4.
[Show spoiler]This episode covers Day 1 of Seattle, the game also breaks up Seattle into days. Ellie and Dina seek out the WLF in hope of finding Abby and her friends. They end up getting attacked, escape to the tunnels, run from a horde of infected, Ellie is bit again, and after Dina almost shoots her they confess their feelings for each other.
There's some stuff I like and dislike in this episode. First let's get to the serenade. This is my favorite moment from the game, and I consider it the “giraffe” moment, for this game, harkening back to Ellie and Joel seeing the giraffes in Salt Lake in Season 1 (and they contemplate stopping the journey and going back to Jackson). One big difference is that in the game Ellie and Dina are already in a relationship. In this episode, the event serves to solidify Dina’s burgeoning feelings for Ellie. I am glad they attempted this scene but unfortunately I don't feel they pulled it off, unlike the giraffe scene in the show, which I thought did the game justice.
However, it was still a nice scene and I will try to approach it again with an open mind when I rewatch the episode. It unfortunately had a lot to live up to for me. If curious this is the scene from the game:
youtube.com/watch?v=jU3wD1XBOks
Obviously Bella is not as good a singer as Ashley Johnson, even toning down her talent, but I think we can look past this as there is no reason to think Ellie would be a naturally good singer, and the key thing here is how well she can now play the guitar, and Bella did pull that off.
This is the first time we've seen Ellie play the guitar in the show. In the game, her guitar playing is a running theme and we see Joel teaching her and helping her with the guitar in flashbacks. But Dina references that Joel taught her well, and Ellie says, “He did.” There is no discussion of the night at a campfire back in Jackson, when Dina says Ellie should have kissed her then, and Ellie says she wanted to. But this would not make sense at this point in the show, since they have not kissed yet, and this scene serves to furthering their slow burn romance.
It is somewhat unfortunate that the scene is missable in the game, however, I think most fans are aware of it by now, even if they initially missed it.
The flashback to 2018, 15 years after the outbreak, was interesting. Isaac was in FEDRA (the military government) and kills his whole group to join the WLF, bringing along one soldier whom we later see becomes a diehard supporter of Isaac and his brutal treatment of the Scars. I don't recall from the game any info that Isaac was ever in FEDRA, and I thought he started the WLF. Nonetheless this shows us how ruthless he can be. Isaac is being played by the same actor from the game, the only other character who has done so is Marlene from season 1. Josh Peck is a guest star in this scene, one of the bigger names that's been in the series.
I am glad they ported over the tank scene, and Ellie tells us all about the Apollo 1 disaster. Her knowledge of space will play a role later. The dialog here was almost cut and paste from the game.
I loved the scene in the TV station. This is one of the hardest parts of the game to stealth, though I managed to do it on my recent replay. The way the Wolves fanned out and were searching for somebody, anybody, looked exactly how these stealth scenes are set up in the game. It's the first time the series has shown a stealth scene like this. Ellie knifes a guy in stealth in the exact same motion she does in the game. I loved that. So this whole scene is a nod to the gamers. Also, the hanging Wolves, disemboweled by the Scars, was stomach churning to look at, and it's our first clue that the Seraphites can be just as brutal as the Wolves in this cycle of violence.
Along those lines, the Subway scene was also pretty faithful to the game, with the Wolves again stalking the girls until they get attacked by the infected. In this version the flares attract the infected via the mycelium network. Ellie and Dina's multiple encounters with the infected is replaced by a thrilling escape sequence where they are pursued through 3 separate train cars. But it still ends with them running from a horde and reaching a turnstile, this time with Dina getting stuck instead of Ellie.
The love scene from occurred before Joel's death in the game has now been ported over to after the moment Dina accepts that Ellie is immune. This was pretty well done, but maybe went on a little long. This was maybe necessary though, since it's the first time they've been together in the series.
The dilapidated theater in which Ellie and Dina hole up looked really good. Also, I liked that Weston's Pharmacy made an appearance. Dina finds pregnancy kits there.
The Pride poster with rainbows from the bookstore (accompanied by some dirty jokes from Dina) is replaced by various Pride flags they find throughout downtown Seattle, but they don't know what they mean since the Outbreak occurred in 2003 in the series vs. 2013 in the game. Anyway, it was nice that made it in.
I liked that Isaac and the Scar referenced the true and cannot agree who broke it or why, a running theme in the game. The Scar says that everyday another Wolf becomes a Seraphite, which we later hear a significant character in the game say.
The Seraphite religion is fleshed out a little bit more, we hear more about the prophet/founder, how some believe she had supernatural powers, the Scar says she guides/protects us, and Ellie & Dina also find a "Feel Her Love" sign and anther Searphite symbol.
Ellie held out her hand in an attempt to convince Dina she is not infected, this harkens back to the motion she had to do daily for the Fireflies in Season 1 Ep 1. That was pretty cool.
