Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4.
As Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finally reaches Seattle on her quest for revenge, The Last of Us begins to put together some essential pieces for this story. The major one is exploring the relationship between Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) and what their dynamic is at this point. By now in the game, we knew what they were to each other, but in the show, we, and both of them, are still trying to figure that out. But this is also an important episode in terms of how it sets up the true dangers within Seattle at this point, as the fighting between warring factions ramps up at the same time Dina and Ellie get into town.
Welcome to the WLF, Isaac
Episode 4 takes us back to 2018 in the Seattle Quarantine Zone, where a group of FEDRA soldiers is being transported, while one soldier (Josh Peck) is telling an obnoxious story about a time he was involved in beating up a citizen. We find out FEDRA calls the citizens “voters,” and one awkward soldier who clearly doesn’t fit in with the others (played by Ben Ahlers), asks why. The soldiers don’t know, but a sergeant who was unseen until now (played by Jeffrey Wright) answers that it’s because they took away the citizens’ rights to vote, and it became a way to mock them. As the group moves forward, they find a school bus blocking the way with people wandering the streets. The soldiers are ready to fight what they think are the WLF, but the sergeant says he’s going to talk to them, telling the awkward soldier to join him in order to “learn something.”
A woman (Alanna Ubach) in the group of people comes forward and asks, “You Isaac?” to which the sergeant nods. The man we now know is Isaac asks, “You Hanrahan?” and she nods. The soldier knows something strange is happening, as Isaac goes back to the van holding the soldiers, throws a grenade in, then locks the door, blowing up everyone inside, then shoots the driver. Isaac and Hanrahan shake hands, as she says, “Welcome to the fight.” Isaac looks at the soldier and tells him to make his choice, and the scene ends before we see the outcome of that choice.
Ellie Takes Up the Guitar Again
Eleven years later, Dina and Ellie are on the hunt for supplies on their first day in Seattle. While the two split up inside a pharmacy, Dina hurriedly tells Ellie she’ll be out in a minute because she has to pee. When Dina reemerges, Ellie can tell something is off. The pair continues their search of Seattle, mounted on Shimmer. They find scattered bodies of FEDRA and an abandoned tank, which Ellie goes to explore, as they deduce that this must’ve been the aftermath of a fight between the FEDRA and the WLF.
Dina takes out her binoculars and notices a TV station in the distance, with “WLF” written in big letters on a satellite dish. Ellie is ready to go fight them, but Dina makes the point that if they’re advertising like that, they’ll definitely see who’s coming. They decide to wait until dark and head to the building on foot, and until then, they hole up in a music shop with Shimmer. As they look around, Ellie finds a pristine acoustic guitar still in its case, almost as if it were waiting for her. Once the guitar is tuned, she starts playing a beautiful cover of a-ha’s “Take on Me.” Dina sits in front of her, rapt by this lovely performance, looking at Ellie with tears in her eyes, as though she’s seeing an entirely new side of her best friend. When Dina compliments her performance, Ellie says it’s all thanks to Joel’s lessons.
The WLF vs. the Seraphites
We then cut back to Isaac, who is in a kitchen preparing an oven while talking to an unseen person about how he used to try and impress women by cooking for them before the outbreak. He used to long for better cookware, so that one day, he would have the best of the best. Now, he owns much finer copper pots and pans, just not how he expected — a strange benefit of the apocalypse. Isaac points out that copper doesn’t retain heat as well as cast iron, which makes it an inferior tool for interrogations. The camera pans over to show Isaac talking to a bloody and naked man, chained to a kitchen wall that has clearly seen its share of interrogations.
In response, the man says, “She watches over me,” and Isaac replies that there are “Scars,” a reference to the markings this group wears on their cheeks. Isaac brings a heated pan to the man, asking where the “Scars” are attacking next. The man looks at Isaac and confirms their real name: “Seraphites.” Isaac tells the man to hold out his hand so he can burn it with the pan, spurring the man on to pray to the Prophet. They go back and forth, talking about a truce that either side thinks the other side broke, with children dying on both sides. We get the indication that this is a fight that has been going on for so long, no one really remembers how it started or why, but that no longer matters.
