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Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: the last of us
The Last of Us S02E04 Review: Moment of Truth as Wright's Isaac Debuts
The Last of Us S02E04: "Day One" sees Ellie and Dina facing dangers on several fronts as Jeffrey Wright's Isaac makes his methodical debut.
As we reach the halfway point of season two of The Last of Us, the series' narrative shifts to the main journey of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) as they track Joel's assassins to Seattle and strategize their next plan of action. When we start the episode "Day One," we're introduced to another character, game fans will recognize as Isaac Dixon, with Jeffrey Wright reprising his role. The focus on those three marks a watershed moment of the series. The following contains minor spoilers.
The Last of Us" Day One Establishes Ellie and Dina's Dangers on Two Fronts & the Mysterious Isaac
When we start "Day One," which begins in a flashback, we see a band of FEDRA soldiers and one high-profile cameo in Josh Peck playing Janowitz as the group jokes around about those they've encountered. It goes as expected regarding the cruelty and nihilism of the dystopian setting. Leading them is Isaac, who explains terminology to them before the group encounters civilians. After some brief words, Isaac reveals his true intentions, and not everything is as it seems.
As we turn to Ellie and Dina, they're hot on the trail of the Washington Liberation Front members responsible for Joel's murder, led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). With limited resources, they make some disturbing discoveries, which, unless you've been living under a rock, is quite the common theme of the Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann series. What we also discover, much like we're all used to seeing in the zombie apocalypse genre, is that humanity outside the comforts of your bubble tends to regress dangerously at various levels as we explore the savagery between the WLF and the very devout and feral Seraphites.
Directed by Kate Herron (Loki) and written by Mazin, the series manages to balance the narratives between Ellie-Dina and Isaac and the situations they face. With Ellie and Dina, we get some brief, tender, light-hearted moments squeezed in between as the HBO series recreates their record store game scene from Part II when Ramsey does a touching acoustic rendition of A-Ha's hit, "Take on Me." It stands out particularly considering the rest of the episode is dominated by intense action and visceral moments with the two getting chased on two different fronts and an infamous interrogation scene, Wright delivers every which way. I mean, it's hard to see any other person doing that scene as much as the HBO series recast the bulk of the game's cast with more well-known names.
Just as much as "Day One" gets back to basics about The Last of Us survival nature now that Ellie and Dina are squarely out of Jackson and deep into their journey, we also get the pivotal moment between the two characters that was more in the moment than just proper build up, because unfortunately, when you have only seven episodes to tell the story of your seasons, you don't get the luxury of spacing it out. It's certainly not the fault of Ramsey and Merced, who do an excellent job with the time they're given. It works for what it is, but it's a far cry from what we saw in season one's "Long, Long Time," which also dealt with the love of LGBTQ characters built over the course of an episode without trying to squeeze everything in between. The previous season also had the luxury of having more episodes to work with than season two, though it will be interesting to see the running times on the remaining episodes for this season.
It will be interesting to see what the series does in the next phase of the WLF-Seraphite war, what Ellie and Dina do from here, what threats we could see, and when or if we'll see Abby's group again this season. The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO and is available to stream on Max.
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4: "Day One"
8/10
As we reach the halfway point of season two of HBO's The Last of Us, the series’ narrative shifts to the main journey of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) as they track Joel’s assassins to Seattle and strategize their next plan of action. When we start the episode “Day One,” we’re introduced to another character, game fans will recognize as Isaac Dixon, with Jeffrey Wright reprising his role. The focus on those three marks a watershed moment of the series.
Credits
Director
Kate Herron
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