THE LAST OF US Season 2 Episode 5

The Last of Us: The new episode is afraid to commit to its own violence

By now, with the fifth episode of the second season of The Last of Us, we’ve reached about the halfway point of the story as it was presented in the video game.

Spoilers follow.

At this point in the game, we had already seen flashbacks, the characters had been developed sufficiently along with the key plot threads, and there had also been intense action and brutal violence. And here I pinpoint one of the major problems: the creators of the TV adaptation refuse to commit to the core goals of their own script.

The series struggles to follow the structure and tone of the game, and overall, I don’t think it succeeds. If we judge it independently, as a separate work rather than an adaptation, the result is adequate, but I still have objections — the episode follows the game's events in terms of major plot beats (the biggest change is the group composition: in the game, Ellie is alone at this point, as Dina is in a safe place — Jesse also shows up, but not to save them as he does in the series. A significant difference is the arrow ambush scene: in the game, Ellie is hit; in the series, it's Dina — so perhaps now she’ll be sidelined from the group).

We have an Ellie and a Dina who, in theory, are interesting protagonists, but I don't think they’re used effectively within the narrative. They come across more like young kids going on a hike rather than angry adults out for revenge. I get that the creators wanted to lighten the tone so it wouldn’t feel like a tombstone, but they overdid it, and we end up with this issue: we watch the girls go on a chill field trip until the script suddenly demands something else. Then, within a single scene, the tone of the characters changes completely — dragging the atmosphere along with it. The same happens with the storytelling overall: everything serves as a lever to steer the plot in the desired direction, and the world never really feels like a real place with organically unfolding events.

This is especially clear in the new episode, where we see Ellie joking around with Dina and acting completely naive and clueless. She doesn’t seem particularly trained or aware of how this world works outside the safety of the city where she grew up. Still, banking on her immunity, she rushes headlong into danger — acting carelessly and incapable of handling what stands in her way.

Ellie comes face-to-face with the smartest variant of the infected, who attack her and Dina. Despite the script’s claims, the zombies don’t seem all that different — they just run at them and try to grab them, like all the others. For a moment we see them hide, but that enhanced intelligence isn’t really used for anything. And in any case, Ellie and Dina fail miserably, the infected catch them, and it’s clear this won’t end well… but at the last second, a deus ex machina swoops in and saves them. With choices like these, the series tells us that these characters are only saved so the plot can move forward — and it also tells us they are completely unprepared for this journey.

Dina gets angry when Ellie suggests they turn back. And that somewhat works, since she’s the type of character who “gets things done,” who finds where their targets are, who knows how to navigate the world (although she’s starting to resemble the Script itself: “we’re moving forward because I say so — I am the Plot”). Ellie, on the other hand, doesn’t convince me — and I don’t think it’s the performance’s fault, but rather the writing of her character and actions. In one scene she’s a kid making nonstop jokes and clearly has no idea what she’s doing; in the next, we’re supposed to believe she’s a hardened woman, angry, violent, ready to do anything for revenge. Even in the most intense scenes of the episode, I wasn’t convinced.

The same goes for the main action scene, where Ellie enters the building where the Wolves are holed up like she’s going for a stroll. They may be a militarized faction, trained and armed, with dogs and in an active war with another group — but apparently, they leave their security completely to chance. Ellie just walks in, tricks the guard and the dog, attacks Nora to find out where Abby is, and then chases her through the hallways. Sure, some people shoot at her here and there, but they don’t seem particularly eager to hit her — nor to follow her into the basement wearing masks to protect against the airborne spores.

Also, let’s talk about this: why did the writers do that? Until now, the fungus didn’t spread through the air (it was one of the show’s changes from the original material), but suddenly, we’re told that now it does. I don’t understand why (unless the reason is this: it made it easier to transfer scenes directly from the game into the show without needing further adaptation).

I also found the prologue silly: the episode that reveals the fungus now spreads through the air opens with a segment that talks about exactly that. The show has pulled this trick before, and now it feels repetitive and predictable. The basement scene was gorgeous, with the infected person embedded in the wall — but we’re five episodes in and haven’t seen the tendrils from season one, so I wonder if this marks a canon shift: maybe the writers decided that idea didn’t work as intended and went back to the safety of the game’s approach. I don’t know if it’s a retcon, inconsistency, or just an expansion of the fungus’s transmission methods. Disappointing, if it’s a retcon.

Another key issue I have is the refusal/inability to depict violence. This is a story soaked in blood, whose central themes revolve around violence and its cyclical nature. It’s one of those stories where extremely violent scenes could be used to great effect — and the show doesn’t seize that opportunity.

This is an episode full of violence, but the camera avoids it as much as it can. I don’t know if that’s a decision from the creative team, but either way, the impact is diminished.

When, for instance, Ellie catches Nora bathed in red light and out of her mind, she hits her with a metal pipe — but we don’t see the result. In the game, in a particularly memorable scene, the camera turned toward Ellie, and we watched her face as she mercilessly beat Nora, covering herself in blood (“Why should I tell you where Abby is, since I’m going to die anyway?” Nora asked Ellie, already infected by the fungus. “I can make it quick… or very, very slow,” Ellie replied, with a rabid expression). Here, the direction is much simpler and uninspired (though not sloppy by any means), closer to a typical zombie action story like The Walking Dead (and the human groups still resemble those in that series, in scenes that talk about prophets and feel out of place, as if lifted from a sci-fi comic book).

Just as the creators lighten the mood during the journey, they do the same in the action, noticeably reducing the depiction of violence. This may be a decision made so that Ellie doesn’t end up alienating the audience (in the game, there’s direct control, and we also spend more time with her).

In order for Ellie not to come across as the “bad guy,” and not be equated with Abby in the audience’s mind, the violence caused by her hands is toned down. If the show really goes in that direction, I believe it would be a big mistake. The game’s script is bold — and bold precisely because it makes such choices and takes risks: it sets aside the need for likability and throws the characters into a filthy pit, from which they emerge bloodied, and mentally and physically broken. And this approach — if it really does go that way — makes me worried about Abby’s development later on (and I already consider the apparent split of the story into Ellie’s and Abby’s arcs across seasons two and three a bad idea).

Ultimately, the new episode is a well-directed hour full of intense action, but in its second season, the script hasn’t managed to bring that “something extra” to rise above the label of a “decent zombie action series.” The game rose above that, and so did the first season, but now it hasn’t managed to convince me. Also, in its (welcome) effort to faithfully adapt the events of the game to another entertainment medium, The Last of Us series is losing its footing here and there, and fails to deliver a tight script with characters and worldbuilding that truly captivate. Still, the new episode does move the plot forward and is entertaining as an action thriller.