The Last of Us season one finale brings us to the Salt Lake City hospital, but of course with consequences for Joel and Ellie! Re:cap “When We Are In Need”, Ellie tried to get help for Joel recovering from his stab wound, this is from James and David, from Silver Lake. The latter who has taken a strange interest in Ellie. She took back the penicillin to inject into Joel. Ellie finds crows take flight, runs to warn Joel, and then rides out on the horse to distract the hunters. James shoots the horse, David brings back Ellie, and the others search for Joel. One hunter enters the house, he starts to walk down the steps to the garage, but finds no one on the table! Joel stabs the man who silently dies. Ellie wakes up in a cell watched by David. He wants her to trust him. Another hunter approaches Timothy and is knocked out by Joel’s rifle butt. Timothy is being interrogated by Joel, strapped to a chair, and stabbed in the knee! Joel shoves his knife in Timothy’s mouth and wants the location of Silver Lake from a map. He points it out and Joel kills him. The other hunter is angry and Joel brings down a lead pipe on his head! He is absolutely ruthless in finding Ellie! She tries to get out of the cage, but intead is repulsed by something. David brings her a plate of food which he says is deer meat. Silver Lake Solent Green is People! David sees in Ellie what he sees in himself, a “violent heart.”
David puts his hand on the bar, then over Ellie’s hand, eeee!, then she breaks his finger! Joel staggers over to Silver Lake and finds a blood trail leading to a bait shop. He takes Ellie’ backpack, in another is the body of their horse, and the headless corpses of three people. David walks in with James and readies his gun. They grab Ellie and she bites David’s hand! James holds her to a table and David holds up a machete, when Ellie says she’s Infected! He slams down the cleaver and looks at his bite. Ellie picks up the cleaver to bury into James! Ellie killed Joel! David shoots at her and Ellie finds the doors are locked. He takes up the cleaver and then Ellie tosses a torch that starts to burn the restaurant. I think the other townspeople would have seen their meeting place burn. Joel searches in the storm, he is not going to rescue her, this is not that show. Ellie sneaks into the kitchen and takes a knife. She stabs David, but is thrown down, David and he climbs on top of her! She grabs the cleaver and then loses it chopping him again and again screaming! There is no Ellie here. She stumbles outside and then held by Joel, Ellie screams, and then tries to reassure her. Then, he says the best line in the show, “It’s okay, baby girl.” This is his name for Sarah, his daughter, whom he lost so long ago. Twenty years from the show’s first episode, “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”, both broken, but they are family.
“Look for the Light” begins in darkness, a woman, Anna (Ashley Johnson) is heard desperately running, then we see her running in a yellow dress, very pregnant. Johnson of course is the original voice of Ellie in the games. Anna crosses a field, a city is in the background, to reach a farmhouse. She enters and says, “It’s me”, but no one responds. Anna blocks a door and then is about to give birth!, she has a switchblade ready. An Infected woman burst through and goes after her. She reaches for the switchblade and stabs until finally stabbing it in the head. She gives birth next to the Infected and the baby screams. The mother says, “You tell them Ellie.”! Ellie gives birth to Ellie!, the bite when she is alive might be the mix like Blade’s mother turning him into a dhampir, half-vampire, but I don’t it will be this easy. Great intro! Three flashlights in the night, a man tries to open a door, then turns to see Marlene! We haven’t seen her sice she was wounded in the premiere, “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”! She enters through a back door and finds the house is empty. Marlene carefuly climbs steps calling out for Anna. She reaches the top floor and finds Anna with baby Ellie. Anna hands over Ellie and her switchknife! She wants Marlene to take Ellie and kill her! Anna pleads for Marlene to end her. Marlene hands off the baby, asks to cover her eyes, and then walks over to room and we hear the gunshot!
THE LAST OF US -- “Look for the Light” -- ASHLEY JOHNSON -- photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Baby Ellie cries and then we shift to the older Ellie with her eyes closed in the back of a truck. Joel calls for her and has can of a Beef-A-Roni. Also, a game of Boggle. They start walking, headed to a hospital in Salt Lake City, and Joel mentions he saw a broken guitar in an RV. She is distracted, still disturbed from what happened last episode, they reach some rubble. Ellie says they are going to cut through a building and find a skyscraper to look around. Joel says they could blast their way through the debris, then repeats her plan. It’s a joke, Ellie has lost her enthusiasm and humor. It has some orange tarps that make it look almost like a horror scene. He wants to boost Ellie up to lower a ladder. Instead, she is looking through building plans. Joel checks on her and then they get back to boosting her up. Ellie reaches the top level and then she is excited and drops the ladder! She races up building stairs, Joel follows, and then she reaches some forest grounds. A giraffe is grazing on a bush next to her! This is more stunning than the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park (1993)! They are at head level with the giraffe from the building. Like Dr. Grant, Joel hands Ellie some leaves to feed it, she is impressed by the giraffe’s tongue. This is a real giraffe, not Cgi or an animatronic, which makes it that more amazing. It has snapped her out, maybe just for a moment, a nice moment for this show. The giraffe moves on and Ellie chases after her. Other giraffes are around a baseball field with a small watering hole in its center. Ellie likes the view.
