HBO/Ringer illustration
By Daniel ChinApril 14, 2:50 am UTC • 6 min
The Last of Us opens its sophomore season with a reminder of Joel Miller’s fateful decision and resulting rampage. And that reminder doubles as a warning of the consequences he now faces.
After the recycled closing scene from the Season 1 finale, in which Joel agonizingly lies to Ellie about what happened with the Fireflies, Sunday’s Season 2 premiere begins by introducing what little is left of the faction that Joel slaughtered at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. The serene sight of free-roaming giraffes in the distance is undercut by the burial ground that the five remaining Fireflies have dug for the deceased, whose pendants hang from their graves. As the surviving Fireflies discuss the prospect of joining a group in Seattle led by a man named Isaac, a young woman named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) reminds them that Joel still needs to be brought to justice. More than that, his heinous crimes need to be answered for in equal measure. That is, without mercy.
“Slowly,” she says to no one in particular, swelling with a mixture of rage and sadness. “When we kill him, we kill him slowly.”
“Future Days,” written and directed by Craig Mazin, serves as a reintroduction to the world of The Last of Us, along with the two greatest threats that endanger the few left living in it: the infected and humanity—and not necessarily in that order. The new season doesn’t kick off with an explosive event like the series premiere did more than two years ago, when The Last of Us opened by showing the first day of the Cordyceps outbreak and the death of Joel’s daughter, Sarah. Instead, “Future Days” eases the series’ audience back in by reestablishing the central setting of Jackson, Wyoming, and by demonstrating how Joel and Ellie’s relationship has changed in the five years (for them) since the conclusion of Season 1.
Joel and Ellie arrived in Jackson for the first time in the sixth episode of Season 1, as Joel reunited with Tommy and saw how his brother was thriving in the most functional community that The Last of Us has shown in its postapocalyptic world. “Future Days” shows how Joel and Ellie have become ingrained in that community over the past half decade while also providing insight into how Jackson is able to operate as one of the last vestiges of human civilization.
In Season 1, Joel and Ellie left behind a crumbling quarantine zone in Boston to travel across the country, encountering settlements and ragtag groups that were barely hanging on. From vengeful raiders in Kansas City to cannibals in Colorado, they witnessed firsthand how much of a struggle it is to survive in this barren world. They never had enough time to properly put down roots as they searched for Marlene and the Fireflies. But Jackson represents a chance for a fresh start and a more stable setting, not just for Joel and Ellie but also for the HBO show.
With the new season come new faces and new relationships. Dina (Isabela Merced) has become Ellie’s best friend, and maybe more, as their friendship begins blurring into a romance. She may have just been introduced, but Merced has already imbued her character with a magnetic on-screen presence. She charms nearly everyone in the room at the town’s New Year’s Eve party (which we’ll return to later), and she’s even become something of a second pseudo-daughter to Joel. There’s also Jessie (Young Mazino), Dina’s ex-boyfriend, who’s one of the captains in charge of running patrols out of Jackson. He’s only four years or so older than Ellie and Dina—as Ellie makes sure to remind him—but he’s one of the many leaders in a community that is designed to distribute its power, responsibilities, and resources as evenly as possible.
Several other characters debut in the Season 2 premiere, but the most notable is Gail (Catherine O’Hara), Jackson’s resident therapist. Joel meets with Gail for their fifth session together, and their tense conversation gets to the heart of how Joel’s relationship with Ellie has dissolved in recent years. Or, at least, as close as Joel is willing to let it.
Earlier in the episode, Dina alludes to Ellie being angry with Joel, but Joel downplays the dysfunction as little more than them trying to work out their strange father-daughter dynamic—the same deflection tactic he’s used with Gail. However, Gail is tired of hearing the same old story—and this time, having had a tipple or two for her birthday, she works up the nerve to cut through to the unfiltered truth of it.
“Did you do something to her?” Gail asks Joel. He hesitates before finally offering a meek nod in response, tears in his eyes.
“Did you hurt her?” Gail presses.
“No, no,” Joel replies in a whisper, shaking his head vigorously.
“Then what?” Gail continues. “What did you do?”
Pedro Pascal wordlessly displays a wide range of emotions as Joel’s sadness and guilt give way to a steely conviction in the choice he made at Saint Mary’s. Joel’s sudden transformation frightens Gail as her client stands up and leaves her with a three-word reply: “I saved her.”
The Last of Us hasn’t revealed whether Ellie has discovered the truth about what Joel did, but all signs are pointing to it. Joel clearly hasn’t processed the atrocities he committed in Salt Lake City, which would’ve been a much better use of those therapy sessions. But Ellie’s anger seems too palpable to be explained away as mere teenage angst—and Joel’s protective rage is still simmering too. When Ellie and Dina start kissing in the middle of the dance floor at the New Year’s Eve party, a man named Seth (Robert John Burke) reproaches them, going as far as calling them “dykes.” Joel knocks him down with the strength and speed of a defensive lineman, and Ellie scolds Joel, humiliating him in front of a roomful of their gawking neighbors. “What is wrong with you?” Ellie asks. “I don’t need your fucking help.”
Depictions of Joel and Ellie’s strained relationship aside, “Future Days” is broken up into scenes that illustrate different dimensions of how Jackson is run and the challenges that it still faces. Joel, Jackson’s foreman, has been putting his expertise as a former contractor to good use as he helps the town expand to meet the demands of a growing population. However, with more refugees coming in every day, it’s getting harder to build quickly enough to house them. As Maria—Tommy’s wife and a member of the council that runs Jackson—reminds Joel, he and Ellie were once refugees too, and these people are in desperate need of asylum.
“Future Days” also features an inside look at how Jackson controls its surrounding infected population through frequent patrols—a window into postapocalyptic life that reminds viewers of the enduring threat of Cordyceps. As they split off from the rest of their patrol group, Ellie and Dina recklessly bend Jackson’s rigid protocols to confront a number of stray infected, bringing Ellie face-to-face with a new breed of mushroom monster. After Ellie falls through weak floorboards in a derelict grocery store, she finds herself being stalked by a lone infected, which defies the conventional wisdom of how these creatures spread the fungus that has taken root in their minds and bodies. Rather than running toward Ellie, it carefully waits in the shadows to strike. The infected even succeeds, managing to bite Ellie on her abdomen. For anyone else, it would be a death sentence, but Ellie’s immunity saves her.
The infected appear to be evolving, posing yet another problem for Jackson’s council, to which Ellie and Dina report the encounter. Tommy and Maria are members of the nine-person body, and after Ellie and Dina leave, Maria expresses that she’s had a “feeling” that trouble may be brewing with their persistent undead problem. “Future Days” ends by proving her hunch correct.
As Jackson celebrates the calendar flipping to 2029, the camera lingers on the cracked main lines running through Jackson. Earlier in the episode, we saw the townsfolk trying to handle the roots that had been growing through them, and here, a more treacherous issue is revealed: a network of Cordyceps—mycelium—woven around the roots, inching its way into Jackson. To make matters worse, “Future Days” closes with Abby and her Fireflies approaching Jackson, bringing yet another peril to the community’s doorstep.
For better or worse, The Last of Us doesn’t start its second season by roping its audience back in with a massive set piece. However, the premiere takes crucial steps in laying the foundation for the episodes to come by showing exactly what’s at stake as danger looms ahead.
Daniel writes about TV, film, and scattered topics in sports that usually involve the New York Knicks. He often covers the never-ending cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.
