It's hard to review Season Two of 'The Last of Us' without giving away plot spoilers.
So if you don't want to know major plot twists from Season Two of the hit HBO show, then maybe you should wait until you have watched the entire season before reading this.
(SPOILERS APLENTY!!)
Season Two finds Pedro Pascal's Joel and Bella Ramsay's Ellie back in Jackson, Wyoming five years after the bloody conclusion of Series One which saw him slaughter Fireflies in Salt Lake City who were going to sacrifice her to create an antidote to the fungus that turns people bitten by zombies into them.
Fleeing Salt Lake City, Joel lied to Ellie that there were other immune people in the medical facility when it was attacked but they were unable to find a cure.
Now back living in the fortified community in Jackson with Joel's brother, Gabriel Luna's Tommy, Joel and Ellie's surrogate father-daughter relationship has gone off the rails as she pals about with Isabela Merced's Dina and Young Madino's Jesse.
Ellie is old enough to go on horseback patrols to scout for zombies and other hostiles who could attack the community.
Along with Dina and Jesse, she guns them down using a sniper's rifle.
Ellie's also exploring her sexuality and is attracted to Dina who has been romantically involved with Jesse.
Meanwhile Joel attends therapy sessions with Catherine O'Hara's psychiatrist and local resident Gail who we learn also dislikes him - for a reason that is shown later in the season.
During therapy, he hints at his regret about lying to Ellie.
Joel, however, is also walking around Jackson with a bounty on his head, with Kaitlyn Dever's Firefly, Abby, whose surgeon father Joel executed in Salt Lake City, vowing to avenge his death.
Having received the blessing of the Firefly leadership to do just that, Abby leads a party to Jackson and when Joel and Dina go on patrol, lies in wait to pounce.
However she inadvertently sets off a zombie attack and finds herself being rescued by Joel and Dina.
As the zombies pursue them, Abby takes them to the lodge where her fellow Fireflies are hiding out.
As the horde of zombies head toward Tommy's fortified community instead, Joel and Dina's colleagues man the ramparts to protect its residents from infiltration and end up in hand to hand combat after it is breached.
Meanwhile Joel and Dina realise Abby has set a trap as she, Spencer Lord's Owen and Tati Gabrielle's Nora capture them.
Owen and Nora pin down Dina and drug her as Abby reveals herself to be the surgeon's daughter and slowly exacts her revenge, savagely beating Joel with a golf club.
Fleeing the fort, Ellie finds the lodge where she stumbles upon the slow torturing of Joel.
However she is also pinned down to the floor by Owen and Nora and watches Joel die.
Abby, Owen and Nora spare Ellie and Dina's lives and return to Salt Lake City while Tommy and the community successfully resists the zombie invasion despite suffering heavy losses.
As the community rebuilds, a grieving Ellie is now intent on avenging Joel's death.
Urged by Tommy to try and persuade the community at a townhall meeting to sanction her leading a party to Salt Lake City to infiltrate the Firefly compound and kill Abby, she loses the vote.
However Ellie's unwilling to give up on her plan and she sets off for Utah with Dina by her side intent on killing Abby.
Can the duo successfully navigate en route to Salt Lake City a dangerous terrajn full of zombies, human death cults and Firefly forces?
Will they ultimately succeed in what looks like a suicide mission?
Season Two of 'The Last of Us' takes a huge gamble killing off a beloved central character like Joel.
Alas, on this occasion the gamble spectacularly fails.
What was once an edge of your seat, yet impressively thoughtful TV show about the zombie apocalypse has become dull and formulaic.
And in the absence of Pascal for much of the series, Bella Ramsay struggles to carry the weight of the show on her shoulders with Merced, Madino and Luna.
The thrill has just gone from the show despite the efforts of writer-directors Craig Mazin, Neil Druckman, their fellow screenwriter Hailey Gross and fellow directors Mark Mylod, Peter Hoar, Kate Herron and Nina Lopez-Corrado.
The show's zombie battles are no longer edge of your seat encounters.
The war crimes committed by human beings on each other no longer shock.
The rather sweet bond that developed in Season One between Joel and Ellie which was so engrossing has been casually tossed away, with nothing to replace it.
When he is onscreen, Pascal is reduced to looking mournful most of the time.
And when his character is sacrificed, you don't really feel as invested in Ellie's relationships with Dina, Jesse or Tommy.
Nor do you care about Abby, Owen or Nora.
Even the show's star power cameos by Catherine O'Hara, Joe Pantoliano as Gail's husband or Jeffrey Wright as a Firefly leader Isaac Dixon underwhelm
Season Two is just one big slog - albeit a handsome looking one with a big budget but that can't rescue it.
It's so disappointing that you are left thinking Season Two of 'The Last of Us' might be the most spectacular self-combustion we have ever seen of any major miniseries.
Sadly, you end the season with no real desire to watch it ever again.
It leaves you wondering if there's any point in prolonging a story that appears to have run out of steam.
The show just feels like it has nowhere else to go and, for that reason, it's probably time for HBO to just put it out of its misery like one of its characters who's bitten by a zombie.
(Season Two of 'The Last of Us' was broadcast on Sky Atlantic and made available for streaming on NowTV in the UK and Ireland between April 14-May 26, 2025)
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