Previously: Joel and Ellie have been living in Jackson for the past five years in relative peace and harmony until a seemingly recent fracture in their relationship; during a rogue hunt with her best friend, Dina, Ellie encounters a new version of a clicker with intelligence; Ellie and Dina make out at the New Year’s Eve dance before getting rudely interrupted by the town bigot, Seth; a group of surviving Fireflies led by revenge-seeking Abby have arrived outside of Jackson for Joe(l); and THERE ARE CORDYCEPS IN THEM THERE PIPES??!?!?
WELP. That… happened. I initially thought OF COURSE my first recap of the season would be the snow storm and so Game of Thrones coded, but I was truly not prepared for the INTENSITY IN TEN CITIES. (Very grateful that I managed to stay fairly spoiler-free as a show-only watcher!)
Apocalypse Now
Due to the recent uptick in unusual clicker activity, Jackson Hole is on high alert. The town gets a refresher on emergency protocols, and patrol teams have been dispatched. But a snow storm blankets the area, so all the teams get recalled — but Dina (Isabela Merced) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) haven’t reported in. Leaving the safety of Eugene’s weed den where they were sheltering, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Jesse (Young Mazino) split up to find their missing friends.
Nearby up a mountain in an abandoned lodge, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew finally get a good look at Jackson Hole in broad daylight, and infiltration seems impossible. While on lookout, Abby fortuitously spots two people on horseback. During her pursuit, she slides down the mountain, awakening a giant clicker cluster hiding beneath the snow. Now it’s her turn to be chased, until she gets rescued by… Joel and Dina (!!!).
The trio narrowly escapes the clickers… because they’ve changed course. The cordyceps network IN THE FUCKING PIPES beckons them to Jackson Hole. The town mobilizes; the vulnerable take shelter underground, while everybody else defends the settlement from higher ground. Despite the town’s best efforts, the THOUSANDS of clickers descending upon the fortress break through.
Even from a distance, it’s clear that something is VERY wrong in Jackson. Abby convinces Joel and Dina to regroup at the mountain lodge… where she promptly turns on them once she has the numbers and the guns. Dina gets knocked out medically while Abby gets working on her wish of killing Joel slowly — first with a shotgun, then with a golf club.
And then who finds the lodge but Ellie!!! She tries to get the sneak on Abby’s team, but is quickly subdued instead. To her horror, she sees Joel beaten within an inch of his life and looks on helplessly as Abby administers the killing blow, vowing revenge for Joel’s death. As Abby’s merry gang leaves with their mission accomplished, Jesse finds Ellie and Dina, and the three of them head back to a decimated Jackson with Joel’s corpse in tow.
The State Of Us
Omg Stephanie really let me rename this category knowing that there would be no “us” IMMINENTLY!!!
Anyway, Ellie was beginning to thaw towards Joel, but they were only reunited for his final moments, SOB. I just knew Tumblr would have a devastating parallel of this!!!
It Ain’t All Bad
No, maybe it is all bad??? The best I’ve got are Eugene’s gas mask bong and TOMMY (Gabriel Luna) AND MARIA (Rutina Wesley) SURVIVED.
Survivor of the Week
Anyone in Jackson Hole who made it unscathed. DEFINITELY NOT YOU, ABBY.
Pour One Out For…
JOEL OBVIOUSLY!!! At least our mass-murdering king left us with these iconic last words:
Joel: “Oh, shut the fuck up and do it already!”
Best Time To Cover Your Eyes
The real-world gore is always more harrowing than anything with clickers, so I’m going with Abby’s elder abuse.
We Must Adapt To Survive
Here’s Stephanie with her adaptation thoughts!
• First thing I have to say is a giant KUDOS to Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever for so thoroughly inhabiting their video game roles. There seems to be an uptick in the “but are they exact replicas of these made-up video game characters??!” nonsense, and it’s so boring, because a) who cares, it’s an ADAPTATION, and b) these actors are EFFING KILLING IT. Kaitlyn may not be game-Abby stature but during that confrontation she moved like Abby and even sounded JUST like Laura Bailey, especially when she tells Joel, “you don’t get to rush this.” Chills.
