“It was easy. I just kept hurting her and hurting her.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
This week’s episode was an inevitably downbeat season finale for The Last of Us, a show that has never exactly traded in optimism. It also, at first, seemed surprisingly low-key for most of the time, retreading similar ground to earlier eps this season – I was expecting something more, well, not spectacular (the show rarely is), but dramatic. But in hindsight, I think there was a lot more going on in this ep than was immediately evident.
To explain why, I have to skip right to the end. Throughout the episode, Ellie kept stumbling into situations that were clearly already underway, with no explanation for exactly what was happening. The capture of that young Seraphite, the massed forces of the Wolves arriving on boats, Ellie’s sudden reprieve from disembowelment due to an attack on the Seraphite village…
At first I chalked this up to a depiction of the genuine chaos one gets wandering around a war zone. After all, in reality, one would always be walking into complex situations with no immediate idea of what was going on. But that ending (cliffhanger aside) changed everything. As we flashed back to “Seattle – Day One” for Abby, it became clear that the upcoming third season (whenever that is) will be showing us many of those same events – but from Abby’s point of view. We will, in effect, be seeing the other side of the story, with the big picture allowing the viewer to make their own judgment.
That’s an interesting way to play the story. It also explains the near-absence of some of the characters after some strong introductions, Abby in particular. One thing I do know about the second actual game is that it also depicts events from Abby’s perspective, taking the difficult path of asking you to sympathise with the character who killed the story’s nominal hero.
As a character, Abby had a very strong introduction, swearing vengeance on Joel, then turning up and actually carrying out that threat. It seemed like the plot of the whole season was going to be about her. So it seemed odd that we’ve seen pretty much nothing of her since, but now it’s clear why. This season may not centre on her, but clearly the next one will.
Which does make you wonder whether Bella Ramsey as Ellie might be rather sidelined next time round, appearing as a guest star in Abby’s story rather than a central character in her own right. If so, that’s a brave way to play it. Kaitlyn Dever has been very strong as Abby, but the character hasn’t had much actual development yet, and the viewers’ natural sympathies are with the character they’ve followed so far. But again, I gather the second game does this, and pulls it off well; and with game creator Neil Druckmann as a co-showrunner here, there’s no reason to think the show can’t match that.
As to the rest of the episode, once again the show did its trademark of foregrounding character over action, which is wise given that, as far as action goes, there’s little in this genre that hasn’t been seen before. That said, I guessed fairly early on that this would be the swan song for Young Mazino’s likeable Jesse. It’s fairly standard in this kind of genre show that supporting characters get focus and depth primarily in their first and last episodes; with the focus so squarely on Jesse throughout, he might as well have been that soldier in a war movie who tells his buddy that he’s going home to marry his sweetheart as soon as they’ve taken this one last target.
And of course, sweethearts were very much at the front of his interactions throughout, being in the rather difficult position of having impregnated his sometime girlfriend, who’s now in love with his protégé instead. In some ways, his not entirely unexpected death simplified the continuing plot no end, so it was only fair that he got most of the episode to angst over it.
Mazino did well at showing us Jesse’s essential fickleness, telegraphing that, expectant father or no, he had a history of avoiding responsibility. Mind you, shock moment though it was, it did feel monumentally stupid that he just charged through a door to his doom, without even trying to take precautions from the obvious threat on the other side. Perhaps his emotions got the better of his experience as a survivor, but that does slightly undermine what we’d seen of him so far.
Still, for better or worse, he’s gone now – one more thing for Ellie to feel guilty about. If, that is, she survives the gunshot that concluded her side of the story. The script, once again co-written by Neil Druckmann, showed us an Ellie gradually realising the futility of her single-minded quest for vengeance. You could see that early on, as her description of torturing Nora strayed from gloating to uncertain reflection.
That was well-played by Bella Ramsey, who certainly went through the wringer this week. Aside from surviving being tossed overboard in a storm (Seattle finally showing us its well-known rainy climate this week), she had to deal with being semi-hanged and nearly disembowelled, before having a supreme moment of self-realisation when her lust for revenge led to her gunning down a pregnant woman.
It was a shame not to have seen a bit more of Ariela Barer as the ill-fated Mel – though of course we probably will next season, as we see the other side of events. But it was her (to be fair, unintended) death that seemed to shock Ellie out of the bloodlust that’s been consuming her all season. I have to say, though, that surely there was still some chance of saving the baby by the C-section Mel had been gasping for, even when the lady in question had actually expired. OK, I’m no medical expert, but did Ellie, Jesse and Tommy just leave a baby to die when they could have saved it? That’s dark.
Of course it’s doubtful if it would have survived anyway, given the subsequent events. It’s a good cliffhanger to leave the season on, not knowing whether Ellie, Dina, or Tommy will make it out alive. And given the rewind we’re presumably going to get for the next one, I’d guess we’re not going to find out the answer for quite some part of the next season.
In a sense, it’s hard to assess this episode in isolation, as it’s plainly just one side of a bigger story that we’ll see the other side of next season. I’m actually looking forward to that – it’s a very clever gambit to have the same story told in two successive seasons, but from different viewpoints. I assume this is another echo of the game, where I gather it’s possible to play as either Ellie or Abby; we’ve seen the Ellie option, and next time will be the Abby option. It’s just a shame that we’ll probably have to wait for more than a year to see it, because that ending certainly left me hungry for more.
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 