The Last Of Us - Season 2 - Episode 04 - Day One Review
*It’s rare that we at Player 2 cover anything that isn’t in the video game realm, but with its roots firmly in gaming, and the prestigious talent involved in it, HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us is an incredibly fascinating project. So join us, each week as we dissect the newly released episode, from the series’ first to its last. Now it’s time for Season 2.*
As Ellie and Dina approached Seattle in The Last Of Us’ previous episode, the scale of the conflict to come loomed over the viewer, and the unsuspecting duo, like a dark cloud. While mindful of threats at could be tucked behind any corner, both characters are woefully underestimating the enormity of what stands before them, with the viewer currently having a greater level of insight. For fans of the games, we didn’t even possess this level of knowledge as we approached Seattle for the first time. So with the stage set, Ellie and Dina press on into Seattle, countless horrors before them, but before we see how that plays out, the HBO adaptation gets us familiar with a key player in this conflict – Isaac.
Day One gives the viewer a peep behind the curtain, getting some insight into the reclamation of Seattle by its people, a group we now know as the WLF. It beings with a FEDRA convoy, slowly moving through the streets, loaded with FEDRA troops exchanging stories and batner – it also gives the viewer a look at the way with which society collapsed in the area following the global pandemic. One younger solider looks concerned and uncomfortable in the situation, and the leader, Isaac observes this. When the tank is held up and Isaac leaves to see look into the cause of the issue, he brings the rookie out with him. There, it doesn’t take long as he talks with those responsible for the hold up, before we learn that he’s orchestrated this, as Isaac grabs a grenade, throw it inside the tank, killing all inside. He looks to his former underling and provides him with one opportunity to join him, leading to the show’s opening credits.
We then resume with Dina and Ellie, scavenging in a broken down building, throwing jokes back and forth from different rooms. Suddenly Dina’s body language changes, and the jokes cease, as she finds something on a shelf and then claims to head to the toilet. As Dina returns, Ellie is on horseback, ready to push on, but she’s noticed the changes in Dina’s body language as well, and asks questions, only for Dina to dismiss them. The pair continue on to a new space, dismounting, and begin to scavenge, and it is going well until Ellie makes a bit too much noise with the hatch of an abandoned tank, spooking them both. While nobody comes for them, the noise, coupled with the easily observed WLF text plastered before them, prompts the girls to find a quiet space to lay low through the daylight hours, only planning to venture out at night where they’re much harder to spot from some of the WLF’s higher vantage points. This temporary retreat leads to one of the re-creation of one of the game’s most iconic, and beautiful moments. The pair retreat to an abandoned music store, and while Dina investigates downstairs, Ellie heads up, finding a guitar, which she starts to play. As Dina hears Ellie’s rendition of ‘Take On Me’ she heads up starts to listen as Ellie plays and sings, the emotion clearly visible on Dina’s face. This sequence is a wonderful reminder to all, that even in the darkest of times, there is still plenty of light to be found or created, and this moment is a huge galvanising sequence for the pair.
Harshly contrasting the beauty of the interaction between the girls, the action now shifts perspectives to a present-day Isaac, who is seemingly talking to himself about the ways he would used to cook in the pre-Outbreak Day era, but what he soon learn is that he has a hostage, what the WLD call a ‘Scar’ and what we soon learn to be a Seraphite, a member of the more primitive group that we saw massacred in the previous episode. Isaac is torturing the captured Seraphite, trying to pry out information on the Seraphites next attack target. This sequence shows Isaac’s patience but also brutality when he realises that he won’t get the information he is looking for and ultimately executes his hostage. As the camera pans out to the guards minding the door, we learn that one of them was the young FEDRA member that Isaac had brought along with him.
As night falls, Ellie and Dina are back on the move as they stealth their way into a WLF establishment only to soon learn that they’re not the first to invade the space. Within seconds of their arrival they’re finding arrow ridden WLF members are a group of others strung from the roof. Ellie connects these actions to the dead Seraphite group that they found on their way into Seatlle, but their discovery comes only moments before the room fills with agitated WLF soldiers hunting the perpetrators. Ellie and Dina are trapped and in Ellie’s escape one soldier notices her movements and follows. Upstairs the solider enters the room and Ellie breaks out of her hiding space to attack. She kills him, but not before being spotted by another soldier, who Dina then guns out. With the buidling now on high alert the girls flee, eventually escaping the building, making their way into a transit tunnel. They’re followed inside though, but as the WLF soldiers throw flares to light the way, the aggravate a nest of infected who’ve been laying dormant inside. With an ominous red glow lighting the area, Ellie and Dina are again forced to flee, navigating a derailed train barely escaping huge numbers of runners and an overly aggressive clicker. As the pair escape and make their way out a breakaway runner catches up, and threatens to kill Dina as they try to escape through a rusted, wall-to-ceiling turnstile, Ellie reaches back through and takes the bite from the runner before they escape.
As the girls get outside, they feel into an abandoned cinema, and the peace they find prompts Dina to turn her gun on Ellie. Ellie explains that she would die for dinner but she acted the way she did because she is immune. Understandably, Dina finds this hard to believe, but gives in to Ellie who sleeps on a chair, at a distance, Dina’s gun trained upon her. Hours later she awakes to find Dina still watching her anxiously, but Ellie’s state convinces Dina that she was telling the truth. Now it’s time for Dina to share her own truth, she’s pregnant, but she throws herself at Ellie and the pair get intimate. The morning after they awake, bathed in the glow of the night before, but now they must discuss the situation they find themselves in, and how Jessie, as the child’s father will fit into their blossoming relationship. The conversation is interrupted as a radio blares. They flee outside to listen properly, and realise the scale of the warfare they’ve found themselves in, with explosions in nearby streets, all surrounding their intended destination. They agree to take the next steps together, and the episode comes to a close.
Ellie and Dina’s first day in Seattle brings with it all of the major ups and downs that you recall from the game, but is delivered at a pace that is digestable for both fans of the game, and the new television audience simultaneously. I would have liked to see more time in the transit station to flesh out what is one of the game’s most climatic gameplay sequences, but otherwise the episode’s pacing is superb, making for another riveting hour of television.
The Last of Us is available to stream now on Max, with new episodes every Monday. This episode was reviewed with early access kindly provided by Max.