Joel says they don't have to go the hospital. She says she been through too much not to go to the hospital. Ellie reassures Joel that she will go with him back to Tommy’s or to a sheep ranch afterwards. It is the strength of Ellie that finishes their mission. They walk to a much of medical tents which Joel explains was made by the army. He says that he was in one for his shot to his temple on the second day. He admits that he was the one who shot and missed, attempted suicide! Ellie brings up the old adage “Time heals all wounds.” Joel tells it wasn’t time and looks to her. He asks for puns and Ellie takes out No Pun Intended Volume Too. Joel is unimpressed by the first jokes and as they talk, we see behind them a soldier toss a grenade at them! He hears it and pulls away Ellie as it explodes! Joel is of course disoriented with the ringing from the grenade. Soldier pull away Ellie and knock out Joel with a rifle butt! White-out. White curtains. The shape of the Firefly symbol. Joel starts to wake and then is greeted by Marlene. She says Ellie was worried about him. Marlene also adds that she had five men to protect her and Joel made it there with Ellie. All Joel wants is to see Ellie. Marlene explains that the doctor thinks she has been growing Cordyceps since birth so it makes normal Cordyceps think she is already part of the fungi. She says that the doctor will remove it and then try to duplicate the chemical messengers for everyone.
THE LAST OF US -- “Look for the Light” -- PEDRO PASCAL, BELLA RAMSAY -- photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Joel says that Cordyceps grows in the brain. There is a guard in his room with a M-16. Joel wants to see her, but he is struck by the guard. Marlene says she was at Ellie’s birth and made a promise to Anna. If anyone knew that the cure cost the life of a girl, what would they think? Marlene orders her guards to take Joel to the highway with his pack. She hands over a switchblade. If he tries anything, she orders them to shoot Joel! This absolute decision is like FEDRA, no discussion, and subjects can’t be told what will happen to them. Marlene doesn’t know or care about Joel’s loyalty to Ellie. The guards push Joel along the halls and he stops at a fire alarm. He is moved on to a dark stairway. Of course Joel stops until the guard leans in to try to push him, Joel grabs his rifle and shoots the other guard. He shoots the remaining guard’s leg and asks where is Ellie. Joel kills him and then goes room to room killing others, their lives have no value to him since they are keeping him away from Ellie. A pure soldier, acting not out of rage or fear, he quietly kills floors of Firefly soldiers. Joel reaches the Pediatric Surgery wing. He reaches the operating room, Ellie is sedated on the operating table, and Joel says, “Unhook her.” The doctor picks up a scalpel and Joel gives him a round to the head. Joel repeats again, “Unhook her” as the nurses scream. One of the nurses is played by Laura Bailey who voiced Abby Anderson in The Last of Us Part II (2020).
He takes his baby girl down the escalator and out to the garage. Joel sees a truck being charged up and Marlene is there with her gun. Marlene says that Ellie would have wanted the operation. Joel hesitates. He can’t fail Ellie like he did Sarah. Joel is driving the truck, Ellie revives in the back seat, he says the Fireflies were giving her tests, there are others like her, dozens of them. We know he is lying. There is the scene where Marlene starts to lower her gun. Joel says the doctors couldn’t make the cure work. Then, we see Marlene shot! Ellie notes the hospital gown, Joel makes up that raiders attacked the hospital,and they can find new clothes. He says he is taking them home to which he is most likely saying is Jackson, Wyoming with Tommy. Ellie turns to sleep. We see Joel carrying Ellie, but using his other hand to shoot Marlene. Joel puts Ellie in the back seat, hears Marlene moan in pain, and then gives her a last bullet to stop her from coming from them. They reach Wyoming when the truck dies, Joel tells Ellie it is a five mile hike. He points out that Sarah liked hiking and says that she was more “girly”, funny. I don’t know what has happened to the town when they were away. Joel says Ellie would have liked Sarah. They reach a hill overlook of Jackson. Actually, Maria didn’t give them permission to leave the town so I’m not certain she would want them back. Ellie hesitates. She tells Joel about the first person she killed, Riley. Then, she has Joel swear about what he said about the Fireflies was true. He does so. Ellie agrees to continue with him. Did Joel do the right decision? The real question is did he do the right thing for Ellie? I’m not sure about that one. A compelling, watch every moment show that isn’t mired with its monsters, it is more concerned about its people and their complexity.
Five Fungi out of Five!
#TheLastOfUs, #LookForTheLight, #AshleyJohnson, #BellaRamsey, #PedroPascal, #MerleDandridge, #LauraBailey
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