New episodes of season 2 of The last of us Every Sunday evening premiered on HBO, and Ars' Kyle Orland (who played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who does not have it), will talk about them here after they have been broadcast. Although these summaries do not go into every plot point of the episode, there are clear heavy spoilers Inside, so first look at the episode if you want to go fresh.
Kyle: From a sudden shot from Beatific Pedro Pascal at the end of the last episode to a semi-related flashback with a young Joel Miller and his brother was definitely a choice. I almost respect how openly they just fuck with the expectations of the audience here.
As for the opening flashback scene itself, I think the message is: “Hey, look at the generation trauma with his family – is it not great that he has overcome that to love Ellie?” But I am not sure if I can draw a straight line of “he was defeated by his father” to “he condemned the whole human race for his surrogate daughter.”
Andrew: I do not have the same problems that you have done with the Joel Pop-in at the end of the last episode or the Flashback at the start of this episode-the Little Week, the show signaled “Here Comes Joel!” And this week the show signals “Look, it's Joel!” Maybe I just respond to Tony Dalton as Joel's Father, whom I know best as the charismatic lunatic Lalo Salamanca of Better saul better. I do agree that the passage between these two events is shaky, and without the flashback to fill in, it can “I hope you can do a little better than I feel like something far away from the left field.
But I don't know, it's Joel Week. Joel is back! This is the duality of Joel: at the same time you can think that he is terrible for the failure of a trolleypblem on the civilization bowl when he killed a building full of fireflies to save Ellie, and you can't help it, but be completely charmed by Pedro Pascal, who is enthusiastic to use a dremel. (He's right! It's a versatile tool!)
Really, there is virtually nothing in this episode that we could not have distracted or guessed on the basis of the information that the show has already made available. And I say this as a non-game player-I did not have to see exactly How Their relationship was just as tense as at the start of the season to have some idea why it happened, nor did I have to see the veranda scene to understand that their band has endured anyway. But this is also The dynamics for which everyone came to the show Last season, so I can only complain about it to a certain extent.
Kyle: It's true, Joel Week is a time when it is worth celebrating. If I get over it from the start as grumpy, it is probably because this entire episode is a realization of what we miss this season thanks to Joel's death.
As you said, many of this episode filled in holes that could have been well distracted from events that we have seen. But I would easily have taken a full season (or a full second game) from Ellie who grew up and Joel grew up with Ellie. You would have some zombie attacks or an umbrella, big, bad enemy or something like you want to be able to throw, but the development of Joel and Ellie's relationship deserves more than just a few condensed flashbacks.
“It works?!”
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
“It works?!”
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
Andrew: Yes, it is hard not to be upset about the original sin of The Last of Us Part 2 That is (assuming that it is on the show) that having some boring substantiated villain crawls out of the woodwork to kill the main character of the show is a kind of cheap shot. Of course, you shocked hell from viewers like I didn't see it coming! But some of the reason I didn't see it coming is because if you kill Joel, you have to do a lot of your show Joel And why on earth would you decide to do that?
To be clear, I am not so sorry this season and I have found things to like, although Ellie is sometimes a protagonist who is so short-sighted and impulsive and occasionally just Stupid that it is difficult to be in her corner. But yes, to blink back to a time, only two months after the end of season 1, you really ask yourself: “Why couldn't the story just be this?”
Kyle: In the gaming space I understand the desire not to just let your follow -up game be “more of the same” of the last game. But I have always felt The Last of Us Part 2 In the other direction too hard and something almost completely unrecognizable from the original game I loved.
But let's concentrate on what we get in this episode, which is a competent recreation of my favorite moment from the second game, Ellie enjoys the gate from a destroyed scientific museum. The childish miracle that she shows here is a great respite of many action-heavy scenes in the game, and I think it serves the same goal here. It is also much more extensive in the game – I could have been weed in this part of the flashback for a whole episode!
Andrew: De only The thing that kept me from being completely on board with that scene was that I think Ellie was a little younger than 16, with her Pantomimed launch sounds and turning switches, but I could believe that a child who had such a rough and bold youth would have fun in an Apollo module. For someone without memories of the pre-outbreak society, it has to look like Science Fiction, and the show gives us some nice visuals to go with it.
