(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
There is nothing quite like nearly dying to move a relationship to the next level. Sure enough, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) become more intimately acquainted after dodging death at human and infected hands in an action-packed The Last of Us. It is a revelation-filled episode that sees both young women revealing secrets—and themselves.
Venturing into Seattle opens with a pleasant hangout in the city’s now-abandoned gay neighborhood, Capitol Hill. Ellie and Dina have a moment to breathe before horror nips at their ankles—and arm. Ellie finds a guitar in perfect condition and plays an acoustic version of A-ha’s “Take on Me,” moving Dina to tears and showcasing both Ramsey and Merced’s range as actors. It serves as a poignant reminder of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and what he taught Ellie, beyond just survival skills.
Still, it doesn’t take long for the pair to locate the militia that Joel’s killer, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), belongs to. While they don’t find Abby, Ellie and Dina have an eye-opening encounter in which they learn they are not the only ones hunting the Washington Liberation Front, also known as the Wolves. What begins as gathering intel descends into a subway ride from hell.
After last week’s zombie-free outing, The Last of Us goes all out with a sequence that had my heart in my mouth. It begins with Ellie and Dina discovering a gory tableau; several Wolves have been gutted. “Feel Her Love” is written in blood next to the same symbol worn by the massacred group that Dina and Ellie found on their journey. The duo has stumbled upon a turf war. Oops!
Last week, I incorrectly assumed the group known as Seraphites (or Scars) were pacifists, and didn’t think it was Abby’s militia that did this. It turns out I was very wrong as the Scars have shed a lot of Wolf blood—and vice versa. “What the f--- is wrong with Seattle?!” Dina says after throwing up a second time—and I start to wonder if she is pregnant.
There is zero time to assess the situation before a team of Wolves arrives on the scene. The pair hides, but needs to find a way out of the building and is at a disadvantage because they are unfamiliar with this location. However, they are experienced in escaping difficult situations.
When the patrol gives chase, they can’t squeeze through the same gap into the subway system as Dina and Ellie. The soldiers know another way, soon lighting the transit tunnels with red flares. It is a good news/bad news situation as one flare lands on a parasitic fungus, immediately attracting a swarm of infected to their location.
At first, it sounds like a few are coming their way, but Dina will run out of fingers, toes, and body parts if they wait to do a head count. The Wolves are quickly overwhelmed, leaving Ellie and Dina with the undead. A derailed subway train proves to be a reprieve, but soon the zombies are punching their way through windows. The tight space and sheer volume add to an already edge-of-your-seat sequence.
The pair escapes the train, but hits another obstacle that can be a pain even without a horde on your heels: the iron maiden turnstile. Not having a card to swipe through isn’t the issue. Instead, the exit hasn’t been used in over two decades, and barely moves. To buy Dina some time, Ellie pulls her immunity trick out of the bag. But when the infected bites her arm, Dina has zero idea that Ellie hasn’t sacrificed her life. Unlike a flimsy fence, the turnstile keeps the infected at bay.
Above ground, an old movie theater offers shelter. Or rather, a place for Dina to shoot an infected Ellie.
“I would die for you, but that’s not just what happened,” Ellie says. Ellie’s immunity is a closely guarded secret, and no matter how flippant she seemed in the premiere when she was teasing Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Ellie has stuck to this code of silence. However, getting bitten could lead to death by gunshot instead. It is another tense situation, which Ellie tries to defuse by telling Dina to let her go to sleep, and if she turns, then Dina can kill her.
Of course, Ellie is confident it won’t happen, but Dina looks terrified. When Ellie wakes up later, the bite shows zero sign of infection. One revelation down, another to go. “I’m pregnant,” says Dina. Honestly, I am shocked at myself for not calling it last week when Dina puked (the tell-tale TV pregnancy trope). Dina kisses Ellie, and all thoughts of babies and bites slip away as they go much further than New Year’s Eve (thankfully, there are no homophobes, Wolves, or infected to interrupt).
The following morning. Dina looks at the fresh bite and then the tattoo-covered scar. It is open confession season, as Dina admits that thinking she had lost Ellie made her confront the attraction she has long denied.
Dina knew Ellie had feelings for her and that Jesse (Young Mazino) wasn’t the one. “No, you like boys,” Dina’s mother insisted when her daughter said she was into boys and girls. Dina thinks Ellie is brave for being out, and Ellie jokes that she’s “just obvious.”
By the end of the episode, Dina and Ellie are even more united. Ellie wants to raise the baby with Dina (and Jesse), but gives Dina an out in this fight because of her pregnancy. The radio they lifted from one of the dead proves handy as they hear gunshots and recognize the name of one of Abby’s team members. Dina insists she will join Ellie on this mission.
But who are they facing? Well, for starters, Jeffrey Wright as former FEDRA soldier Isaac. The episode opens with a flashback to 2018, when Isaac killed his FEDRA unit, including Josh Peck (from Drake & Josh), sparing only young soldier Burton. (As a Guilded Age fan, I was thrilled to spot “Clock Twink” Ben Ahlers with another HBO gig under his belt.)
This introduction shows Isaac becoming a Wolf, joining Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach, another HBO mainstay), and he remains a commanding force in the present, giving a tutorial about Mauviel copper pans as an instrument of torture rather than fine dining.
The interrogation scene highlights that the Scars are impossible to break, and some Wolves have switched sides. Can Ellie and Dina use this ongoing bloody war to their advantage?
All of Ellie and Dina’s cards are on the table with no secrets left to tell (other than what Joel did to the Fireflies), and they are more united than ever before. Perhaps the two of them versus an army isn’t such bad odds after all.
