Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 1.
Sunday night’s episode of “The Last of Us” showcased a tense rift between Joel and Ellie, which Bella Ramsey said was a difficult filming experience for her given the off-screen friendship they have built with Pedro Pascal.
“I didn’t really like the feeling of being cold and miserable with him, it felt very unnatural and didn’t feel nice. We were laughing and messing about and being just the same off-set, but within the actual scenes, it was kind of hard to experience that, as it is for the characters,” Ramsey told TheWrap. “Ellie’s cold to Joel. He’s really trying and we start to see why that is over the course of the season. Ellie is obviously now 19. So she’s grown up and is wanting her autonomy and independence and with this overprotective father figure that Joel is, I think it’s just a bit of a clash and then figuring that out.”
While her relationship with Joel has been strained following the events of the Season 1 finale, Ellie appears to be thriving in other areas, with new friends like Jesse (Young Mazino) and new romances like Dina (Isabela Merced).
“It’s part of most teenagers’ lives. They grow up and fall in love and have these romantic relationships,” Ramsey said. “With Riley, that was so short and sweet and beautiful and like a capsule and ended in a really traumatic way. It was cut short unfortunately. So I think it’s really nice Ellie’s getting to experience that again and I think Riley is on her mind all the time. How could she not be? But she’s healed enough from it and enough time has passed for her to start experiencing things with other people.”
Episode 1 reveals that Ellie previously had a relationship with Cat, her now-ex who is seen leading her and her friend Dina’s patrol unit. Meanwhile, Dina has just gotten out of her on-again, off-again relationship with Jesse and its immediately clear Ellie has developed a crush.
“It’s a really tricky thing to have a crush on someone in the post-apocalypse where you can literally die at any moment, because the threat is so high all the time,” Ramsey added. “This relationship between them has been allowed to bud and start to grow because of the safety inside the walls of Jackson. But that relationship and friendship is really special. She’s so afraid of losing her as a friend. And it’s just the normal, complicated relationship stuff everyone goes through, but with this incredibly intense backdrop of an apocalypse.”
Isabela Merced and Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us.” (Credit: HBO)
The romantic chemistry developing between Ellie and Dina becomes more pronounced as the episode progresses, with it culminating in a kiss between the pair at the New Year’s Eve dance.
“We didn’t really have a chance to nourish that relationship much beforehand. We kind of got right into it, it all happened really fast and by the time we were on set, it was like, ‘Okay, I guess whatever happens happens, and we’ll work it out,’” Merced told TheWrap. “But Bella made me feel comfortable from the get and also that chemistry was there from day one as well.”
Young Mazino and Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” (Liane Hentscher/HBO)
Despite facing competition for Dina’s affection, Mazino says his character Jesse is “very fond” of Ellie.
“As an outsider himself who had to embed himself into the community, he sees potential in Ellie and, being a part of this community for a long time, wants to help her get adjusted,” Mazino explained. “I think he always has her back, and he recognizes the fierce loyalty Ellie has with the people she cares about as well, and I think that’s what Jesse resonates with.”
In addition to her new allies, Ellie is also exposed to new threats, coming face to face with a new type of infected: the Stalker.
“We’re meeting Joel and Ellie five years later in Jackson, and you get the sense that in those five years, everyone’s attitude towards the infected has shifted. They seem a little bit more confident about how they’re going to be dealing with the infected in the world. They are no longer terrified every time they hear a clicker. They’ve gotten good at killing them, which reflects your experience as a gamer. The more you play, you’re like, ‘Okay, I used to be scared of clickers. Now I know kind of how to deal with them’,” executive producer Craig Mazin told TheWrap.
But unlike Clickers, Mazin says the Stalker is “more of a strategic problem now than a fear problem.”
“I love characters who think they’ve figured things out because they haven’t,” he continued. “We don’t introduce an entire class of new infected here, we just need one. And maybe this one is the only one in the world, but this one is different, and this one apparently has been progressing just as the humans have been progressing, which is an indication that maybe nature is keeping up. And it’s also an interesting test for Ellie, and a test she fails, because if Ellie is not the one immune person in the world, she loses.”
Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, Kaitlyn Dever, Spencer Lord in “The Last of Us” (Liane Hentscher/HBO)
And Ellie is not the only one with enemies. There is also a growing threat in the form of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew of Fireflies, who are seeking vengeance against Joel for the events of the Season 1 finale at St. Mary’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. By the end of Episode 1, the group has found Tommy’s settlement out in Jackson.
“We are seeing a very raw and vulnerable side of Abby in this place where she’s just wrapping her head around this thing and truly just trying to cope with this sudden loss and dealing with the first stages of grief,” Dever told TheWrap. “[The Fireflies] have a lot to figure out, but the anger and rage is just beginning for her.”
And as we see in the final shot of Episode 1, tendrils are growing inside a pipe leading into town, posing a threat for the community of Jackson at large.
“Even in the post-apocalypse, we can’t help but be human and part of human-ing is believing we can master our environment under any circumstance. We figure out how to coalesce, survive, defend ourselves, reinforce and then we begin to spread out. And as we spread out, we achieve industry, and as we achieve industry, we disrupt the world around us,” Mazin said. “The very beginning of this episode, we see how, led by Joel, Jackson is trying to refurbish these old, broken down homes to house refugees. This is a noble thing to save more people, but that’s why they start breaking open these pipes in the first place. And when you start smashing stuff, maybe there are consequences.”
New episodes of “The Last of Us” premiere Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET/PT and stream on Max.
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