The Last Of Us' Ellie Is On Her Way To Avenge Joel — Read Episode 3 Recap
In this week's The Last of Us, Ellie reaches the sixth stage of grief: annihilation.
Watching the teen go on after Joel's horrific death in last week's episode is a new and different sort of awful. Remember that terrible argument they had in Season 1, when she reminded him that anyone who's ever loved her has left her? I thought about that scene a lot this week, as she cried in the closet and lobbied the townsfolk and just generally tried to keep going after such an egregious loss.
Episode 3 is very much a get-these-girls-on-the-road hour, setting up the rest of the season by putting Dina and Ellie on their path of vengeance and introducing us to two warring factions who are major forces in The Last of Us Part 2 video game. Read on for the highlights.
'GIVE SARAH MY LOVE' | Outside Jackson's walls, the bodies of the infected horde are still smoldering. Inside, a woman is preparing Joel's body for burial when Tommy enters the room and takes over. He lifts the sheet over the body to see Joel's face — the angle doesn't show us anything, for which I am grateful — and then gets to work cleaning his brother's body with a rag. He pauses when he sees the broken watch. "Give Sarah my love," Tommy whispers. As the camera pulls back, we see a lot more bodies laid out in the morgue.
At the overrun hospital, Ellie comes back to consciousness, remembers what happened and screams as she sobs. The staff sedates her.
AN UPDATE ON ELLIE | Three months later, Jackson is rebuilding. Ellie is physically healed, but the hospital won't release her until she talks to Gail. "Yeah, I miss him. He meant a lot to me, yeah, so, upset and sad," the teen says. It's the truth, but she says it too quickly and easily, and Gail knows she's just repeating what's necessary in order to be discharged. Ellie says she didn't talk to Joel when she saw him on the porch after their New Year's fight, but she asserts that "your final moment with someone doesn't define" your whole relationship. She also pretends not to know what Joel meant when Gail mentions his "I saved her" comment from therapy. "Man, I wish I could've let him off the hook for whatever it was he was talking about," she says, kinda breezily. Gail gives her some major side-eye, but authorizes her release anyway.
At Joel and Ellie's house, mourners have left notes and flowers at the fence. The house feels so empty as Ellie roams around it. She takes his gun and puts it in her waistband but is brought up short when she turns and sees his clothes hanging in his closet. She cries as she gently touches a sleeve, then cries harder as she buries her face in the cloth. Downstairs, Dina enters the house and calls for her. Ellie quickly stops her tears and dries her eyes.
Dina brought cookies "as a peace offering, because I'm about to make you angry." Though she visited Ellie a bunch of times during her convalescence, she lied about not being able to identify Joel's attackers. "I know most of their names, and I know where they're from," she admits. And Dina was right: Ellie IS mad. "You cost us time. You let them get away!" she says. But Dina reality-checks her. A lot of other people died, and no one — including Ellie — was in any kind of shape to form a posse. Second, because she knows where Abby & Co. are heading, "maybe let them get there" first? She's near tears as she reminds Ellie, "I loved him, too, you know." Ellie softens and takes a bite of a cookie, a sign of a truce.
TAKING IT TO TOMMY | OK, so here's what Dina knows. In addition to Abby, there's Manny, Owen, Nora and another woman (whom we know is Mel). One of them had a patch on their backpack that said WLF, which reminds Dina of a group Eugene once told her about: the Seattle-based Washington Liberation Front, a regional group fighting FEDRA. Dina hasn't mentioned any of this to anyone else. "So," she asks her friend, "now what?"
They share the intel with Tommy who — surprisingly to Ellie — hesitates. She argues that, if the situation were reversed, "Joel would be halfway to Seattle before the sun came up." He agrees that that would be the case — if Tommy needed saving. "But when we lost people? No. It would just break him like it was his fault. I saw that time and time again." He counsels Ellie to bring the matter to the town council, and he promises he'll back her. "C'mere," he says, pulling Ellie to him in a hug. She obliges him, but after a moment, puts her arm around him and squeezes back. MY HEART. Then he lets her know that they buried everyone 10 miles south out of town, "if you want to visit him." She nods. "When we're on our way to Seattle," she says.
A NEW FACTION ENTERS | Somewhere else in the woods, a group of people are traveling on foot. All the men have shaved heads and all the women's hair is braided; they all wear clothing with a rudimentary fish symbol drawn on it and carry hammers. Everyone, even the children, have scars from where the corners of their mouths have been slit up into their cheeks, Joker-style. One of the men walks alongside his young daughter, who wonders why "she" can't just keep them safe. "The prophet? She's been dead 10 years," he says. He adds that the distance they're putting between themselves and war is going to keep her safer. Then, someone at the head of the group whistles an alarm that has everyone diving into the brush to take cover. "Demons?" the little girl whispers as they hide. "Wolves," her father replies. We'll come back to them in a moment.
JACKSON DECIDES | On the day of the town meeting, the council — and the rest of Jackson — considers Ellie's request to send a 16-person team to take down Abby. One woman argues that "we are too hurt, and it is too soon." Another says that they need to have mercy to separate themselves from the raiders and murderers, a sentiment that angers Seth. "Grow up, you idiots!" he roars as Ellie looks on, surprised but pleased. "They'll come back. They'll come back because we didn't make them pay. And when they come back, they'll be laughing. And you'll all deserve it, bunch of goddamned victims."
Ellie is the last person to make her case. Per Jesse's advice, she wrote her thoughts down ahead of time, so she reads them to the crowd. She swears her motive is not revenge, but justice. "I am asking you, please, do it for us," she says, tears in her eyes. It's moving, but not enough to sway the council, which votes 8 to 3 against going.
ROAD TRIP! |Does Ellie care? She does not! She's preparing to head out on her own when Dina knocks on the garage door later that night. "I'm just going to bed," Ellie calls out. "No, I don't think that is where you're going," her friend wryly notes. Once Ellie lets her in, Dina pokes quick and efficient holes in her plan to get Abby: No clear route, no medical supplies, etc. Thankfully, Dina HAS made a sound plan and enlisted the help of someone who can get them supplies. That guy turns out to be Seth (!), who even trades his (better) gun for Ellie's before seeing the ladies on their way.
At sunrise, Ellie stops at Joel's grave and puts some coffee beans on it before heading on her way.
A LARGE PACK OF WOLVES | Dina and Ellie share a horse, Shimmer, as they continue toward Seattle. One night, they make camp under an outcropping just as rain starts to pour down. They're about to go to sleep when Dina brings up their kiss at the dance. Ellie quickly says it didn't mean anything, given how high Dina was at the time, but Dina wants her to rate it anyway: Ellie gives it a six out of 10. (Yeah suuuuure, Ellie.) We learn that Dina and Jesse have already gotten back together, and things are a little awkward as Dina turns off the light. But then she adds, "Ellie, I wasn't that high," before she falls asleep.
When they're on a trail about 10 miles outside of Seattle, the pair come across a dead member of the group we saw earlier. He's wearing the fish coat and has gunshots in his back. Dina investigates a little deeper into the trees, runs back and then throws up. A lot.
Ellie goes to see what made Dina so ill and finds the entire group we saw earlier, dead and rotting — even the kids. Ellie immediately suspects Abby and her crew are behind the violence.
As they approach the city, Dina and Ellie guess that there probably aren't that many members of the WLF, or "wolves." Otherwise, wouldn't people be shooting at them as they get closer to Seattle? But they don't know what we do: The wolves are a highly militarized group with lookouts, tanks and a large infantry that's marching through the city. Ellie and Dina are outnumbered in the extreme.
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the first Joel-less episode? Hit the comments with your thoughts!