Season 2, Episode 4
It’s comforting to know that long after the collapse of civilization, certain TV clichés will persist. Like: If a woman vomits unexpectedly in one episode, in the next episode we will find out she is pregnant.
So it goes with Dina, who puked in last week’s “The Last of Us” after stumbling across some human corpses, and noted at the time that her reaction was unusual, given that she often sees (and smells) dead people. Sure enough, in this week’s episode, Dina finds some pregnancy tests in a Seattle drugstore and gives several a try. They all come up positive.
Dina does not say anything to Ellie — or to those of us watching at home who had not already guessed her secret — until close to the end of the episode, after the two of them have narrowly escaped multiple waves of Wolves and zombies. Her confession retroactively lends weight to everything these two women have just gone through. They have so much more at risk now.
As was the case last week, a good portion of this episode is spent watching Dina and Ellie’s relationship blossom. They bounce sardonic, deadpan repartee back and forth. (Ellie, when Dina is exploring on her own: “Shout if something tries to kill you.” Dina: “That’s the plan.”) They share stories from their pasts, with Dina confessing that when she was little she told her mother she liked both boys and girls — to which her mom said, “No, you like boys.” They also fall into each other’s arms, making passionate love.
Overall, there are three major revelations that Dina and Ellie share. One is the pregnancy. The other is that they have feelings for each other. And because of extenuating circumstances, Ellie also reveals to Dina that she is immune from the cordyceps infection. (I will come back to that later.)
Unlike last week, all the charming chitchat is balanced with harrowing action. Dina and Ellie’s expedition into Seattle gets off to a quiet start, highlighted by a trip to an abandoned music store, where Ellie serenades Dina with a lovely acoustic rendition of A-ha’s “Take on Me.” The scene is beautifully staged and lit, with sunshine streaming in from a weed-and-moss-covered hole in the wall. At the end, Dina says Joel taught Ellie well. In a quiet voice laden with meaning, Ellie responds, “He did.”
Then it’s time to get down to business. Spotting a busted second-floor window in what appears to be the Wolves’ primary headquarters — a former TV studio — Dina and Ellie sneak in and find about a half-dozen dead Wolves, disemboweled and hung from the ceiling. The logo of the cult we saw at the crossroads last week is painted in blood on the wall, along with words in praise of their prophet. (“FEEL HER LOVE.”) Before Dina and Ellie have time to gawk, another group of Wolves comes racing in with guns, and our heroes have to scramble to find places to hide.
This is the first of two consecutive thrilling chase sequences. First Dina and Ellie escape from the TV studio, after Ellie unwisely tries to attack and choke a much bigger, stronger Wolf. Once they are back on the streets, the women crawl through a crevice their pursuers are too big to fit into. This leads them to an old Seattle transit tunnel, where they find a rusty old train to take cover in — and a rampaging horde of the infected to wipe out their opponents.
As I have mentioned before, I have never played any of “The Last of Us” video games. I can imagine that a big part of their appeal is scenes like this, where Ellie and Dina fight off dozens of monsters who wiggle their arms through train windows and squeeze through any hole they can find. As always, it’s the relentlessness of the zombies that makes these moments terrifying. (Surely the games’ players must get killed a lot.)
There are two other big set pieces this week, both of which involve a new character: Isaac Dixon (Jeffrey Wright), one of the Wolves’ leaders. (Wright voiced the character in the game.) We meet him at the start of the episode, in a prologue set in 2018, when Seattle was still a FEDRA-controlled Quarantine Zone. Isaac was a FEDRA soldier then, growing tired of the way the organization suppressed citizens’ rights while sarcastically calling them “Voters.” He struck a deal with the Washington Liberation Front’s Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach), leading his FEDRA colleagues into a deadly ambush.
Eleven years later, we catch up with Isaac again, in a fancy kitchen, interrogating one of those scarred cult members, Malcolm (Ryan Masson), stripped naked. Isaac and the Wolves refer to these people as “Scars,” but that term is used derogatorily. Malcolm defiantly insists on being called a “Seraphite.” Isaac delivers a lively speech about how in the old days he loved to cook, and how he always wanted a good set of copper cookware like he has access to now. (“The strange benefits of the apocalypse,” he muses.) Then he uses a hot pan to threaten Malcolm.
Isaac says he wants to know where “the Scars” will be attacking next. He also suggests he wants revenge for the Wolf children the cult killed. (Malcolm fires back that the Wolves killed the Seraphite children first. It is an endless cycle, apparently.)
But what Isaac really seems to want is for this true believer to admit his prophet is a phony and his lifestyle is a joke. “We have automatic weapons and hospitals,” Isaac says. “You lunatics have bolt-action rifles, bows and arrows and superstition.” Before Isaac shoots him dead, Malcolm smiles and says, “Every day one of your Wolves comes to see the truth and takes her into their heart,” adding, “None of us ever leave to become a Wolf.”
There is a lot left to be told about the Wolves and the Seraphites. There are only three episodes left this season, and the number of illuminating extended flashbacks we have yet to see is piling up.
I’m not complaining. It’s good to know there is so much fertile ground left to be harvested in “The Last of Us,” either this season or the next. Besides, it makes sense to spend so much time developing the chemistry between Ellie and Dina, now that Dina has taken Joel’s place as the person who cares about her the most. They are a winning pair. Outwardly, they present as so young and so insufficiently serious. Inside, they are made of steel.
This brings me back to why Ellie has to reveal her immunity. Dina and Ellie are finally able to escape the transit tunnel by forcing their way through a rusty turnstile gate — though not before Ellie sticks her arm out as bait, letting herself get bit to stop a zombie from chomping on Dina. After they find refuge in an old theater lobby, Dina reluctantly raises a pistol to shoot Ellie, certain she is now infected. Ellie urges Dina to watch over her while she sleeps, promising she will wake up the same.
“I would die for you, I would,” Ellie says. “But that is not what just happened.”
It is after Ellie is proven right that the two snuggle up together and make their remaining confessions, beginning with Dina admitting, “I know how you feel about me,” and Ellie responding — with genuine, adorable surprise — “How? I was hiding it really well.” When Dina tells her about the pregnancy, Ellie says, “So we’re having a baby. I mean we and also, I guess, Jesse.” In an awed tone she adds, “I’m going to be a dad.”
As the episode ends, Dina and Ellie hear chatter on the radio, and they recognize the name of one of the Wolves who was in Jackson. They look out across the horizon to Lake Hill, where the radio message originated, and they see explosions and hear gunfire. “Together,” Dina says, taking Ellie’s hand as they head into the next phase of their adventure, nervous but determined. The stakes are higher now. Dina’s killing for two.
Side Quests
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It’s wild what pieces of cultural memory have and have not survived the apocalypse. For example: When Dina and Ellie see rainbow flags and Pride graffiti around Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, they have no idea what it all means.
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Ellie’s fascination with NASA comes back again when she and Dina come across three burned skeletons, prompting a perhaps-too-excited Ellie to say, “Like Apollo 1!”
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The marquee at the theater where Ellie and Dina take shelter reads “SICK HA,” with the faint outline of a missing “BIT.” This is apparently a reference to a fictional band in “The Last of Us” video games.
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In the music store, Ellie looks at a couple of vinyl records. Which do you think would she enjoy more? Bob Marley’s greatest hits collection “Legend” is pretty timeless, and perennially popular. But Tears for Fears’s “The Hurting” is an angsty classic, perfect for any teen who is shouldering a lot of guilt and regret.
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In 2018, Isaac is offended at FEDRA for sneeringly calling ordinary people “Voters.” Eleven years later, he derisively calls his enemy “Scars.” Power corrupts.
