‘Some People Just Can’t Be Saved”

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3.

The third episode of The Last of Us Season 2 begins in a whole new world for these characters, a world where Joel (Pedro Pascal) is now dead and Jackson is in ruins. It’s also an episode that directly asks one of the biggest questions that hangs over this story: Is it better to forgive and move on, or is vengeance and justice required when someone is wronged? For Ellie (Bella Ramsey), the answer is absolutely the latter, as she wants blood for the pain that was caused against Joel and herself. Episode 3 is somber but necessary, as we get a glimpse of what Ellie is like without Joel in the world, and who that could potentially turn her into.

Jackson Reckons With Their Losses and the Death of Joel

Episode 3 starts with the losses incurred at the end of last week, and the streets of Jackson are strewn with the bodies of infected and non-infected alike. Yet inside the town’s restaurant, Joel’s beaten body is being tended to before Tommy (Gabriel Luna) takes over. As he tearfully cleans Joel’s wounds, he says, “Give Sarah my love,” referencing Joel’s daughter, who died on Outbreak Day. Meanwhile, Jackson’s hospital is overrun with people needing medical attention, including Ellie, who is awoken by a nurse. Immediately, she begins to scream and cry, as the hospital workers do everything they can to calm her down.

Three months later, Jackson is still in the process of rebuilding. Tommy and Jesse (Young Mazino) are working construction together — a reminder that Tommy might be Jackson’s present, but Jesse is being set up as its future. Back at the hospital, Ellie is finally being released, but before she leaves, she’s required to meet with one more person: Gail (Catherine O’Hara). Ellie confesses to the therapist that she misses Joel, and he meant a lot to her, so she’s understandably upset and sad. But Gail wants to know what happened on New Year’s Eve between them, and Ellie states that was the last time she spoke to him. Ellie says that when she got home, Joel was on the porch, and she should’ve talked to him, but she didn’t, which she regrets.

Then, Ellie goes on to say that your last time with someone doesn’t define your whole time with them. Gail admits that it shouldn’t, but it often does, and that in her last meeting with Joel, he said that he had wronged Ellie. Ellie can’t help her curiosity and asks about it, but Gail references Joel’s previous insistence that he also saved her. When Ellie agrees — Joel saved her lots of times — Gail points out that saving isn’t the same as wronging someone. Ellie claims not to know what Joel was talking about, but she’ll let herself off the hook for not letting him off the hook, feigning that she’s just fine to get out of the conversation. As Gail lets her go so she can finally leave the hospital, pain begins to cloud Ellie’s features.

Ellie Plans Her Revenge

Ellie makes her way back to the house she shared with Joel, which is littered with flowers and cards outside. She goes to her old room, from before she moved out to the garage, seemingly remembering a better time, then cautiously enters Joel’s room. On Joel’s bed lies a box with his old, now-broken watch inside it, as well as his gun, which Ellie takes. As she goes to leave, Ellie sees Joel’s jacket in the closet, and as she touches it, she starts to silently cry and hugs the sleeve against her face, but then overhears Dina (Isabela Merced) downstairs and hastily wipes away her tears.

Downstairs, Ellie thanks Dina for visiting her in the hospital so often, while Dina reveals she’s brought Ellie cookies as a peace offering — because she’s about to make Ellie angry. Over their conversation, we learn that Ellie asked Dina whether she’d learned anything useful about the day Joel died, and while she lied then, she admits now that she knows most of the group’s names and where they’re from. At the time, Jackson’s doctors had told Dina she shouldn’t upset Ellie, because she would try to run, but Ellie doesn’t care; in her eyes, Dina let Joel’s killers get away. Dina points out that with so many people to bury over these last few weeks, no one would’ve had any intention of heading out to find this group. Dina adds, alongside the reminder that she loved Joel too, that it’s probably better to give that crew time to return home so they can be more easily tracked down.

