The Last Of Us - Season 2 - Episode 07 - Convergence 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. You have joined us, each week, as we dissected each newly released episode, from the series’ first, and now, its last. It’s time for the finale of Season 2.*
As soon as it was confirmed that The Last Of Us would be receiving a third season, we knew deep down how Season 2 was going to end. Despite the many changes, and deviations from the path walked in 2020 by Naughty Dog, Season 2’s season finale ends precisely where you would have expected it to, with new franchise fans now left teetering with the prospect of Abby’s story to come. Firstly though, the epic conclusion to Season 2.
Bucking the trend of the season thus far, Episode 07, titled Convergence doesn’t begin with a flashback, rather we’re straight into the opening credits and directly into business. The episode begins with Jesse and Dina return to the theatre, the arrow still impaled in Dina’s leg, Jesse desperately looking to remove it. As Jesse intently works to help her, he offers her alcohol to numb the pain, but she refuses; while several other hostile responses from Dina confuse Jesse as he eventually pushes the arrow through, dislodging it as Dina screams in pain.
A few hours have passed and Ellie returns to the theatre, and she rushes through to Dina. Dina is certain that the baby is okay, with some mothers intuition underpinning the feeling, and her caring traits take over as she removes Ellie’s shirt to being cleaning her wounds, despite being significantly incapacitated herself. Ellie goes on to share how she beat and tortured Nora in the hospital, only managing to get the words “whale” and “wheel” from her, but then, more concerningly, how easy she found it to go through with the violent act. She tells Dina that she left Nora alive, though she was infected and would soon be taken by it. She then explains what happened in the Salt Lake City hospital which leaves Dina shaken, saying that they need to abandon their goal, and go home. She then lays down to rest and the sequence concludes.
The next morning Jesse and Ellie are packing their equipment to go out and find Tommy. Dina enters the room and hobbles towards Ellie where she gives her a bracelet for good luck. The pair head out shortly after, but along the way find themselves in heated conversation about Ellie’s decision to leave Jackson, the danger she has placed all four of them in by making that decision, and the way with which Jesse and Tommy were able to track the girls down. The conversation soon shifts to the flourishing relationship between Ellie and Dina, Jesse pointing out the difference in how she treats Ellie, but then, fuelled by his suspicion from the night before, bluffs Ellie into revealing that Dina is pregnant. Jesse now, as the father has identified that he has even more reason to survive. Soon the pair rush to rake cover as gunshots ring out. Moments later a group of WLF soldiers enter the a garage, chasing down a Seraphite member. As the trapped Seraphite lays powerless, Ellie tussles with the idea of jumping up and protecting them, however, by the time she makes the conclusion to intervene, the WLF members have knocked out the Seraphite and moved on. Jesse scolds Ellie and pressures her into getting her priorities back in check.
We next get a peak behind the curtain at the WLF headquarters where Isaac is leading final preparations for an impending battle, whilst also wild weather intensifies, a storm on the way. Isaac is growing concerned because Abby and her group have been missing, and Isaac is especially concerned for Abby because he fears that he won’t survive the night and he sees her as the next leader for the WLF.
We next shift back to Ellie and Jesse, who enter the hideout that Tommy should be held up in, only to find he’s not there. Ellie takes an old Sesame Street baby book for the incoming arrival, and Jesse goes on to tell Ellie of a girl whom he had fallen for when her group once passed through Jackson. When she wasn’t able to stay Jesse spoke of the heartbreak he felt when he made the choice to stay so that he could put the needs of Jackson first, with this point triggering Ellie, but before she reaches full speed of ranting, the WLF radio blares where we learn of a lone sniper attacking the WLF. With the duo knowing that it must be Tommy, they take off finding a vantage point to look over the city. While scouting Ellie finds the mysterious “whale” and “whee” – Nora had been referring to the Aquarium, and her bloostlast takes over, wholly driven to exact her revenge upon Abby. Jesse on the other hand continues after Tommy.
