Spoiler Warning: You’re about to stroll right into a story bursting on the seams with spoilers from The Final of Us Season 2. In the event you aren’t caught up on HBO or with a Max subscription, please flip again now…
I’m not going to lie – I wasn’t the largest fan of The Final of Us Season 2. From numerous pacing points to diversions from the supply materials to performances that left me wanting extra, I saved going forwards and backwards with the 2025 TV present. I’m not mad about it, as a result of it’s simply the best way issues go generally. Although I’ve plenty of points with the collection’ sophomore effort, I can’t sit right here and act like Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann didn’t give a few of the most good TV moments of the yr.
As an alternative of specializing in the dangerous and happening about The Final of Us Season 2 not being good, I’m going to provide the present its flowers, not less than with regards to these completely gorgeous scenes that had been at instances outrageously thrilling and others, completely heart-wrenching.
Joel’s Brutal And Heartbreaking Demise
Having performed The Final of Us Half II when it was first launched again in 2020, I knew precisely the place the TV adaptation was headed lengthy earlier than Season 2 kicked off. After which the present went there. It really went there with Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) heartbreaking dying by the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) within the second episode.
Was it fairly? No, very like within the recreation on which the present is predicated, the gradual, methodical, and brutal killing of the collection protagonist was watched with my arms over my mouth. Not in shock, however in awe as a result of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had the heart to kill off a fan-favorite simply because the season was getting began.
The Seattle Tunnel Sequence
One other one among my favourite moments from The Final of Us Season 2 got here in the fourth episode, titled “Day One,” the place Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) escape a gaggle of WLF troopers by touring by the Seattle subway system, which is crammed with contaminated. Although the present made some slight modifications to the sequence in comparison with the sport, these deviations really labored on this case.
The extreme gunplay, the sneaking, Ellie revealing to Dina that she’s immune after being crushed throughout their escape, all of it labored collectively to create not solely an incredible reimagining of one among my favourite elements of The Final of Us Half II, but additionally some must-see TV. This episode was my turning level for this season, and I wish to suppose that’s all due to this thrilling and extremely emotional collection of occasions.
Joel And Ellie’s Birthday Journey To The Museum
The Joel and Ellie story hit new highs and suffered some horrible lows all through the flashback-heavy The Final of Us Season 2 penultimate episode, “The Value.” Earlier than I drag issues down and power everybody studying this (together with myself as I write it) to revisit maybe the second-most traumatic dying of the present to this point, I’ve to speak concerning the completely stunning scene the place Joel and Ellie (a number of years prior to now) make a journey to a museum for Ellie’s sixteenth birthday.
Once I first went by this part with The Final of Us Half II, it felt just like the 2020 recreation’s model of the well-known giraffe sequence from its predecessor. The wonder, the simplicity, the truth that Joel continues to be alive and never crushed to a pulp in a lodge overlooking Jackson, and the pure pleasure had been all good. I imply, the look on Ellie’s face whereas sporting the area helmet, appearing like she’s an astronaut, labored then, and it really works now. It is the present at its greatest and pure perfection…
Eugene Trying Out At The Lake And Mountains
Once I was watching “The Value,” I knew the opposite shoe was going to drop ultimately, and that got here when Joel encountered Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) whereas taking Ellie out on her first patrol on her nineteenth birthday. As quickly because the injured Jackson resident lifted his shirt and uncovered a chew mark, I had a sense we had been headed in direction of one of many present’s signature heartbreaking moments. And I used to be proper…
Joel making the choice to kill Eugene earlier than the an infection set in was the best name, however how he went about doing it actually obtained to me. Wanting nothing greater than to say goodbye to his spouse, Eugene begged Joel to carry off a short while longer and never kill him within the wilderness. Whereas that want was left ungranted, the doomed man’s closing moments had been astonishing. The peace that overcame him whereas he got here to phrases together with his destiny, the visible of the mountains and lake in entrance of him, the birds flying away in silence because the gunshot ended his life, all labored collectively to create a really unforgettable second.
Ellie Taking A Boat To The Aquarium
The Final of Us Season 2’s finale was one of the intense episodes of the season, and one which was crammed with one intense second after one other. A type of got here partway by the episode when Ellie tried to succeed in the Seattle Aquarium in hopes of confronting Abby as soon as and for all. Whereas the 2 wouldn’t cross paths till later within the episode, the sequence did recreate one of the memorable scenes from the sport. Yeah, I’m speaking about that terrifying boat journey.
The best way director Nina Lopez-Corrado introduced this scene to life in “Convergence” was nothing in need of sensible. The darkness, the storm, the huge waves, the hatred fueling Ellie to push herself to the breaking level, all of it was unbelievable and a serious feat in storytelling. Very similar to the unique degree from The Final of Us Half II, I received’t get this out of my head for a very long time.
Abby Strolling Into Lumen Discipline In The Season 2 Finale
One factor I’ll always remember from my first playthrough of The Final of Us Half II was shifting from controlling Ellie to Abby following their confrontation within the Seattle theatre. Having no concept entering into that I’d be taking part in as a personality who had been the primary antagonist as much as that time was fairly jarring, and it seems as if the collection can be taking that course heading into The Final of Us Season 3.
Within the closing moments of “Convergence,” Abby will get off a sofa and walks by the higher hallways of Lumen Discipline to disclose simply how huge of a presence the WLF has in Seattle. It was just about a shot-for-shot recreation of this second as Abby walks out of a collection and into the open air to see a large group down beneath. All I may suppose in that second was “Right here we go.”
Who is aware of how lengthy we’ll have to attend earlier than The Final of Us returns, however these moments, and others like them, will maintain me over whereas I rely down the times, weeks, months, and years.