Significant differences from the game:
The entire sequence in which Ellie and Dina have to find gas to pass a series of gates to get to the Serevena hotel is removed. This was mainly for gameplay.
The entire sequence in which Ellie and Dina are attacked on sight by the Wolves, Ellie is captured and saved by Dina, and they escape the school together, is removed. The sequence is mostly for gameplay anyway but is one of the most tense scenes in the game. Ellie kills Jordan in this scene, marking the death of the first WLF member who helped kill Joel, but Jordan is not a character in this game so this does not happen. We also lose an interesting discussion between Ellie and Dina about why the WLF members let them Ellie live after killing Joel. This matters later, but it's not in this version.
In the game, Ellie and Dina find Leah, who helped kill Joel, already dead at the TV station, and they find pictures of Manny, Norah, Mel, Owen, and Abby. But Leah is not a character in this version so this does not happen. So now in both the game and the series, it’s just 5 left from the group that killed Joel are still alive. In this version, they don't need the pictures because Dina remembers everyone's names, Tommy was knocked out before any names were said in the game.
Ellie and Dina do not find all the WLF carnage left by Tommy, who left a day ahead of them in the game. Not clear yet if Tommy is in or coming to Seattle in this version.
Ellie and Dina wait until nightfall, with good reason, to approach the TV station. They go straight for it in daytime in the game.
At the turnstile, Ellie lets herself get bit to save Dina. She immediately believes Ellie is infected. In the game, they go through a section of the tunnels with spores, Ellie falls and her mask breaks, Dina tries to share hers but Ellie refuses and reminds her she's immune. (In the game, Ellie told Dina she was immune in the love scene, which occurs right before Joel's death, Dina thought she was pulling her leg.) Since spores are not in the show , this does not happen. Instead Ellie persuades Dina to let her live through the night, and subsequently Dina is convinced that Ellie is immune when the bite does not worsen.
In the game, when Dina tells Ellie she is pregnant, it sparks an awkward fight between them, which I never liked. In this version, it is replaced by them kissing and falling into each other's arms, subsequently expressing their love for each other. In the game, they have been lovers for weeks. The discussion they had weeks ago in the game, about Ellie's chemical burn and covering tattoo, happens now.
Ellie and Dina find some of the WLF’s Walkie Talkies at the TV station which is how they find out where the WLF are stationed. In the game, they have to find power for and fix up a radio.
In the game, Dina is either sick or so weak from her pregnancy she cannot continue on after Day 1. In this version, it appears Ellie convinces her to sit out on the action because she is worried about her and the baby. In the game, this has a gameplay purpose, so that Ellie has to start fighting alone without a partner.
Ellie has now been bit 4 times in the show, vs. only one at this point in the game.
No Shambler infected in the show, yet.
This episode wasn’t as good as I was hoping. Probably the weakest of the season so far. I’m mostly not a fan of Ellie and Dina’s romance being delayed to this point, but it does mean their fight in the game is avoided. I guess there are good reasons for doing it like this in the show. I was also hoping for more encounters with the WLF and infected, though what we got was really solid.
5.
[Show spoiler]This episode covers Day 2 in Seattle, Ellie and Dina set out to find the hospital Nora is in. After getting attacked by Stalkers, Jessie saves her and Dina. They have to escape the Seraphites, and Ellie finally confronts Nora, who had restrained her while Joel was being killed.
This episode was pretty good and mostly faithful to the corresponding set of events in the game. I definitely thought it was an improvement over the previous episode.
The starting scene with Hanrahan (a WLF lieutenant with whom Isaac joined up with in the flashback in the last episode) was pretty interesting, and we're told the basement of the hospital is where they took the infected after Outbreak Day. We don't find that out until later in the game. The basement is "rough" as we're told in the game. It turns out this area has spores, which can infect through the air, and is our first introduction to them in the series. (They are a staple in the game.) We see Elise who had to make the decision to seal off her own son Leon in the basement. We see Leon later when Ellie comes across him. These characters aren't in the game, but it was interesting to see someone who made the opposite decision Joel did, in sacrificing her own child for the good of others, vs. killing others to save a loved one.
I liked the scene with Dina and Ellie teasing other abut Math and their intellectual abilities.
I liked the scene where Ellie plays the Pearl Jam song "Future Days" in the theater. I thought we might get the birthday flashback episode at this point…turns out it's coming next week. (Not a spoiler, it's in the preview and the end of the episode shows it's coming next.) This song comes back up over and over again in the game, and we might find out it's significance in the series soon too. It's a bit of a contradiction though, since the outbreak was 2003 in the series, 10 years before the song came out. In the game, the outbreak is weeks after the song's release and Joel remembers it well. In this version, maybe we're going to go with Joel wrote the song himself or something. (Or just ignore the timeline issue, I guess.)
