At no level may you accuse “The Final of Us” of being a cheerful present, nor may you say the identical of the video video games on which the HBO collection is predicated. There are occasions when it appears to be concerning the perseverance of the human spirit, our capability to heal and rebuild, and moments of pleasure hidden amidst darkish occasions. However most of the time, the larger concepts are dying, grief, and revenge.
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Joel (Pedro Pascal) embodies these two sides of the story effectively, displaying a loving aspect to Ellie (Bella Ramsey) however a brutal one at any time when violence is named for. Whereas Joel’s dying in “The Final of Us” season 2, episode 2 is gut-wrenching, it is also onerous to see it as misplaced in a present like this.
Within the wake of that heartbreak, Ellie is taking up Joel’s mantle with some new story threads pushing her additional and additional towards darkness, at the same time as her burgeoning relationship with Dina (Isabela Merced) presents an optimistic various to her quest for vengeance. In “The Final of Us” season 2, episode 5, Ellie tracks down Nora (Tati Gabrielle), a part of the crew led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) that murdered Joel. Their confrontation is without doubt one of the darkest scenes of the present up to now, and definitely the darkest for Ellie, displaying simply how far she’s now prepared to push her personal brutality to get revenge. Whereas the TV collection takes many liberties with the supply materials, those that have not performed the video games could also be stunned to be taught that this specific scene is principally a shot-for-shot recreation of the identical second from “The Final of Us Half II.”
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Ellie tortures Nora in the very same manner in The Final of Us Half II
There are few variations to the setup in Ellie’s encounter with Nora within the “The Final of Us Half II,” however it’s largely the identical there as effectively. She finds Nora in a makeshift hospital for the Washington Liberation Entrance (WLF). Nora will get the higher of her and flees, prompting a chase. When Ellie is confronted by armed troopers, she drags Nora right down to a abandoned flooring of the constructing that is been lined in cordyceps spores. The troopers observe with respiratory masks, and Ellie defeats them, then hunts a wheezing, contaminated Nora right down to a solitary hall.
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Save for the additional motion of the sport (hey, it is a third-person shooter), that is principally what occurs within the present as effectively, although the spore flooring will get a bit of added oomph by advantage of it being the present’s first introduction of the airborne cordyceps. All prior encounters within the HBO adaptation contain bite-based infections.
In each variations, Nora tries to make the case for why Joel needed to die, going right into a bit extra element within the present (as within the sport, sure particulars are nonetheless hidden from the participant at this level). Unphased, Ellie calls for Abby’s location, and when Nora refuses to cooperate, she takes a little bit of pipe and begins to beat her with it till she will get what she desires. Each scenes are staged and lit the identical manner, with Abby looming over a crumpled Nora in a darkish hallway lit solely by a dim crimson warning gentle. It is an deliberately hellish setting for what’s arguably Ellie’s darkest second, and it performs simply as effectively (or horribly, relying in your perspective) within the present because it did within the sport.
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How will HBO’s The Final of Us take care of Ellie’s trauma?
Within the sport, Ellie is instantly traumatized by her option to brutally torture Nora. It is the second when her bluff is named — when the circumstances demand her to show her personal capability for extreme violence, which seems to be fairly excessive. Ellie returns to Dina a shell of herself, barely centered because the factor she has simply carried out torments her. We do not get to see that reunion in “The Final of Us” episode 4. As an alternative, the episode cuts from the torture scene to a quick flashback of Ellie sharing a cheerful second with Joel.
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Presumably, this scene will affect her in the identical manner on HBO because it does within the video games, although there are nonetheless some query marks regarding Ellie’s overarching arc. There have been some large adjustments to Tommy (Gabriel Luna) in “The Final of Us” season 2, which may imply that he’ll be much less of a drive goading Ellie towards vengeance later within the story, as occurs within the video games. We’ll doubtless have to attend for season 3 to see simply how in another way these occasions may affect Ellie on the present.
