells him as much. This scene takes place later in the game, along with Ellie going to see Joel after the party. Whether or not that conversation is withheld until a major moment that happens in the game remains to be seen.
Speaking of big moments, the episode wraps with Abby and the Fireflies approaching Ellie and Joel's community. They have found them. And what an emotional rollercoaster of a season we are in for.
The Last of Us season 2 episode 1 review
Whether you're a fan of The Last of Us TV series or the video game, you really couldn’t ask for a better premiere. The first episode of season 2 showcases where the series is going, establishes new characters, and gives everyone watching a clear understanding of what’s going on now. Moments were changed from the source material, and some things took place in an unexpected order, but all of that is a good thing as it serviced the episode well.
As this writer has repeatedly mentioned in other articles, this isn’t The Last Of Us video game. It’s an alternate universe on a different platform; an adaptation for a different medium. Things can’t be done how they are when you’re holding a controller waiting for a clicker or runner to pop up. That forces the creative team to alter things to keep everyone invested. They pulled that off extremely well with the season 2 premiere.
It was brilliantly done, and this writer can’t wait to see more.
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