The Last of Us Narrative Analysis, Season 2, Episode 2
Added 2025-04-22 16:00:55 +0000 UTCWell, some things certainly happened this episode. How do you feel about it? Both about what happened and how it was executed?
Comments
Oh man essay incoming. I love the first game dearly, and respect so much of what the second game attempted… but it really feels like 2 maybe even 3 games of story crammed into one. As such its structure ultimately fails for me, though my general thoughts are positive. But I was wondering if the show would allow some breathing room, including with Joel’s death. I was wondering if they would really expand on the first act and make Joel’s death the midpoint of the season or even the finale. I didn’t, for instance, feel any empathy for Abby because I jumped down some cliffs and looked over Jackson with her. And some of the parallels they draw are a little tooooo neat and obviously manipulative. I also think it’s important to note—and this is all the more poignant now—that Druckman was influenced to write the story by the Israel-Palestine conflict. There’s a sub theme about monster-izing your enemy, along with the cycles of violence and revenge themes. I think the actual monsters in the world were under-utilized to hammer that theme home, but I think the show might be correcting it, based on this zombie war at Jackson. I predict we’ll see a battle scene shot verrrry similarly but between humans. Similar shots, similar beats. We’ll see how the show addresses Abby’s friends, per Tricia’s comments. The game didn’t stick that landing for me.
Reed Arnold
2025-04-27 15:47:48 +0000 UTCthanks for the episode! lots of similar thoughts. the game mechanic of playing Abbie to connect with her seems genius (i haven’t played the game). but in the series… it was all tell, no show, except dream sequence and burial scene - that made me feel nothing. i don’t want to put this on the actress, because truly i think the issue was on paper - the scenes were so flat… I’m wondering if they can turn this around and make me feel different about her, because currently I’m just all for Ellie forever!
Edith
2025-04-23 09:13:37 +0000 UTCyayyy i was eagerly awaiting this episode!!
Greta Sophie
2025-04-22 16:12:50 +0000 UTC
