The first season of The Last of Us ended with Joel (Pedro Pascal) killing a hospital full of freedom fighters to prevent them from creating a cure to a zombie virus and saving the world...or at least, that's how they would put it. To create that cure, the Fireflies would have had to perform surgery on Joel's surrogate daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey), the only person in the whole world known to be immune to the zombie fungus. The surgery would have killed her. If you ask Joel, he'll say that he killed all those people to save the person he loved most in the world.
Ellie was unconscious during the massacre, and Joel later lied to her about what happened. The second season of The Last of Us picks up five years after that, and we get the idea that the truth has come out. Ellie is not speaking to Joel. Joel is in therapy trying to work through his emotions. Their relationship is in a deep freeze.
The love between Joel and Ellie was the heart of season 1, so their separation is painful to watch. The best scene of the episode is shared between Joel and Gail, his therapist played with melancholy sass by Catherine O'Hara. A soused Gail can tell Joel has been hiding something from her in their sessions, and she's in no mood to placate him. She gets him to admit that something happened between him and Ellie, something that goes beyond a rebellious 19-year-old being mad at their dad. "Did you hurt her?" Gail asks. "I saved her," Joel says.
Pedro Pascal's face fills the screen as he defends his actions; he looks and sounds tired and tortured. Showrunner Craig Mazin deserves praise for not only writing sensitive scenes like this, but for directing them in a way that lets us look directly into the character's hearts; there's no avoiding the pain on Joel's face. What happened between Joel and Ellie has been tormenting him. Was what he did in the hospital an act of love or an act of selfishness? Maybe it was both. We get the idea that neither Joel nor Ellie have figured it out yet.
Prelude and prologue
That's still true by the end of the episode. We don't see them hash anything out. We don't even find out for sure why they're not speaking, although it's not hard to guess. Much of "Future Days" is dedicated to setting us up for what comes later.
That means we get introduced to the new and improved Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel and Ellie have lived since the end of season 1. They're a part of the community now, if both a little standoffish. Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) is married to Maria (Rutina Wesley), basically the mayor of Jackson. They have a young son, and Joel delights in being an uncle. Jackson has a town council, a big gate to keep out the infected, and enough electricity to light a barn for a New Year's dance. It's as close to a paradise as it's possible to get in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.
They built splendid sets for Jackson and Mazin makes sure to show them off. Early in the episode, Ellie opens a door onto a snowy Jackson street and the camera floats up so we can see the community abuzz. We meet new characters like Jesse (Young Mazino), a young go-getter who organizes patrols outside the walls to look for infected. We meet Dina (Isabel Merced), a spirited young woman who can tell something is off with Joel and Ellie. There's almost an idyllic, Frank Capra-esque feel to these scenes; if it weren't for the zombies stalking on the other side of the gate, Jackson looks like a nice place to live.
While the most powerful parts of the episode all involve Joel, Ellie gets the lion's share of screentime. We tag along with her and Dina as they go out on patrol, with orders to report back if they find anything alarming. Instead, they sneak into a derelict supermarket and try to take down whatever infected are nesting there, despite the pleas of their team leader to return to base. Honestly, it was kind of silly how ineffective the team leader was; her pleas of "C'mon, you guys" are completely ignored. Whether it's because she has faith in her own experience or because she's feeling like a daredevil after splitting with Joel, Ellie barrels forward. Dina, clearly a bit infatuated, follows.
The scene where Ellie and Dina stalk infected is cool, if a little played out; it's hard to find new ways to make zombie attacks scary over 50 years after Night of the Living Dead. The coolest part is when a zombie retreats and lies in wait for Ellie rather than running right at her, which we all know is what zombies usually do. The infected are starting to think and make battle plans, which bodes ill for the living. At the end of the episode, we see that the infected fungus is worming its way into the town proper, but that's another hanging thread we'll have to wait a week to see tied up.
This week, the closest thing to a climax comes at that New Year's dance. The barn looks exactly like it did in The Last of Us Part II, with electric lights spiderwebbed out across the ceiling. Dina, who already has a good buzz going by the time Ellie arrives, asks Ellie to dance. Mazin moves his camera in close as we see young love bloom before our eyes. Ellie is a bit flabbergasted that a girl as pretty and fun as Dina could be interested in her, but Dina sees what we've seen: Ellie is capable, brave and funny. The scene is sweet and intimate.
And then some drunk asshole ruins it by calling them "dykes," whereupon Joel jumps in from offscreen and tackles the dude to the ground. But Ellie doesn't want his help. She stalks out of the party, only to run into Joel later at their house (she's moved into the garage). If you've played The Last of Us video games, you know that they have an important conversation at this point, but that's one more thing to add to the list of stuff we'll find out more about later.
Introducing Abby
And there's no problem with the episode being heavy on set-up. Such is the nature of premieres. I enjoyed sinking into the show's new normal and enjoying the interactions between the characters. All the actors bring their A-games and the snowy sets are something to behold.
The one thing I haven't touched on is Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a new character the show chooses to introduce right at the top of the season. It's clear Abby had connections to some of the people Joel killed at the hospital, and that her mission is to make Joel pay.
We find all this stuff out about Abby in the game, but not this soon. Co-showrunner Neil Druckmann has said that they changed this so viewers would have more of a connection with Abby right off the bat, but I don't know if I agree with him. I think introducing her at the end of the episode as a mystery, with her and her posse coming over the snow-covered hills overlooking Jackson, wondering what they're after, could have been an ominous way to end.
Still, this is a solid start. Onto next Sunday!
The Bullet Points of Us
- The title of the episode, "Future Days," is a reference to a Pearl Jam song that Joel plays for Ellie in the video game. The timeline of the show is different from the games; on the show, the zombie apocalypse happened before Pearl Jam released the song, so it wouldn't make much sense to have it. But I like that the title nods to this scene.
- We first see the new and improved Ellie as she's sparring with some big dude in a barn. She climbs the dude like a spider-monkey and gets the better of him. It's a fun scene.
- The show seems to be setting up some kind of zombie invasion of Jackson, which never happens in the games. Maybe they wanted to add some big second episode set piece.
- Gail is kinda drunk for her therapy session with Joel. She's in her feelings about her late husband Eugene, who apparently was killed by Joel! She says she knows he had to do it, but is still sore at him, which is understandable. The show is setting us up for a later flashback episode involving Eugene, who will be played by Joe Pantoliano.
- Little details help sell the episode. I liked that Joel pays for his therapy in pot. I liked the scene where he tries to explain circuits to Dina, who only feigns interest so she can ask about what's going on between him and Ellie.
Episode Grade: B
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