The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 3 Recap
Looking for a recap of season 2, episode 2? We have you covered.
Readers, how are you all feeling? Because Joel’s death in The Last of Us last week prompted the exact level of mass Internet mourning we suspected it would. At Esquire, our grief ran so deep that we wrote a ranking of Pedro Pascal’s film and TV roles, just because we don’t know what the hell else to do with ourselves. Even still, I wouldn’t quite count out the possibility of seeing Joel again. The creator of The Last of Us, Neil Druckmann, said so himself.
Nevertheless, we must keep calm and carry on. The Last of Us season 2, episode 3 is here, whether we like it or not. In Esquire’s The Last of Us newsletter this week (hitting inboxes Monday morning), my colleague, Josh Rosenberg, remarks on how damn different this show feels now. I couldn’t agree more. Not only does episode 3 pick up the pieces following Joel’s deathâshowing how Ellie is doing after the unimaginably traumatic experienceâbut it also introduces two major factions to the show: The W.L.F. (which we broke down here) and the Seraphites. Both play major roles in the video game The Last of Us Part II, and that’s about the extent of what I’ll spoil here. Just know that if you left episode 3 feeling like you’d need one of my book-length Severance recaps to make sense of it all, you’re not alone.
So, let’s make like Ellie and try to make sense of it all. And Craig Mazin, if you’re reading this, The Last of Us needs a new name!
Liane Hentscher/HBOGive it up to Tommy for maintaining a strong watch game in the middle of the apocalypse.
“So, Yeah. Upset and Sad.”Damn, did this episode really have to open with a fallen clicker in the exact same position as Joel when he died? Rub salt in the wound, The Last of Us! And this episode doesn’t get much easier from there. We’re quickly informed of a three-month time jump. On the other end of it, Jackson is slowly, but surely, rebuilding. As for Ellie, it seems that due to her injuriesâand likely the town’s concern for her mental health after Joel’s deathâshe was hospitalized for three months.
Ellie’s last hurdle before she rejoins the also-recovering citizens of Jackson? A psychiatric check from Gail (Catherine O’Hara). The therapist wastes no time in trying to find out exactly what Joel was hiding in his therapy session from episode 1. But first, she wants to know what went down between the pseudo-father-daughter on New Year’s Eve. Looking extremely suspect, Ellie says, “When I got home, he was on the porch, and I shouldâve talked to him, but I didnât.” Ellie maintains that she doesn’t “feel wronged” by Joel. Gail will later tell Tommy that she’s extremely convinced Ellie is a liar.
Regardless, we’re treated to some truly touching dialogue in this scene. “But your final moment with someone doesnât define your whole time with them,” Ellie says. Gail responds, “It shouldnât, but it also does.”
After Ellie leaves the hospital, she heads over to Joel’s homeâwhere she finally lets her emotions come out. It’s one of the most beautiful moments we’ve seen in The Last of Us yet. Then, for the second time this episode, Dina is at the door. Over some freshly baked cookies, Dina reveals that she knows most of the names of Joel’s assailants, plus, where they’re heading: Seattle. So why not jet out the door and head to Seattle right at that very moment? Jackson’s town council needs to approve cross-country revenge missions.
And That Brings Me Back to My Earlier Point About CornUm, can HBO please green-light a spin-off called, The Tales of the Corn Guy? Imagine that your home was ransacked by a bunch of ravenous mushroom people, a random militia murdered one of your town leaders with a golf club, and you care about corn? Corn?! (Side note: I hope corn kid is alive and well in this alternate universe.) Corn Guy deserves Bigot Man.
Speaking of, amidst Ellie’s plea to the town council for a revenge task force, I love how Bigot Man suddenly transforms into Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans. “What the hell are we all talking about here?” he rages. “BOO-HOO, itâs not fair! What, we gotta forgive everybody when they show up and piss in our eye? They came into our house! They took one of ours! My God, somebody shoots your brother, you wanna take the locks off your doors? GROW UP!”
Bravo, sir. Unfortunately, having Bigot Man on your side is always a bad thing in this town, so Ellieâdespite an impassioned speechâloses the vote by a pretty large margin of eight to three. I hate to say that I agree with the majority here. Even though Ellie swears that her intent is not revenge, just about everyone in that hall can see otherwise. I don’t mean to discount Ellie and her grief for Joel by any meansâit’s just that we literally heard her scream, “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” in an entirely justified fit of rage toward Abby. We saw where Joel’s undealt-with rage landed him. None of us should want that ending for Ellie.
Tommy put it best in his conversation with Gail at the baseball field. “I just donât want her to go down the same paths that Joel did,” he says. “Cominâ up with justifications and such. All he was really doinâ was lashinâ out.”
Courtesy of HBOPoor Ellie.
Meet Me In SnoqualmieAfter failing to rally Jackson’s townsfolk on her side, Ellie resolves to simply set out to Seattle alone. Dina hilariously senses that this is exactly what Ellie is doing, so she knocks on her door again. (Isabela Merced’s turn as Dina keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?) Long story short: Ellie doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. Dina already figured out the logistics of the trip, what supplies they need, and the fact that Ellie needs a better gun and real adventuring shoes. Bigot Man reappears once again to supply the gun.
At this point, it feels like we begin whatever this new era of The Last of Us is for Ellie, Dina, and everyone we’ve come to know and love throughout the course of the series. (Including Tommy and Jesse. Not including Bigot Man and Corn Guy.) It’s truly a delight to watch Ellie and Dina road-trip to Seattle; they chat about life, death, their kiss at the New Year’s Eve bash (!), and even put coffee beans at Joel’s grave. Once again, though, this is The Last of Us. So, they run into the dead bodies of the ambushed cloak-and-scar-clan from earlier in the episodeâincluding the poor little girl who asked for a hammer. Sadly, we’re meant to infer that the W.L.F. took them all down, even if Ellie and Dina don’t know it yet. Then, as they approach Seattle, we’re shown that the W.L.F. hardly amounts to Abby’s tiny militia. It’s more like an armyâtanks, watch towers, and Danny Ramirez. Don’t fuck with Danny Ramirez!
Next episode, it feels like we’ll learn more about the aforementioned factionsâW.L.F. and the Seraphitesâwhich are clearly at war with each other. Let’s just hope Ellie and Dina have the sense to turn back if they suddenly find themselves in the middle of it.