Dina brought up the Scars don't use electricity, for religious reasons. We find this out in the game too, though later, and we're told exceptions are made for the warriors.
Dina explains why she joined Ellie in going to Seattle, because of what a Raider/Hunter did to her mom and sister. (There's also the fact she with Joel when he died, though knocked out.) It was good to hear this though, to flesh out why she's there and make it believable. (In the game she came because she's an Ellie "groupie", as they call it.)
The scene with the stalkers was awesome. In the game you have to fight through a similar dilapidated building, as Ellie, with 8 stalkers, and you're alone, and it's very nerve wracking / terrifying. Ellie makes the decision to possibly sacrifice herself to save Dina...now it's Ellie that has to take care of Dina instead of the other way around. And she looks to be in a lot of trouble until Jessie steps in at the last moment, saving them and telling us Tommy came with him. Apparently they are there to bring Ellie back home.
The scenes with the Scars/Serpahites were eerily similar to the game. We find out Isaac is planning something from the Wolf they hang. This will matter later. The Scars use scythes and arrows and have attack & response whistles that sound exactly like they do in the game. Ellie manages to slip away from them pretty easily though, and she infiltrates the hospital barely batting an eyelash. I wish she would have had to earn those victories a little bit, maybe having to take out at least a couple Scars or Wolves. I liked that the soldiers have dogs though and one of them detected her. That's again a nod to the game as the Wolves' dogs play a big role in action scenes in the game and constantly break your stealth when they smell you.
The spores in the basement looked incredible, great special (practical?) effects here. The torture scene with Nora was very well done and I think answers the question whether Bella Ramsey can pull off terrifying, they can! The discussion between Ellie and Nora played out mostly as it does in the game, with some differences I'll mention below. I liked that they made you think at first that Nora is haunted by what she did to Joel and regrets that. She appears sincere, but then uses that to both surprise Ellie, to escape, and also to dig the knife in deeper.
I liked the Pearl Jam song "Present Tense" that played in the credits, as a further nod to Pearl Jam.
Significant differences from the game:
Dina joins Ellie on day 2 in this version. In the game she is sick or struggling hard with the pregnancy and stays behind. But this is mainly a mechanic to force the player to fight alone as Ellie, without a sidekick. Story wise that didn't make any sense so I'm glad Dina tagged along.
In the game Dina says if she had the person who killed her sister tied up in a chair, she would torture them. In the show, Dina (at age 8) came back before the killer had left and took him out. And she tells Ellie what happened to Joel should never happen to anyone regardless of what they did.
In the game, Ellie sets out twice by herself on Day 2. The first time she infiltrates the Wolves in a suburb of Seattle. Then she comes across Jessie randomly, who came all by himself, and is not mad at her, but explains he couldn't let her do this alone which is why he came. Then they go back to the theater to leave Jessie with Dina and Ellie sets out again for the hospital, then has various encountered with the infected including the stalker building. In the show, Jessie serves as a sort of deus ex machine, saving Ellie when she's about to die. He explains Tommy came with him and they split up. Jessie is mad at Ellie for coming to Seattle.
In the game, Tommy came to Seattle out ahead of Ellie and Dina and they've been following his trail of carnage. Dina does not get shot with an arrow from a Scar because she stayed at the theater.
Again many fight and action scenes are cut out for pacing and time, and to make Ellie's trek through Seattle more realistic. But it does make it somewhat awkward how she immediately stumbles upon Nora (who conveniently happens to be alone) when she gets to the hospital. In the game she has to stealth (or fight) her way in, and find out where Nora is, so finding her is earned by the player.
The wolves do not follow Norah and Ellie to the basement because no one has gas masks in this version. It does mean we do not get an awesome battle scene between Wolves and Infected, though we did get one last episode.
Ellie has to turn on the lights in the hospital basement. In the game they are already on. (Significance of this will matter later.)
Norah tells Ellie explicitly that Joel killed Abby's father. In the game it is implied it maybe took place off screen, but we don't witness it. Ellie says she already knew that, which we also don't see in the game. Though the next scene in the game is a flashback that fleshes this out somewhat. In the game Nora says there's no reason to turn on her friend (Abby) because she's dead anyway, from the spores. Ellie says she can make Nora’s death quick, or she can make it so much worse. I wish those lines would have made it in on the show. The rest of their conversations, both on the first floor and in the basement, reflect the game pretty well.
Still no sign of Shambler infected. It may be the case they're not going to be in the show but they've played a big role at this point in the 2nd game. The stalkers (which are not new in the games) appear to be usurping that role. I'll stop mentioning them though.
Spores are new in the series. In the game they’ve been an alternate way of being infected through the entire story. Everyone has gas masks so they can pass through underground areas or parts of buildings with spores, without getting infected.
