‘The Final of Us’ Season 2 overview: Joel and Ellie’s return devastates and infuriates

The Final of Us Season 2 is simply as transferring as its predecessor, however it’s additionally infinitely extra irritating.

Identical to in Season 1, sequence co-creators Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (creator of The Final of Us recreation) have crafted a stirring post-apocalyptic story concerning the relationship between survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), one which’s simply as prone to fill your coronary heart as it’s to stomp it into tiny items. However because the season seeks to widen the world of The Final of Us past its central pair and the settlement of Jackson, Wyoming, it usually comes up in need of the in-depth world-building that made Season 1 really feel so lived-in and full.

The Final of Us Season 2 is a haunting continuation of Joel and Ellie’s story.

The Final of Us Season 2 picks up 5 years after the Season 1 finale, when Joel worn out the Fireflies in Salt Lake Metropolis so as to save Ellie’s life. Now, the 2 stay within the thriving group of Jackson, alongside Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and his spouse Maria (Rutina Wesley). Nonetheless, their relationship has frayed to the purpose that they are barely on talking phrases. Joel reckons with the loss by talking with city therapist Gail (a splendidly no-nonsense Catherine O’Hara), whereas Ellie throws herself into patrol obligation with new mates Jesse (Younger Mazino, Beef) and Dina (Isabela Merced, Alien: Romulus).

The season’s early episodes spend numerous time establishing the each day rhythms of Jackson, from metropolis planning and council conferences to group dances and baseball video games. The mundanity of the duties permits us to sink right into a post-apocalyptic world the place stability is feasible. That stability makes Joel and Ellie’s silent therapy all of the extra heartbreaking, particularly given all they went by means of to make it to Jackson in Season 1.

If Season 1’s motto was “endure and survive,” then Season 2 is about what occurs within the wake of those survival makes an attempt. Meaning Joel continues to reckon along with his homicide of the Fireflies, and extra importantly, his misinform Ellie about what occurred in Salt Lake. The affect of that lie reverberates throughout the season, with The Final of Us fastidiously peeling again layer after layer of the way it has warped Joel and Ellie’s connection. Pascal and Ramsey are as soon as once more phenomenal collectively, every a portrait of emotional restraint simply seconds from snapping. Pascal brims with guilt and melancholy, whereas Ramsey simmers with rage, and by the top of the primary episode, you may be aching for the 2 to speak it out and rekindle their discovered father-daughter relationship. (By the top of the season, overlook aching — you may simply be damaged.)

Joel is not the one character reeling from his actions within the Season 1 finale. Firefly Abby (a powerful Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew of fellow troopers are the only real survivors of Joel’s rampage, and so they need revenge. Their quest for vengeance will rope the residents of Jackson into a bigger battle, one which extends to a war-torn Seattle clawed to bits by the tyrannical Washington Liberation Entrance (WLF) and the spiritual extremist Seraphites.

The Final of Us Season 2 is gorgeous, however incomplete.

Kaitlyn Dever in “The Last of Us.”
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO

The WLF (whose members are generally known as Wolves) and the Seraphites (whom the Wolves name “Scars”) are main new energy gamers in The Final of Us Season 2. But regardless of all of the fanfare for his or her arrival, they really feel disconnected from the season, regardless that Ellie spends a lot of it on their dwelling turf in Seattle.

In principle, this is smart. As a newcomer on this world, Ellie has no concept what battle she’s stumbled into, and she or he fittingly spends a lot of her time attempting to keep away from these rival factions. But The Final of Us usually cuts to scenes of WLF chief Isaac Dixon (Jeffrey Wright) discussing assault plans, or Seraphites revering their prophet. These sequences do flesh out the world considerably, however there is a perfunctory sense to them. The present primarily makes use of them to arrange Ellie’s subsequent encounters, versus immersing us totally on this new atmosphere. (A torture sequence involving a monologue by Isaac about cookware is a season spotlight, although.) In any other case, we now have little or no data of the character of their battle, or perhaps a deeper concept of who these characters are. Like Ellie, all we do is observe as an alternative of inhabit, with the Seattle episodes changing into a far cry from the fantastically wrought Jackson episodes.

The disjointed nature of many of those Seattle scenes comes because of not having a transparent emotional anchor within the WLF or Seraphites. With out one — and with the season’s unlucky underuse of Dever, Mazino, and Luna — The Final of Us Season 2 feels incomplete.

That incompleteness is intentional, stemming instantly from daring, efficient storytelling decisions in The Final of Us Half II. But these decisions’ transitions to TV are jarring, particularly after early adaptation decisions recommend a distinct route. It is usually unfair to base an opinion on what is not onscreen in an adaptation — the sport and the present are completely different beasts, in any case — however all through The Final of Us Season 2, sure omissions virtually scream to be included. (The season’s unusual pacing additionally comes because of its size: Seven episodes merely is not sufficient for one in every of TV’s greatest reveals to inform a satisfying, compelling story.)

Sure, a lot of this season is spectacular, from Joel and Ellie’s wrenching relationship to a snowy Clicker battle that calls to thoughts Recreation of Thrones‘ “Hardhome.” However finally, it is only one half of an ideal story — is that sufficient?

The Final of Us Season 2 premieres April 13 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.