As night begins to settle in, Ellie nears the aquarium, and finds a nearby boat that she can take to cover the remaining distance, but as she’s about to shoot two WLF soldiers who are patroling the area, dozens of lights explode from a small fleet of boats approaching the docking point. The boats, lead by Isaac collect the two soldiers as we see them make their way towards a nearby island. With the coast now clear Ellie claims the abandoned boat and steers towards the aquarium but a huge wave overturns her boat and knocks her unconscious. Ellie soon awakens to find herself stranded on a beach, but then spots a child looking at her, moments later whistles ring out and Ellie is captured by Seraphites and is led towards a noose, her death nearing. Ellie desperately tries to convince the Seraphite group that she isn’t a WLF member, but her words fall upon deaf ears, but before the killing act is performed, whistles ring out once again and the group realises that theri village is under attack. They release Ellie, her death not being their prirority, and Ellie frantically takes off, returning to the shore, regaining control of her boat, and resuming her journey to the aquarium. As she leaves the island Ellie looks over her shoulder to see explosions ring out across the island, a clear indicator of the aggression being shown by the WLF towards the Seraphites. War has begun.
Now back on track, Ellie arrives at the aquarium and stealths her way inside of it. After dropping inside, it becomes clear the aquarium was at least recently in use as she finds sleeping equipment, medical tools, and more. Soon she spots footprints and follows them where she soon hears voices belonging to Abby’s co-conspirators Mel and Owen. Ellie gets the jump on them, pulling her gun and demanding to get the location of Abby. She uses an old Joel trick of getting one person to point to the map and the other to take their turn next, confirming or proving a lie. Owen volunteers to go first but quickly pulls a gun; not quickly enough though as Ellie pulls the trigger of her own weapon killing Owen, but the bullet also passes through, striking the pregnant Mel. She tries to provide Ellie instructions to save her life, but quickly passes, Ellie unable to keep her alive. This wasn’t something Ellie ever wanted and she breaks down in tears, before Jesse and the recovered Tommy arrive and bring her back to the theatre.
Back at the theatre, the team is taking stock of the situation and begins to make plans to depart. Dina rests on a couch while Tommy asks Ellie if she can make peace with not getting her revenge upon Abby; Ellie believes she can. While Jesse and Ellie continue to work, Tommy heads into the main foyer to continue his own preparations but its only moments later before Jesse and Ellie can hear a scuffle coming from that direction and they sprint towards it. As Jesse bursts through the door, there is instant gunfire, hitting him in the head, killing him instantly. Ellie looks on in horror as Abby stands there, gun trained on Tommy. Abby is mortified by all that Ellie has done, and Ellie tries to explain herself, but Abby doesn’t care, claiming “I let you live, and you wasted it” – she points her gun towards Ellie and the screen goes to black as a gunshot rings out.
We next see Abby waking up on a couch, and she’s been summoned to go and see Isaac. The scale of the WLF operation becomes clear as she walks out over the balcony of a corporate box at a large NFL stadium which has beenc completely transformed with WLF infrastructure. As Abby begins to leave and go meet Isaac, the text “Seattle, Day One” appears on the screen, informing the viewer that we’re going back to the beginning of Ellie’s three days in Seattle, this time, from Abby’s perspective.
The action is frenetic, and conversations profound and the heartbreak so very real, however my one criticism of this finale is that it moves too quickly. Everything, from the island detour, to the experience at the hospital moves a little too fast with the final product feeling like it would have benefitted from an additional 15 minutes to deepen the viewers immersion in the events of this finale. Otherwise, we’ve arrived at the midpoint of The Last Of Us Part II, and I will be very excitedly be siting back, waiting patiently for when HBO wishes to gift us Abby’s side of the story in Season Three.
The Last of Us is available to stream now, in full, on Max. This episode was reviewed with early access kindly provided by Max.
