Review: The Last Of Us, "Convergence" | Season 2, Episode 7
We have met the enemy, and she is us—or something
In case you were wondering what this season of The Last of Us has been all about—all the meandering, all the shocking violence, all the increasingly questionable decisions—tonight’s episode has you covered. Early on, Ellie and Jesse leave the theater on a mission to find Tommy. They take shelter in a bookstore with a children’s section, and we’re very intentionally shown a wall with a message about stories having morals in them. Then Ellie finds a copy of The Monster At The End Of This Book. Then Jesse sits down in a chair conveniently seated under the painted logo about morals and gives Ellie a lecture about community responsibility. The point is, uh, difficult to miss, especially in the light of the deaths to come. Ellie is the monster at the end of this book, and unlike Grover, it’s not a happy ending.
There were several moments in “Convergence” that had me raising my eyebrows or (I’m sorry) laughing out loud. The Monster moment wasn’t one of them; yes it’s thuddingly obvious in an “authors who use subtext are all cowards” kind of way, but I appreciate the effort to make this season have some kind of narrative or thematic cohesion. Because without that meta level, what the hell did we just watch? Two people that we’re supposed to like making increasingly poor decisions in a place that none of us want to be. When Jesse says, in essence, “fuck these people, let’s go home,” he is absolutely one hundred percent correct, although that’s not enough to save him in the end. But if the WLF/Seraphite conflict isn’t worth watching, and if Ellie keeps being a vengeance idiot, what’s the story that’s supposed to engage us? What are we supposed to care about?
Ellie is particularly infuriating this week, her behavior swinging rapidly between “deep trauma over the violence she’s driven herself to commit” and “mindless enthusiasm to keep finding new ways to commit more violence.” Her decision to abandon the search for Tommy because she suddenly figures out a dying woman’s last words is baffling. Hours earlier, she was telling Dina about Joel’s crimes, and wrestling with the idea that maybe Joel got what he deserved. (Yes, she was also saying that it was “easy” to beat a dying woman with a pipe, but if we’re supposed to think this is Ellie going full psycho mode, I’m not buying it.)
It’s the same problem that’s been dogging the show ever since Ellie and Dina arrived in Seattle and learned the situation was much, much worse than they thought it would be. Why are we still doing this? And now we have Jesse (poor, doomed Jesse) to lecture Ellie repeatedly on how stupid this revenge thing is. I, as an audience member, get it. I got it before this season even started, if you want to know the truth; and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to care about what happens next in a story that keeps saying the same obvious thing over and over even as its main character refuses to accept it.
