Previously: Joel surprises Ellie for (almost) every birthday of hers that they spend together. During Ellie’s first patrol on her 19th birthday, she and Joel are called in for backup, but Eugene’s already been bit and Joel kills him instead of bringing him back to Jackson first to say goodbye to Gail. After the New Year’s Eve dance, Ellie finally learns the truth about what happened with the Fireflies in Salt Lake City.
Apocalypse Now (And a Little Then)
After torturing Nora to the brink of death and letting the cordyceps finish the job, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) reconvenes with Dina (Isabela Merced) and Jesse (Young Mazino) at their theatre hideout. With Dina recovering from a Seraphite arrow to the thigh, Ellie and Jesse set off to rendezvous with Tommy (Gabriel Luna), but he’s not at the bookstore.
Thanks to the WLF’s radio communications, Ellie and Jesse get wind of a sniper — Tommy! — but far off in the distance, separated by open water, is the aquarium where Ellie thinks she can find Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Jesse chooses to go after Tommy, so Ellie’s on her own as she commandeers a tiny boat to the aquarium — which is no match for the giant waves caused by a huge rainstorm, so the boat capsizes and Ellie washes ashore… on Seraphite territory.
Ellie gets captured and is about to be disemboweled when Seraphites abandon her because their village is under attack. She gets back on the boat and finally arrives at the aquarium, where she finds Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). Owen tries to pull a gun on Ellie, but she’s faster — and she ends up killing him and Mel… who turns out to be pregnant. Mel asks Ellie to cut out her baby, but she dies before Ellie can perform a DIY C-section.
Tommy and Jesse find a devastated Ellie at the aquarium, and they all go back to the theatre. They’re getting ready to leave Seattle, when — GUNSHOTS. Abby has found them, she’s shot Tommy and Jesse, and now she finally comes face to face with an unarmed Ellie. Abby’s furious that she spared Ellie, only for Ellie to “waste it”. Abby takes aim and GUNSHOT —
Seattle, Day 1 again. But this time, from Abby’s perspective…
The State Of Us
More secrets get revealed! Ellie tells Dina about Salt Lake City, Jesse correctly guesses that Dina’s pregnant, and Jesse tells Ellie that he voted against her revenge plan. But all the interpersonal shizz takes a backseat to whether they’ll all survive Abby!
The Strange Benefits of the Apocalypse
I don’t know, y’all — pretty bleak week! At least the books in the bookstore seemed to be in decent condition? And Shimmer the horse is alive and well!
Survivor of the Week
Not really a great outing for anybody, so maybe Saint Jesse of Wyoming? He found out that’s he’s going to be a dad, but he has to survive this rescue mission for his baby mama and her girlfriend first.
Pour One Out For…
I suppose Mel and Owen by default? Maybe more Mel than Owen. I assume we’ll spend more time with them in Season 3 when we revisit the past few days from Abby’s perspective, so maybe it’ll be more retroactively sad by then.
Best Time To Cover Your Eyes
This episode was light on gore and horror. I was definitely bracing for worse when Jesse removed the arrow from Dina’s leg, but the show thankfully spared us from a close-up.
We Must Adapt To Survive
No adaptation thoughts from Stephanie this week because she’s travelling!
Graffiti On The Wall
- Never thought I’d say this, but I kind of missed the cordyceps? Are we or are we not in the mushroom apocalypse!!!
- Pregnancy has come up on this show way more than I would have initially thought.
- I wish we had more time with Ellie and Jesse as buds rather than future co-parents. The flashback episode suggested that they were close, but we haven’t really seen what their relationship is like separate from Dina.
- I know Ellie had to get to the aquarium somehow, but it seems strange that Nora gave in after how much she resisted. But I suppose changing your mind is very possible under the extreme duress of torture!
- Not quite the Roys, but succession did come up for both the WLF (Abby) and Jackson (Jesse). The show’s clearly interested in the idea of who takes up the mantle, but at least for the WLF, the better question might be why there needs to be a mantle at all.
- There was almost a late stage Game of Thrones-ian hand-waving of travel logistics. Because WHAT DO YOU MEAN Ellie went through all that trouble to get to the aquarium, and then Jesse and Tommy are just THERE, the three of them zap back to the theatre, and so does Abby?
- Another GoT comp: so much of the episode was too dark! The show usually does a good job of avoiding too many dimly lit scenes, so it’s interesting that this happened during an episode that had zero cordyceps CGI to disguise. (The boat scenes, on the other hand… )
- My hope for Season 3 is that we actually meet some Seraphite characters beyond just Crazy Zealot #5??? Maybe there isn’t supposed to be a lot of nuance with a dangerous cult, but we know a lot of Wolfs and we don’t like them either!
What did y’all think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
