The Last of Us – The Path Review

A bit of housecleaning before we dive into the review. I have not played The Last of Us and have (miraculously) managed to remain completely in the dark about the contents of the second game – upon which this and the third and final season of the series will be based. So, these reviews will not call out events to come in the story but will treat the series as a series and not an adaptation (even though it is absolutely an adaptation). If you’re looking for a review that will call out Easter eggs and hints of what is to come, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking to remain spoiler-free, well, I’m your gal. Also, don’t be a dick and spoil things in the comments.

Our first episode without Joel in this world and it was fitting that so much of it was about him. And while this was a much slower and less flashy installment – especially after last week’s incredible series of action sequences – it was the perfect balm to let us take a beat and understand the new focus of the series now that our POV characters have shifted to Ellie, and presumably, Abby. As for where the story took us this week, not a ton of surprises (despite another time jump).

Of course, we could deduce that Ellie, Tommy, and Dina would all be uniquely impacted by Joel’s death – going about their process of mourning in very different ways – much like I predicted that Ellie and Dina would be off on their way to Seattle sooner rather than later to seek revenge on Abby. It’s also fitting that it was those two, with an assist from the drunk homophobic Seth (proof that a stopped clock is right twice a day), were the ones to head off into the Pacific Northwest. That they are utterly unprepared for what they are about to encounter (and let’s be real, would have also been utterly unprepared even if they were accompanied by the other 14 best soldiers Jackson has) is also not a shock to me in the least. Ellie might have talked a big game in that meeting, but she’s also still the hothead who runs headlong into danger without thinking twice. Things are about to get ugly.

But before they do, I want to take a minute to laud something that I’ve been remiss for not talking about thus far this season, and that is the incredible cinematography of the series. That shot, with Ellie at the graveyard and the sun streaming, golden, all around her? My god, what a shot. (It made up for the very shaky CGI work with those shots of Seattle.) For a post-apocalyptic series, it’s one of the very few that doesn’t supersaturate the color palette with grays and blacks. We can almost always see what we’re looking at. And the verdant colors of nature are shown as a gorgeous testament for how life continues, even when humanity is in dire straits. It’s such an amazing juxtaposition – the brutality and losses suffered by humans, laid out against the backdrop of some truly stunning vistas. That massacre in the forest was harrowing and horrific, but that forest? That rich green setting? A heartbreakingly lovely locale for such a disturbing deed.

And that brings me to my biggest question of the episode: Who, exactly, were those cultists, with their (dead) female prophet, their ritualistic facial disfigurements, and their lack of guns? I know the answer is out there on the internet, so my question is completely rhetorical. But this is one mystery I wasn’t expecting. I don’t think Abby and her team were the ones to dispatch them – after all, Manny was pretty well ensconced back in his post in Seattle, so I assume whichever platoon of Wolves (and there appear to be plenty to choose from) were behind that slaughter, it wasn’t necessarily Abby. But what created the animosity between the two groups, one militaristic, complete with massive firepower and armored cars, and the other, wearing camouflage clothing to blend into the forest and toting hammers and bows and arrows? That was never going to be a fair fight, so why did the Wolves want them dead? Is there something particularly troubling about that cult or are the Wolves just that territorial and bloodthirsty. We learned from Abby that her mentor taught them to not kill unarmed people, and many of that party would certainly meet the definition of unarmed (at least when faced with a bunch of guns). So, a new mystery.

As for the time in Jackson, I’m going to miss it. I hope we get some more time there this season – I’m stunned that the story took Ellie and Dina all the way to Seattle in a single episode, especially at the cost of not seeing Tommy’s reaction to the realization that they left. Will they send out a trailing party? Is Tommy going to head out himself? I would guess that conversation with Gail (who we also better get a bit more of – Catherine O’Hara has been great in the role) was meant to help absolve him of whatever guilt he will carry for Ellie’s actions (Gabriel Luna was so darn good in this episode). But still, assuming Ellie and Dina make it out alive (I’m banking on Ellie surviving, but much less sold on Dina), I guess they’ll head on back to Jackson once they have slaked their thirst for revenge? Who knows, but I will miss that town and the complex layers of storytelling that stem from trying to live together in the chaos of this world. For a series centered on a pair of lone wolves, the theme of finding community (and then chaffing at the rules and complexities that come with it) has been so central to the storytelling. Everywhere Joel and Ellie went, they encountered community in the face of the hell of this world. And they saw how it can bring people together and make them stronger and how it can drive them into despair and pain when power is welded by the wrong people. All hallmarks of this genre of storytelling, but executed at such a high degree here that it almost felt new.

What it looks like Ellie and Dina are about to run into in Seattle is something wholly new to the series: a community built solely on a military presence. There don’t appear to be any civilians, just trained solders. So, what are they protecting, if not people? What’s in Seattle to keep them there? Some sort of leader? A power structure that locks them into that location? And what did they do with anyone who was still there and not part of the militia? Or are all members of the Seattle population, such as it is, trained and members? Lots of questions about this new world Ellie and Dina are about to walk into, wholly unprepared for the danger they are about to face. I suspect we’re going to get a deeper dive into the past of Abby before out new dynamic duo start their trek into the Emerald City – at least, I really hope so. Because this quest for revenge needs to take longer than a couple of episodes to play out. And we need to know a heck of a lot more about Abby and her fellow soldiers before it really kicks into high gear.