You're Missing the Point of The Last of Us

The internet really pisses me off sometimes.

Watching season two of The Last of Us week by week has definitely been an experience. I've never played the video games that the show is based on, so everything that happened in the first three episodes has been a complete surprise. I would suggest that you keep it that way if you can. There will be spoilers here, but not just yet. I have some stuff I need to get off my chest first.

In the finale of season one, when Ellie's life is at stake, Joel slaughters the Fireflies, the very people that they have spent the whole season trying to find. Ellie is unconscious during this scene, and when she comes to in the back of Joel's truck, he tells her a lie whose ramifications will echo through the next season. He tells her that the Fireflies let them go. He tells her, essentially, that nothing happened. Joel takes away Ellie's agency. I believe that at that point, Ellie would have made the decision to die in order to create a vaccine. But because Joel loves Ellie, because he isn't willing to lose her, he takes that choice away.

Despite how much charm and pathos Pedro Pascal brings to the character, make no mistake. Joel is not a good person. He knows it, but for some reason the people watching the show, at least the loud ones on the internet, don't seem to get that. Just because he is the lead doesn't mean that you have to accept his actions without question. In season one, literally every character that has encountered Joel is afraid of him. He has the reputation of a ruthless, cold-blooded killer. Yes, he did what he had to do to survive in impossible situations. Yes, he is still a sympathetic character. You feel for Joel throughout season 1. I feel for Joel. The whole point of the first season is how far people will go to protect the ones they love, and Joel does whatever he feels he needs to in order to protect Ellie. But violence has consequences.

Those people he killed had families. One of them had a daughter named Abby. In the five years since the end of season one, in the five years since Joel murdered her father, Abby has made it her mission to make him pay for what he did. In a lot of ways, Abby reminds me of Joel, who had a very similar reaction when his daughter was killed in the pilot episode.

And then there's Ellie. She has done a lot of changing in between the seasons. In season one she was a tough, no-bullshit smart alec, but she was still 14. She needed Joel, and she relied on him. In season two, Ellie is 19, and all she really wants is to be her own person. She still cares deeply for Joel, but his constant attempts to protect her, to treat her like the little girl he risked everything for, are putting a strain on their relationship.

I'm going to say something, and get it out of the way now. I love Bella Ramsey in this role. I think they are doing an amazing job, just as they did in season one. The online backlash they are facing from fans who are angry that they don't look enough like Ellie from the video game actually disgusts me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the vitriolic body shaming and toxic fan culture surrounding the show are just some of the reasons I'm finding it hard to enjoy The Last of Us. They were never going to recast Ellie you morons, Ramsey has been playing this character for two years already, so get over yourselves. I could write a whole other article about this, but I have more shit to get to. Suffice it to say, I was already mad at the internet. And then episode two happened.

Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff. Hard-core spoilers from here on in. You've been warned.

So Joel is dead, and he did not go gently into that good night. After he saves Abby from a zombie horde, she tricks him into following her to a chalet on the mountain, where her friends are waiting. They ambush Joel, and Abby does exactly what she promised she would. She kills Joel slowly, excrutiatingly. It takes so long that Ellie even has time to find them, but she's too late. All she can do is watch as Abby takes away the one person in the world that she loved the most. Sound familiar?

Final side note, Ramsey's performance in this episode is magnificent and gut-wrenching. The haters need to shut the fuck up.

On the internet, Abby hate is, understandably, rampant. But I really do feel for her. The three main characters in this show are incredibly similar. They are driven by trauma and by anger, and even though we might root for one and not the other, all of their actions are easy to understand. I find it incredibly hypocritical for the internet to hate Abby, to hope that Ellie kills her, and in the next breath to accept what Joel did to her without question. He did the EXACT same thing she did. And now, tragically, Ellie is prepared to repeat it again. If anyone really thought about it, they would hope that Ellie listens to the town council in episode three and chooses forgiveness instead of revenge. The cycle ends there, and Ellie gets to remain the morally good character we fell in love with. But that doesn't make for good television. As Gail said, "Some people just can't be saved."

At this point, even as someone who has never played the games, it's pretty clear what the theme of this season will be. The price of violence, and the emptiness of revenge. In her relentless quest for justice, Abby has become the very thing she set out to destroy. She will have to pay for her transgressions, just like Joel did. At the end of season one, Joel's selfish act and the lie that followed has destroyed the trust between him and Ellie, creating a distance with the girl whose like a daughter to him. And now it has cost him his life, along with any time he might have had to make it right with her. But that's not enough. Now we have to watch the cycle repeat again, this time with Ellie. Obviously, Ellie will stop at nothing to kill Abby. She must exact her revenge, or what she sees as justice. She isn't the little girl from season one anymore. She's becoming Joel, and remember: Joel is not a good person.

Season two is about three bad people. That doesn't mean we can't care for them, or want the best for them, and it certainly doesn't mean that they are evil. All three are complex characters with complex motivations. Joel, Abby and Ellie are far from heroes, but try telling that to the angry mob on the internet.

It really is fascinating to me that gamers and non-gamers alike seem to have completely missed the point. For a lot of the internet, Joel's death has been a foregone conclusion for five years. People who played the games know even more than I do. They know what happens next. So why is everyone so mad? To an extent I get it. I was sad to see him go. I wanted more time with Joel and Ellie. I wanted them to heal their relationship, and I wanted more Pedro Pascal. But that's clearly not the point of the story. Audience reviews and comment sections are full of people saying that the show killed off its protagonist, that there is no point in watching anymore. They are asking, "Why would you kill Joel? He was the good guy!"

First of all, Joel was NEVER the protagonist of the show. Maybe if Pedro wasn't so damn charismatic more people would get that. Ellie has always been the lead of this show, at least in my opinion. And second of all, Joel is NOT the good guy! He is a sympathetic anti-hero. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but clearly a specific segment of internet commenters need me to. He did a terrible thing and he paid for it. The gruesome and cruel circumstances of his death don't change that. His death will have huge ramifications for the rest of the characters, and I'm willing to bet that Ellie is about to take a dark turn. I feel like her revenge quest isn't going to end well, either. My prediction is that either she does kill Abby and becomes the villain of season three, or that she has the chance to exact her revenge, but chooses to spare Abby, finally learning the lesson that those before her couldn't. Gamers, please don't spoil it for me. It's just a hunch.

You can not like the direction that The Last of Us is going. It's a very divisive move to kill off one of your main characters so early in the second season. It's also a very interesting one. The decision to kill Joel thematically strengthens the show, and creates opportunities for character growth and interesting stories. Now other characters have more of a chance to shine, and the world has a chance to grow outside of the dynamic duo that viewers love. I, for one, don't know how I will feel about the show going forward, but I'm excited to see. Maybe all of my predictions are wrong and I'll look like a big dumb idiot in a few weeks. Maybe I won't like the new character direction as much as Joel and Ellie from season one. Maybe I'll even stop watching. But I'm going to at least give the show a chance first. Because just maybe, I'll like it even more.