The next episode, which looks to be a Joel and Ellie flashback, is going to be really good and should have some other fan favorite scenes for the game. I think this episode was a pretty good adaptation of Day 2 Seattle.
6.
[Show spoiler]Episode 6 is the "bottle" episode for the season. I thought this was definitely the best episode so far this season, and possibly for the series so far. Part of that is because several scenes are similar, but a totally different take on the corresponding scenes from the game. It also takes many powerful moments in the game, that are split up and spread out, and lays them all out to us at once. I’m not even going to try and keep this one short, I have too much to say. Skim as desired.
As this is the bottle episode, it consists of events not in the main timeline of the season. In season 1, episodes 3 (Bill and Frank) and episode 7 (Ellie and Riley) could be considered bottle episodes.
Ellie and Joel are back together at the end of the main credits! Yes! For one episode only though.
I want to go through each flashback 1 by 1, and I think they were all pretty important.
The flashback to Joel as a kid was really interesting, we've never seen any events from Joel’s life before Outbreak Day, and at most have a handful of stories (from the game) from before that time. As a teenager, Joel acts as a shield for Tommy from their father's abusive wrath, after Tommy gets in some trouble with drugs. But instead of hitting Joel, the father says that he has tried to do better than their grandfather did, and hopes Joel will do even better when he has a kid. So this is foreshadowing of the relationship Joel has with Ellie, and why he does what he does to save her.
After this, we move into a series of "birthday" flashbacks, featuring Joel and Ellie in their time at Jackson. In the first one, Ellie has just burned her bite scar to try and hide it. Joel is very concerned and calls her "baby girl", harkening back to what he called Sarah right before she died, and what he called Ellie after she had been attacked by and killed David (the cannibal). Joel makes a guitar for Ellie, complete with a moth embossed. And he plays Pearl Jam's "Future Days", which has become one of my favorite songs. Recall Joel promised in E1E9 to teach Ellie how to play guitar. We'll ignore, I suppose, the fact the song came out on 2013 (when the outbreak occurs in the game) but the Outbreak was in 2003 in the series. I mentioned this in the notes for the previous episode. It really is the perfect song for Joel to convey his feelings for Ellie, so I'm partly glad they decided to use that, even if it doesn't make sense that Joel knows the song. It was a nice touch that he needs a minute to remember how it goes before he starts playing it, almost as if he wrote it himself (maybe he did!). I also thought it was adorable that Ellie dived right into her birthday cake, that Joel had Seth make, not evening waiting for him to get utensils. I also liked that we saw Ellie has the A-ha cassette, which is how she learned “Take On Me”, to serenade Dina in episode 4.
The next flashback a year later recreates the iconic museum sequence from the game. I thought this part was really well done and faithful adaptation. It starts with Ellie trying to guess what Joel's birthday surprise is and being flabbergasted by the T-rex statue. I loved how she immediately climbed it and declared "I'm on a mf dinosaur". In the game you can jump off of it into the water below, I kind of wish they kept that in. They go right to the space section…we know from S1E6 Ellie is fascinated by space and wishes she could go to the moon, and also from episode 4 that she has lots of knowledge of the Apollo missions. The orrery, that turns the planets, was pretty cool. You can do that in the game too. The longest I've done it for is about 10 minutes to get Neptune to move about an inch. Of course the Apollo launch sequence scene is very special. In the making of segment for this episode, we learn from game creator Neil Druckmann that series creator Craig Mazin wanted that scene to flow *exactly* the way it is in the game. And it is faithful to a T, including Joel telling her to get a helmet, to surprising her with the countdown cassette that "took a mighty effort to find", and Ellie zoning out imagining what it would be like for the capsule to launch, how it would shake and reverberate, and with Joel asking if he did ok (duhh!). I know this is a fan favorite scene from the game and they adapted it very well. At the very end, when Ellie & Joel are trekking back through the woods, Ellie sees fireflies buzzing around. This is foreshadowing, and starts her down the path of questioning Joel's big lie.
Another year later Joel walks in out Ellie and Cat fooling around. We know from episode 1 this season, Dina said Cat and Ellie used to date. We also read some about Cat in Ellie's journal in the game, and that she gave Ellie her tattoo, which is to cover the burn & bite mark. We saw Cat in episode 1, she was the patrol leader, when Ellie came across a stalker in the supermarket. But Joel is very upset by finding them together, both that Ellie had someone over under his nose, and apparently also that it's a girl Ellie has over. He says she's not “being herself”. Ellie is rightfully incredulous and says it wasn't an experiment. This is apparently the first time Joel has realized Ellie could be gay. In the previous flashback, he asked Ellie if she liked Jessie and she just laughed at him. Because of Joel’s reaction, Ellie wants tries to move into the garage, and Joel decides it would be good if she has her own space. He asks her about her moth drawings, and Ellie says they are symbolic. Joel asks Gail what the moths mean, and she says they represent death. Later we see on one of the drawings Ellie wrote "You have a greater purpose." This is more foreshadowing, apparently Ellie has been dwelling on the thought that she was supposed to die in the hospital in Salt Lake, and that her death could matter.
