At its core, The Last of Us—a show about a infection that robs us of our humanity—has always been a metaphor for what makes us truly human. Season 2 returns us to a post-apocalyptic world where, somehow, Joel (Pedro Pascal), Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and so many others have managed to make not just a happy but a comfortable life. It just does so while reminding us that, sometimes, that life has a price. And we all have to be able to pay it.
In continuing to adapt the story from the games, The Last of Us Season 2 introduces us to new faces, more importantly Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), the antagonist to a season that starts off in a much more emotional place than Season 1, if only because we already know these people. We are already invested. And though Pascal’s Joel, newcomer Isabela Merced’s Dina, and particularly Bella Ramsey’s Ellie are the emotional lynchpins of a season that never lets the foot off the pedal, Abby certainly has a role to play in what transpires in Season 2.
Whether Dever truly lives up to the expectations is for everyone to decide by themselves, but there’s no doubt that Dever comes up short—not just in the likeability aspect, that was never going to be a battle she was going to be able to win—but in the believability, when compared to Ramsey’s Ellie. That is, perhaps, an impossible standard to hold her to, but it is where the show exists. If Abby is supposed to be another side of Ellie, then there’s no way we’re not rooting for Ellie, not just because we know her better but because we feel what she’s feeling.
But the show’s dynamics still work well within the context of what these characters are giving us and what The Last of Us is offering big picture-wise—a fight for the soul of a world that, in many ways, has already lost the war. Now, all it can do is keep fighting the little battles and hope that, at some point, they’ll add up to something.
The true standout of The Last of Us Season 2, outside of the already known quantities of Pascal and Ramsey, is undoubtedly Isabela Merced’s Dina. There’s warmth in every second of her screen presence, and every interaction she has feels not just real but like the right decision for Dina and everyone around her. Her on-screen chemistry with Ramsey makes the show better, and if The Last of Us Season 2 is the triumph it is, it’s not just because of a story a lot of people are anticipating, but because of the beats the characters take to get to a place that might already be known to many.
In the end, the show could only tell the story it had to tell. The story it was always meant to. And The Last of Us Season 2 does that in a way that will surely elicit many emotions and likely deliver some well-deserved awards to the protagonists of this tale. It’s just that, like with any story about who we become in our darkest moments, it’s worth considering that the season isn’t just about the characters examining this question—but about what we, the audience, do with the answers.
The Last of Us Season 2 will premiere on HBO on April 13.
