Episode Grade: (7.9/10)
Joel and Ellie encounter serious challenges on their way to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies stationed at the city hall. Ultimately, their efforts don’t pay off as the Fireflies at the city hall are all dead. To make matters worse, Joel faces a devastating loss after Tess gets infected.
Plot (41/50)
The episode opened with another solid time jump back to 2003 that told the story of Patient Zero in Jakarta. The fungi had passed to humans through grain and/or flour and mutated into Cordyceps. When the country’s top mycologist examines an infected person, she advises the military to bomb the city to stop the spread, as there is no cure for the infection. This was an effective flashback that clearly defined how the infection first occurred as well as how the government initially responded, namely by bombing major cities. From this episode, we also learned that the infected have varying abilities depending on how long they’ve been infected for. Most die off after a year or so, but some have survived for two decades. It appears that at some point in the infection, the fungi completely take over the brain, and as a result, they blind their host. Furthermore, the fungi are connected. There’s some originality with how strong the infected are, as zombies are typically easy to kill. Here, just two infected, albeit developed ones, wreck havoc and lead to the death of Tess. Now that the strength of the infected has been established, consistency will a challenge for the writers. For now, the execution has done well to establish the infected as formidable enemies. Moving onto the topic of Ellie, Joel being skeptical of her immunity is the logical conclusion to make. Ellie getting bit a second time was a necessary development to give Joel the piece of mind. Tess’s death this early was an interesting and slightly surprising decision as it puts all the focus on Joel and Ellie, which is not enough to drive the show at this stage. It’ll be interesting to see how the void is filled outside of fighting off an infected or a raider here or there. The Fireflies being dead at the city hall leaves Joel firmly in No Man’s Land, as he neither has a battery for a truck nor does have a safe route back to the Boston QZ. This was a necessary development that makes Joel’s decision to continue with Ellie a reluctant one made out of necessity and a desire to help his brother get out of whatever trouble he finds himself in over in Wyoming. The risk of taking Ellie has already proven costly to him, so these developments justify his decision while also preserving his character.
Character Development (11/15)
Joel’s paranoia and general skepticism are in line with what one would expect from a character who’s survived 20 years as a smuggler in a post-apocalyptic world. The same logic applies to his combat skills. He and Tess had a much closer relationship than I initially expected, he will have to grieve her death at some point. Before her death, she tells Joel to complete the mission of delivering Ellie to the Fireflies in the west so they can find a cure for Cordyceps as a way to right their wrongs. This makes me wonder if the two of them were involved with the military as they bombed major cities. Also, is Ellie still hiding her identity? It’s not that her immunity isn’t a big deal, but she gave up that secret so quickly. She might be a kid, but she’s as sharp as they get. Could she have given up this secret to protect another?
Theme/Messages (3/5)
- The classic “do the ends justify the means?” conundrum very clearly applies to the bombing of the cities.
- Is it OK to sacrifice the few to save the many? If so, how much is a few?
Acting (12/15)
Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) delivered solid performances. Anna Torv (Tess) more than matched the performances of her peers.
Cinematography (12/15)
- Cool shot of Ellie in the light face-to-face with Joel (in the dark) with Tess between the two (16:57)
- Nice shot of Joel and Ellie sitting across eachother with he light shining through the rubble between them (26:11)
- Powerful shot of Ellie with the city hall smoking in the background and the American flag waving above (53:09)