Since The Last of Us Season 2 began, the showrunners, cast, and gamers have highlighted that the second season will shift to a much darker tone. To everyone’s surprise, season 2 brutally kicked off with Joel’s gruesome death, which put Ellie on her revenge path. Ellie and Dina reached Seattle to find Abby, but the fandom still couldn’t feel Ellie’s vengeful side taking over. However, the barbaric ending of The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 reignites Ellie’s thirst for vengeance.
Spoiler Warning:
This post includes spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5. Proceed with caution.
TLOU Season 2 Episode 5 tightens up the show’s pace with Ellie and Dina setting out to find Nora, one of Abby‘s friends who was at the mansion during Joel’s death. They get swarmed by a horde of Stalkers, but luckily Jesse arrives right in time to save the couple who are having a baby.
As they escape from the Stalkers and the WLF soldiers, the group unknowingly walks into another trap in the park where the Seraphites have set camp. The cult members quickly find out about their presence and shoot an arrow piercing Dina’s thigh. Right away, Bella asks Jesse to take Dina and run back to their hideout, Pinnacle Theatre.
While on the run, Bella discovers the Lakehill Seattle hospital and rushes to this place without any second thoughts.
Throughout the episode, there are glimpses of Ellie being consumed by her grief and rage, such as the moment when she plays “Future Days” by Pearl Jam with a guitar she found at the theatre. In the hospital, Ellie has no trouble finding Nora (Tati Gabrielle) in the hospital. Ellie asks her about Abby’s whereabouts at gunpoint; however, the latter rubs salt on Ellie’s wound by saying that Joel got what he deserved.
Yeah, the little b**ch (Joel) got what he deserved – Nora
Nora gets on Ellie’s nerves and manages to escape by surprisingly throwing liquid at her. However, Nora couldn’t cheat her inevitable end for long, as she enters the second level of the basement, taken over by spores, to escape Ellie’s wrath.
Moments later, Ellie finds Nora sitting on the ground, slowly succumbing to the spores. Nora can’t run anywhere anymore, and she soon learns that Ellie is the immune girl whom Abby’s father was going to kill to make the cure for the Cordyceps brain infection.
Nora tries to explain Joel’s actions, stating he killed all the Firefly members, including Abby’s father, but Ellie’s done caring at this point. It’s clear that Ellie is swallowed whole by her own wrath at this stage. She takes a metal pipe nearby and begins to rain down hits on Nora to get Abby’s exact location. This enraged version of Ellie resembles Abby, who ruthlessly killed Joel, consumed by rage.
The showrunners are taking a different route with how Ellie deals with Joel’s loss. Ellie’s rage dominates her every thought in the game, but the live-action TV series of Ellie locks her grief behind a happy facade at times. This decision has backfired heavily with the audience, including me, as people who have already played the game couldn’t accept seeing a lovey-dovey Ellie during her revenge mission. Finally, Ellie slowly transitions to her ruthless side, but the tonal shift should have been handled way better from the start.
Ellie killing Nora is one of the most emotionally charged moments in the game, where you can feel the emotional weight perfectly. While the show also adapts it neatly, this sequence was cut short by an unexpected flashback towards the end. Episode 5 ends on a massive cliffhanger, but it precisely resurrects Ellie’s darker impulses.
Tighten up your seatbelts, as Ellie’s revenge-driven mission will further delve into the bloodthirsty region in The Last of Us season 2. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts about the shocking ending of Episode 5 of TLOU Season 2 in the comments below.
