[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 3. For earlier coverage, check out last week’s review.]
It didn’t take long for Gail to become a survivalist all-star. For her “Last of Us” debut, Catherine O’Hara’s cynical therapist walks into a session with Joel (Pedro Pascal) half in the bag and with another glass of whiskey at the ready. Then she accepts payment via weed, which she judges almost as harshly as she does Joel — cursing at him, refusing to hear his “boring” problems, and calling him a liar. Turns out, Gail had good reason to be angry with the soon to be deceased: He killed her husband, Eugene — presumably, after Eugene became infected, but still. That’s a tough pill to swallow, no matter how stiff the drink to help it down.
In Episode 3, Gail’s heroics continue. She’s the last line of defense between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and the cold world waiting outside her hospital room. She raptly observes the town council meeting where Ellie pleads to send a 16-person posse to Seattle to avenge Joel’s death. She sits in the outfield of a Little League game, drinking beer from her own cooler, and writes an early epitaph for our 19-year-old protagonist: When Tommy (Gabriel Luna) asks how to best protect Ellie, his de facto niece, Gail’s advice boils down to a simple, dire sentiment: “Some people just can’t be saved.”
I don’t want to believe Gail, but history tells me I should. Not only do I like Gail — she seems like an ideal hang during the post-apocalypse — I’m also meant to like Gail. Clue No. 1: She’s played by Catherine Freaking O’Hara. Clue No. 2: Therapists in TV shows are often wise, trustworthy figures. Their voices are respected and their opinions reliable. When a patient listens to them, things seem to get better, and when they don’t, well, they don’t.
But Gail isn’t your typical therapist. There’s the drinking (before sessions, during sessions) and the smoking (“as much weed as I can”), sure, but those are symptoms of larger issues. Gail is mourning the loss of her husband, which is still a raw, recent tragedy, amid the broader, longer-term tragedy of society’s ongoing collapse. Jackson offers community — and a better version of it than we’ve seen anywhere else — but it’s not a replacement. It doesn’t have everything for everyone, even if it offers certain services that feel like luxuries.
I mean, what post-apocalyptic story features survivors sitting down to protect their mental health? Just this one, and that’s great for them, but what about Gail? “I’m supposed to see a shrink myself, to help process it all — [but] I’m the only one here,” she says in Episode 3. Earlier, she acknowledges that she’s overwhelmed with appointments. If any of them go like the one we saw with Joel, than “brutal” wouldn’t just describe her workload. It would describe the treatment, too.
So what does that mean for her assessment of Ellie? Clearly, some of it is spot on. Ellie lies often enough and convincingly enough to be described as “a liar,” rather than just someone who lies. She lies to Gail’s face at the hospital. She wants out, she wants to go after Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), and she’s not going to think twice about it — no matter what Gail asks. She’s made up her mind already, and Gail won’t change it. “Your final moment with someone doesn’t define your whole time with them,” Ellie says. “It shouldn’t,” Gail says, “but it often does.”
That warning feels prescient as Ellie embarks on her revenge mission, despite losing the council’s support. At the start of the episode, when she first wakes up in the hospital, she sees Joel dying and she screams. And she screams, and she screams. Three months later, the screaming has stopped, but there’s no reason to think the visions have quieted. She still sees Joel dying, her final moments with him, and she’s still fixated on killing the person responsible.
Little by little, throughout Episode 3, she collects his mementos and assumes his role. She takes his gun from his room to use on Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). She becomes the gruff, silent type on the trail with Dina (Isabela Merced), asking for silence while her companion cracks jokes and plays game. Ellie even admits to attempting to “sound like a badass,” like she’s trying on a persona she admired and lost. She’s becoming Joel as a way to remember him, but that’s exactly what Tommy is worried about.
“I just don’t her to go down the same paths that Joel did,” he says to Gail — and here’s where Gail’s advice gets dubious. “Turns out nurture can only do this much,” she says, gesturing to a small amount. “The rest is nature. If she’s on a path, it’s not one Joel put her on. … Take it from a psychotherapist of 40 years, some people just… some people just can’t be saved.”
Whether or not we believe Gail’s assessment now becomes the central question in “The Last of Us” Season 2. Is Ellie already doomed to repeat Joel’s mistakes, or can she make different decisions? Broadening that out, are we all doomed to repeat the past, or can we still save our future? The town council meeting offers an interesting perspective there, seeing that the board votes against revenge, even when there are adamant, persuasive pleas to seek vengeance. If everyone in that room got a vote, would it have gone down the same way? Or would Seth (Robert John Burke) have convinced the room to act out of fear? To lash out at others as a means of protecting themselves? To follow their instincts rather than act with sense and compassion?
The latter option is voiced by Carlisle (Hiro Kanagawa), and watching his thoughtful sentiments get drowned out by vitriol feels sadly familiar. “People came and killed Joel, so why wouldn’t we want to take our vengeance?,” he says. “Well, because we’re not supposed to: forgive and be forgiven. No grudges, no revenge. … That’s what separates us from the raiders and the murderers: our capacity for mercy.”
Right now, Ellie has none. Can she find it in Seattle? Can she find it before it’s too late? Or is Gail right about her? Some people, perhaps, just can’t be saved.
Grade: B+
“The Last of Us” Season 2 releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Stray Tendrils
• The visual and audible combination of Ellie crying into one of Joel’s old shirts and Gustavo Santaolalla’s haunting score has to be a slight nod to one of the most heartbreaking scenes in cinematic history, which featured the same character action and the same composer. (Honestly, the moment was so evocative of “Brokeback Mountain,” it pulled me out of it. But I still have to respect the homage.)
• OK, the Scars — the whistling band of travelers who all have long, angular cuts on their faces — seem slightly creepy, but the “wolves” seem much, much worse. After all, the Scar father told his daughter they were on their way through the woods to get “distance” from “war,” and yet the W.L.F. forces caught up with them anyway. A coincidence? Seems unlikely. Seems much more likely the wolves went hunting. Why? Who knows, but we’ll certainly see more of each in Seattle, given the many, many W.L.F. soldiers shown at the end of the episode.
• Is Dina a tease, or should Ellie make a move already? Discuss amongst yourselves.
