The Last of Us: Future Days Show Only
April 13, 2025 11:13 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Five years after the events in Salt Lake city, a now 19-year-old Ellie makes a discovery while on patrol with her best friend Dina. Back in Jackson Hole, Joel seeks help to mend his relationship with Ellie. [Season 2 premiere]
Seems to me that if a 19 year old were behaving that poorly when going on important, military-type patrol duties, that 19 year old would be punished more severely than what she got. And the show led us to believe she had been behaving poorly like that for a while now. She would have been suspended from patrols already. I'm sure that town has a bunch of other important duties she could be assigned to that don't involve risking other people's lives (and her life).
I know she's the main character in the series, but in this particular walled city with literal monsters roaming outside, trying to infect or kill people, it wouldn't matter who she was or where she came from, or if she is or was under Joel's (or anyone's) protection. I get that they are showing us she's super tough and going through a rebellious period, but she's also wearing a bunch of implausible plot armor and it bugged me.
Other than that, another good episode with some great performances. They did a good job aging-up Joel, and it was good to see Catherine O'Hara in a different type of role.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:53 AM on April 14 [12 favorites]
I know she's the main character in the series, but in this particular walled city with literal monsters roaming outside, trying to infect or kill people, it wouldn't matter who she was or where she came from, or if she is or was under Joel's (or anyone's) protection. I get that they are showing us she's super tough and going through a rebellious period, but she's also wearing a bunch of implausible plot armor and it bugged me.
Other than that, another good episode with some great performances. They did a good job aging-up Joel, and it was good to see Catherine O'Hara in a different type of role.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:53 AM on April 14 [12 favorites]
Fair points, SoberHighland, but I suspect the in-universe answer is “there aren’t *that* many people who have shown they can survive close combat with Infected on their own, and are willing to risk more of it; these people are a scarce resource, so they get a bit more leeway.”
posted by Mr. Excellent at 8:50 AM on April 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr. Excellent at 8:50 AM on April 14 [2 favorites]
OK one more issue: After getting assaulted by one of these infectious monsters, wouldn't the immediate reaction of this experienced community be: Put her in locked quarantine and have a medical expert inspect her carefully? She could have been bitten. Or she might have had a concussion or any other kind of injury.
It was clearly and repeatedly spelled out by her supervisors that it was a routine scouting/patrol mission. Yet she goes way, way out of her way to put herself and others in harms' way. And she does indeed get hurt, and possibly could have gotten other team members hurt.
I get that she's a badass. But is she really such an awesome badass that they would keep assigning her to this kind of duty? They didn't even need or want any badass behavior on that mission. It was supposed to be purely scouting!
If any military member disobeyed rules that blatantly they would at the very least be assigned to do something else. This was not an emergency that required a badass.
I'm not trying to pick on the show. I enjoy the show overall. The episode that focused on the two older men in the first season was one of the best things I've seen on television in forever. I am rooting for this show. But all of these things in this first episode of season 2 really irked my wife and me.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:40 AM on April 14 [6 favorites]
It was clearly and repeatedly spelled out by her supervisors that it was a routine scouting/patrol mission. Yet she goes way, way out of her way to put herself and others in harms' way. And she does indeed get hurt, and possibly could have gotten other team members hurt.
I get that she's a badass. But is she really such an awesome badass that they would keep assigning her to this kind of duty? They didn't even need or want any badass behavior on that mission. It was supposed to be purely scouting!
If any military member disobeyed rules that blatantly they would at the very least be assigned to do something else. This was not an emergency that required a badass.
I'm not trying to pick on the show. I enjoy the show overall. The episode that focused on the two older men in the first season was one of the best things I've seen on television in forever. I am rooting for this show. But all of these things in this first episode of season 2 really irked my wife and me.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:40 AM on April 14 [6 favorites]
I'm on the same page, SoberHighland. The lack of consequences for being so sloppy, when the situation is so dire, takes me out of the show.
I get that it's been several decades, but teenager or no, I don't think people in that environment would be so carefree. I think of children that worked in coal mines or factories during the early twentieth century.
I get that they're trying to create a contrast with the other people on patrol, but it doesn't ring true.
posted by ishmael at 11:03 AM on April 14 [3 favorites]
I get that it's been several decades, but teenager or no, I don't think people in that environment would be so carefree. I think of children that worked in coal mines or factories during the early twentieth century.
