The Last of Us – The Path review S2 E3
The Path was a perfectly fitting cool down episode after the shocking developments of last week.
It also was a subtle means of indicating the path Ellie and the citizens of Jackson following the lives of so many of their neighbors, friends and family.
The Path starts with the immediate aftermath with burning buildings smoldering out and the dead — both infected and recently killed — burning.
Tommy is in the morgue slowly wiping the blood from Joel’s arm. Further over in the makeshift ER, Ellie wakes up in a hospital bed and screams hysterically upon remembering what happened to Joel.
In an interesting choice, The Path then advances three months. The Jackson community are continuing the repair work with some noticeable progress already made.
To one extent, jumping ahead spares the potentially cumbersome group grieving process yet it felt like seeing some of that was necessary. Maybe The Path could have split half the episode seeing Jackson mentally process what happened and then advance the three months later midway through?
Regardless, it was nice seeing them not curl up in a ball. This is not a punk community — they’re proactive and realize this is a place worth defending and restoring.
Ellie is about to be released from the hospital but first she needs a psych evaluation with Gail. On the surface Ellie is back to her normal snarky, annoying self but it’s more of an act as the emotions quickly begin hitting her in waves at their house. First, when she sees the front gate still decorated with now faded cards and dead flowers. Then in the box on his bed with his watch, a pair of jeans and his gun. Ellie takes the gun and leaves the watch.
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It’s Joel’s jacket that sends Ellie down the path of full-on sobbing. This was a masterful scene by Bella Ramsey, who beautifully conveyed the pain and heartache of reality setting in on Ellie. Joel is not coming back through that door.
Dina comes by to check on her with some very useful news. She remembers the names of the five that captured them and killed Joel. They all wore patches that said Dina remembered from her days of running with Eugene that read WLF or Washington Liberation Front aka The Wolves. Ellie is fully ready for payback, but Tommy tells her it has to be done right by a community vote.
In a forest well off in the distance, a religious cult — made clear by the scars on everyone’s cheeks, the nearly bald haircut on all the men and a Princess Leia-style Endor braid around their heads — walk along a path. A scout whistles and a young girl asks her father is it demons. “Worse,” he replies. “Wolves.” Well, that’s not encouraging for Ellie.
To prepare for this council meeting, Jesse advises Ellie to write down her thoughts because no one will vote for her if she’s obviously angry and seeking revenge.
Ellie listens to others share their take on the idea of rounding up a posse to get the Wolves that killed Joel. Seth, of all people, gets loud and says they’ll come back because we didn’t make them pay. He’s got a point. Ellie gives a great speech, but the motion to get payback fails 8-3. Should it be safe to assume the three were Tommy, Jesse and Maria?
Naturally, Tommy is worried that Ellie is going to do something stupid and seeks advice from Gail. Noting that Ellie is a liar and will absolutely do something stupid, Gail agrees he’s right to be worried. Tommy simply doesn’t want Ellie going down the same path Joel went down. “If she’s on a path it’s not the one Joel put her on,” Gail states. It went without saying that getting Catherine O’Hara on the show was a coup but a scene like this reinforces just how much. Gail watching the little league and comparing them to Detroit Tigers’ games was pretty funny.
As anyone paying attention would have guessed, Ellie is still going out to get her revenge. Dina manages to catch her before she heads out so she can actually come up with a decent plan with Ellie.
While Dina wouldn’t count on Jesse’s help for this mission, she does get some unexpected aid from Seth who’s got gear for them. Again, he tries to make amends for his homophobic slur at New Year’s Eve. This time, Ellie accepts it and returns the handshake. It was a minor moment, but one that felt like a nice gesture from both of them.
Dina charts out the path that lets Ellie see Joel’s grave. The cinematography for this scene was gorgeous and incredibly picturesque.
Later on, Ellie and Dina stumble unto the cult group who have been massacred by the wolves. Yes, even the little girl. They reach the clearing and find what has to be this section’s outpost of the wolves. In her legitimately cool bada$$ phrasing, Ellie says “A city of wolves. There’s about to be a whole lot less.” I know that’s right, Ellie!
In the sector, Manny is not pleased that he has to be on lookout and tells whoever is on the other end that they can move now. What moves is a massive swarm of fully armed wolves in some protection gear or straight up armored vehicles. Yeah, however Ellie thought this was going to work out she’s going to need to immediately rethink her strategy if she heads into this wolves den.
The Path was a perfect cooldown episode that also set the stage for the next great conflict of The Last of Us’ second season.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Max
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