Kaitlyn Dever – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 7 – Convergence

“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.

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.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

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.

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.