The things that I like best, here are the small moments between scenes instead of the parts where the show is on showing our events that it had already pointed out in other episodes. What keeps me the most, while we jump between Ellie's birthdays, Joel's insistence is that “we can do things like this more often” while they go to a museum or patrol the paths together. The fact that it must be mentioned several times suggests that they actually do not do these kinds of things more often between birthdays.
Joel is attentive and attentive in his way – a little better than his father – but it is such a bittersweet little note, the awkward attempt of a surrogate father to bridge a gap that he knows is there, but does not fully understand.
Why can't it be forever?
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
Why can't it be forever?
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
Kyle: Yes, I am okay with a little-arrested development in a girl forced to miss so much of the markers of a “normal” pre-apocalypse youth.
But yes, Joel is pretty awkward about this. And while we see all these attempts with his surrogate daughter, it is easy to forget what happened to his real daughter far back in the beginning of the first season. The trauma of that event forms Joel in a way that I feel that the story sometimes forgets for long pieces.
But then we get moments such as Joel who leads Gail's newly infected husband to a death that the poor man would really like to delay with his wife one hour before one hour. When Joel says that you can always close your eyes and see the face of the person you love, he may have thought of Ellie. But I like to think he was thinking of his real daughter.
Andrew: Yes to the extent that Joel's actions are recognizable (I will not say “apologetic”, but “relatable”) It is because the undercurrent of his relationship with Ellie is that he cannot see another daughter dying in his arms. I recently reviewed the first episode and that entire scene remains a masterfully executed intestinal punch.
But it's a difficult cord to walk, because when the story spends at A lot of time to focus on it, you draw attention to how unhealthy it is for Joel to force Ellie to play that role in his life. Don't get me wrong, Ellie was also looking for a father figure, and that's why it works! It is a “found family” dynamics that they were both looking for. But I can't hear Joel's soothing “baby girl” epitheton without rubbing me a little wrong.
My gut reaction was that it was right For Joel not to fully trust Gail's husband, but then I realized that I can never do that not Suspect Joe Pantoliano of betrayal because of his role as a traitor in the 26-year-old film The Matrix. Brain are weird.
Kyle: I found the way Ellie Joel tells that he is lying to her (and against Gail) about the murder; It is a real “growing up” moment for the character. And of course it goes far in the veranda scene, Ellie's ultimate moment to confront Joel on his ultimate betrayal.
Although I am not a fan of the main subject “This scene is not going to happen” thing they did earlier this season, I think the TV program has done justice to one of the most impactful parts of the game. But the game also succeeded in spreading these flashbacks a little more on Joel, so we are not so quickly switching from “Museum Fun” to “Porch Confrontation”. Here it feels like they are trying to hurry through all their “Breng Pedro Pascal” requirements in one episode.
If you only have an hour left, it will be quite important to spend it.
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
If you only have an hour left, it will be quite important to spend it.
Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery
Andrew: Yes, because you don't have to pay the appearance of a 3D model if you want to use it in a number of scenes of your video game. Pedro Pascal has other things going on!
Kyle: That is probably part of it. But without giving away too much, I think we see the limits of stretching the events of “part 2” to what is essentially two seasons. Although there have generally been some cuts, it feels like there has also been a lot of filling material to “complete” these characters in ways in ways that are more harmful than useful.
Andrew: Yes, our episode ends by putting us back in the main action, while Ellie returns to the abandoned theater where she and Dina are locked up. I am curious what we stand for in this last series of almost-insured-Yoel-Less episodes, but I suspect that it contains a couple of non-Yoel characters that ping-pinging between the WLF-forces and the local cultists. There will probably be some villain monologue, probably a few zombie orders, probably another character mentioned in death or two. Quite standard problem.
What I not It is expected that everyone describes the process of refurbishing a guitar lovingly and accurately. And that is the other problem with placing this episode where it is – just when you get used to a show without Joel, you are reminded that he is missing all over again.
