‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Keeps Its Human Element Strongest While Fighting the Infected

Alci Rengifo

HBO’s “The Last of Us” returns for a second season carrying a lot of weight. Its predecessor was groundbreaking in how it proved that compelling, dramatically admirable television can be adapted from a video game. It is a tricky form of adaptation and creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are now carrying on and mining the game, “The Last of Us Part II” to continue the narrative. Like any good TV series or film, you don’t need to have dived into the source material to enjoy it. This season begins as a return to a post-apocalyptic fable that thrives on its human elements. We genuinely care about these characters and even the intense action involving killing “the infected” feels like a detour from what matters.

The story picks up five years after the events of last season. Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and his surrogate daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are still living in snowy Jackson, Wyoming, now rebuilt into a working community doubling as a fort. You may recall Joel ended last season lying to Ellie about how he killed the Fireflies to save her from a treatment that would have ended her life, yet might have provided a cure for the Cordyceps virus turning people into the raging infected. Now Ellie is 19 and for an unspoken reason has drifted from Joel, preferring to live in the garage of their house. Joel is now one of the leaders of the community along with his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and his wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley), while Ellie is friends with Dina (Isabel Merced), another young girl about her age. Eager to join the patrols that scout the area for infected, Ellie is finally allowed to tag along. Another threat is looming from a group led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), which includes Manny (Danny Ramirez), Owen (Spencer Lord), Mel (Ariela Barer) and Nora (Tati Gabrielle). These are young Fireflies now hunting Joel for revenge.

As with all adaptations, Mazin and Druckmann stay loyal to the original game while making narrative adjustments. Abby’s vengeful character is introduced much earlier, though a lot of this season will be set-up, as the showrunners have revealed “Part II” of the game has too much to cover in one season. Season three will presumably carry on the storyline. Putting such details aside, the season opener, “Future Days,” encompasses everything that works so well about the series. Pascal’s rugged hero is given enough human believability to attend therapy with Gail (Catherine O’Hara), a psychotherapist who in a rather striking scene admits her own resentment towards Joel for killing her husband. She understands it was necessary in this situation where anyone can become infected, and the scene becomes a potent reflection on coping. Pascal still gets those moments begging the audience to cheer him on, like when he knocks over a homophobe at a New Year’s Day party. 

Yet, most of the season premiere’s action focuses on Ellie as a young adult trying to figure herself out. The series can feed into American survivalist fantasies where kids become gun experts making commando gestures while hunting for monsters, but it’s now surface level entertainment. When the two go out on patrol, their banter is written in a way where we subtly realize Ellie likes Dina, though normal life topics like attraction are complicated during the end of civilization. Dina’s own ex-boyfriend, Jesse (Young Mazino), is in charge of the group going out on patrol. Eventually they find an abandoned supermarket where the infected prowl, leading to a moment where Ellie is attacked by an infected who shows a surprising capacity for intelligence and tactical thinking. The threat is clearly evolving. Ellie is also bitten, though she keeps this hidden from everyone else considering she should be immune and so hopefully is safe.

We’re left with the compelling questions of why Ellie won’t talk to Joel, even getting annoyed when he offers to change the worn out strings on her acoustic guitar, and what this evolution in the infected means. Fans of the game know, but as with “Game of Thrones,” part of the fun will be seeing how the storyline is turned into drama. Season one was more of a classic journey, with Joel and Ellie going from place to place and episodes detouring into vignettes. Now with the world established, things will get darker and the stakes higher. The premiere ends in the snow-capped hills overlooking Jackson, where Abby and her comrades seem to prepare to move towards the town. “The Last of Us” is one of the best recent imaginings of an America torn asunder by some apocalyptic calamity because even in its gun-toting action, it stays grounded. The world could be ending and vendettas will fester, teens will have crushes and first kisses and dads will have to deal with stubborn daughters. 

“The Last of Us” season two premieres April 13 and airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.