Like every week, we're taking a look back at the new footage HBO brought to season 2 of The Last of Us compared to Naughty Dog's game. How does Ellie deal with the loss of Joel? What role does Dina play in the young girl's departure? The production told the post-tragedy events differently.
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3, the Transitional Episode
We wondered how Neil Druckman and Craig Mazin would adapt the second video game, which is much denser and richer from a narrative point of view, and at what pace. The tragic event that occurred in Episode 2 offers a first element of an answer. After this breathless, action-packed episode, comes the transition: Jackson's reconstruction, Joel's mourning before Ellie and Dina's big departure for Seattle.
The opening credits set the tone: Joel's name and silhouette have disappeared, leaving only Ellie's, determined to take revenge for the loss of her adoptive father. Revenge is at the heart of the narrative in this third episode. Ellie prepares it meticulously, even activating it when she leaves Jackson through the back door. For once, the showrunners have brought new elements compared to the game. While the main plot remains the same, the production breaks away enough from Naughty Dog's game to tell it in its own way, allowing itself a few interesting sequences, which reinforce the dramaturgy and certain relationships.
#5 Tommy is entitled to his contemplation
From the opening scene, HBO chooses to grant Tommy a mourning sequence at the Jackson morgue. He meditates alongside his brother Joel, washes his wounds before saying: "kiss Sarah for me", a phrase echoing the loss of his niece at the beginning of the series. Joel therefore finds in the afterlife his (real) daughter who disappeared at the beginning of the invasion.
#4 Ellie's grief management
Since the format is different from that of the game, and HBO has taken the time to tell the story of Naughty Dog's second game over several seasons, the production can afford to add scenes to emphasize the characters' grief management. Ellie in particular. While she feigns recovery - 3 months after the tragedy - during a quick and unprecedented therapy session with Gail, she lets loose in Joel's house. In the game too, the character enters and discovers the watch and the magnum, but she makes her pilgrimage without Dina (who joins her later), and bursts into tears when she smells Joel's beige jacket. A way to nuance the character played by Bella Ramsey and give her more depth. Because in the game, her emotions and her grief are less explicit.
#3 The relationship between Ellie and Dina, more complementary
Dina (played by Isabelle Merced: Alien Romulus, and soon as Hawkgirl in Superman) takes on more and more dimension as the plot unfolds its central theme. She already replaced Tommy during the patrol in Episode 2 (in the game, he was the one accompanying Ellie). To counterbalance Ellie's passion and rage, HBO portrays a more organized, measured, and pragmatic Dina. It is she who gives Ellie the names of Joel's murderers and their organization (the WLF). Far from being naive, she knows that her friend is planning and hiding her departure. She comes to give her a map, draw up a list of supplies to take, and retrieve a horse. As she imagined, Ellie has only taken weapons and ammunition with her, a symbol of revenge that overrides reason. In addition to these new elements, we find a variation of the scene at Eugene's hideout in the game, where the two teenagers finally get to the bottom of the famous New Year's kiss. In the series, they discuss it later, in a tent on the road to Seattle. And here too, the exchange is not the same.
#2 A Western-Style Farewell
Before hitting the road to track Abby, Ellie stops at a cemetery where Joel is buried, alongside the many victims who perished in Jackson's attack. She meditates there before placing some coffee beans. Coffee is a marker of memories between the two protagonists. In the game, as in the series, Ellie and Joel exchanged ideas about the drink, which had become a rare commodity, and to which the latter was addicted. In the game, Ellie even goes so far as to taste it, finding it too bitter. In The Last of Us Part II, Ellie and Dina discuss their respective incomprehension of Joel's attraction to coffee. By placing these seeds on the grave of the character played by Pedro Pascal, Ellie shows that she is ready to forgive him, and begins her murderous revenge, a bit like a western.
#1 The Seraphites, already
We didn't expect to see them so early in the series. The religious Seraphites are presented in a very different way than in the game. HBO sacrifices surprise by introducing these mysterious members from the outset, who are attached to a cult and communicate through whistling. They are also portrayed as fairly harmless and hunted by members of the WLF, whereas in the game, they immediately attack Ellie and hunt her down during a very well-executed forest sequence. The production has therefore blown a potential coup to play on the announcement of a "gang war" in Seattle between the heavily armed WLF military (the end sequence is very evocative) and this religious clan adept at sacrifices.
This season 2 is off to a flying start. Episode 4, which will be released on Monday, May 5, should speed things up. Arriving in Seattle, Ellie and Dina will set out to find the five members responsible for Joel's elimination.
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