Spoiler Warning
‘The Last of Us,” Season 2, Episode 2: “Through the Valley”
Death fills the wintry, frostbitten air surrounding Joel and Ellie. Their love, although still unspoken, becomes even more precious than before. Ellie’s love for Joel is all that remains in the valley of death. The audience hopes it will be enough, but those familiar with the story of “The Last of Us” know that love is useless against fate.
Joel and Dina embark on a patrol to ensure no survivors are stuck in the blizzard. Meanwhile, Abby scouts the Jackson settlement and begins following two villagers on patrol. In her attempt to follow them, Abby slides down a mountainside, accidentally awakening a herd of comatose Infected buried in the snow.
A sporadic chase sequence ensues, demonstrating Abby’s grittiness and survival instincts; however, she finds herself in a losing battle with the infected. A gunshot kills the infected. In a serendipitous moment, Abby reaches out to her savior’s hand and realizes he is none other than Joel, the man she has been searching for. The two escape with Dina, and Abby tells them about her shelter — the next stop for the trio and the final one for Joel.
The infected return to their hive-mind roots located in a Jackson pipeline. Bells alert the townsfolk of the incoming threat. Tommy, played by Gabriel Luna, and Maria, played by Rutina Wesley, prepare for a desperate battle against the grueling and brutish Infected. Doom lingers throughout the village; many know this may be Jackson’s final stand.
Tensions run high throughout the sequence, but once again, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin know how to slow down the pace. While villagers’ faces are mauled, Tommy and Maria share yearning glances, a reminder of love’s power to rise above despair and provide the will to survive. Eventually, Jackson overcomes the overwhelming attack. Their victory gives audiences hope that Mazin and Druckmann are telling a different story than the one from the games.
Due to the lack of radio response from Joel and Dina, Ellie and Jesse, played by Stephen Chang, squander the time searching for the duo in the forest.
This episode allows Bella Ramsey to prove why Mazin and Druckmann cast them as Ellie. Their fright invokes that of a child’s. It is rough around the edges, trying to hide the worries, but doing so terribly. When Joel arrives at Abby’s lodging, she reveals her lineage and desires. They put Dina to sleep, and Abby shoots Joel in the knee. Kaitlyn Dever brings a psychotic nature to the role of Abby, and the tears threatening to seep out of her eyes throughout her monologue convey a tenderness.
When Ellie arrives at the scene, a helpless Joel, teetering between life and death, lies on the floor. Ellie can do nothing but cry out for Joel to get up. Ellie’s panic and desperation fill the screen and the audience’s living room with tears. Mazin cuts the music and closes in on Ellie before pulling back to focus on Abby, conveying her as an unstoppable force. She slowly picks up the golf club and smoothly slides it into Joel’s jugular. The camera shoots the scene from above as Ellie cries over Joel’s body, a reversal of the Pietà’s roles.
The episode plays out to Ashley Johnson’s “Through the Valley” as the camera lingers on Dina, Jesse and Ellie returning to Jackson with Joel’s dead body in tow. The ground is frozen. The camera holds still. The journey home keeps quiet before the storm rolls in.
