The Last of Us Season 2 Episodes Ranked

The Last of Us Season 2 will not cover the entire story of the controversial sequel, but the early parts are more than enough material to work with. Set 5 years after the first season, Joel and Ellie are now part of the Jackson Hole community and have established new lives and relationships.

While the HBO adaptation will not follow the exact flow of events from the game, these changes are minimal, and there will be no major deviations from the original story.

EDITOR’S NOTE
This article will be updated on a weekly basis, adding the latest released episode in an ever evolving ranking.

6. Future Days (Season Premiere)

Unlike the introduction in The Last of Us Part 2, the HBO version changed a few things, such as introducing Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby and her crew early and their motivations. It didn’t start with Joel confiding in Tommy like in the game, but the creative changes amplified this version and grounded the characters more than their video game counterparts. Audience members saw the survivors living in the Jackson Hole community and witnessed Joel and Ellie slowly drifting away.

This season introduced a fresh batch of new characters, both original and from the games. Catherine O’Hara plays an original character, Gail, and is a great scene partner for Joel during the therapy session. This season included more action, which was severely lacking from the first season, and introduced stalkers. The episode ended differently from the game, which could be a way for the HBO team to throw off hardcore fans.

5. The Path (Episode 3)

After surviving a massive horde attack, the residents of Jackson are still recovering from their losses and are not interested in pursuing those who wronged their neighbors. The season added a time jump between Joel’s death and Ellie’s departure to Seattle, which never occurred in the game since she left the day after. This creative change worked well and gave the survivors enough time to grieve and act realistically, like convincing the community to send a group to pursue Abby.

The episode also featured Seth trying something different by being vocal and supportive about Ellie’s quest for justice. On the other hand, Tommy still wants justice, but will not go against Maria or his fellow council members, which is a deviation from his video game counterpart. Overall, this episode gave the survivors enough time to process what happened and ended with Ellie and Dina leaving for Seattle.

4. Feel Her Love (Episode 5)

After compromising WLF communications, Dina and Ellie have made decent progress as they hunt down Abby’s compatriots. This episode adapted the events of Seattle Day 2, but in a more tamed and focused version. Young Mazino’s Jesse caught up with the survivors and was just in time to save them from the WLF as they waltzed into a park full of Seraphites.

Ellie distracts the Scars long enough to buy Jesse time to carry a wounded Dina and make her way to the WLF hospital. The sequence follows the game, and Bella Ramsey delivered a killer performance opposite Tati Gabrielle’s Nora. This episode gave viewers a first glimpse of Spores and ended on a somewhat positive note as the story finally went back in time to Ellie’s birthday trip with Joel.

3. Day One (Episode 4)

The heroines entered Seattle hoping to find the WLF, but things went south after fighting the Infected. This episode features a creative change that improved the original version, like how Ellie revealed her immunity. In the game, spores were common knowledge, and survivors had gas masks to protect themselves, but in the show, Ellie took the bite for Dina as they escaped to the theater.

This episode had action, light-hearted moments like Ellie singing ‘Take On Me’ in the Valiant Music Shop, a missable event in the game. Jeffrey Wright reprised his role as Isaac Dixon from the original game, and the HBO adaptation provided more information about his past and how the Washington Liberation Front came to be.

2. Through the Valley (Episode 2)

This episode featured one of the best action sequences from the show, and it wasn’t even from the original game. While the horde did appear in the prologue section, the infected were nowhere near the Jackson community, and the showrunners decided to change a few things, like patrol partners. Gabriel Luna’s Tommy may not have been with Joel in his final moments, but he got a cool sequence in defending the town and taking down a Bloater.

On the other hand, the episode follows the same flow of events when Joel rescued Abby and walked into their den, where he and Dina were ambushed. Abby gave a lengthy monologue and tortured Joel to death, but the show made the sequence much sadder with Ellie being fully conscious seconds after Abby delivered the killing blow as the Salt Lake crew walked away. One of the highlights of this episode was the music playing in the background and the familiar voice of Ashley Johnson, the original Ellie.

1. The Price (Episode 6)

The flashbacks have always been the best part of The Last of Us Part 2, and the HBO adaptation might have combined them in the best way possible. Certain events may have happened differently from how they did in the game, but it all worked out for the better. Neil Druckmann is in the director’s chair; he directed Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in a way that feels familiar to the source material. This episode is truly a love letter, as the director described it to be for the fandom.

The show may not be a perfect or one-for-one adaptation, and for good reason. Druckmann and Halley Gross wrote the episode together, adding more depth to Joel’s upbringing and his relationship with Ellie. It had all the right pieces and was a perfect send-off for Pascal. Another welcome addition is meeting Joel and Tommy’s father, played by Tony Dalton, better known as Swordsman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is set to appear in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

HBO has released six episodes from The Last of Us Season 2 so far, and this article will be updated weekly.

For more Thumb Wars coverage, check out how TV fans are processing Joel’s death in The Last of Us Season 2, and our rankings of every episode from The Last of Us Season 1.

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