We cannot accuse “Our Last” of a happy show, nor can we say the same as the video games underlying the HBO series. It can sometimes seem to be about the perseverance of the human spirit, the ability to heal and reconstruct, and the moments of joy hidden in dark times. But often the bigger ideas are death, sadness, revenge.
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Joel (Pedro Pascal) well embodies these two aspects of the story, showing Ellie (Bella Ramsey) a loving side, but a brutal side whenever violence is sought. Joel’s death in Season 2 of “The Last of Us” is brave, episode 2 is brave, but it’s also hard to put it out of place on a show like this.
In the wake of that heartbreak, Ellie takes on Joel’s mantle and, despite her burgeoning relationship with Dina (Isabella Merced) offering an optimistic alternative to her quest for revenge, several new story threads are pushing her more and more towards the darkness. In Season 2, Episode 5, Ellie tracks down Nora (Taty Gabriel), a part of a crew led by Abby (Katelyn Dever), who murdered Joel. Their conflict is one of the darkest scenes of the show to date, and certainly the darkest for Ellie, showing how willing she is to push her own brutality in order to get revenge. The TV series incorporates a lot of freedom in its source material, but those who don’t play the game may be surprised to learn that this particular scene is essentially a shot recreation of the same moment from “The Last of Us Part II.”
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Ellie tortures Nora in the exact same way in the last us part II
There is little difference in the setup of Ellie and Nora’s encounter in “The Last of Us Part II,” but it’s pretty much the same. She finds Nora in a hospital arranged between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF). Nora makes her better, runs away and chases her. When Ellie faces an armed soldier, she drags Nora to the abandoned floor of a building covered in horny spores. The soldiers continue in breathing masks, and Ellie defeats them and hunts wheezing Nora into a lonely corridor.
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Aside from the extra action in the game (hey, it’s a third person shooter), this basically happens in the show as well, but adds a bit in that the spores bed is the show’s first instalment of the aerial horny. All pre-encounter encounters in HBO adaptation involve occlusal-based infections.
In both versions, Nora attempts to assert the reason why Joel dies, and has gotten a little more detail on the show (like the game, certain details are still hidden from the players at this point). Gradually, Ellie demands Abby’s position and when Nora refuses to cooperate, she takes a bit of a pipe and starts beating her until she gets what she wants. Both scenes are staged and lit up in the same way. Abby looms over a crumpled Nora in a dark corridor lit only by a dim red warning light. This is definitely an intentionally hellish environment for Ellie’s darkest moments, and works just like you did in the game (or depending on what’s scary depending on your perspective).
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How do we deal with Ellie’s trauma at the end of HBO?
In the game, Ellie is quickly hurt by her choice to brutally torture Nora. It is the moment when her bluff is called – it turns out to be very high when the situation demands her to prove her ability to seriously violence. Ellie returned her own shell to Dina and barely focused as she just tormented her. You won’t be able to see the reunion in episode 4 of “The Last of Us.” Instead, the episode is cut into a simple flashback from the torture scene, where Ellie shares a happy moment with Joel.
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Perhaps this scene affects her on HBO just like in the game, but there are still some question marks about Ellie’s comprehensive arc. “The Last of Us” season 2 saw a major change for Tommy (Gabriel Luna). This could mean that, as is happening in the game, leads to Ellie’s power towards vengeance later in the story. You will need to wait for season 3 to see how differently these events will affect Ellie on the show.
