The Last Of Us recap: Story gathers pace in episode 2, complete with nightmare scene
Bella Ramsey and Anna Torv in episode two of The Last of Us.
The first episode of the Last Of Us (Sky Atlantic) opened with the devastating double punch of the zombie apocalypse, and of lead character Joel losing his daughter Sarah (not to the infected but to the police state it immediately spawned). But that opener also had to carry the heavy load of establishing the dystopian new reality sprouting, like toadstools around a rotting tree, in the decades following the cataclysmic arrival of the fungoid plague.
With all of that world-building out of the way, episode two is where the story gathers pace. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) need their car battery back from the Fireflies so that Joel can continue his hunt for his missing brother Tommy. To get it, they’ve agreed to escort potty-mouthed teen Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to Boston’s old state capital, now bang in the middle of the infected zone. They’ve also just discovered she is immune to the bite of the Infected – making her a potential saviour of humanity (assuming a vaccine can be synthesised from her DNA).
Before that, there’s another flashback to the beginning of the end in 2003. In Jakarta, a fungi expert is dragged away by military goons with more medals than brain cells and shown a corpse infected with the cordyceps fungus (which in real life takes over the motor functions of certain species of ant). The growth has made the jump from insect to human. Her advice: bomb Jakarta to oblivion. Otherwise, it’s game over for humanity. Twenty years later, we know how that has worked out.
It’s a gripping and pacy instalment. And an opportunity to appreciate the Last of Us’s video game roots. As Joel, Tess and Ellie negotiate the Boston wilderness, there’s lots of climbing, creeping and huddling in the dark – tactics key to the game.
There is also a greater insight into Ellie’s psychology. Her edgy personality is, we can tell, a defence mechanism – a way for a child to process the horror of a world in free-fall. Her cynicism starts to disintegrate under the blue skies of the outsider world. For instance, she can’t believe the luxury – or the faded ghost of luxury – of that wrecked hotel en route to the drop-off point at the state capital.
The Last Of Us also confirms Joel has shuttered away the better part of his humanity. Upon discovering Ellie is immune, Tess sees the chance to make a difference. To Joel, though, the kid is still just a package to be delivered. Make the drop and then they’re out of there.
In the end, though, Joel and Ellie are forced to rely on one another. They do while crossing the museum that lies between them and their – hah – final destination. Here, they encounter the terrifying “clickers”, the final stage of the cordyceps, in which the host’s head has become a giant fungoid receptacle. Unable to see, the monsters track their prey with echo-location, sending out terrifying clacks and chirrups into the void.
They almost get Joel and Ellie too, as they huddle behind a cabinet (if only Joel had a shiv to hand). Ellie picks up a bite – but again does not transform. Alas, Tess isn’t so lucky: she has been chomped on and has a huge rippling scar on her shoulder to prove it.
She initially keeps her condition secret. Tess shares the devastating news only as they reach the state capital and discover the soldiers from the Firefly insurgency have killed each other after they became infected. Inspecting the scene triggers the fungoid filaments that serve as a sort of ghastly neural network. In a few minutes, a howling horde will be streaming through the doors.
With more undead on the way, Tess reveals she has been bitten. Soon she will turn. And so she sacrifices herself, holding off the Infected that come racing into the state building. In so doing, we are treated to the ickiest shot of the series thus far as Tess is forced into an undead snog with one of the Infected, its mouth opening to reveal tongue-like tendrils. Consider us 100 per cent topped up on nightmare fuel.
Joel has allowed himself be dragged into something for which he never signed up. He just wanted to find Tommy. Now he and a teenage girl – who surely reminds him of his late daughter – are headed into the sunset – going west to find the Fireflies. Tess has laid down her life so that they can get out of Boston and help the Fireflies solve the mystery of Ellie’s resistance to the cordyceps.
So, in a world of darkness, there is finally light. But all Joel cares about is the possibility he’s made a terrible mistake. All of which sets us up perfectly for next week’s episode – another helping of post-apocalyptic trauma that will mirror the pilot in hitting nearly 90 minutes. We can’t wait.
