[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 3. For earlier coverage, check out last week’s review.]
It didn’t take lengthy for Gail to change into a survivalist all-star. For her “Final of Us” debut, Catherine O’Hara’s cynical therapist walks right into a session with Joel (Pedro Pascal) half within the bag and with one other glass of whiskey on the prepared. Then she accepts cost through weed, which she judges virtually as harshly as she does Joel — cursing at him, refusing to listen to his “boring” issues, and calling him a liar. Seems, Gail had good cause to be indignant with the quickly to be deceased: He killed her husband, Eugene — presumably, after Eugene grew to become contaminated, however nonetheless. That’s a tricky tablet to swallow, irrespective of how stiff the drink to assist it down.
In Episode 3, Gail’s heroics proceed. She’s the final line of protection between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and the chilly world ready exterior her hospital room. She raptly observes the city council assembly the place Ellie pleads to ship a 16-person posse to Seattle to avenge Joel’s dying. She sits within the outfield of a Little League recreation, ingesting beer from her personal cooler, and writes an early epitaph for our 19-year-old protagonist: When Tommy (Gabriel Luna) asks how you can finest defend Ellie, his de facto niece, Gail’s recommendation boils all the way down to a easy, dire sentiment: “Some folks simply can’t be saved.”
I don’t need to consider Gail, however historical past tells me I ought to. Not solely do I like Gail — she looks as if a perfect cling in the course of the post-apocalypse — I’m additionally meant to love Gail. Clue No. 1: She’s performed by Catherine Freaking O’Hara. Clue No. 2: Therapists in TV reveals are sometimes sensible, reliable figures. Their voices are revered and their opinions dependable. When a affected person listens to them, issues appear to get higher, and after they don’t, effectively, they don’t.
However Gail isn’t your typical therapist. There’s the ingesting (earlier than periods, throughout periods) and the smoking (“as a lot weed as I can”), certain, however these are signs of bigger points. Gail is mourning the lack of her husband, which continues to be a uncooked, current tragedy, amid the broader, longer-term tragedy of society’s ongoing collapse. Jackson presents neighborhood — and a greater model of it than we’ve seen wherever else — however it’s not a substitute. It doesn’t have every part for everybody, even when it presents sure companies that really feel like luxuries.
I imply, what post-apocalyptic story options survivors sitting down to guard their psychological well being? Simply this one, and that’s nice for them, however what about Gail? “I’m presupposed to see a shrink myself, to assist course of all of it — [but] I’m the one one right here,” she says in Episode 3. Earlier, she acknowledges that she’s overwhelmed with appointments. If any of them go just like the one we noticed with Joel, than “brutal” wouldn’t simply describe her workload. It will describe the remedy, too.
So what does that imply for her evaluation of Ellie? Clearly, a few of it’s spot on. Ellie lies typically sufficient and convincingly sufficient to be described as “a liar,” moderately than simply somebody who lies. She lies to Gail’s face on the hospital. She needs out, she needs to go after Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), and he or she’s not going to suppose twice about it — it doesn’t matter what Gail asks. She’s made up her thoughts already, and Gail gained’t change it. “Your closing second with somebody doesn’t outline your complete time with them,” Ellie says. “It shouldn’t,” Gail says, “however it typically does.”
That warning feels prescient as Ellie embarks on her revenge mission, regardless of shedding the council’s assist. At the beginning of the episode, when she first wakes up within the hospital, she sees Joel dying and he or she screams. And she or he screams, and he or she screams. Three months later, the screaming has stopped, however there’s no cause to suppose the visions have quieted. She nonetheless sees Joel dying, her closing moments with him, and he or she’s nonetheless fixated on killing the particular person accountable.
Little by little, all through Episode 3, she collects his mementos and assumes his function. She takes his gun from his room to make use of on Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). She turns into the gruff, silent kind on the path with Dina (Isabela Merced), asking for silence whereas her companion cracks jokes and performs recreation. Ellie even admits to making an attempt to “sound like a badass,” like she’s attempting on a persona she admired and misplaced. She’s turning into Joel as a option to keep in mind him, however that’s precisely what Tommy is apprehensive about.
“I simply don’t her to go down the identical paths that Joel did,” he says to Gail — and right here’s the place Gail’s recommendation will get doubtful. “Seems nurture can solely do that a lot,” she says, gesturing to a small quantity. “The remainder is nature. If she’s on a path, it’s not one Joel put her on. … Take it from a psychotherapist of 40 years, some folks simply… some folks simply can’t be saved.”
Whether or not or not we consider Gail’s evaluation now turns into the central query in “The Final of Us” Season 2. Is Ellie already doomed to repeat Joel’s errors, or can she make totally different choices? Broadening that out, are all of us doomed to repeat the previous, or can we nonetheless save our future? The city council assembly presents an attention-grabbing perspective there, seeing that the board votes towards revenge, even when there are adamant, persuasive pleas to hunt vengeance. If everybody in that room acquired a vote, wouldn’t it have gone down the identical approach? Or would Seth (Robert John Burke) have satisfied the room to behave out of worry? To lash out at others as a way of defending themselves? To comply with their instincts moderately than act with sense and compassion?
The latter possibility is voiced by Carlisle (Hiro Kanagawa), and watching his considerate sentiments get drowned out by vitriol feels sadly acquainted. “Individuals got here and killed Joel, so why wouldn’t we need to take our vengeance?,” he says. “Nicely, as a result of we’re not presupposed to: forgive and be forgiven. No grudges, no revenge. … That’s what separates us from the raiders and the murderers: our capability for mercy.”
Proper now, Ellie has none. Can she discover it in Seattle? Can she discover it earlier than it’s too late? Or is Gail proper about her? Some folks, maybe, simply can’t be saved.
Grade: B+
“The Final of Us” Season 2 releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Stray Tendrils
• The visible and audible mixture of Ellie crying into one among Joel’s outdated shirts and Gustavo Santaolalla’s haunting rating must be a slight nod to probably the most heartbreaking scenes in cinematic historical past, which featured the identical character motion and the identical composer. (Actually, the second was so evocative of “Brokeback Mountain,” it pulled me out of it. However I nonetheless must respect the homage.)
• OK, the Scars — the whistling band of vacationers who all have lengthy, angular cuts on their faces — appear barely creepy, however the “wolves” appear a lot, a lot worse. In any case, the Scar father instructed his daughter they had been on their approach via the woods to get “distance” from “conflict,” and but the W.L.F. forces caught up with them anyway. A coincidence? Appears unlikely. Appears more likely the wolves went searching. Why? Who is aware of, however we’ll definitely see extra of every in Seattle, given the various, many W.L.F. troopers proven on the finish of the episode.
• Is Dina a tease, or ought to Ellie make a transfer already? Talk about amongst yourselves.