Warning: This article contains spoilers forThe Last of Usseason 2, episode 1, andThe Last of Us Part II.
The Last of Usseason 2 deviates from the game to establish a friendship between Joel and Dina, which could have massive ramifications on the future of the HBO series.The Last of Usseason 2, episode 1, “Future Days,” changes the source materialin a few key ways. The season premiere tells us who Abby is — a surviving Firefly out for revenge — from the offset, rather than making us wait until the middle of the story. Following on from Maria’s pregnancy in season 1, she and Tommy now have a five-year-old son. Anda horde is coming to Jackson.
The TV show also makes some drastic alterations to Joel’s storyline. In the game, his role in Jackson is simply a reliable zombie slayer, but in the TV show, he’s the foreman of a construction crew slowly but surely expanding the town to accommodate newcomers. He’s in therapy, regularly speaking to a less-than-sympathetic psychiatrist namedGail, played by Catherine O’Hara. And while the rift between Joel and Ellie has been faithfully adapted from the game,the TV show has also made Joel and Dina a lot closer than they were in the original story.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Makes Joel & Dina Friends
Joel & Dina Never Even Interacted In The Game
Joel and Dina never interact in the game. There’s only really one time that they’re in the same room — the fateful dance party seen inThe Last of Usseason 2, episode 1— but they don’t speak a word to each other. Dina speaks to Ellie about her relationship with Joel throughout the game and Joel speaks to Ellie about her relationship with Dina in some of the flashback sequences, but Dina and Joel don’t share any interaction themselves. The TV show hascompletely changed that by building a long-standing friendship between Joel and Dina.
In the season premiere, Joel teaches Dina how to rewire electronics (a role filled by Eugene in the game) andDina seems to look up to Joel as a mentor. When Dina picks up Ellie to go on patrol, she mentions that she and Joel are going to do a marathon of theCurtis & Vipermovies the following night. In the game, Ellie is Joel’sCurtis & Viperviewing buddy. As Joel tries to mend his rift with Ellie, Dina tries to mediate the conflict and gives him advice on how to rebuild the burnt bridge.
Dina Will Now Have More Reason To Join Ellie On Her Quest For Revenge
Making Dina Closer To Joel Will Make The Revenge Mission More Personal For Her
The inciting incident ofThe Last of Us Part IIisJoel’s untimely death. Abby comes to Jackson, lures Joel to her secluded chalet, and gruesomely beats him to a pulp with a golf club. After being forced to witness the brutality, Ellie becomes singularly focused on exacting vengeance. She heads to Seattle in the hope of finding Abby and making her pay — and Dina goes with her. In the game,Dina’s reasoning for joining Ellie is simply that she loves her: “You go, I go.”It’s a romantic gesture that Dina won’t let Ellie embark on this mission alone.
Since the season premiere has established that Dina and Joel are close friends, it’s likely that Dina will want to avenge Joel just as much as Ellie does.
Butin the TV show, Dina will have a much more personal reason for joining Elliein her quest for revenge. Since the season premiere has established that Dina and Joel are close friends, it’s likely that Dina will want to avenge Joel just as much as Ellie does. The game makes it clear that Dina’s relationship to violence is much different than Ellie’s. Where Ellie seems to get a thrill from violence and gradually becomes a cold-blooded killer, Dina isn’t quite as hardened. So,it’ll be interesting to see how this dramatic journey plays out in the TV adaptation.
Ellie’s Revenge Could Span The Last Of Us Seasons 2 & 3
Ellie Could Still Be In Seattle In The Last Of Us Season 3
Co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have confirmed thatthey won’t be covering the entirety ofThe Last of Us Part II’s narrative in the second season of the show; they’re splitting it up over two or even three seasons. The easiest way to chop up the game would simply be to show Ellie’s half of the story in season 2, thenswitch to Abby’s half in season 3. But TV shows don’t have to be quite as linear as video games, so the TV producers might be planning something more complicated in their adaptation.
The Last of Usairs new episodes on HBO and Max every Sunday.
HBO has alreadyrenewedThe Last of Usfor season 3, so Mazin and Druckmann will definitely get to continue the story they’re telling into its next chapter.Depending on how early the TV show covers Joel’s death and how far into Ellie’s three-day rampage through Seattle it getsbefore the season 2 finale, this quest for revenge could continue into season 3. Establishing the friendship between Joel and Dina could be good forThe Last of Us’ long-term storytelling. There could be more flashbacks involving Dina, or changes to Ellie’s revenge mission.
The Last Of Us
Cast
The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama series set two decades after a global catastrophe. It follows Joel, a seasoned survivor, who is tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenage girl, across a desolated United States, transforming into a harrowing journey of survival and companionship.