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With that handled, Dina relays what info she knows. The guys were named Manny (Danny Ramirez) and Owen (Spencer Lord), one of the girls is named Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and when Ellie asks about the girl with the braid, the one who killed Joel, Dina says her name is Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) — a fact Ellie relishes. Dina also saw a patch with a yellow triangle and a wolf’s head that read “WLF,” and now mentions that Gail’s husband Eugene once told her about splinter groups in the west who used to fight FEDRA, who ran the quarantine zones. One of them was known as the Washington Liberation Front, out of Seattle. Eugene didn’t mention how big the WLF is, but Dina assumes, since they’ve never heard of them, they must be small enough to handle. While Dina hasn’t told anyone else about the WLF yet, she insists she hadn’t planned on telling anyone else save Ellie.

The pair go to Tommy, who says he needs to think about everything he’s just learned. Ellie is determined to pursue Abby and the others to Seattle, but Tommy knows Jackson — as well as Ellie herself — is still recovering. Ellie insists that Joel would drop everything and go to Seattle if the situation were reversed, but Tommy responds by saying that Joel would only go to save his life; if he were already dead, Joel would just let that slowly break him instead. If they want to do this, Tommy says, they have to do it right, and if they want to put a posse together, they have to take it to Maria (Rutina Wesley) and the town. Tommy says he’ll back Ellie in trying to get one together, and the two hug. As Ellie leaves, Tommy mentions that they buried the dead ten miles south of town, if Ellie wants to visit Joel.

Speaking of Seattle, it appears that more than the WLF awaits them there, as a hooded man with scars on his cheeks walks through the woods with a bow and arrow. He whistles to a much larger group ahead, each similarly dressed, and each with scars, including the children. One girl reveals what certain whistles mean — that no one is following, and that they’re all clear — before asking the man where they’re going, and the man says they don’t know yet. The girl asks why can’t “she” just keep them safe, and seems to be referencing someone known as the Prophet, whom the man confirms has been dead for ten years. The girl has been taught that the Prophet is eternal, and the man admits that the sentiment is true, in a way — but she’s not magic; she’s a person who saw truth and shared it. Now, they keep the Prophet’s spirit alive by following her words and her teachings, as well as keeping themselves safe. The girl then looks at the hammer strapped to the man’s belt and asks if she can have one of her own, and the man gives her his. They suddenly hear a different whistle, which leaves the group panicked, and they take cover in the woods. When the girl asks if they’re hiding from demons, the man says they’re “hiding from wolves.”

Jackson Makes a Critical Decision About Hunting Down Joel’s Killers

Back at Jackson, Jesse is holding a punching bag for Ellie to wail on. As a member of the council now, he’s aware of the upcoming meeting to discuss what to do about Abby and her crew. When Ellie asks if she has Jesse’s support, he says he can’t talk about upcoming votes. As he leaves, he advises Ellie that when she speaks to the public, she should organize her thoughts and read from notes, since she’s clearly angry, and no one is going to vote on behalf of angry.

Cut to the meeting, where one of the townspeople says that Joel meant a lot to everyone, but Jackson has been through enough, and they shouldn’t send sixteen people when the town is still hurting. Another man says that what makes them different from the raiders and the murderers is their mercy and their ability to forgive — but Seth (Robert John Burke), of all people, interrupts, saying these people don’t deserve their mercy. Seth seems shocked by the group’s complacency and yells that when this group comes back, they’ll laugh at Jackson for not getting revenge.

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Last on the list to speak is Ellie, who reads a written statement as Jesse instructed her to. Ellie’s aware that she’s asking a lot at the worst possible time, and that she doesn’t want revenge; she wants justice. It’s either that, or they do nothing. What holds Jackson together is their ability to support each other. Ellie also promises she’ll accept whatever the council decides, but she asks them to see that justice is done, and to do it for the people of Jackson. In a vote of 8-3, the proposal to send a group to Seattle is rejected, a choice that clearly leaves Tommy, Seth, Dina, and Ellie visibly frustrated.

