Spoilers

“The Path”

This is the first week of the post-Joel era of The Last of Us, and much about us grieving the loss.

I have to tell you that the cry of Ellie as she woke up in the hospital was just feral. Totally crushing. I was nearly in tears from just Ellie’s roar of anguish.

This show has been effective with their time jumps. This is another good one, but I thought the moments before the leap (Ellie in hospital, Tommy with Joel’s brother) were tremendous.

Three months later, Ellie is getting out of the hospital with the anger underneath the surface.

It was great to see Catherine O’Hara again as the local therapist. Her meeting with Ellie was funny and her conversation with Tommy was interesting. The sudden baseball game that Catherine O’Hara was watching was a weird and felt odd. She has added a ton to the show in her few scenes.

Ellie and Dina are on the road to go kill Abby. The Jackson Council refused to send a group of 15 to Seattle after Abby and the others who killed Joel. Ellie tried to speak to the Council and her speech was moving. Didn’t work though. Ellie had never planned on accepting the verdict of the Council.

The group of people who just appeared in the woods and wound up getting killed was a weird detour in the show. These people’s death must be part of the next story arc, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.

The scene of Ellie at Joel’s grave was powerful too. The director spoke about this scene being an opportunity for the audience to grieve with Ellie.

Good episode. Seattle looks like a bad deal.