• I restarted the game after watching last week’s episode and as soon as I saw it again I just KNEW they were going to include that gas mask bong. 😂
• As a game-player, the game moments they stuck to were SO FREAKING PERFECTLY DONE. Kind of like the barn dance scene last episode, there were some great moments that didn’t need tweaking, like Jesse teasing Ellie about Dina when he went to wake her up, or Abby crawling through the fence of infected. SUCH a memorable playing moment and so visually arresting, and having Joel there to save her. Chef’s kiss, no notes.
• THAT WHOLE SCENE. Ugh, my heart. Love that they kept in Joel being like, can we just get this over with?? But oooh, those after-it-happens moments were all new and just much needed, as, like Ellie, we need a moment to mourn with her.
• One of the biggest differences that wasn’t in the game is the horde attacking Jackson, which meant in order to keep Tommy there, Dina and Joel went out together patrolling together instead of Dina and Ellie. That did take away some cute Ellie/Dina moments but it worked for the pacing.
• Also shoutout to the flamethrower and its quickly depleting canisters. There’s just never enough ammo for that thing!
Graffiti On The Wall
- I know we need to see people’s faces on a visual medium, but there was far too much exposed skin for the wintery conditions! (At least Abby’s face looked appropriately red and angry. MAY SHE HAVE THE WORST RASH OF HER LIFE.)
- Related: very concerned about Dina’s untreated frostbite!
- I’m so sad for the utopian society of Jackson Hole. Even though the clicker onslaught was probably inevitable and the residents were as prepared as they could be, this is a devastating loss.
- This will probably get lost in the commotion, but I sure as fuck someone discovers the cordyceps in the pipes and BURNS THAT SHIT DOWN.
- As a CW scholar, I do have to point out that town homophobe Seth (Robert John Burke) is Bart Bass!!! Nora (Tati Gabrielle) is Gaia from The 100, and Mel (Ariela Barer) is Gert from Runaways (not CW but YA).
- Speaking of Mel: she’s my pick to betray Abby! MANIFESTING, despite the story already being written!!!
- Even though Joel himself was incredibly complex and morally gray, I don’t know if I could ever see Abby as anything other than a villain. Her anger is justified, and torturing Joel in front of someone who clearly cares about him might feel like retribution, but she’s now inflicting the same desire for hollow vengeance that’s haunted her. I’ll give Abby this, though: she followed through with ZERO hesitation. But just a touch too much monologuing, as Joel so eloquently said.
- The parallels between Ellie and Abby could not be less subtle, especially with them both losing their fathers at 19. I know I’m probably not supposed to want Ellie to fuck Abby’s shit up — an eye for an eye etc. etc. — but I’m doing it anyway!!!
- My question for y’all and Stephanie: if you were a Jackson Hole survivor, would you stay and rebuild, or take your chances somewhere else? (Or — cough, cough — a secret third option, if you know what I mean.)
What did y’all think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
I am Team Rebuild Somewhere Less Tundra-like!
Also, as brutal and horrifying as this episode was, I love it when a villain monologue gets interrupted.
– I’d probably lean towards rebuild, although the big question is WHERE. Especially since you probably should conserve electricity in the apocalypse and not run AC all the time 🥲 Maybe somewhere near mountains and water in California, although then earthquake risk. Midwest = tornado risk. (I do like the idea of mountains and having the higher ground lol) In looking up the states with the best climates, I keep getting suggested Hawaii 😂 although getting there is another story. (Also would love to see how the zombie apocalypse affects Hawaii!)
– YES lololol I cackled when Joel told Abby to stfu!
Damn, apparently I never hit “post comment” last week and I got logged out, so my post didn’t save.
So to sum up, I don’t know if I “loved” this episode because god DAMN it was dark, but I was happy with it and how it told the story in a slightly different lens from the games, but also added some new tension from Jackson to keep me guessing. I’m still so excited to see where the season goes!
I think I would probably rebuild Jackson because they seem to have a good thing going. But they probably need to start rigging some extra landmine-like bombs and such further back for any future hordes, and now doing a better job on recognizing that such a thing CAN happen and clearing out any pockets of gathering infected.
– Agreed re: being satisfied with the story while not necessarily loving what happened! I think the show succeeded in doing what it set out to do, so I have tons of respect for it in terms of storytelling.
– Yeah, Jackson definitely needs to rethink their game plan moving forward! How did SO MANY CORDYCEPS accumulate without anyone noticing?!?