This post contains spoilers from The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 from this point forward.
The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 titled, "Through the Valley" will go down as one of the most memorable episodes of television and for the reason many already saw coming.
As Tommy and Maria prepare Jackson for the threat of an imminent attack by infected, a horrific storm comes in and with it a most unexpected threat. Abby now has the perfect opportunity to seek revenge, but will the infected halt her plans altogether?
The episode begins with Abby's recurring nightmare of the fallout of Joel's attack at the hospital in Salt Lake. As she prepares to enter the room where her father was killed, another version of herself tries to warn her, but Abby doesn't believe her. Upon witnessing her dead father and screaming at the horror, Abby awakens with her friends in an abandoned ski lodge. It's the following morning and from their hideout, they can see the full scope of Jackson.
It seems their plan to enter Jackson will be more difficult than planned, but Abby refuses to let it deter her. Taking the next watch, she battles the cold and bitter weather, while her friends seem more inclined to convince her to bail on her revenge quest.
Jackson prepares for the worst
Meanwhile, Ellie is awoken by Jesse for her 8 a.m. patrol. Jesse doesn't make light that he was aware of what happened last night, resulting in Ellie panicking, admitting to the kiss but playing it off. Thankfully, Jesse isn't concerned, which is reassuring for Ellie. When she requests to go on patrol with Joel, Jesse informs her that he has already left with Dina.
It becomes clear rather quickly that Jesse, like pretty much everyone in town, is concerned about Ellie's fallout with Joel. She doesn't go into detail but tries to quell Jesse's concern. Before the duo can leave, Maria asks to see Ellie at the restaurant where Tommy is reminding the citizens of Jackson of the protocol in case of an infected attack. Fighters take to the rooftops, and everyone else goes to the basements. The main street is to remain clear. Listen for the bells.
Pretty standard yet incredibly efficient. Afterward, Maria has Ellie meet with Seth, the older gentleman who caused a scene the night before. He offers an apology and food for the patrol, which Ellie accepts without saying much. It doesn't take long for an impending snowstorm turning blizzard to make its approach to Jackson, prompting a radio call for everyone on patrols to return.
Abby's plan set into motion
By this point, Jesse and Ellie are too far away and decide to hold up at a secret location only known to Eugene and Jesse. It's here that we learn a little bit more about Eugene: He was a Vietnam veteran, a Firefly until he quit and ran a secret weed farm.
It's beginning to sound implied that Eugene was bitten or infected, thus Joel had no choice but to kill him, but regardless, the vague mention of Eugene seems to affect Ellie. While taking watch, Abby is about to give up due to the worsening weather when she hears horses. Using her binoculars, she finds two people on horseback. Determined to get a closer look, she slips down a mountain and into an infected graveyard.
It seems Jesse's warning to Ellie earlier was true: live infected were under the snow using dead bodies to keep warm, hiding in plain sight. Abby's interference alerts them, and a large horde emerges. Abby hardly escapes them, losing her gun in the process, and finds an abandoned warehouse where none other than Joel saves her. Taking her inside with Dina, they debate what to do when Abby tells them about the nearby ski lodge.
With no other options, they head in the direction as the weather gets worse and the horde of infected give chase.
Attack on Jackson
Back in Jackson, the infected roots are found in the pipes, which alerts the infected, via hive mind as explained in season 1, to turn away from Joel, Dina, and Abby and head to Jackson. About five minutes out, the town prepares for the attack as instructed.
Round after round of bullets and shells are fired, gasoline cans explode, but the infected keep coming until a Bloater arrives and easily breaks through the wall. Now Jackson has been breached and slowly but surely, a lot of the citizens are being killed from the rooftops. When Tommy sees the Bloater spot Maria, who has been trying to kill it, he takes it upon himself to get its attention with a flame thrower, but he gets himself lost in a barricaded corner of town. Tommy's battle with the Bloater exhausts all of the fuel, but in the end, close call and all, he survives.
As more Jackson defenders are getting killed, Maria unleashes the dogs to aid in the fight. The attack on Jackson doesn't go unnoticed, as Joel and Dina spot it from the mountain. Joel desperately wants to return home to help, but Abby convinces them that the ski lodge is close, and she has friends who can help.
Joel's death
Jesse and Ellie received a call before the attack that Joel and Dina hadn't responded to the call back to Jackson, prompting them to split up to find them in the storm. Little do they know, Joel and Dina had arrived at the ski lodge, and after hardly getting inside and being introduced to Abby's friends, she reveals who they are.
Guns drawn and outnumbered, Joel watches as Dina is knocked unconscious for an hour via injection, guaranteed to live if Joel answers Abby honestly about where he last saw the Fireflies. He answers honestly, and after getting shot in the leg, Abby proceeds to give a chilling, brutal monologue about the hospital, her dead father, and the code she and her friends were brought up to believe.
Joel refuses to give her an ounce of fear, already knowing what's coming, and is then beaten repeatedly. Before he dies, Ellie finds the ski lodge and follows an echo of sounds. Coming into the room, she sees Joel beaten with a golf club to the point it was broken and tries to intervene. But Abby's friends stop her, and she witnesses the final blow.
Abby and her friends leave Ellie and Dina with Joel's dead body. The final moments of the episode reveal that Jackson survived the attack, with piles upon piles of dead bodies, and Maria and Tommy reunited. As for Ellie, Jesse finds the ski lodge and takes her, Dina and Joel's body back home to Jackson.
The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 review
Leaving a review for this one was tough. I've written many recaps over the years for FanSided and my reviews at the end are always honest and truthful. Some are easier to write than others, and this was harder than I expected. For full transparency, I never played the video games, but I knew of them from those who did play and love them. Coming into season 2, I was reminded of what happened with The Walking Dead.
The show decided to stay true to the comics with Negan killing Glenn, a scene and episode that I barely got through because of its brutality and heartbreaking nature. To this day, it remains just as brutal and heartbreaking and caused a lot of the fanbase to bail on the show. So then would The Last of Us follow suit? Would they have Abby kill Joel and risk losing fans?
When filming for season 2 began, it was obvious and well known that Pedro Pascal (Joel) was hardly on set, which was an immediate red flag for me. Then when the official trailer was released, a majority of Joel's scenes were flashbacks... And sure enough, this episode proved it. Yes, we will be seeing Joel in flashback sequences, but this moment will be a reopened wound for the rest of the season.
Does this mean I will stop watching the show? Absolutely not. The show and game, for that matter, are heavily popular and founded solely on Joel and Ellie's bond; they are the glue to the whole story. When you lose one, the bond breaks, and now it feels as though we'll be moving towards a totally different show altogether.
Joel's death, airing on Easter no less, was inevitable, and it was best to rip off the painfully large band-aid now than later. I could go on and on, but to get to the point, the episode was phenomenal, even down to the horrific end. The attempts to make Abby sympathetic are there, but Joel is such a popular, important, compelling, intriguing character that it's very, very, very hard for me to feel bad for her. But this is all part of the story isn't it?
Who can you forgive and for what when everyone has a past? Every episode from here on out will be difficult to watch, but I still await more with great anticipation.
The Last of Us season 2 releases new episodes Sundays on HBO and Max.