The Last of Us–Episode 206

I thought for sure we would get an episode continuing the search for Abby, or meeting up with Tommy. But instead, we get a flashback episode, and probably one of the best episodes of a show I have seen in the last five years. I am not ashamed to admit that I was crying by the end of the episode. 

The episode goes back to Ellie’s birthdays after she and Joel arrived in Jackson. He takes her to a museum, and plays a space launch for her. He makes her a guitar. And eventually they go on patrol together, where we learn what happened with Eugene. Ellie sees the way he lies to Eugene and recognizes it as the same way he lied to her about what happened with the Fireflies. There were also some moments where Joel totally drops the ball as a father (not realizing Ellie was into girls, and think it was just a phase–feels like a typical parental reaction, especially with dads around his age). 

I loved the opening with Joel’s dad, who we learn is a cop, but was abusive. When Joel covers for Tommy, the dad says that he hopes when Joel has a kid that he can be a little bit better than he was, just like how he hoped he was a little bit better than his dad. Joel eventually says the same thing to Ellie. Joel also totally misses that Ellie is obsessed with moths, and that they represent death. When they finally have their confrontation, she says that he stole her purpose from him. She was supposed to be the cure. But she does want to forgive Joel, but then everything happens. 

This was an amazing episode, and I cannot wait until next week.