Episode 2 of The Last of Us
LEFTOVER NINE
Jakarta, Indonesia, September 24, 2003. Pre-infection, with a bustling city scene. At a restaurant a woman eats alone. Military enter and approach her.
She rides in the military vehicle, wondering why she’s here. The driver confirms her identity: Ibu Ratna, Professor of Mycology. They take her to a secured room in a medical facility. She examines the prepared specimen under the microscope. “Cordyceps cannot survive in humans,” she says. She’s wrong.
In a hazmat suit in a locked room she examines the dead human subject. Cutting open the human bite mark on the leg, Ratna exposes the fungus growing underneath. She then goes into the mouth with forceps and pulls out strands that move toward her on their own. Ratna runs from the room as the strands quest outward from the subject’s mouth.
Over tea, Ratna speaks with the officer. This episode happened 30 hours ago at a flour and grain factory. They don’t know where the first bite came from, and fourteen workers are currently missing. Ratna’s hands shake as she sets down the tea. Officials would like a vaccine or a medicine from her. There is no such thing, she says. Bomb the city and everyone in it.
Roll credits.
ONE
Ellie sleeps among weeds and mosses growing on the floor of a building. She wakes to find Joel, rifle ready, and Tess watching her. She shows them her arm: it’s still scarred over and unchanged. Marlene found her after she was bitten, locked her up, and monitored her. Joel, his hand fractured from punching the officer, is not happy with any of it and wants to take her back. He expects her to show infection.
TWO
More curious than Joel, Tess gets close to question Ellie. We’re not good people, she explains. What are you worth? Ellie exposes the secret: Firefly doctors out west are looking for a cure. Joel scoffs, having heard this one before.
THREE
However, Tess stays focused on the reward of a truck battery, and they agree to travel on.
FOUR
Daylight reveals the ruined city, amazing Ellie. She asks if this crater is the place they bombed. Tess explains that all the big cities were hit like this. A fallen skyscraper blocks their way to the State House. As they go around, Tess talks with Ellie while Joel hangs back. Hearing Ellie’s story, Tess says, “You got some balls on you, sister.”
(The women have a tentative bond, something Ellie has obviously never known. The intensity Torv brings to Tess is mesmerizing. We really want to see their relationship develop.)
They enter a hotel, its lobby a flooded pond with frogs and ducks. Ellie is charmed to be in what was once a fancy place. Upstairs their way is blocked by fallen concrete. Tess will climb over and open a locked door so they can continue. While Joel and Ellie wait, they pass the time with awkward conversation.
A balcony dining area allows them a good look at the city. The street is a mass of dormant infected. We get some explanation: the infected are connected to each other, but also to the fungus underground that can stretch for miles and communicate with its creatures. They can’t go forward this direction, so they head to the museum.
SWITCH
(In a game, we’d have a map and a quest destination marker. In a film, locations are more confusing. I’m not sure what preferred route the museum offers.
Also, up until now the tone has been only mildly suspenseful. The grossness of the infected moving as one indicates the tone is about to change. We are at the half-way point of the episode, and the Switch announces itself.)
FIVE
The museum exterior is covered in fungus. The front door gapes open. From the top floor, apparently, there will be a way across. Flashlights ready, they enter. Suspense builds.
Infected husks, dry and done, lie about. They stumble upon a recently deceased man, his neck ravaged, which spooks them. Joel hushes Ellie and demands silence. (Whatever they fear, we and Ellie haven’t met it yet.) Gamelike, they sneak forward. The staircase becomes more coated in fungi as they ascend. Entering an exhibition room, the roof crumbles onto them, making Tess and Ellie dive loudly for safety.
A sharp cry echoes. The clicking begins.
They shine flashlights on the doorway as the clicker lurches through. Joel silently indicates that it can hear but not see. It comes around the corner, making Ellie gasp, and it turns right into the light, squealing at them. Its head is basically a mushroom, and Joel opens fire. Clickers come from all the doorways.
Running, shooting, hiding. First rate horror. One loud misstep and the clicker’s on them, teeth bared. Joel gets the head shots. Ellie has a fresh bite wound on her arm. Tess, who was separated from them during the fight, limps on a twisted ankle.
Out the rooftop dormer, they can cross to the next building over a plank. Joel wraps Tess’ foot with electrical tape. She is curt with him, feeling the stress. They have a view of the city, including the gold dome of the State House. Each of them descends an old fire escape ladder, Joel last. For a second he looks down at his watch, giving his arm a wiggle. (We and Joel are reminded of his daughter, and that Ellie is also a teenager.)
SIX
Crouched outside the State House, our team sees no sign of the Fireflies. Joel investigates an industrial truck abandoned out front. A blood trail leads into the building. Tess barrels forward.
SEVEN
Inside, dead people with fresh blood litter the rotunda floor. She ransacks the area, looking for a map or an indicator of their plan for Ellie. (She’s manic, overly so.) When Joel says they’ll go back to Boston, Tess vehemently refuses. Ellie realizes before Joel that Tess is infected. Tess pulls open her collar to show a large, ugly neck wound. Meanwhile, Ellie’s bite is almost healed.
Tess, frantic and insistent, tells Joel to take Ellie to Bill and Frank’s. She tasks him, brooking no argument because she doesn’t have time for it.
EIGHT
While Joel wavers, one of the dead Fireflies moans with infection. Joel shoots it. Tendrils rise from the ground and twine around the fingers, communicating with the dead outside. All of them come to life, making for the State House. Knocking over fuel barrels, Tess tosses pinned grenades into the pool. She says, “Save who you can save.” Joel grabs Ellie and drags her from the building.
Only Tess remains, brave but hyperventilating. She pulls a lighter from her pocket and tries to ignite it. The horde roars, sounding closer and closer. In they come, running past Tess, who still can’t get the lighter to work. She’s spotted. A mushroom head comes to her, leaning his tendril-squirming mouth in for a kiss. The lighter ignites and falls from her hand.
NINE
Outside, Joel and Ellie race away from the building as it explodes. Burning bodies emerge and drop. The camera pulls out to show Ellie and the golden-domed State House with their plans in ruins. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
I never gamed this, but I did watch a playthrough when it was first released. My memory of the game is confined to hiding from clickers, traveling, and the story of Ellie and Joel. I don’t remember if the game has a Tess. In this series, though, her presence dominates. Losing her here is a huge blow.
And the beats emphasize that. Tess’ determination at the Two moves this episode forward. Her decisiveness at the Seven and her resolve at the Eight sets the rest of the series in motion. The final shot at the Nine — Ellie alone with the burning building behind her — reflects her loss of a woman friend, a mentor/mother archetype that’s yanked away just as their relationship is beginning. Tess (and Torv) own this episode.
Removing her is a cruel and very effective storytelling choice. Now Joel, who still anguishes over his daughter and his failure to protect her, must do the thing he least wants in the world: shepherd another child. A character this stubborn will have a steep arc. He must be forced or he won’t change. It’s a tricky writer’s task, and this is how it’s done.