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However, one thing I dislike is how they portrayed Ellie and Dina in the beginning.
But I Hate That They Made Ellie Talk With Dina After She Killed Nora
One thing I did like about Season 2 is how they divided the episodes into Ellie’s story. I think there certainly could have been WAY more, but putting the breather between Episodes 5 and 7, where we fully get the background information regarding Joel and Ellie, helped us settle into the chaos that ensues in the finale.
But it’s how Ellie arrives back with Dina that annoys and bothers me. I’ve been pretty lenient with the show’s changes over Season 2. I feel that it has taken a lot more liberties than Season 1, which is fine. It’s still, relatively, the same story that breaks hearts over and over again.
However, the decision to have Ellie speak to Dina leaves a foul taste in my mouth. In the games, if you’ve never played, Ellie certainly does beat the snot out of Nora and kills her. But when she arrives back at the theater, she doesn’t speak.
Instead, she sits down in front of Dina, and her girlfriend wordlessly starts to remove Ellie’s clothes to examine her wounds and bruises, her touch gentle and caring – the complete opposite of what Ellie has just done. As Dina takes care of her, all we see is Ellie’s face, how it contorts in silent grief over what she has done, a subtle numbness that morphs into the realization of the horrors she has just committed, but knows nonetheless that she can’t undo.
And will only continue to do more.
All of that is said without words, and yet, somehow, it conveys so many more emotions than what we received in the television show. I don’t want to knock out Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced’s acting performances because I still think they are standouts in
Having Ellie comment that she thought it would be harder to kill Nora takes away a lot of the subtlety from the characters in the games, and it doesn’t help that it feels as if she doesn’t feel bad whatsoever. I’m not trying to humanize her, but there was just something in the games that added a lot more to this moment, something that didn’t require words.
It Also Worries Me That Ellie Essentially Told Dina What Joel Did In The Hospital
Something else that I wanted to bring up, as a fan of the games, is that Ellie doesn’t tell anyone about what Joel did in that hospital. Not even Dina – as far as we know. It’s never shown in the games. However, she fully reveals it all to Dina at that moment.
It’s that instance that nearly makes them go home, but it also makes me wonder what that means for the future. If Ellie tells more people about what happened now, could that potentially ruin Joel’s memory of Jackson? Could Ellie get in trouble? I don’t know.
It just feels like this moment was ruined by talking, and that’s something I really wish didn’t happen.
I Wish They Kept More Of The Subtlety From The Games
The Last of Us is still a fun TV show. It’s still an HBO series that has got the world talking and remains very popular. But Season 2 really did take away a lot of the subtlety from the games that I wish was still there.
I’m not saying that Season 3 has to be exactly like the games, and I doubt it’s going to go in that direction. But not everything needs to be spoken out. Not everyone needs to have a dramatic emotional moment. There are a few changes to that which I like, such as Joel and that porch scene in Episode 6, which really added more to the character.
But when it comes to situations like this, where words instead harm the character’s arc, that’s where I draw the line. Showing is always better than telling, and for this script, someone needed to do a second pass.
While it’ll undoubtedly be some time before we see The Last of Us Season 3, at least I have these two seasons to rewatch. Or maybe it’s time for another replay of the games. Where is my PlayStation controller?
