The Last of Us Season 2 is a Revenge Saga
Five years after Joel’s fateful lie, HBO’s The Last of Us season 2 trades road‑trip momentum for a darker, place‑bound tale where revenge clashes with mercy, thrusting Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey into a brutal ripple effect that deepens character arcs and sets up a sweeping two‑part narrative drawn from the acclaimed game sequel.
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Technically, The Last of Us Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off. Before they settle into Jackson Hole, Wyoming, now repurposed from a ski resort to a haven from the Cordyceps-infested zombies that are ravaging post-apocalyptic America, smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) lies to Ellie (Bella Ramsey), his living cargo effectively turned into his adopted daughter, Variety has reported.
Joel swears to Ellie that he’s telling the truth about the destruction of the Salt Lake City hospital. According to Joel, the rogue raiders attacked while Ellie was unconscious, though viewers of the HBO drama — and players of the hit video game before that — know the truth: that Joel was furious after realizing that the doctors’ attempts to get a cure for Ellie’s cordyceps-immune condition would kill her. Ramsey’s expression suggests that Ellie might know too, whether she admits it to herself or not.
The Last of Us Game Adaptation
After this reprise, The Last of Us jumps forward five years. But the opening scene underscores just how reckless, deadly, selfish, passionately loving Joel’s decision is for these beloved characters. Its ripple effect sets the plot of the seven-episode season in motion. Before that, however, it affects Joel and Ellie’s relationship and sets the tone for the season’s two central dichotomies: revenge versus mercy on the one hand; on the other, what we do for ourselves versus what we do for others, and whether you can always tell the difference. The new focus makes for an even darker version of a show that can already be hard to watch, but it allows Ramsey, in particular, to transform his protagonist from a sly kid to a deeply scarred young adult.
Creators Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann, who also co-wrote the original game, continue to carefully utilize their source material in Season 2. While “Fallout,” the other game adaptation that premiered after “The Last of Us” more than two years ago, is expected to give its inherited world an original story, “The Last of Us” was already an extraordinary narrative driven by the standards of its original setting.
The Last of Us: Part II
The difference in its sophomore outing is that the first game, an extended road trip with a defined starting point and destination, was well-suited to a standalone season. For reasons I’m not allowed to spoil but are well-known to game fans, “The Last of Us: Part II” needs a more bifurcated structure—meaning Season 2 is a transparent part, not a whole, even before it ends. (The reduced episode count compared to the nine-part Season 1 is the first indicator.)
Of course, “The Last of Us” is enough of a critical and commercial hit to warrant fans’ patience between installments and HBO’s multi-season investment. The series remains a feat of production, from the overgrown abandoned cityscapes to the gorgeous natural landscapes to the hordes of infected, especially in the terrifying battle sequence directed by network lead Mark Mylod (“Heritage,” “Game of Thrones”). But Season 2 replaces the momentum of traveling from point A to point B with a carefully crafted sense of place. Like its characters, “The Last of Us” pauses in its wanderings to put down roots.
