We begin with Ellie pointing her newly acquired pistol at herself in a mirror. Wearing a green jacket, it strongly echoes the famous scene from Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” with Robert De Niro’s famous “You talking to me?” speech. Unlike Travis Bickle from that movie, Ellie admires her gun with child-like curiosity, making pew pew noises and inspecting each side of her weapon. Ellie is a younger woman born right into a violent world, and it’s clear that a few of it fascinates and excites her.
Joel is exterior siphoning gas for his or her truck, acquired from the property of Bill and Frank. A really bored Ellie decides to bombard Joel with a ebook of puns, which additionally featured prominently within the online game. The approach Ellie stares at Pedro Pascal’s exasperated Joel in between punchlines is an ideal show of how Ramsey captures Ellie’s insistence on being aggravating, but additionally very humorous. Ellie’s eyes widen, and her mouth and jawline tighten with anticipation as she unleashes one unhealthy pun after one other. So far, Ellie is the closest factor this present has to comedian aid, and this episode is Ramsey’s time to flex these muscle mass.
The pair drive by way of varied scenes of destroyed Americana, together with this present’s second point out of Arby’s in a second consecutive episode. Camping out for the evening, Ellie lets out yet one more pun, and Joel solutions again with the punchline with a smile unseen by Ellie. In distinction to the sport, it appears this Joel is warming as much as Ellie a bit faster. This is portrayed once more as Ellie expresses worry of what might occur at evening. Instead of sleeping, we see Joel standing watch along with his rifle.
As the pair drive additional west to Wyoming, the final identified location of Joel’s brother, Ellie asks Joel why he break up up along with his brother. It’s a protracted story, Joel says, to which Ellie responds, “Is it longer than 25 hours because that’s what we got.” Ellie appears at Joel; her eyes flit to the highway and again to Joel. She’s not letting this go. Joel relinquishes his powerful man self as soon as once more, and explains that Tommy has at all times had a heroic but silly streak, searching for goal in causes. First, it was the Iraq warfare of the Nineties. Next it was the Fireflies and the seek for a remedy. That idealism created the rift between the brothers.
So far we’ve spent an excellent quarter-hour with Joel and Ellie in conversations that weren’t within the recreation. After cementing their relationship, the present lastly returns to the sport’s story, besides as a substitute of Pittsburgh, the pair arrive in Kansas City, Mo., a extra smart, on-the-way location to Wyoming. In a scene ripped straight from the sport, the pair encounter a person pretending to be harm, and are jumped by the residents of Kansas City, now free of federal navy rule. They crash the truck, and a firefight inside a laundromat is lifted straight from the sport. Joel shoots one of many attackers, which angers the remainder of the pack. This echoes how enemy combatants from the second recreation react, calling out their fallen comrade’s identify in an try to humanize the “villains” of Joel and Ellie as different folks attempting to outlive.
This firefight ends very in a different way from the sport, with Ellie capturing an attacker off Joel. The militia that now guidelines Kansas City discovers the loss of life left within the wake of Joel and Ellie’s arrival, and report back to Kathleen, performed by a chilling Melanie Lynskey. Kathleen is the chief of the Kansas City resistance that efficiently upended and dismantled federal navy rule. Now she’s hellbent on discovering “collaborators” who snitched to the navy. She’s significantly considering a person named Henry, who’s liable for the loss of life of her brother. Without mercy or hesitation, Kathleen interrogates then kills her family physician in her seek for Henry.
Ellie capturing one other man is definitely a scene lifted from the sport in one other sequence. But the present merges her two character moments. It’s a skillful, good implementation too, because it helps set up a rising guilt inside Joel about his skill to guard Ellie not simply from harmful components, however from the trauma of the violence round her. Joel tries to speak Ellie by way of her emotions, however admits he’s not superb at this. “Yeah, you’re really not,” Ellie responds in one other hilarious line.
Kathleen and her right-hand mercenary Perry (performed by Jeffrey Pierce, who performed Tommy within the recreation) discover considered one of Henry’s hideouts, and we study that he’s taking good care of somebody named Sam. Perry additionally factors out one thing else: Kansas City’s underground has some rising exercise that’s regarding. Kathleen is unbothered, as she is lifeless set on her revenge towards Henry.
Joel and Ellie enter and climb up a taller constructing to discover a route out of town, and resolve to camp inside for the evening. This episode is bookended by the 2 bonding as soon as once more. Ellie tells a joke about diarrhea, and Joel can’t assist himself–he laughs, and Ellie lastly will get the win she’s hunted for tons of of miles. She’s getting beneath his pores and skin, and into his coronary heart. Suddenly, the pair are awoken with weapons to their faces. Joel, Ellie and the viewers now get to fulfill Henry and Sam.
Some notes and observations:
- Kathleen’s resistance is an all-new ingredient to the present. In the sport’s Pittsburgh, we knew nothing of the people organized in that metropolis, aside from that they efficiently overthrew the federal navy. Here, we see their plight and battle by way of Kathleen’s eyes, as she suffered significantly beneath navy rule. This feels just like the characterization of the Wolves navy from the second recreation, and provides some early welcome depth to how people in different cities reply to navy rule.
- Henry and Sam are additionally launched otherwise. In the sport, Henry assaults Joel, mistaking him for one of many violent resistance members. Seeing Ellie makes him understand he’s not one of many “bad guys.” Here, the 2 brothers get the soar on each Joel and Ellie, and we’ve but to grasp something about their intentions of doing this. This might be the weakest closing shot of the season up to now, however not less than the viewers is rewarded with hotter, relaxed moments between our two protagonists.
- There’s a way of marvel in how Ellie discovers components of the previous world. She scarfs down canned ravioli and remarks how Chef Boyardee “was good.” When Joel grows pissed off together with her incapability to learn a roadmap, she snaps again that it’s her second day in a automobile. Joel could also be our driving protagonist, fairly actually for the primary a part of the episode, however Ellie is the viewers surrogate in understanding this world.