I get that they're trying to create a contrast with the other people on patrol, but it doesn't ring true.
posted by ishmael at 11:03 AM on April 14 [3 favorites]
Also, they're implying that Eugene was killed by Joel for being infected, so it's not like there aren't recent reminders of how serious their situation is.
posted by ishmael at 11:05 AM on April 14
posted by ishmael at 11:05 AM on April 14
> After getting assaulted by one of these infectious monsters.. quarantine
The last season showed that when you get bit you only have a few hours at most before the change is obvious. She would've turned before she made it back from patrol if she had been infected. But yeah you'd think they would have quarantining in general, since even though everyone knows what happens when you get bit, at the same time, self preservation will probably tell you you can make it. Maybe it didn't happen.
But I think Ellie, as Joel's "daughter", is kind of like a Jackson elite, since Tommy / Maria are town founders. She probably gets a lot of leeway for being part of a kind of town aristocracy almost.
posted by dis_integration at 11:06 AM on April 14 [2 favorites]
The last season showed that when you get bit you only have a few hours at most before the change is obvious. She would've turned before she made it back from patrol if she had been infected. But yeah you'd think they would have quarantining in general, since even though everyone knows what happens when you get bit, at the same time, self preservation will probably tell you you can make it. Maybe it didn't happen.
But I think Ellie, as Joel's "daughter", is kind of like a Jackson elite, since Tommy / Maria are town founders. She probably gets a lot of leeway for being part of a kind of town aristocracy almost.
posted by dis_integration at 11:06 AM on April 14 [2 favorites]
I have a question for the horse people. Jackson, WY to Hoback, WY is 13 miles. It is another 24 miles to Alpine, WY. That's 70 miles roundtrip. Is that reasonable to do on horseback in a single day?
posted by mmascolino at 12:58 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
posted by mmascolino at 12:58 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
I get that she's a badass. But is she really such an awesome badass that they would keep assigning her to this kind of duty?
Another thing that kinda detracted from the "badass" qualification was the goofiness of the jujitsu scene. Not quite as bad, but it was a little like watching Bruce Lee do jujitsu the one time he tried- pretty obvious that they don't know what they are doing.
posted by ishmael at 11:23 PM on April 14
Another thing that kinda detracted from the "badass" qualification was the goofiness of the jujitsu scene. Not quite as bad, but it was a little like watching Bruce Lee do jujitsu the one time he tried- pretty obvious that they don't know what they are doing.
posted by ishmael at 11:23 PM on April 14
I get super uncomfortable and embarrassed on behalf of a protagonist who makes stupid decisions that do not fit the established in-universe rules. When that happens, I just can NOT watch and immediately stop empathizing with the character. I skipped in several places in this ep because Ellie was triggering that sense for me.
Why set someone weak like Kat (?) as nominal leader of a scouting party if you know Ellie is doing that sort of dangerous stuff at all? So yea, I completely agree with the above criticism. The Joel story was much better.
posted by gemmy at 6:09 AM on April 16 [4 favorites]
Why set someone weak like Kat (?) as nominal leader of a scouting party if you know Ellie is doing that sort of dangerous stuff at all? So yea, I completely agree with the above criticism. The Joel story was much better.
posted by gemmy at 6:09 AM on April 16 [4 favorites]
I thought this show started to fall apart towards the end of last season. I didn't think this season started out strong at all.
I didn't get 'badass' I got "two kids goofing around". And I'm sorry but it's the winter where sound carries farther and there is little ambient noise, and the horseback people were right outside. Come on writers, there is this thing called sound. She crashed through a floor, fired her shotgun, etc and they were like 'whatever'.
I guess the rest was ok, but that part was just so silly it kinda took me out of the show.
posted by The_Vegetables at 5:16 PM on April 20 [2 favorites]
I didn't get 'badass' I got "two kids goofing around". And I'm sorry but it's the winter where sound carries farther and there is little ambient noise, and the horseback people were right outside. Come on writers, there is this thing called sound. She crashed through a floor, fired her shotgun, etc and they were like 'whatever'.
I guess the rest was ok, but that part was just so silly it kinda took me out of the show.
posted by The_Vegetables at 5:16 PM on April 20 [2 favorites]
We did not like this episode at all. The unremitting implausibility of the entire patrol situation, as described by others in greater detail above, took us right out of any sense of immersion in the story.
We will probably watch the second episode, but aren't likely to continue.
posted by maudlin at 3:07 PM on April 25
We will probably watch the second episode, but aren't likely to continue.
posted by maudlin at 3:07 PM on April 25
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posted by Rhaomi at 11:15 PM on April 13