Simon Fernandes

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 5 – Feel Her Love

“Would it have made a difference if my family had hurt his people first? No. No. And if I hadn’t killed him, if he had gotten away, I promise you I would have hunted him down forever.”

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Feel Her Love, eh? Fnarr, fnarr 😊
Actually, though, the ep title really is a double entendre, albeit not in a smutty, Carry On film kind of way. Yes, there’s the literal motto of the Seraphites (or “scars”, as the WLF disparagingly refer to them). But it’s also, presumably, a reference to the burgeoning love affair between Ellie and Dina; which, having been properly established last week, is already in jeopardy with the unexpected return of old flame (and father to her baby) Jesse.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 4 – Day One

“Every day, one of your Wolves comes to see the truth, and takes Her into their heart. Every day, every day, a Wolf leaves you to take the holy mortification to become a Seraphite. And none of us ever leave to become a Wolf.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After an incredibly busy week enmeshed in the toils of Spanish bureaucracy (I needed to exchange my UK driving licence, a Herculean task of procedure), I’m now a week behind on The Last of Us – in fact, I’ve only just seen this fourth episode. With another one waiting in the wings, here’s some brief thoughts on episode 4 – Day One.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 5 – The Story and the Engine

“You must tell a story, Doctor. You must feed it. It is always hungry.”

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“Why are Earth people so parochial?”, wondered the Fifth Doctor in 1982’s The Visitation. In fact, the accusation could just as easily have been levelled against the show itself in its original run. Obviously, there were practical and budgetary reasons why every alien invasion of Earth seemed to centre on South East England (“They’ve turned the whole of Bedfordshire into a gigantic mine area!”).

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 4 – Lucky Day

“I don’t accept your reality.”

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Ah, the “Doctor-light” episode is here. These first started in 2007 (surely no coincidence that we saw the TARDIS landing there in the prologue) with the ever-divisive Love and Monsters (personal disclosure – I actually really like that one). I wonder whether LINDA clocked that TARDIS arrival?

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 3 – The Path

“I want everyone to know – it’s not because I want revenge. It’s not about revenge.”

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…And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.

It was necessarily a more sedate episode of The Last of Us this week – well, how could it not have been, after the carnage last time? After a brief prologue showing the piles of Infected corpses, and various concerned parties grieving, we cut to three months later, and the debate about what happens next.

The Day the Lights Went Off in Iberia

On April 28, I was walking back from the shop at about 12:40 when it happened. As I looked down my street, I saw all the illuminated signs and interior shop lights flick off. Shopkeepers emerged, blinking, into the bright daylight, glancing up and down the street to see if they were the only ones affected.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 3 – The Well

“There’s something behind me.”

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Doctor Who has never been shy about stealing from… er, homaging other sources for its stories. I mean, The Brain of Morbius is just Frankenstein, The Androids of Tara is The Prisoner of Zenda, Robot is King Kong, and so on. It’s even, on multiple occasions, plagiarised itself – every Terry Nation Dalek story is basically the same as his first one. So it was hardly surprising, in a slew of well-blended ‘homages’ this week, that several of them were to earlier episodes of the show. The new thing here was the realisation that the ‘new’ show has now been going so long it can plagiarise itself too.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 2 – Through the Valley

“This is bullshit, right? It’s just a drill.”
“Yeah. It’s a drill.”
“Unless we’re attacked, and then it’s not.”

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Whoa.

Well, if you were disappointed by the low key, character-focused opener of The Last of Us season 2, this episode will have more than made up for that. All the spectacle, action and drama you could hope for was here in spades, along with some jaw-dropping plot developments. It’s just that, typically for this show, that first episode was necessary to establish the stakes before throwing us headlong into the carnage.

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 2 – Lux

“And remember, whatever you do – don’t make me laugh!”

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I must admit, when the “Next Week…” at the end of the previous ep showed what appeared to be a homicidal cartoon character, I wasn’t optimistic about this one. I assumed it would be one of those gaudy, kid-oriented ones Russell T Davies seems to prefer at the moment, all bright colours and no depth. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised by one of the most interesting, experimental Doctor Who episodes the show has produced since its 2005 revival.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 1 – Future Days

“This is where we live. And what’s that?”
“The fence!”
“And what’s inside?”
“People!”
“And what’s outside?”
“Monsters!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It’s a typically slow-burn start for the sophomore season of video game adaptation The Last of Us, a show whose first season I very much enjoyed despite never having played any of the games. As before, the most obvious comparison is to the seemingly never-ending The Walking Dead, and as before, The Last of Us is a far more thoughtful show. Both have very strong characterisation, but while TWD’s season openers typically included a spectacular horde of zombies, this dispensed with spectacle to build on the characters and relationships that were so strong last time.