Two more years later, Ellie is working up the courage to ask Joel exactly what happened at the hospital, how they survived, and why did everyone else there die. Before she gets the chance, Joel comes by and announces he's decided to finally let her go on patrol. Soon after, they hear over the radio that Eugene is in trouble, and though Joel wants Ellie to go back, she insists on coming along…it is patrol and they are partners. In what follows, we finally find out definitively what happened to Eugene. We know from episode 1 that Joel killed Eugene (Gail said this), and in episode 2, Jessie says Joel had to "put him down," implying Eugen was infected. When it was clear the Eugene is a much bigger character int he series in the game, fans thought they might have a bottle episode around Eugene, similar to the Bill & Frank back story episode from season 1. I am glad we get to see how Eugene died. But this serves as the key to Ellie realizing that Joel lied to her about what happened in the hospital. Eugene is, in fact, infected, and does need to be put down, but he pleads with Joel & Ellie to let him see Gail one last time. Harkening back to the first episode of the series, Ellie asks him to put out his arm and count to 10, without twitching, as she had to do for the Fireflies to show she was not turning, and was immune. Joel promises he won't kill Eugene until he can see Gail, saying "I promise.” But when Ellie is getting the horses, he marches Eugene down to a Lake and shoots him. Ellie is furious and tells Gail exactly what happened, and looks at Joel and says "You SWORE." You can see it in her face this about more than just Eugene. At the end of the first season, Ellie said "Swear to me, Swear to me that everything that you said about the Fireflies is true" and Joel replied "I swear". Now she has proof that Joel can make a promise to her face and lie. This was the last bit of evidence she needed to know that Joel lied about what happened at the hospital -- his explanation never made sense, and now she knows. And moreover, if Joel had let her die, Eugene wouldn't have had to die at all. No one would get infected any more.
By the way, Eugene was brilliantly played by Joe Pantoliano. Like Josh Peck, that’s another major guest appearance I had no idea was coming.
The last flashback is an expansion of the events of the first episode, starting at the dance on New year's Eve, Ellie is dancing with Dina, Joel is with Tommy and Maria, and Maria apologizes for calling him a refugee earlier in the day (when she had pressured him to build faster so they could let more people in the settlement). She tells Joel he is a valued member of the community, he's family. Then Seth calls Ellie and Dina slur and he pushes, Seth to the ground, and Ellie gets mad at him for interfering. It wasn't clear then why she was so upset with Joel, but now we know.
Then afterwards we see Ellie glaring at Joel on the porch, which is where it left off in Episode 1, but now we see she comes back to talk to him. I liked that they brought up Joel's coffee addiction here, we saw in Episode 3 Ellie left coffee beans at his grave. Anyway, what follows might be the most powerful scene in the whole series.
After Joel tries to make some chit chat Dina to soften the mood (says Dina would be lucky to have Ellie, yes!) Ellie says he's such an *******. She says he lied to her about Eugene, knowing he would kill him, and it was the same look he gave her when he swore that the Fireflies could not make a cure from her. She says he has one more chance to tell the truth or they're done. Joel acknowledges there were no other immune people, no Raiders/Hunters attacked the hospital, that he killed everyone there, and that he also killed Marlene. He's so ashamed, both of his actions and his lie, that he cannot bring himself to say anything, only nod yes or no. He explains to Ellie that making a cure would have killed her. (Recall in the last episode of the first season, it felt like Joel almost knew this ahead of time, in the giraffe scene, he tried to get Ellie to return to Jackson with him, when they were already there, but Ellie insisted they had come too far not to see it through.) Ellie replies, then she was supposed to die, that was her purpose, and her life would have mattered. There would be a cure, and Joel took that from her, and from everyone. Joel says he'll pay the price for that, but if he had it over he would do the same thing, because he loves her. And someday, if she has a kid, Ellie will understand, and hopefully she'll do a little better than he did, harkening back to what his father told him in the opening flashback.
And now we know why Ellie is so eager to raise a child with Dina, a child that's not even hers, because she wants to carry forward this mission Joel has given her, that he tried to do with her, a child who wasn't even his own. Ellie says she doesn't think she can forgive Joel, but she would like to try. And as we saw in the second episode, the next day she wanted to go on patrol with Jol, to start mending the relationship, but he had already left with Dina, to let Ellie sleep in, and to give her space. And that was the day he died. The porch scene is the last conversation Ellie and Joel have. Really amazing scene, everyone nailed it, especially Pedro and Bella, and Druckmann who directed it.
The episode ends with Ellie returning to the theater, having killed Nora, with hate on her face. And now we realize why she has been pursuing this revenge quest with such vigor and determination.
