The Last Of Us Season 2 Episode 4

Unfortunately, after four episodes, I have to say that The Last of Us isn't working the way I expected or hoped. I still hold out hope that the rest of the season (or even the next one, if it comes to that) might offer something better.

Before you jump in: my frustration isn't mainly about the casting choice for Ellie (at least not just that) or the changes made to the original game's script. My disappointment has more to do with the show's writing and tone, which are already starting to leave me indifferent.

Spoilers ahead.

The fourth episode opens with a new character, Isaac, who hasn't been introduced until now. The first scene feels tired and clichéd. To be clear, I'm not criticizing the technical execution — the scene is well-shot and competently directed — but it just doesn't fit here, coming off as a generic, overused trope.

It's the classic evil gang leader in a post-apocalyptic world with zombies, gray morality, shocking betrayals, and an atmosphere pulled straight from stories like The Walking Dead. In that show, this scene would fit right in, but in The Last of Us, it feels completely out of place and pulls me out of the world. At this point in the story, I’m just not interested in seeing how "tough" Isaac is. There are far more important plot points to explore.

Despite my disappointment, I kept watching, moving past the clumsy stylistic choice of the opening. We then shift to Ellie and Dina, who are wandering the city, looking for clues to lead them to their target: Abby's group.

This is a critical moment for the show. It needs to convince us that the Ellie-Dina duo can carry the story forward, that these two young protagonists are enough to shoulder the weight of the series.

To do this, the show gives us some downtime with them before jumping into the action. But this downtime is full of problems. First, the world of The Last of Us still feels strangely safe. Two young women are casually wandering through ruined buildings, shouting, joking around, banging on tank hatches, and making noise without a care in the world. At one point, Ellie even plays the guitar, a moment that, while nicely shot, feels significantly less impactful than the equivalent scene in the game.

Yes, they even play the drums. After Ellie bangs on the tank hatch, they wander into a shop filled with forgotten musical instruments, and a few minutes later, Dina decides to start drumming. What does this scene tell us? That the infected aren't really a threat, or at least not a present one. You can bang on a drum set without fear of attracting a horde. Why not just throw a rave, then?

And this light, casual tone feels totally misplaced. I'm not saying the show should be as relentlessly grim as the game, where the "ghost" of Joel seems to linger over every conversation between Ellie and Dina. But even without comparing it directly to the game, this tonal choice undercuts the tension and stakes of the narrative.

For the main plot to stand on its own, it needed a different atmosphere: grief, anger, a heavy, oppressive mood. This doesn't mean there should be no light moments or humor — in fact, those lighter moments would feel more meaningful if the overall tone were darker. But as it stands, the tonal mismatch is a serious problem.

Then, we cut back to Isaac and his militaristic group. They've captured a man, and Isaac is torturing him. But before burning him with a pan, Isaac feels the need to deliver a long, clichéd monologue that seems ripped straight from The Walking Dead, complete with his victim spitting out conveniently expository lines that only exist to fill in the audience on this world’s backstory.

It all feels lazy. The dialogue is clunky, with exchanges like, "Does your prophet tell you to kill children? Because you killed our children!" and, "You broke the truce!" followed by, "Yeah, we have automatic weapons and hospitals, and you have bows and arrows!" This is textbook "tell, don’t show" and a missed opportunity for more subtle storytelling.

And then we cut back to Ellie and Dina, who stumble upon a room full of hanging bodies. They don’t stop to question their mission, or the risks they're taking as just two people up against a military-trained force.

This is where I thought of Black Books and Manny. In one scene, Manny finds himself in a street mugging. He runs after the thief without any plan for what to do if he actually catches him. When he gets close, the thief turns around, and Manny, realizing he hasn’t thought this through, just awkwardly waves and runs away.

In this episode, Ellie and Dina are the Mannys, facing off against a squad of well-armed, trained fighters without a real plan. It’s a scene that feels unintentionally comedic, like they might as well just hand the bad guys an apple and run off to the Benny Hill theme.

This tonal whiplash is a huge problem for the show. The characters don't feel as capable or driven as they did in the games, where Ellie could realistically take on a small army thanks to the gameplay design. Here, without the gameplay to justify her strength, the show struggles to sell us on the danger and stakes of this journey.

And yet, despite all this, Ellie and Dina somehow survive the encounter, with Ellie getting bitten and finally revealing her immunity to Dina. And then, Dina drops the bomb that she's pregnant.

Isn't this the perfect moment to turn back, to rethink their journey? They've just seen how outmatched they are, Ellie’s been bitten, and now they find out that Dina is pregnant. But no, they push on, with Dina suddenly "all in," despite the fact that their bond hasn’t been developed nearly enough to make this believable.

I’ll keep watching, but I have to say the second season is starting to feel like just another zombie action series, lacking the emotional weight and tight narrative focus that made the original game so compelling.