The latest episode of The Last of Us, "Day One," pushed things forward for Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced), who have become our new main duo now that Joel (Pedro Pascal) has died. His absence still hangs over the show — after all, Ellie and Dina have traveled all the way to Seattle to get revenge for his murder — but as Merced puts it to The A.V. Club, she and Ramsey have taken the "baton."
"What I find most interesting is that Ellie kind of becomes Joel in the sense that she becomes a father figure, as she jokes about at the end of episode four. On top of that, she’s blinded by her past and things that she cannot change. Dina becomes sort of like the light in her life, like Ellie was for Joel in season one, when she was good vibes and jokes," Merced said.
Ellie has indeed become more morose in the second season of the show; seeing your father get brutally killed in front of you will do that. Her budding relationship with Dina has been a bright spot. "Just like with any great couple, they are similar in the right ways and then they are different in the right ways," Merced told The Hollywood Reporter. "There are similarities that bring them together, but their differences keep them together because they compensate for what the other lacks. Dina is the brains and Ellie is the brawn, and this this operation wouldn’t work if they weren’t together. Also, what keeps them together is the need for vengeance for Joel’s death and there’s a lot of guilt there too."
According to Merced, that guilt is part of why it took until the fourth episode of the season for Ellie and Dina's love to bloom, even though they've clearly been attracted to each other since the season premiere. "[B]oth of them probably feel guilty for feeling some sort of giddiness about their romance," Merced told Variety. "And Dina feels guilty because she feels like she’s betraying Jesse; Ellie feels guilty because she feels like she’s betraying Joel."
Jesse (Young Mazino) is Dina's on-again, off-again boyfriend, but their relationship didn't seem built to last. In the new episode, there's a scene where Ellie plays A-ha's "Take on Me" for Dina in an abandoned music shop, and the way Dina looks while listening, you know that Ellie is the only one for her.
Isabela Merced wanted us to believe that Dina might shoot Ellie
"It was really emotional," Merced said of the guitar scene; apparently she had to fight not to cry. "That was my favorite scene from the video game. When I was walking around on the set, it was so beautiful. They literally built this music shop inside of the stage. And Bella was actually beautifully playing and singing. They told Bella to do it the way that they would, except worse, so it sounded more like a regular person picking up a guitar, and not like this talented individual that just emits beauty in all directions. So Bella had to kind of tone it down a little bit. Even then I was I was still mesmerized and emotional. I’m also always emotional, so it was actually hard for me to hold back. I wanted you to be able to see the changes in Dina’s face, from when she’s maybe thinking of Joel, or thinking how scared she is to fall in love. I just wanted to make sure that was coming across."
"I love that they incorporate that Ellie’s learned the guitar from Joel. It’s like her moment of happy grief, because there’s so many flavors to grief: There’s the sad kind, the kind that sneaks up on you, the surprise kind — and then the happy kind where you’re grieving the happy moments in a joyful way, and maybe you shed joyful tear. I think for many reasons, Dina is feeling emotional, because first of all, Ellie’s fucking beautiful and she’s adoring her in every way. But also I think she’s grieving Joel too in that moment. And maybe in my head I was like, 'Has Dina ever heard this song before?' As far as she’s concerned, it’s the first time she’s heard this masterpiece, and it’s a private solo performance by the person she loves — about and for the person that the person she LOVES loves."
Ellie and Dina's love is blossoming even in the harshest of circumstances. After the scene in the music shop, the two come across a bunch of bodies strung up and have to fight through an abandoned subway system full of infected. "The sequence in the subway was so hard, and those rooms smelled like manure because somebody to wait the correct number of days to properly air it out," Merced remembered. "But during that time, [Bella and I] bonded the most. That was the sequence where we really got up close and ended up creating a secret language."
In the fracas, Ellie takes a zombie bite meant for Dina. Ellie is immune to infection, but Dina doesn't know that, which leads to a tense stand-off where Dina aims a gun at Ellie, who tries to convince Dina that she's immune.
"I think I just went to a really dark place to be able to feel that internal conflict, which I’ve never really felt that before...And I really wanted the audience to believe that Dina might actually shoot her," Merced said. "[I]t was two extreme emotions fighting the other to win, and then me having to decide when I wanted to incorporate what and how. And going off of Bella’s performance, I think what Bella gave me was it felt really true and desperate, so I think that confuses Dina even more. And then also the line about, 'I’m immune.' At first, Dina definitely does not believe Ellie, and is almost in a way, 'If you’re lying, you’re a piece of shit. And if you’re telling the truth, you’re a piece of shit,' basically. She’s like, 'How dare you?' In either circumstance, it’s a how dare you? situation. So I think there’s a lot of anger there too. It’s the anger, it’s the love, it’s the confusion. It’s the sadness."
"It isn’t your average pregnancy experience"
Dina does eventually believe Ellie, which leads to the two of them finally consummating their romance. "[W]e were very detailed about that scene," Merced said. "We all had ideas, right? Because we wanted it to be sexy. We wanted it to be emotional and charged, but also smart and show their relationship and how it’s going to change now that this barrier has been broken. Specifically, I wanted Dina to be the one to unzip her own pants, take Ellie’s hand and actively guide it down her body. Because even though Ellie is technically the one who’s on top, I think it’s showing they both have agency in this decision to take it to the next step. And I think it was beautiful. And I think, yeah, we made some really wise decisions there."
The morning after, Dina piles on another twist: she's pregnant with Jesse's baby, and wants to raise it with Ellie and Jesse, with Ellie being her partner. "I'm gonna be a dad," Ellie says adorably.
"They finally have the truth out there," Merced said. "And when you do finally confess that — ego aside, problems aside, and then fear aside — it’s like your heart just opens up, and there’s this sweetness. Especially with women, once we’re comfortable with each other, it’s like we don’t have any fear with that expression of love. And I wanted to make sure, yes, the most tense part is over, but there’s still an intensity to their love for each other. I think everything felt so tender that day, even when we were shooting it, Bella and I were just so comfortable with each other. And also, we both have experience in queer relationships — you can just tell when a girl hasn’t kissed a girl before. You can just feel it. So both of us were already fine and comfortable, and so we could really explore. We added some kisses that weren’t in the original script. We added some moments that weren’t there just based off of our comfortability with each other."
"It isn’t your average pregnancy experience. I think learning while she’s already on the way plays a big factor [in why she chooses to stay on the journey with Ellie]. But she has her own motivations for it and I don’t think much is going to get in the way. That shows how devoted she is to the people she loves. She’s ready, willing and able to do this. She’s devoted, but not like a cult follower, maybe more just a good girlfriend."
That is a VERY busy "Day One." New episodes of The Last of Us air Sunday nights on HBO.
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