(This is so late because writing and posting from the hospital, rehab, and now my parents’ house has been super difficult! I am sorry! Please send well wishes to Mama Megs; she is finally HOME! YAY! I am working hard to find a balance between at-home nursing duties for Mama and being a normal human being! We are slowly getting there!)
This episode had a few moments where I got extremely excited because I thought we might be back on track! Using the notes I compiled and re-watching for this post.
Okay episode five! Onward, shimmer! (jk she’s chilling in the music store)
Interesting start! It would appear this is the WLF, and this woman is the woman who met Issac. We don’t know her role in the WLF (yet) so interesting to throw her more screen time.
This scene plays well. However, not entirely sure why I care.
They mention Issac and that the ‘truce may be broken’ and he is dealing with it now. They mention Leon at the beginning to build tension as if I should know who the woman is and feel something towards her, even though the WLFS have been very clearly painted as antagonists to Ellie, then later throw away that it was her son. They also mention ‘not even rats’ clearly setting up the basement section for season three (RAT KING BABY! #iykyk) then they reveal ‘its in the air’ setting up for Ellie’s chase with Nora. Essentially this entire scene functions as a set up for major plot points later, very little emotional depth here for me, even though I think it was intended that way. Just plot.
I legit have nothing to say about this scene. They wrote it for me. They actually wrote this line. About my Ellie. My beloved, smart, capable Ellie. When and how did Dina learn every single skill to survive? And how did Ellie forget EVERYTHING Joel ever taught her? Anyways on to main character Dina show.
AND right when I am out they pull me back in god dammit. Something that I think was powerful in the game was Ellie collapsing from exhaustion in the chair with the guitar. Here it was powerful to see the tonal shift in Ellie as she sung THE song. God BLESS Neil (only time I will ever say this) for NOT changing Pearl Jam despite the timeline shift. I am TRULY so proud of this creative decision. BLESS UP!
Again, and I seriously don’t know how many times I have to type this, I have lost the energy to do so but how is Dina so smart? She is able to figure out where Nora is IN the hospital. triangulate the position of all the patrols and map out a route. Then outta nowhere drops that she knows what amish people were in ‘03. And they connect that to the Seraphites.
I just love these shots around Seattle and wish we spent more time with them. That’s all.
This speech from Dina, which justifies her motivation for continuing despite the pregnancy only continues to make her the main character of this story. Again, Ellie is presented as confused, wanting to turn back to protect Dina. NEVER in the game does Ellie try to turn back because of the pregnancy or because of Dina’s own internal conflict. This scene from Dina helps justify Ellie’s crusade across Seattle which is a bizarre creative choice. It completely changes much of Ellie’s motivations because now Dina wants revenge just as much as Ellie, which was never indicted in the game. And we are still wondering how much Dina is aware of the situation, which parallels the lie Joel told Ellie in a different way.
Somehow we managed to get to the patrol and Dina’s hair remained perfect. okay then.
And they have to have a long conversation about not shooting a gun because apparently once again Ellie just doesn’t know how to survive anymore.
This scene was scary but still a little strange to me. They really couldn’t handle a room of stalkers but they were gonna take on the WLF 🤔
‘You think I’d let you do this on your own?’ #iykyk
Jesse saving them here was convenient but I actually thought it was a great moment. They escape narrowly and his anger towards Ellie is justified. As an audience member I actually enjoyed having Jesse be more commanding and take the lead of the situation. Again, it feels like it worked because of Ellie’s confusion throughout much of the last two episodes. Jesse has come to save these two and Ellie’s justification no longer works with Jesse here.
So we now see that the Seraphites are brutally executing people. So….they aren’t the good guys? Extremely confused about how this conflict is being presented. just that there is a lot of violence from everybody?
Then Dina gets 360 no scoped in the knee in complete darkness (with perfect hair btw) and Ellie randomly stumbles through the dark and she hides in a hole in the ground. PRONE FOR THE WIN. LETS GO!
Then Ellie sees the hospital 2 miles away and says ‘fuck my girlfriend, revenge time’. This actually…..is the first time I feel they got her character right. However, it makes no sense in the context of this show. It’s in the last 3 minutes Ellie decided she was determined to get to the hospital.
Thats a good, Bear. (Not Bonnie, why change this? Such a subtle easter egg they could’ve included for fans.)
Also with zero action to get into hospital the stakes feel significantly lower for the Nora scene. However I guess they want us to understand from the opening scene that something BIG is festering inside the hospital. Again, we simply DO NOT know this because we don’t see or hear Abby mentioned. And we don’t get anymore action after the chase, just the spores, which look incredible but its hard to know how significant this is without more context
I think an extremely interesting change is that Nora is treating patiences in the hospital instead of just gathering supplies. This means this is a functioning hospital. Again, we don’t know what part this will play in Abby’s story for 2 years so hopefully you remember this!
Nora chase 🏃
They changed it slightly so they went down the elevator shaft, which if you play the game on perma then you know that elevator jump is the mightiest if enemies to many (not me though!) Also, Ellie hit your shots! gosh!
Really love this shot. RIP to Leon the GOAT.
I desperately hope that they do more with hospital basement in season three, otherwise half of this episode is wasted.
This scene was really great in terms of acting and building up to Ellie’s moment of collapse, but I felt that this moment revealed too much.
In the game, Nora reveals very little about why they did what they did. And (slight game spoilers) Ellie never actually finds out who Abby is in relation to the Fireflies. Ellie never knows that Joel killed Abby’s dad. It is a powerful reminder that Ellie is blinded by her revenge, and she never questions why she is doing what she is doing – only that it must be done because Abby deserves to die for what she did to her own father (figure).
This revelation absolutely undermines all of that and again changes so much of the story moving forward.
Ending it with the brutal torture shot and cutting away to a flashback is a choice. It makes me wonder what discussions were had about the pacing of season 2 into 3. Because this is absolutely abysmal. we went through all the first 2 days most of which is ellie’s exploration of seattle in the game and just quick 2 hours here all with Dina before being saved by jesse. zero exploration. zero alone screen time for ellie to sit in the emotions she is holding back before a quick jaunt to the hospital to find abby, despite showing hesitation just a few SHORT hours before, and now she is torturing a woman to death for answers. HOW AND WHY WILL THEy EXPAND ABBY’S STORY IN SEASON 3? how will they expand on her 3 days in seattle? will they expand? and why are we getting such a short time with ellie when she is suppose to be the protagonist of this story?
(For these reviews, I am not using any of the outside interviews Neil or Craig have given explaining the choices made in the episodes. Or things they have said to explain the lore of these games. I strictly take what is shown on screen during the episodes. If I want to dive further into it, I will make a video 😅 this is in reference to the cure bullshit Neil has been saying since the start of press for season 2.)
And I will see you next time for episode 6 and this guy 😉
Josh Vallejo Content 