We’re just two days away from The Last of Us’ second season finale. Season two is only seven episodes long, making it a good bit shorter than the first season, which recounted the entire story of the first game across nine episodes. HBO’s live-action series is splitting The Last of Us Part II’s story into three seasons, and based on Gail actor Catherine O’Hara’s statements to Variety about season three, long-time fans probably have an inkling as to where the season two finale will leave off when it airs on Max this Sunday. If you’re the type of person who likes to read a refresher before a season finale, good news: we’ve been recapping every episode of the season each week, and have put them all into one convenient place for you to read. Here are all six of our episodic deep dives on Ellie’s revenge tour through Seattle.
2 / 8
“Future Days,” the first episode of The Last of Us season two, opens with the closing moments of season one. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are standing on a hill with the Jackson settlement they’ll call home in the distance. Ellie, unconvinced by Joel’s story about raiders massacring the Firefly revolutionaries who were looking to make a cure for the cordyceps fungus, asks the smuggler to swear that everything he said is true. Joel hesitates and then says that he swears. However, rather than keeping the now-iconic hard cut to black on Ellie’s skeptical face as she says “okay,” season two shows her walking down the hill and leaving Joel in an uncomfortable silence. This unnecessary addition to a scene that was once perfect is a pretty concise encapsulation of the season’s biggest problems. But it’s hardly the most egregious example in this episode.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode One Recap: Everybody Hates Joel
3 / 8
Welcome back to another recap of The Last of Us season two. It’s the big one, folks. Please leave all your golf clubs at the door on your way in so as not to impart any more emotional damage to your fellow readers. Get your “Fore!” or “birdie” jokes out of your system. Anyone who played The Last of Us Part II knew what was coming, but there’s still a lot to unpack in how HBO’s live-action show adapts one of the most harrowing moments in the series.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode Two Recap: When Wolves Attack
4 / 8
Hey folks. Y’all feeling alright after last week’s harrowing episode of The Last of Us? Everybody have a productive therapy session to talk about your TV peepaw’s death? Alright, cool, because we’re gonna spend this week’s episode doing more therapy and leaning harder into the show’s worst tendencies. Strap in, folks. I’m about to start swinging.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode Three Recap: On The Road Again
5 / 8
Well, y’all, this week I decided to give The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin a break. I’ve been pretty harsh toward the show’s second season for fundamentally misunderstanding so many of the bold creative decisions of the game on which it’s based. This week’s episode, however, was the best—or at least the least frustrating—one yet. We’re firmly in Seattle for Ellie’s revenge tour, and while she doesn’t quite get to any of her targets this week, we do get plenty of time to see her and Dina be cute and gay together, as well as an explosive intro to one of the best characters in the show, and some new details about the war between the Seraphites and the W.L.F.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode Four Recap: U-Haul Lesbian Road Trip
6 / 8
Ellie finally got a little bit of revenge this week. How are we feeling? Not as cathartic as you thought it was gonna be, huh? HBO’s take on The Last of Us is finally back in the trenches after a few weeks of levity, or at the very least with its grisly revenge plot out of sight and mostly out of mind. It’s been interesting watching newcomers react to the show, roaring and ready for Ellie to exact her pound of flesh. But, unlike the game, the first taste the show gives us of her revenge tour starts with something just as disturbing as Joel’s death three episodes ago. It’s a complicated scene to unpack for several reasons, but we have a fair bit of television to get through before we get there.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode Five Recap: Seeing Red
7 / 8
Look, y’all, I try to start these recaps with lighthearted jokes and gags that all of us, both lovers and haters of The Last of Us season two, can enjoy, to set a welcoming and pleasant tone before I start unleashing my critiques of a given episode. However, I don’t think I have it in me this week. I’ve been dreading writing a recap for the sixth episode of this season because it is exactly the kind of sentimental, dramatic episode of television that often captivates audiences and gets award show buzz, but it is also one of the most nauseating adaptations of the original work the show has given us yet. This is where all of showrunner Craig Mazin’s odd creative choices collide like the gnarliest 10-car pileup you’ve ever witnessed, and the result is the absolute bastardization of the most important scene in all of The Last of Us Part II.
Read more: The Last Of Us Season Two, Episode Six Recap: Days Of You And Me
8 / 8