8 Things I Like
8. Infected (But Not Too Many)
The infected look amazing—especially the Clickers. And they’re terrifying. These creatures are unlike any variety of zombie or mindless creature I’ve ever seen.
The scene in the museum in Episode 2, when Joel tells Ellie they have to be absolutely silent because of the Clickers’ amplified hearing, shows how hard to deal with they are. Toward the end of that episode is when one of the infected gives Tess her welcome-to-the-infected-club kiss, with his tendrils invading her mouth. There are memorable visuals like these whenever the infected are on screen.
Then there’s the major fight outside Kansas City, when the Bloater and a whole army of infected wipe out Kathleen’s militia. I wasn’t crazy about the Bloater, but that’s also where we see the Clicker child contortionist, which is one of the wildest things of the season.
They always found different ways to make the infected stand out and terrify us. But I’m glad they weren’t around constantly. Because as scary as they are, one of the tropes of zombie stories that holds true here is that it’s the people who are even scarier. And we got some incredible human villains this season, so we didn’t need Joel and Ellie to be surrounded and attacked by infected in every episode. Less is more.
7. Nature Reclaims Her Past Glory
There are some amazing visuals of nature reclaiming the Earth, which we start seeing as soon as Ellie, Joel, and Tess leave the Boston QZ.
There are streets, buildings, abandoned cars, and traffic lights overrun by weeds, bushes and shrubs… the pond that’s developed in the hotel lobby, complete with frogs and lily pads… all the way to the giraffes roaming around in the finale.
It’s beautiful and eerie to see nature run amuck in a way we’ll never see in real life—unless we go through a pandemic much worse than what we just lived through.
6. Sam and Henry
I have to give a shoutout to Sam and Henry. They make the stakes feel sky-high for the episodes in Kansas City, because they’re so likable so quickly.
Learning that Henry actually ratted out Kathleen’s brother to FEDRA was surprising, and it gives Kathleen some genuine justification for wanting him dead—even if diverting pretty much ALL her resources to finding him isn’t the best idea.
And Sam is a great companion for Ellie—someone she can befriend and help take care of, however briefly.
Their story ends in such tragedy. One of the saddest moments of the season is seeing Ellie’s message—“I’m sorry”—on Sam’s scratch-and-erase writing board. She’s affected so deeply by his death, especially since she tried to save him.
And I was stunned when Henry makes the split-second decision to take his own life after he’s overwhelmed by the enormity of having just killed his little brother.
5. Ellie’s Wonderment
There’s so much Ellie has never experienced because she was born into this pandemic. So it’s fun to witness her amazement at things we take for granted, like planes and trucks. She only knows a hard way of life, so going to the mall and experiencing its wonders with her best friend lights her up like a Christmas tree. It’s a good reminder of the wonder we’re surrounded by at all times—most of which our brains simply filter out.
4. A Vile Shepherd
David is one of the most vile villains I’ve ever seen on TV. He’s a cannibal… a groomer… a liar and manipulator… and he has a messianic complex.
He’s also a great foil for Ellie, who’s captured by his group and has to take him on alone while Joel fights for his life.
This season is filled with wonderful antagonists, but David is the nastiest, the most memorable, and the one who causes the greatest change in at least one of our heroes—for better and for worse.
3. Sarah’s POV
When the show started, I was surprised to see we were following the perspective of Joel’s daughter, Sarah. I wasn’t sure how she would fit into the show, since one of the only things I knew coming in was that it was about Joel and Ellie.
Turns out she didn’t fit in.
And yet, I loved the decision to follow her POV for the first 30 minutes or so—the same decision they made in the video game—for a couple of reasons.
One is that the performance is outstanding and really sucked me in. I cared about this girl immediately and kept hoping nothing bad was going to happen to her, even as I dreaded the worst.
But spending this time with Sarah also lets us see exactly what Joel lost, why he’s so broken, and why it takes him so long to see Ellie as anything more than cargo.
