We also have lots of questions about the season of premiere of ‘The Last of Us’
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — The Season 2 premiere of HBO’s “The Last of Us” aired on Sunday and, to be honest, we have more questions than answers.
Season 1 left off with Joel and Ellie approaching the survivor safe haven Jackson after a harrowing cross-country trek that culminated in the action-packed finale at the hospital, where Ellie was ready to sacrifice herself to the Fireflies to find a cure to the outbreak. Joel wound up saving Ellie, killing anyone who got in his way and lying to her about happened at the hospital.
A five year time jump in the premiere resets the storyline: Joel and Ellie now have a life in Jackson. Joel is a leader in the community working alongside his sister-in-law Maria (Rutina Wesley) and has started attending therapy. Ellie is a full-fledged teenager who is an eager patrolwoman and lives in Joel’s garage. She is also still holding her immunity secret close to the vest.
The dynamic between Joel and Ellie is off and their relationship seems more distant than ever.
The debut episode took us another step further, too, with the introduction of new threats and a host of new characters, all of which made for a season opener that left us with some major question marks, outlined below.
(HBO, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Who is Eugene?
During Joel and Gale’s (Catherine O’Hara) therapy session, Gale used an untraditional method to urge him to open up about why he thinks Ellie may be mad at him. She told Joel that “you can’t heal something unless you’re brave enough to say it out loud,” and called him out for killing her husband Eugene in an attempt to heal her own trauma as an example of how its done.
Gale acknowledged that Joel had no choice but to kill Eugene but didn’t go into why, although we assume it was because he had been infected. She softened up and then offered him help if he would just be honest with her. (Of course, he wasn’t and abruptly ended the session.)
We know that Gale is a character original to the TV series and not featured in the video game but Eugene is a character of the “Last of Us Part II” video game’s canon. In the game, he’s a former Firefly member who had a wife named Claire before he died of a stroke. Actor Joe Pantoliano has been cast to appear as Eugene this season, perhaps through flashbacks, but little else is known about how the producers will incorporate this character into the series.
Why is Ellie mad at Joel?
The crux of this episode focused on the distance between Joel and Ellie. Ellie is a 19-year-old angsty teenager, frustrated by Joel’s overprotectiveness but there must be something else at play because distance between these two was icier than the streets of Jackson.
Does Ellie know the truth about what happened at the end of last season in the hospital yet or does she just suspect Joel wasn’t being honest with her and is harboring resentment because of that? Will this come to a head down the line? All signs point to yes.
Why doesn’t the post-apocalyptic world have a rule against homophobia?
As if the “Last of Us” world doesn’t have enough problems already, the season premiere proved there aren’t just monsters outside of the gates of Jackson.
It all played out during a New Year’s Eve celebration when Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) shared a kiss in the middle of the dance floor – in front of all the partygoers and Dina’s ex-boyfriend Jesse (Young Mazino).
Seth (Robert John Burke), a local bar owner, interrupted Ellie and Dina’s magic moment, saying they were at a “family event.” After he called them a homophobic slur, Joel pushed Seth to the ground in Ellie’s defense, which seemed to upset her even more. It was a whole scene and it was awful. As Ellie and Dina’s relationship develops, is this reaction from the townsfolk going to become a theme? We sure hope not.
Before you ask, yes, “Gossip Girl” viewers, Seth is played by the same actor who played Bart Bass. Leave it to Bart Bass to be awful.
Why does Abby want to kill Joel?
Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew kick off the episode in a graveyard of Fireflies by the hospital from which Joel and Ellie escaped. She is distraught and grief-striken and appeared to have information that Joel killed a loved one of hers. (It was not specified who.)
“Slowly,” she said, referring to how she wants to kill Joel. “We kill him slowly.”
One of the men in her group suggested they head to an outfit Seattle where a guy named Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) can take them in and help them get a lead on where Joel is.
After the five year time jump, Abby appeared to have finally found Joel in Jackson. With a terrifying look of conviction on her face, the episode ends with Abby slowly approaching the walls of Jackson.
What’s up with the cordyceps in the pipes?
At the very end of the episode, theres a dramatic close-up of a broken pipe in the streets of Jackson that has some living cordyceps spiraling out from it. It’s eerie and creepy and is a solid cliffhanger for what’s to come. It also could be what creator and executive producer Neil Druckmann was talking about when he previously teased the threat Jackson finds itself under.
In an interview with CNN in March, Druckmann said that viewers will get to see what it would be like “if a whole horde (of zombies) penetrated the walls of Jackson and got inside” and that viewers will see “what’s at stake here in this world for this community.”
It sounds like it’ll be a pretty action-packed event when the time comes, especially considering what Ellie observed when she and Dina came upon an infected girl in the premiere. She told Maria and the town counsel at one point that they were much smarter than the usual mindless zombie out for blood. Hold on to your horses, people.
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