With day one of Ellie and Dina’s road trip to Seattle over, The Last of Us dives properly into the narrative with “Feel Her Love,” which covers a day two packed with nonstop danger and a surprise guest. In the process, the show delivers what I believe to be the best episode of the season, even if it is still hampered by my previous criticisms of the season.
What did The Last of Us do right in this episode? Let’s dive in.
For the most part, “Feel Her Love” was an absolute masterclass in action set piece design. “Day One” did something similar with its TV station and tunnel sequences, which I loved, but this episode was even better, somehow condensing multiple of the game’s iconic sequences into a relentless barrage of danger from practically every possible direction.
Pretty much the only part of Day 2 missing is Part II’s Hillcrest location, but that section of the game is so gameplay dependent that I can’t blame The Last of Us for not finding a way to incorporate it.
One of the biggest reasons that fans were disappointed with the lack of action in season one was that when the show included action, those scenes and episodes were fantastic. The Last of Us promised that they had listened to those criticisms and would address them, and so far season two has delivered. Whatever problems I have with this season, the action sequences are far from belonging on the list.
The best of these scenes from “Feel Her Love,” in my humble opinion, was the sequence with the Seraphites in the park, which was so good that I kind of wish this was the introduction to their group in the show, rather than the scene of them walking on the road before getting slaughtered. Part of this is game snobbery, since the park scene here largely replicated how terrifying it was to come across the Seraphites for the first time, but part of it is that the previous introduction to the group was so immediately humanizing that it somewhat detracts from the use of this scene as an introduction to yet another terrifying piece of violence placed in Ellie’s path.
That being said, the point was clearly made, with the group establishing exactly why the WLF fears them so much and the inhumane lengths both sides have resorted to in their attempts to win.
The Last of Us also followed up on the introduction of the stalker-type infected from earlier in the season by throwing a whole group of them at Ellie and Dina in a scene that damn near kills both of them before the surprise arrival of Jesse.
It was funny for this episode to include a drawn-out scene of Dina reinforcing to Ellie that they should only use their guns as the last possible resort, only to immediately throw them into a sequence where guns were necessary. The way they stumbled into danger, over and over, reinforced that these two are desperately in over their heads. All of Dina’s planning ultimately means nothing when they are two people desperately outmanned and outnumbered, in a city they don’t know and with dangers they had no idea existed. Whether it’s infected or humans, there are too many unknown dangers involved and the whole adventure has spiraled out of control.
Which, of course, makes it all the more reckless when Ellie ends up going after Nora at the hospital all by herself. This was the Ellie fans have waited all season for, and while she should have been closer to this mindset earlier, at least The Last of Us finally pushed her there.
And so here the show finally landed, with Ellie killing the first of Abby’s group.
This scene went out of its way to replicate Abby torturing Joel from beginning to end. Ellie looking over at the nearby pipes resembled Abby choosing her golf club. Both Ellie and Abby swung their first blows at the legs of their helpless victims. Nora was even cradled on her side the same way Joel was before his death. The mirroring of these scenes was meant to remind the audience of each other, which is going to be an important thing to remember moving forward. This is the same reason Nora tries to appeal to Ellie by explaining why Abby killed Joel, as her reasoning is exactly the same as Ellie’s for wanting Abby dead.
We also got confirmation in show canon that Ellie knows what Joel did, which was only speculation up to this point. Yes, Last of Us Part II players already knew, and everyone else will know how during the next episode, I imagine, but this confirms that Ellie knew in a way that also made explicitly clear that it won’t stop her from wanting blood for blood.
There was an interesting addition to this scene as well, with Nora telling Ellie about Abby’s dad. I’m torn on this, mainly because it makes me wish Abby had said nothing back when she killed Joel. I like the idea of Nora telling both Ellie and the audience why Abby did what she did, and giving us something to chew on and think about. I would call it more of a preference than a gripe and I wonder what other viewers think of this scene.
With the lack of spores in season 1, many of us also wondered what they would do about the spores that infect Nora in this scene during the game, and the way/reason they introduced them into the show here was one of my favorite parts. Using them seemingly as a final evolution of the infection, with some of the very first to arrive at the hospital now stuck to the cordyceps-covered walls to breathe out more poison for seemingly eternity, was a horrifying sight, and an effective way to get them here for an important scene.
My only real gripe about the scene is that Ellie feels rushed into battering an already dying woman to death to extract information. This is where past missteps are haunting The Last of Us, as there is a path for Ellie to take to this point that the show has largely weaved around and stalled upon, which has forced them to grab her hand and pull her.
I won’t say it’s completely out of nowhere, but the season to date, and especially these Seattle episodes, have struggled to establish Ellie as someone capable of this, both tactically as far as sneaking into the hospital and emotionally as far as being this ready to brutalize a person to this extreme. We saw what this kind of energy looks like when Abby and her group went to Jackson, and Ellie does not resemble that.
The first point, though, is something this episode hammered especially home, which is that Ellie doesn’t feel like a person capable of actually pulling something like this off. Dina has largely been the driving force of their adventure since she first found Ellie in Jackson and practically planned everything, and it’s a pattern that continued in the episodes since.
“Feel Her Love” was arguably the worst yet, with Dina outright infantilizing Ellie a couple of times. The first is when they plan their route from the theater to Nora at the hospital, with Ellie asking if she can help and Dina doing all but call her a moron who should go putz around somewhere while Dina does all the work. The second is when they reach the building where the aforementioned stalker attack happens, where Dina feels the need to explain the need for caution to Ellie as if Ellie is 14 and Joel is handing her a gun for the first time.
I understand that The Last of Us is trying to make Dina a more involved part of the story, but it shouldn’t come so thoroughly at Ellie’s expense. Ellie has been on a cross-country journey from Boston to Wyoming with a hardened, experienced survivor. She’s shown herself to be capable on numerous occasions. For some reason, season two has really made Ellie out to be somehow more immature and reckless than she was five years ago when she went on that journey with Joel. It puts a damper on the idea that she could sneak into the hospital, take Nora out, and survive the process.
Add in Dina using the death of her mother and sister as motivation for why Ellie shouldn’t give up on avenging Joel, and this episode continues to almost backseat Ellie too often in their attempt to make Dina more important.
This pattern of how the show treats Ellie is also reflected in how the show treats the audience, as this is yet another episode that seems determined to explain every single thing happening or about to happen at all times, with seemingly no trust in the audience to understand the story. And that is a weird thing to see in a big time HBO drama.
Annoyances aside, though, this was my favorite episode of season 2. Hopefully The Last of Us can build on this and end the season on a strong note. This episode ends with the beginning of a flashback to happier times with Joel and Ellie, which will continue next episode, and I have high expectations for this one. Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype.
Images Courtesy of HBO
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