Writing all of this up, I feel even more convinced this was the best episode of the series. And I doubt next week will top it. But we'll see what next, and the last, season brings.
Significant differences from the game:
This episode depicts 5 separate flashbacks from the game, with some events and dialog moves around, some events cut entirely, and several new scenes as well. The flashbacks are spread out over the entire length of the game, and not told all at once within an hour, as they are in the show. In the game, this works well. We don't know Ellie was mad at Joel until *after* Nora is killed. We’re kept completely in the dark on that. We think their father-daughter bond strengthened over time, and that is why she want revenge so strongly. So the flashbacks have been slowly giving us pieces of evidence as to what's going on. Also, in the game, we find out at this point Abby was Firefly, but do not yet know why she wanted to kill Joel. Of course, in the show, we learned a long time ago why Abby wanted to kill Joel.
In the game, the first flashback is the museum sequence. The second flashback involves Tommy teaching Ellie how to snipe (we saw part of this in Episode 1 with them sniping and talking about the mechanics of sniping, though it wasn't in a flashback), then Ellie and Joel go on patrol and come across some infected teenager from Jackson. In the third flashback, Ellie returns to the Salt Lake hospital and confronts Joel over his lies, after he catches up with her. The fourth flashback (which happens much later in the game) is the dance scene, shortly followed by the porch scene (the firth flashback).
The flashback to Joel's childhood does not occur nor is any aspect of Joel's childhood or father ever mentioned.
The first birthday flashback does not occur at all, including the interaction between Seth and Joel trading, Legos for a cake and such. However, we do see Joel giving Ellie a guitar, shortly after they arrive at Jackson, and he teacher her the Pearl Jam song. This is not a flashback though, the 2nd game picks up just after the end of the first game, then zooms to 4 years later. Ellie is already living in a garage though, so she never "moved out".
The museum sequence is truncated for time & spacing, and to remove gameplay elements. In the game, there's a sequence where they have to swim to the museum. After arriving, there is a whole dinosaur exhibit they explore, and they rib each other the whole time, and it's really seeing them poke fun at each other. (We just get the T-rex portion of this in the show, though it's awesome.) In the space exhibit, Ellie shows off all of her space knowledge, which we unfortunately don't get in the show, though she has made it clear in other episodes she knows a lot about space. Afterwards, they go to another part of the museum, but the door is blocked and Joel has to boost her up. So she is alone in the next exhibit. She thinks she hears some infected, but it turns out to be a wild pig and Joel rescues her. But while she was alone, she finds notes from a family betrayed by the fireflies, and sees their corpses. This starts her down the path of questioning Joel big lie. In the show, she just sees fireflies buzzing in the woods.
As mentioned there is a flash back with Ellie and Joel on patrol that is cut out completely. We can maybe say this is replaced by the Eugene flashback, but they are pretty different. In the game, after Tommy teaches Ellie about sniping, they relieve Joel at a lookout. Then Joel and Ellie leave together to find new strings for her guitar. Joel says she's been doing well in group patrols and Jessie has recommended her for paired patrols. In the show, it's still a year later before Joel lets her patrol at all. They come across a hotel filled with spores and fight through it, having to kill a bloater at the end. It's at this time that Joel talks about Jessie and Dina and that he thinks Jessie could have feeling her. After this, they have to kill a clicker, and it turns out he was a teenager from Jackson. He and his girlfriend got infected, and he killed her, but couldn't bring himself to commit suicide, so he turned, and has been stuck in the hotel as a clicker every since. After Joel says they have to get the bodies back to Jackson, Ellie confronts him about the hospital. She asks why did he pull her out when she was still unconscious. Joel says he let the Fireflies run some tests, and when they were useless he got her out of there. (In the game, Joel never tells Ellie the hospital was attacked by Hunters/Raiders, because she was never awake at any point while in the hospital, as she is in the show.)
In the next flashback in the game, Ellie takes off in the middle of the night to return to the hospital in Utah, leaving a note behind for Joel. Once there, she finds a journal from the Fireflies that makes it clear they could make a cure from her, but that the only person who could do it was now dead. Joel comes after her and arrives at the hospital. This is when Ellie gives him one more chance to tell the truth. If he does, she says she'll go back to Jackson, but if he lies again, he'll never see her again. Joel says making a cure would have killed her. Ellie is stunned and in disbelief. She apparently never believed it was really possible that Joel had lied, even if she somehow knew. She says she'll go back to Jackson, but she and Joel are “done.”
The flashback with Eugene does not occur at all. In the game, Eugene died of natural causes, and his only purpose doe the story is that he built the underground hideout where Ellie and Dina fall in love (which happens before Joel dies). I do like that they fleshed out Eugene more in the show. And this flashback was pretty powerful. However, this means that in the show, the reason Ellie is mad at Joel is 1.) for killing Eugene the way he did and 2.) for his lie about the hospital. But she doesn't know with certainty yet that he did lie about the latter. In the game, she is mad at him solely because of his lie, and she does know with certainty that he lied, because he confirmed it.