2. How We Show Love
Episode 3 with Bill and Frank is simply one of the greatest episodes of TV I’ve ever seen. It was amazing that they took a detour away from the main characters for almost a full episode so quickly in a new series to tell an adjacent story of these two men who both wind up dead before our characters even reach them. Yet it was totally worth the ride.
The Bill and Frank story has so much to say about finding purpose, beauty, and love in even the ugliest of circumstances. They show the meaning of sharing a life with someone else, and how much more fulfilling—and challenging—that is than being on your own. And they have a poetic sendoff that they each have agency in.
1. Joel and Ellie
Basic choice, I know. But I couldn’t choose anything else. The show is built on this relationship. And if these two don’t have off-the-charts chemistry, everything fails. But they’re tremendous together.
I won’t write paragraph after paragraph about their trials and tribulations . I’ll just say it’s beautiful watching Ellie slowly crack Joel’s protective armor until he goes from seeing her as cargo—just another job—to starting to develop a paternal protectiveness toward her while remaining emotionally distant, to finally falling completely in love with her and treating her as his daughter.
3 Things I’m Mixed On
3. Joel and Tess
I was thrilled to see Anna Torv was in this show. I haven’t seen her in much since Fringe. And she’s great for the brief time she’s in it. But something seems off about how Joel and Tess’ relationship is portrayed.
Joel is so broken up about her death that he tells Ellie never to even mention Tess’ name. But Tess had indicated earlier that, despite their relationship, she understood it was never really about love for Joel. If that was true, it seems like it was probably more about companionship and convenience (I didn’t get the vibe it was just about sex). But something doesn’t add up. It’s like, after the fact, the show tries to portray the relationship as more meaningful to Joel than it really was so he can seem more hurt.
2. Fireflies
In a world where systems have collapsed and the military rules with an iron fist, it makes sense to have organizations that straddle the line between rebels and terrorists.
But even after 20 years, the Fireflies are a joke.
Marlene seems like the best of them, and even she makes the ridiculous mistake of asking two of her soldiers—just two—to escort Joel from the hospital, despite how dangerous she knows he is.
It just seems like they should be a more organized, consistent threat after so long. In this type of world, if FEDRA can be as organized as it is, why can’t the Fireflies?
1. Joel’s Lie
This is a big one, and I don’t know how to feel about it. It feels like the entire show is going to shift based on this lie Joel tells Ellie. She’s smart enough to already know the truth deep down, and she’s ignoring it, but once it comes to light fully and she has to confront what he did, I fear her relationship with Joel will fall apart.
I still feel like it wasn’t necessary for him to lie, and if he just told Ellie that she was going to die in surgery—something they never bargained for—she’d at least understand why he rescued her, even though she still probably would’ve wanted to have the surgery anyway. I wish there was a more clear-cut, definitive reason why he absolutely had to lie about this. But it sets up next season with a ton of tension.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Moving Through This World Too Fast
I feel like any of their stops could’ve been a full season. They could’ve spent the entire first season in Boston before leaving at the end. They could’ve spent an entire season in Kansas City, with Kathleen as a season-long Big Bad and Henry and Sam lasting a lot longer. They could’ve spent a whole season battling David’s crew. They could’ve spent a lot more time with Tommy and Maria in Jackson.
I’m not saying they should’ve done that… but it was sad to move through all these different checkpoints, and to dispatch with such compelling allies and adversaries, so quickly.
The episode in Jackson is where I felt it the most. Not only do they arrive and leave in the same episode, but there’s Joel and Tommy’s reunion and everything they share with one another… Joel and Ellie have a blowup as he tells her he’s not taking her the rest of the way but then changes his mind… and then we still get their time on the road until they reach the lab that the Fireflies abandoned, the blossoming of their friendship, and the attack by raiders from David’s community that nearly kills Joel.
Not every episode stuffed that much in, but it’s a good example of how often they move through plot points so quickly, and I wanted more.
Tim Matassa
