Potential Spoilers for the second season of The Last of Us are down below.

Summary

The Season 2 premiere sets the groundwork for Joel and Ellie's fracturing relationship.
Ellie missed the chance to forgive Joel in the TV series, contrasting with the game.
Unresolved tension and impending tragedy between Joel and Ellie hinted at for the next episode.

The highly anticipated second season of The Last of Us has arrived. With episodes set to be released weekly on HBO, audiences only have the first episode for now. Unlike the first season, Season 2's premiere covered a lot less ground and spent most of the episode setting up plot points for future episodes. The premiere served almost like an "Episode Zero" for The Last of Us Part 2, consisting only really of new original scenes and flashback scenes from the game.

The Last of Us Part 2, the game, starts in Jackson just after the night of the dance, where Ellie and Dina kiss for the first time. The actual night itself is not seen until the later stages of the game through flashbacks. However, as some suspected, the TV series seems to be telling the story of the game in chronological order, as the dance scene takes place at the end of the Season 2 premiere, setting the scene for the beginning of the game for next week's episode. And the very final scene of the premiere sets up a scene that many fans have been dreading seeing reenacted on the TV screen.

Abby and Ellie in The Last Of Us Season 2

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Season Two Of The Last Of Us Will Highlight Joel And Ellie's Frayed Relationship

It's clear in both the game and the TV show that Ellie never fully believed Joel's lie about the fireflies and what happened at that hospital, and it's assumed by the players at the beginning of The Last of Us Part 2, that the lie caused them to drift apart and lose closeness, many people comment on their relationship and ask what's going on with them to which Ellie tries to downplay and change the subject. However, what the players and the majority of the characters in the game don't yet know is that Ellie actually discovered the truth in the gap between The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 and decided to cut ties with Joel completely as a result.

While audiences of the TV show haven't yet learned about this discovery, Episode 1 leaned very heavily into the divide between the two characters. Joel seems to be in denial about what he did and is genuinely confused about why Ellie is not speaking to him. He even talks about how much it's hurting him in therapy, where he refers to himself as a good guy. Ellie, on the other hand, seems to be actively annoyed at the mention or sight of Joel. Most characters in the show, including Joel's therapist Gail, explain this away by saying that Ellie is just at that age where she would be pushing away any parental figure. But anyone who's seen Season 1 will suspect there's more to it than that.

It seems that there has been a conscious effort by the showrunners to spend this first episode laying down this groundwork, and showing that the divide between Joel and Ellie is considerably larger and more noticeable than how it was portrayed in the game series, but sadly it would seem the two characters are running out of time to resolve things between themselves.

Ellie Might've Simply Missed Her Chance To Forgive Joel For His Transgressions

At the end of the Season 2 premiere, the audience gets a glimpse at one of the game's very final scenes. Also seen through a flashback in the game, the scene where Joel is playing guitar on his porch after embarrassing Ellie at the dance. But this scene seems to be told very differently in the TV show.

In the game, Ellie joins Joel on the porch and admits her anger towards him for what he did at the firefly hospital. She admits that she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to forgive him for that, but she would like to try. This brings Joel near to tears and most likely the players as well. The scene is bittersweet. At this point in the game, the player knows that they won't have time to properly fix their relationship, as Joel will meet his gruesome fate the next morning, but they are comforted somewhat by knowing that the two characters have agreed to try working on resolving things.

Joel with Ben and Abby in The Last Of Us Season 2

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However, in the Season 2 premiere, when Joel is sitting playing guitar on his porch, Ellie approaches the porch almost identically to how she did in the game, but this time she angrily walks past him, exiting the frame, presumably to lock herself in her garage home next to Joel's house. The episode then cuts to the WLF led by Abby approaching Jackson at nightfall, preparing to "slowly" exact revenge on Joel.

The Last of Us TV show seems to be setting up for "that scene" in next week's episode 2, which is sooner than fans would have wanted, but more importantly, it seems that Ellie has run out of time to forgive Joel. It's possible that HBO could be misleading fans and Episode 2 will start with Ellie going back to the porch and having that conversation with Joel, or they could be setting up an even more tragic retelling of the story where Joel and Ellie never get to have that resolution before they run out of time.

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