Later, as Gail watches a kids’ baseball game, Tommy comes to sit with her, saying he’s worried Ellie is going to do something stupid. Neither of them believes a word of Ellie’s speech, with Gail adding that the only person Ellie may have told the truth to was Joel. Tommy worries that Ellie is going to go down the same path Joel did, that she’ll justify her actions as a way to lash out. Gail points out that if Ellie’s on a path, it’s not one Joel put her on; they were walking side-by-side from the start. The therapist concludes their conversation by saying, “Some people just can’t be saved.”

Ellie and Dina Leave Jackson To Pursue Justice

In her garage, Ellie is clearly preparing her gear when Dina shows up at her door. When Ellie says she’s going to bed, Dina sees right through the lie, but Dina isn’t there to dissuade Ellie; she’s there to help. When Ellie admits she plans to go to Seattle and kill Abby, Dina pokes holes in the poorly planned mission, offering up a map and a well-considered route, as well as helping Ellie pack the right gear. Later that night, at 3 AM, Dina meets Ellie at one of Jackson’s entry gates with Ellie’s horse, Shimmer, and a surprising ally: Seth. He gives her a better gun, as well as supplies, and opens the gate for Ellie and Dina to slip out. Before they leave, Seth offers his hand, and Ellie shakes it. As the sun begins to rise, Dina and Ellie make their first stop: Joel’s grave. Ellie sprinkles a few coffee beans on the ground, takes a moment to mourn, and then she and Dina continue on towards Seattle.

As Dina and Ellie make their way across the country, playing road games with each other, the subject soon changes when Dina asks about the first person Ellie killed. Ellie settles for the second one (since the first was her best friend, Riley). Before a sudden thunderstorm hits, the pair make camp for the night. Before they fall asleep, Dina asks about their kiss on New Year’s Eve. Ellie insists it didn’t mean anything, since Dina was high and Ellie was drunk, but Dina still wants to know how Ellie would rate it. Ellie initially gives their kiss a six, which Dina doesn’t believe. In response, Ellie jokes that Dina can always go back to Jesse, but Dina reveals she already did. Thoughtfully, she asks Ellie about whether Jesse ever seems sad to her — and whether he’s just sad deep down, because if he isn’t, she might be the reason for it. As the two begin to fall asleep, Dina coyly adds that she wasn’t that high during their kiss.

Ten miles out from Seattle, they find a dead body on the path: one of the members of that earlier group with scars on their face. Dina soon finds the rest of the group lying in the woods, all slaughtered, including the young girl. Ellie implies that it could’ve been Abby and her group, since the bullet shells didn’t seem to be FEDRA. As they head into Seattle, the city is suspiciously quiet, with no sign of the WLF — but then the scene cuts to Manny, who is keeping watch over the city from the Space Needle, and as he gives someone an all-clear on the radio, the WLF proceeds to roll out into Seattle with not only a tank and several Jeeps, but also an army of soldiers.

This third episode is where Season 2’s story starts to really begin, as Ellie and Dina make their way into Seattle to seek their revenge. But while this trip is motivated by anger and justice, it also does a beautiful job of showing Dina and Ellie’s bond. The two are clearly getting closer, and this is a relationship they’ll both need to make it through this trip. The Last of Us could’ve easily rushed the story to bring these two to Seattle and get the action going, but it needs this setup, it needs this active decision to avenge Joel, and it needs this friendship between Dina and Ellie to hit home. While pain is the primary factor behind this mission, Episode 3 also portrays the beauty of shared pain, as Ellie’s story begins to take off in a major way.

New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 air on Sunday nights on HBO and Max.

The Last Of Us

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 sets the story in motion, allowing the characters to linger in their still-fresh sorrow.

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Pros & Cons

• Episode 3 does a great job of setting up where the season is heading without rushing.
• The episode lets us sit with the grief following Joel’s death and how it impacts the community.
• Dina and Ellie get some lovely moments that unite them as a team for vengeance.