The deck is stacked from the beginning. Like the new season of The last of us Start, survivors or a massacre bury their dead. They are the fireflies, the members of a scattered network of rebels fighting the fascist government that they touch following the outbreak of cordyceps that killed or zombified billions. (Ah, yes, those happy golden days when we think it would take an evil fungus so that fascism came to the United States). However, Massre’s author was not a Jackboteed Itf Losty government. Nor was it the monstrous and powerful infected as “clicking” for its echolocation method. It was Joel (Pedro Pascal), our player character, Ahem, our protagonist.
And what choice, the writers, sorry, the fireflies, left it? Or they would kill or kill their adoptive daughter, Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Of course, if they did, it could allow them to analyze why it is immune to the infection (it was exhibited with a tiny amount of the birth of the duration of the fungus) and, therefore, find a code for cordyceps and save the world. But a real man does what he has to protect his family, or something.
All Killcrazy climax at the first season of the program was frustrating that established a false binary, an choice between individual and collective needs. Reality is not a zero sum contest between you and all other fascists only believe that otherwise and gender stories that make such a central dilemma play fast and release how morality really works.
We are not five minutes from the premiere of Season 2 when the writer-direct-co-co-Creator Craig Mazin does again. The surviving fireflies are led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who was born hard from the order. Not only wants to track and kill Joel with the help of the other survivors, Shey Hens to kill him slowly. She repeats the word for clarity and everything.
One more time, The last of us He is not pushing us subtly in the direction in which they want our sympathies to leave. If this were a simple case of a group of survivors hunting and shooting the outlaw that fired his partner, we would probably be supporting Joel, it is Pedro Pascal, for the goal of God, but at least we would sympathize. Torture Joel until death is a bridge too far when you have spent a season asking us to identify with the guy, in a story based on an art form where identification with the protagonist is baked directly in the mechanics of the game. Us Not power Root Abby now. That is The last of us For you: it is always less complex than it seems.
After our initial encounter with Firefly’s survivors, the action jumps forward five years. At this point, Wyoming is through a small city, its picturesque covered by snow. Actually, it is Christmas, technically, but I suppose the showrunners felt that I was going from Currier and Iives on us would put it a bit thick. Presiding over the good people of Jackson is our hero, Joel: I did not catch anyone to mention their official work title, but it is a combination of mayor, Sheriff and head of the Department of Public Works. Meanwhile, his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and his sister -in -law, María (Routina Wesley), sit in the City Council. And his “daughter”, Ellie (Ramsey, whose dry challenge works much better from a major character), the most respected hunter than infected in the business.
In total, the family draws a lot of water in this beach community, but not everything is inside the family without power. Joel wants to take a hard line against the welcome to more refugees within the walls of the city, since they lack the housing capacity, conflicting it with the most benevolent Maria, which reminds her that she was once a refugee. Maybe this works better than reminding Americans that “we are a nation of immigrants” worked, or maybe not.
More crucially to history at this time, Joel is at the exits with Ellie, for reasons that cannot be determined. Most people, including their therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara-More about it in a moment), assumes that they are only basic things of daughter/19-year-old dad of which he should be so worked, but he is clearly breaking Hart. In addition, he feels guilty for him, let’s call a blade a shovel here, Mass dough shot He perpetrated to avoid Ellie of Firefly scientists.
Joel faces his secret for Gail, who for when he sees him for his appointment is half of the bag. It’s birthday, you see, and the first without her husband, and now she has to treat Joel, her husband’s murderer. We do not know what happened here, only that Gail admits that Joel had no choice, but that he hates him anyway; I suppose this means that the husband was infected and, therefore, he had to be killed, which, however, justified Joel was difficult, would also cost me his therapist.
Joel’s main complaint is his difficulty with Ellie, Speciallay compared an easy relationship with her best friend, Dina (Isabela Merced), which “makes me feel like a good guy, which I am!” (Ugh.) But just despite all this, Gail feels that Joel is hiding something from her, and Shey to help him bring him to light and work it. Being a character of Pedro Pascal, Joel squeezes his teeth and leaves there instead of opening. (You have to build Joel opening, the way in which science fiction and fantasy programs are built to fight in episodes).
The fact that the massacre is presented at the same time that Ellie is giving Joel the cold shoulder makes me ask me if she has discovered the song about the incident. The real episode begins with a repetition of the Godfather-Solve inspired by what Ellie asks in white if she tells the truth about the fate of the firefly and he is directly on her face, and it seems clear that Ellie Beat up Believe this because the alternative is unthinkable for her. Maybe it’s not so unthinkable.
To obtain more evidence, see how it reacts to the way Joel covers a homophobe at the great New Year’s Eve party, when Ellie begins to kiss with Dina, who has been nourishing an episode of great success. Honestly, it is the most elegant departure in the Friends Zone that I have seen anyone achieve. Does Cordyceps Immune also give you additional pheromones or something? Anyway, Ellie reacts to Joel’s intervention with anger, insisting that he no longer needs protection. It seems genuinely horrified by its ability to violence, no matter how angry, no, do not let the boy cover.
If there is an issue for Ellie this episode, thought, it is self -sufficiency to the point of arrogance, even recharge. Ellie is a strong MMA fighter, but not as strong as she thinks. She is a great opportunity, but not a crack. She ignores the orders of her nominal superior in the patrol, her ex -girlfriend Kat (Noah Lamanna), she will seek infected inside an abandoned supermarket with Dina, and survives, but she falls through him, flower and harass. She is immune, but it is another wound that will have to be covered, as a special Dina, since no one can know her great secret without putting her in serious danger.
Of course, the danger is on the road, whatever happens. Both the intelligent infected and the package of six that knocked down a massive bear nearby indicate important enhanced problems with fungal zombies in the future of the community. The worn pipes that DINA is trying to help reimburse the needs of the cities is full of cordyceps that reactivate when they are exhibited in the heat of an abandoned benca after the New Year festivities. And a few miles away, Abby and the other survivors of Firefly have finally arrived, with a revenge in their minds.
It is a real song “next week, the same fungus time, the same fungal channel” final. Honestly, that’s the environment Tlou It should be chasing. His sociopolitical comment and his moral dilemmas-philosophical Tlou2 Reaction video on YouTube. But the unpleasant images for the infected, the copious sequences of Gore, stealth they leave directly from a quite good video game, jump scares in abundance, simply anticipating that everything goes to hell because this is here, this is what Haappens is. Why balance the fences when you can balance the bat in the skulls with fungal inlays of some monsters and have a perfectly satisfactory show as a result?
Sean T. Collins (@ThesentCollins) Write about television for Rolling stone” Vulture” The New York Timesand Any place that has itIn fact. He and his family live in Long Island.
