The Last of Us season 2 ‘Day One’ charts a different path for Ellie

The Last of Us Part II is a game I know inside out; it is my favourite story of all time, after all. Yes, this isn’t just my favourite game. It’s the narrative I love most across all art forms so safe to say, I’m thrilled that the game is now being adapted across the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us and beyond, as this clearly is going to extend past the season’s remaining three episodes.

I wasn’t nervous about seeing this game adapted; showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann adapted The Last of Us Part I so beautifully and, at the end of the day, it’s an adaptation. Whatever happens, it doesn’t take away from that original beloved experience which is Naughty Dog’s game. I will admit though, I was definitely curious to see how this second season would handle things. You see, The Last of Us Part II is all about the cycle of violence, and it uses your complicity as a player to draw you into a complex analysis of that.

I should stress that I’m going to be lightly addressing game spoilers from here on in. In the beginning of The Last of Us Part II, it’s very much Abby who feels like the villain. As Ellie you thirst for revenge for the game’s first half; it’s totally thrilling then when play switches over to Abby and suddenly, it’s those actions you’ve just carried out as Ellie which now seem to be in the villainous light. That’s the point. There are no heroes and villains - it’s all a matter of perspective.

You can’t achieve that realisation quite in the same way in a TV show though. The murdering of Abby’s friends when you’re playing as Abby is so effective because it’s you yourself that actually murdered them as Ellie a couple hours prior. It’s with this in mind that I’m totally unsurprised to see the TV show opting to adapt this game with a little more freedom than I feel we saw with regards to season one and The Last of Us Part I. It’s impossible to replicate.

Abby has been much more upfront about her reasoning for killing Joel, while Dina and Ellie’s blossoming relationship has been unfurling at a much gentler pace. Dina’s closeness with Joel was made more obvious here, and this is very much a different version of Tommy too. He’s got a son and is integral to Jackson’s council; it’s no wonder he didn’t run off in the dead of night to Seattle as a one-man army. As I said, I don’t mind these changes. In fact, I relish them. It’s fun to unpack new facets of this story. There is one slight change though that’s perhaps caught me more off guard than most, and that’s Ellie’s development this season.

You can see what else is in store for Ellie in the ‘Weeks Ahead’ trailer below.

There’s a lot of growing up and change that takes place for Ellie between the events of The Last of Us Part I and Part II. Her fiery, sarcastic side remains present but Part II Ellie certainly has an additional coldness from her estrangement with Joel, and that’s despite Dina arguably pulling out a new softness in her. Naturally, that coldness only intensifies following Joel’s death with Ellie rapidly acquiring a bloodthirsty and cutthroat desire for revenge. It’s this side of her that drives her antics in Seattle, only intensifying as the story develops. I’m attempting to stay as light on the spoilers as possible, so I’ll only say that Ellie does some abhorrent and twisted things driven by her increasingly potent anger over what happened to Joel.

I adore Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, but what I’ve just described above isn’t what we’re seeing in the TV series, although it’s not because Ramsey isn’t bringing it to the table. They’re delivering exactly what the script demands - an angry Ellie, yes, but one that is steadfast and determined to seek justice. This version of the character lacks that bloodthirsty need for revenge we see in the game. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks, but now that ‘Day One’ is over and Ellie only spends three days total in Seattle, I’m left a little dubious as to whether it’s ever going to come.

‘Day One’, this week's episode, features the key highlights of the game’s ‘Day One’. Ellie and Dina explore downtown, get an idea of what the Scars are capable of at the TV station, escape the WLF via the infected-infested subway tunnels, and set up camp in a movie theatre. The episode certainly shows the differences in Ellie and Dina’s approaches. For example, Ellie wanted to march into the TV station in broad daylight while the methodical Dina suggested a nighttime approach. This felt very true to the game characters, and this is that steadfast bullishness of Ellie’s that I feel is so perfectly being depicted this season.

There’s nowhere in the episode though that I got the sense that Ellie is capable of doing heinous things in her pursuit of justice or revenge. Yes, she opens fire on the WLF with less hesitation than Dina but they were in a threat-to-life situation. Part of Ellie’s darkness in The Last of Us Part II comes from the fact that she maims and murders in situations where it very much is a choice. At this stage in the game, you’ve already got a sense of that. “You can’t stop this,” and, “Got you motherf**ker,” Ellie tells Jordan whom she graphically stabs in the throat several times. “Look at their f**king smiles,” she later remarks upon finding photos of the Salt Lake crew. “Three down,” she reminds herself. This is an Ellie determined to kill all involved; not just Abby.

Credit / Sony Interactive Entertainment

Have those signs been echoed in the TV show? For me, not just yet, which is interesting because, like I said, the Seattle events only last for three days and the events of day one were wrapped up within a single episode. I can understand why the TV show might be opting for a slower progression of Ellie’s slippage to the dark side, if you will, but it can’t roll out too slowly otherwise her actions just aren’t going to feel as believable later down the line. If next week’s episode features that Nora hospital scene, the moment I feel Ellie hits rock bottom and stays there for a long while, I hope it doesn’t feel out of character. Whatever is in store next, Ellie needs to devolve slightly quicker than what I’m currently seeing.

Of course, I don’t know what the bigger picture is and I could be eating my words in a couple weeks time. I could very much see Ellie’s darkness gaining traction in the next episode, building up to the boiling point of that awful aquarium scene the week after. It’s at that point that I’ll likely be remarking how nicely Mazin and Druckmann have paced things. Like I said, I’m not critical of this season’s Ellie; it’s far more of a fascination with what seems to me like quite a major change. I know Ramsey’s Ellie has that darkness inside her, so I’m simply hoping she’s given space to let it out sooner rather than later. After all, Abby’s ‘redemption’ is nigh impossible without Ellie’s downfall - and that’s the magic of this chapter of the story.