Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for The Last of Us, S2E5, “Feel Her Love” (written by Craig Mazin and directed by Stephen Williams)
The distinct conundrum The Last of Us television show now faces more than midway through the second season is that it has evolved (or some may say devolved) from a Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) apocalyptic journey for salvation to an Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) apocalyptic journey for revenge. With Joel no longer in the picture (although it appears all of Episode 6 will be a Joel and Ellie flashback), the showrunners must decide how to position Dina and Ellie, and we as viewers must decide if we choose to accept that pairing compared to the strength of the first season.
If that pairing, which is entirely accurate to the second iteration of The Last of Us video game, is to work, we have to understand, empathize, and connect with those two characters on a deep level. We need to not only understand their motivations (which are clear for Ellie and Dina), but also their personalities and their tendencies; essentially, the reasons why they would be so interested in seeking revenge for Joel in such a hostile, unforgiving environment.
That’s why I thought Episode 4 worked much better in this regard than Episode 5. Both delivered the goods on the action set pieces, the world-building, and the cinematography, but Episode 4 seemed to help us understand more about who Ellie and Dina are, and not just how they are strategizing their next move.
This is the danger of adapting a video game, of course. There is almost a complete script written for them where Ellie and Dina talk about movements, triangulation, patrols, when to make their move, etc. But the video game is designed to focus on those elements for practical purposes. The television show can add so much more flavor and depth to the journey. Strategy and maneuvers have their place, but after too much of it, viewers can feel like they are just in a video game, and not an elaborate and complex world that has been designed and built by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Like they did brilliantly three times in Season 1, “Feel Her Love” opens with a scene that is not entirely connected to the main story in the episode, but rather builds layers on what is becoming a growing problem in the apocalypse. WLF leader Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) sits down with Sergeant Elise Park (Hettienne Park), who explains that the squad she sent to inspect the basement floors of the hospital they occupy isn’t coming back. Her own son was the leader of this mission, and he radioed in to tell her that the Cordyceps infection that has plagued humans via contact or bites has evolved into something airborne.
These spores, we will later learn, made their way through the squad and their breathing, trapping them in a gnarly mess of fungal infection. Much like how the soldiers in Kansas City didn’t want to deal with the growing infection problem underground in Season 1, the WLF just locked some doors behind them instead of choosing to find a solution to this new life-altering problem. I’m sure THAT decision won’t come back to haunt them later!
Ellie and Dina spend time tracking the movements of the WLF soldiers and patrols so they can continue their trek deeper into Seattle, eventually landing in the hospital where they know Nora (Tati Gabrielle) is located. Nora, they believe, can give them the location of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who is their ultimate target. While approaching the hospital under the cover of nightfall, they come across a mound of slaughtered Seraphites (“Scars”) and begin to question if they have the courage to finish what they have started. Dina and Ellie assure each other of their personal commitment to exacting revenge for Joel.
Inside a warehouse, the two encounter a group of infected that have evolved into the type of “smart” stalkers that Ellie saw in the abandoned supermarket in Episode 1. Except this time, there are about 10 of them stalking Ellie and Dina. Ellie’s plan of Dina locking herself in a fenced area and fighting them off on her own because she “can get bit…a lot” doesn’t seem plausible with the words of Tess (Anna Torv) ringing in our ears from Season 1. “You’re not immune from being ripped apart!”
Fortunately, Jesse (Young Mazino) arrives just in time to save them from certain death and help them sneak out past WLF soldiers tracking them. They make it to a densely wooded park (in the middle of downtown Seattle, sure), which turns out to be an area where the WLF will not follow them. From what happens next, we can deduce that this area is controlled by the Seraphites, and the WLF being forbidden must be a part of their shaky peace plan.
Jesse, Ellie, and Dina stumble across a group of Seraphites questioning and eventually disemboweling a WLF member, which raises a big question. If these two groups have some kind of agreement or truce in place, they sure do spend a lot of time torturing, attacking, and killing each other’s members.
As the three Jacksonites try to escape, the Seraphites see them and track them down, eventually shooting an arrow into Dina’s leg. This causes Jesse to pick her up and run away from Ellie, who is suddenly alone, but able to make it out of the park unharmed. When she emerges, she is closer to the hospital than before, so she decides to continue the WLF hunt on her own. One thing is becoming increasingly clear about Ellie’s character. As she continues to evade capture and escape death, she is becoming more and more emboldened about her mission and her choices. Dina never would have wanted her to go in alone, but being that close to someone who can get her to Abby pushed the override button in Ellie’s brain.
Inside the hospital, Ellie finds Nora and corners her in an isolated part of the hospital, demanding to know where Abby is. Nora narrowly escapes, but learns her only way to potentially escape Ellie is to go down into the hospital basement. Ellie tracks her down, and once there, discovers one of the most horrific scenes of the fungal apocalypse to date. The squad that was sent down and referenced by Sergeant Park in the episode’s cold open has been subsumed. These soldiers have been turned into some kind of viral dispersants for the Cordecyps spores the infection is pumping into the air.
The infection has evolved to a point where it no longer requires physical contact to infect its host. The air down there is no longer safe, and it’s going to take a lot more than some locks and bolts to keep that from spreading. Nora quickly discovers what the air is doing to her, and her body begins to break down. Ellie, who is immune to the spores’ impact as well, easily finds her and demands to know where Abby is. Nora recognizes that Ellie is not impacted, and gives a chilling “You’re her?” line that means she knows not just about Ellie’s immunity, but about what Joel did to protect her, what Ellie is there to do, and how none of them will ever be saved from infection because Joel wouldn’t allow it to happen.
“Don’t you know what he did?” Nora asks Ellie. “I know,” she responds, before she begins torturing Nora for information about Abby. And with those two words, Ellie confirms what has been the biggest speculation about this second season since the very first minute of Episode 1. At some point, Joel did tell Ellie about what happened at the hospital and how he traded the lives of everyone still alive for hers. The final scene, where we see Ellie wake up in her bedroom to a “Hey, kiddo” from Joel, serves as a short bridge to what appears to be the revelation of Joel and Ellie’s falling out in Episode 6.
“Hey, kiddo” is the same phrase he used with his daughter Sarah at the beginning of the show. We must then believe that at some point, Joel and Ellie were as close as father and daughter before this secret emerged. The fallout from that, which we will surely see next week, might rival any of the intense action we have seen these past two episodes. With so many characters, plot lines, and even infections evolving at this point of the show, the devolution of Joel and Ellie’s relationship might be the most fascinating thing we will see this entire season.