The porch scene takes place mostly the way it does in the show. The initial part with Ellie glaring at him and walking away is not in the game. But in the show, this was misdirection, to make us think Ellie never got a chance to put things right with Joel because his murder, and that her final words to him were "I can take care of myself!" at the dance. Other than that, in the game Joel has already admitted he lied, so the dialog relating to him lying already took place at the Salt Lake flashback.
Joel is never mad at or in disbelief that Ellie is gay. We go from him being clueless that she is (insisting Jessie likes her), to defending her honor when Seth calls her a slur.
Though the moths are a theme throughout the game, their meaning is never explained explicitly.
Really, really good episode. And I'm looking forward to the season finale next week, and where they will end things and if it will be a cliffhanger. Obviously in the game you can just keep playing to see how things turn out, but we will have a long break after this finale.
7.
[Show spoiler]In the season finale episode, Ellie makes one last push to find Abby, is almost killed along the way by the Scars, and fights with and makes up with Jesse, accidentally kills Mel & Owen. She finally gets a confrontation with Abby, and it ends on a massive cliffhanger, with hints we're about to follow Abby's story leading up to this point in the saga.
Day 3 Seattle is highly abbreviated from the game. But we do get some nice additions. However, I did think it was too fast paced for the amount of ground covered. It's not as powerful as I was hoping it would be and I think we could have spent more time with Ellie's trek to the aquarium. Some scenes were really good though and emotionally heavy.
But what this episode did show us is just how far Ellie has fallen, and she knows it. She's had a singular focus on finding and killing Abby, to the exclusion or more pressing concerns, e.g. Dina's health and rescuing Tommy. When Mel asks her to cut the baby out and Ellie doesn't know what to do, she realizes she is helpless and has lost all sense of who she is, and can only sit there and sob.
Later, Ellie admits to Tommy that Abby will get to live, and it will just have to be that way. She has to let it go. To that point, after Jesse is shot she makes the decision to potentially sacrifice herself to Abby, in order to save Tommy and Dina. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a long time to see how that turns out.
Recall that David (the cannibal), in season 1 Ep 7, said Ellie had a violent heart. And Gail in episode 3 this season implied that Ellie is a psychopath, that it's in her nature, and it can't be changed. We saw how that played out, with Ellie torturing Nora. And Ellie tells Dina she thought it would be hard, but it was actually really easy. Maybe it's good that she realized by the end of the episode that she's turning into an instrument of vengeance, and she doesn't like it. Remember, the day before he died, Joel said that she hopes one day if Ellie has a kid he does a little better than he did. She realizes she's on a path to do worse.
I didn't like how much of a jerk Jesse is to Ellie in this episode. We got a taste of that in episode 5 too when he saved her and Dina but was angry that they came to Seattle. In the game he is sympathetic to their cause. However, it did make for a nice moment at the end when Jesse realizes that, despite her recklessness, Ellie would go to the ends of the Earth to save him if needed, and she replies that she would. I see it as his attempt at an apology for how he’s treated her the past 2 days.
I liked that we got to see some additional Isaac scenes including his plans to attack the Scar/Seraphite island, And he mentions how Abby was missing, and that he's upset about it because he wanted Abby to leave the group after he dies (likely that night, he says). I also liked that we saw Sergeant Park again from episode 5.
The scene with Ellie and Jesse witnessing the wolves attacking a Scar teenager was interesting. Jesse said these people are killing each other and it's not their fight, and they should stay out of this conflict, and this city. Ellie thought they shouldn't have let a kid just die in front of them like that. This probably also a part of why she's so emotional when Mel and her baby die.
I loved the scenes in the storm with Ellie on the skiff. The rain and thunder sounded amazing in my headphones. This was really well done. I also liked they included the giant wave that wipes her out, as in the game.
The scene with Ellie almost being gutted and hanged by the scars was pretty tense and I didn't know how she was going to get out of it. (This is not in the game.) She was saved by the Wolves' attack on the Seraphite island. The warning horn is harrowing and sounds exactly as it does in the game.
The scene with Mel and Owen was pretty powerful, and the addition of Mel pleading will Ellie to cut her baby out was heartbreaking. Bella Ramsey's performance was incredible. I could feel Ellie's sense of helplessness in this situation.
The final scene at the theater with Abby was very well done. Kaitlyn Dever's delivery of the lines "I let you live, I let you live, and you wasted it" cut like a knife. I could feel the ager in her face. This exceeded the delivery of the corresponding lines in the game.
I liked that Ellie was going to have Mel and Owen separately point to where Abby was on a map, a tactic she learned from Joel. But it didn't work out since Owen pulled a gun on her, and when Ellie shot back it killed Owen, and Mel was hit when the bullet passed through him.
