The Last of Us S2E04 Review | "Day One"

Welcome to Seattle.

Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4, “Day One.” Photo credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO

[This review contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 3 of The Last of Us, “The Path.” It does not contain spoilers for the video game The Last of Us: Part II]

As noted above, we won’t be discussing game spoilers here. I’ll keep things broad by saying that the latest episode of Season 2, “Day One,” feels closest to resembling the game thus far, but that’s not inherently positive. While I think The Last of Us: Part II is a terrific video game, it understands how games have their form of storytelling just as plays, movies, novels, etc. have theirs. Perhaps more than any other video game adaptation, the HBO series has managed to walk a delicate tightrope of adhering to the game’s story while forging a unique identity. However, “Day One” highlights the complications of honoring the source material while making the series stand on its own.

Everything with Isaac highlights how much richer the TV series can be, not because the game failed, but because there’s no avenue in its medium to provide a backstory for this character outside of a rote cut scene. We now have the opportunity to see more of Isaac (played by Jeffrey Wright in both the series and the game) and his personality whereas in the game he comes off as a mix between illustrative symbol of the WLF’s mentality and a neat get for developer Naughty Dog (“Look, kids! It’s acclaimed actor Jeffrey Wright!”).

The show plays the character perfectly by leaning into his resemblance to Joel, not only in his grizzled demeanor and willingness to resort to torture, but that he comes from “the old world.” The episode wryly highlights that gap when we check in with Ellie and Dina, who are moving towards a romantic homosexual relationship, but are confused by all the gay pride rainbows on the streets of Seattle. The darker side of this gap shows Isaac as a man who has become the thing he once protested. Even the thing he once treasured—premium cookware—is now a tool of violence. As we saw last season in Kansas City, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann believe in the historical paradigm that revolutionaries inevitably become oppressors. While I don’t agree that’s always how things go, at the very least, it’s useful for illustrating the perils of Ellie’s path.

Jeffrey Wright as Isaac in The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4, “Day One.” Photo credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Isaac’s two scenes bring us to the same place as the game—he’s a fascist locked in tribal warfare with an army of religious zealots—but they show how his choices have hollowed him and his followers out. Ben Ahlers (The Gilded Age), who plays a young soldier Isaac takes under his wing, does a great job of showing how humanity gets set aside in the pursuit of violence, but also the macro scale of the WLF/Seraphite battle reflects the micro scale of Ellie and Abby’s cycle of vengeance. Seeing Isaac not only gives us a better sense of life inside the WLF; it also foreshadows where Ellie is headed, and that’s the emotional stakes that make for rich storytelling.

However, outside of the Isaac scenes, there’s a lot of familiarity for those who played the game, and I’m mixed on how to deal with that. On the one hand, plenty of viewers never touched the game, nor should they have to. This is all fresh material for them. That being said, Mazin and Druckmann know they’re engaging in a bit of fan service, so how do you make the show more than a retread? For me, I feel like the episode is a net positive because of the additions that deepen the character relationships.

For example, as the showrunners noted in the “Behind the Episode,” Ellie playing the guitar is a fan-favorite moment from the game. How do you repeat that magic in the show, especially when no viewer has the immersive element of a controller? By leaning harder into the Ellie/Dina romance. Never shying away from love has been the show’s secret strength. It’s not that love is unimportant in the game, but there’s no mechanism to lean into a slow serenade of “Take on Me,” as Dina falls hard for Ellie (romance tip: if you want to win someone over who already likes you, you can’t go wrong with performing an acoustic cover of a pop song). It’s a scene where the show takes a moment to breathe with the characters, and the expansion feels worthwhile.

I wish I could say the same about the chase through the subway tunnels. Director Kate Herron (Loki) does a fantastic job handling the action, and yet here, similar to the big attack on Jackson in Episode 2 of this season, I rarely felt like the set piece was serving the characters. It does get us to an important plot and character moment when Ellie allows herself to be bitten to protect Dina, but for all the technical bravado of seeing the duo flee from infected, it felt emotionally weightless. It’s a scene that thrills because of its craftsmanship and setting, but there’s nothing to underpin those emotions. It’s a tight spot, but it never feels dire or that there’s even a cost.

I suppose I could try to memory-wipe the game from my mind, but the showrunners haven’t (and one of them is the game’s director!), so I feel like these comparisons are fair territory when we talk about the success of adapting from a medium that traditionally fails to translate to a movie or TV show. As The Last of Us demonstrates, respecting the difference in how these mediums approach storytelling in turn respects the audience of both. The question isn’t “Is the show or game better?” but “How can both be done well given the opportunities and limitations of the format?”

Seeing Ellie and Dina fully in love at the end of the episode feels like a satisfying answer to that question. The game still has a love story, but the genre and narrative’s propulsive nature doesn’t allow for a scene where Dina talks about wrestling with her bisexual identity. That’s not only a benefit for the show, but for its longform storytelling because we need to see the relationship of these two women at its highest. We know from Isaac’s journey just how far there is to fall.

Stray observations:

• As someone who likes to draw, it’s a shame Ellie has likely never seen the “Take on Me” music video.

• This week, we saw scavenging like you do in the games. Future episodes should contain Ellie improving her weapons at a workbench and taking medicine to learn new skills.

• I wonder if there was any conversation with the good people at Mauviel about product placement.

• We encourage you to talk about the episode in the comments, but please refrain from video game spoilers. Having played the games should not be a prerequisite for watching the show.

The Last of Us airs Sunday nights at 9pm ET on HBO. Look for recaps of the latest episodes here later the same evening. Matt Goldberg is a film critic who lives and works in Atlanta. If you enjoyed this review, check out his newsletter, Commentary Track.