I liked the scene with Dina bathing Ellie's back…a very sensual moment.
I liked that Jesse revealed he voted no in episode 3 to send a group of 16 citizens to Seattle to kill Abby. I suspected this based on his reservations in talking about the vote before it took place.
Significant differences from the game:
Dina was not shot with an arrow by the Scars in the game, because she stayed behind on Day 2. But her refusal to drink clues in Jesse she may be pregnant, who tricks Ellie in to confirming that. In the game, he just figures this Dina may be pregnant form her lethargy and asks Ellie if that’s the case (she says yes but don’t tell Dina he knows).
In the episode, Ellie tells Dina what Joel did at the hospital and why Abby wanted to kill him. In the game she never tells Dina this, at least not that we see. We're also not sure in the game if Ellie *ever* find s out that Abby's father was killed by Joel, though in the show Nora told Ellie this outright in episode 5.
As mentioned, Jesse is much nicer to Ellie in the game and wished they would have brought him along in the first place. He is a massive jerk to her in the show and mad that he had to come out to Seattle, to a war zone, to save her and Dina.
Jesse and Ellie do not come across a Seraphite teenager being attacked by Wolves. They have confrontation with infected and Wolves that are primarily gameplay related. It would have been nice if they included the Comics convention center they come across in the game, where Jesse explains to her that comic fans, like Ellie, would gather together. And Ellie says she they were born in the wrong time.
In the game, Norah told Ellie that Abby is at the aquarium. In the show, Ellie has to deduce this, as all Norah manages to say is Ferris wheel (which is at the aquarium).
When Ellie refuses to help Jesse find Tommy, and goes to the aquarium instead, the fight they have is much bigger than it is in the game. They argue about community (Jesse’s says his community is Jackson, Ellie says her was Joel), and what the bigger person should do. In the game, Ellie just tries to convince Jesse that Tommy is probably at the aquarium too, and Jesse is stunned she puts revenge about helping Tommy, but realizes there's no point in arguing with her and simply says, "I really hope you make it."
In the game, we don't find out at this point (Day 3) that Isaac is planning an attack on the Seraphite Island...we don't even know yet that they live on an island. We know Isaac has plans for something big but don't know what. We don't find out yet that Abby is AWOL from the Wolves and that Owen and Mel are missing too.
Ellie does not land on the Scar island (and almost get hanged and gutted) in the game, though apparently this was planned for the game and cut. So now it's in the show.
Ellie's fight with a bloater in an arcade, on the way to the aquarium, is cut entirely. I wish they made the episode 10 minutes longer and kept this in. We've had no infected in episodes 6 & 7.
In the game Tommy found a gold watch to bribe Maria when he returns, fearing her anger at him leaving Jackson. This doesn't happen in the show. Of course in the game Tommy also left for Seattle by himself ahead of Ellie in Dina, in hopes it would stop them from going. Jesse came later, after Dina and Ellie leave, not with Tommy.
In the game, Mel isn't killed by the same bullet that kills Owen. She attacks Ellie with a knife and then Ellie kills her and she dies quickly, no chance to say she’s pregnant. Owen then tells Ellie with his last breath that Mel is pregnant. Ellie is never asked to cut the baby out, never contemplates doing so, and is significantly less emotional about the events. She does not cry, though she struggles to breathe. Tommy finds her quickly so she does not have time to think about it for very long.
Ellie is not attacked by and does not kill the Owen & Mel's dog Alice. They may have cut this out since many gamers did not like having to kill a dog.
In the game, we don't hear a gunshot after Abby says she let them live and Ellie wasted it. It cuts immediately to a flashback of Abby at Salt Lake from the day her father dies. In the show, we hear a gunshot, and it cuts to Abby in the bookstore on Day 1 Seattle (2 days ago), and then we see the massive WLF presence at the Seattle football stadium. We might get the Salt Lake flashback later.
There seemed to be an attempt to imply the Seraphites have more than 1 prophet. Ellie and Jesse see another "Feel her Love" sign and Ellie if there's more than one of them (prophets? signs?). Not sure what she meant, but in the game there's definitely only one prophet.
Ellie's collection of superhero cards is recurring theme in the game, but it was never brought up once the whole season. In the first game, her Savage Starlight comic collection was a recurring theme and that did make it into the show in the first season.
This was a pretty good episode but I think too much happened in too little time. And I worry what show viewers, who haven't played the game, will make of the cliffhanger and cut back to Abby at the football stadium a few days earlier. But I loved how they played "Burden in My Hand" by Soundgarden during the credits. Anyway, the penultimate episode definitely bests this one, but given the narrative structure of the series so far, this was a decent way to end the season.
And here is the link to the corresponding post with all my notes for season 1.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...9&postcount=87
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