When Isaac asks the Seraphite about the possibility of an impending attack, the man replies that the WLF is going to lose. Isaac says his side has automatic rifles and hospitals, but the Seraphites have bolt-action rifles, bows and arrows, and superstitions, so how could they lose? But the man, unfaltering, says that every day, one of their members takes the Prophet into their heart and leaves to become a Seraphite, and none of the Seraphites have ever left to become a WLF. This infuriates Isaac, as he moves to collect the pan, threatening to burn every part of the man. But when he turns back, the Seraphite is willingly offering his hand for yet another burn. Knowing he’ll never get anywhere with this man, Isaac grabs his gun and shoots the Seraphite instead. Outside the kitchen, two soldiers stand in wait, one who is clearly shaken by what’s going on behind these doors, and another — the young soldier who was initially recruited into the WLF alongside Isaac — clearly unfazed, saying the prisoner got what he deserved.
Later that night, Ellie and Dina make their way to the TV station, noting the strange lack of security patrols. They discover the place where someone else broke in by shimmying up to a second-story window, following the same route. Dina asks what happens if they run into WLFs that weren’t at Jackson, and Ellie silently stares at Dina, to which she responds, “Agreed.” The pair make their way inside and are greeted by the body of a dead WLF soldier, shot with several arrows in the chest. Further in, they find five more soldiers hanging, with their intestines hanging out of their bodies. Ellie also notices a trail of blood, which leads her to a symbol drawn in it — the same symbol that was on the outfits of the dead Seraphites in last week’s episode — and a message written in blood: “Feel Her Love.” Ellie realizes that other members belonging to the group they found in the woods must have done this to the WLF soldiers.
Dina finds a radio, but as soon as she gets her hands on it, a group of WLFs come in and discover the bodies, saying the “Scars” got them. Dina and Ellie hide, both separately trying to sneak out of the room, with Ellie heading up to the second floor. Yet a patrolling WLF discovers her, and while it looks like she might strangle him, another one enters as backup. Before the second guard can shoot Ellie, Dina comes up from behind and shoots him, with Ellie stabbing the man she was strangling in the neck. Dina shoots out the window, and they outrun the WLFs in the rain, crawling into a narrow space and emerging inside a transit tunnel.
Ellie Makes a Daring Choice To Save Dina
The WLFs have gone around to meet Ellie and Dina on the other side, lighting flares to find them. As Ellie and Dina hide, Dina counts how many infected are down there with them, growing more unsettled with every raised finger. An entire horde flies in, alerted to the presence of the WLFs by the flares. Meanwhile, Dina and Ellie make their way into a subway car, which is also attacked by the massive horde. The infected start breaking the windows in, trying to get at Dina and Ellie, with Ellie shooting as many as she can before they escape through the roof. They run through the tunnel, but the infected take chase. As Dina and Ellie try to squeeze through a high-security turnstile, Dina gets stuck, and an infected rears forward to bite her, but Ellie puts her arm between the two of them, taking the bite instead.
They escape the subway and run into a nearby theater. Ellie barricades the doors, turns around, and Dina is holding a gun on her. Ellie says she’d die for Dina, but that’s not what happens, as Ellie finally confesses that she’s immune and that she can’t get infected. But Dina thinks this is just the cries of a desperate person who doesn’t want to die. Ellie says she’ll fall asleep far away from Dina, and Dina can keep watch to make sure that Ellie doesn’t turn in the night, because she knows how wild her story sounds. In the middle of the night, Ellie wakes up with Dina on guard, but just as Ellie said, she still hasn’t turned. Ellie takes off her bandage from where she was just bitten, and shows that the infection hasn’t taken place. As Dina accepts this reveal, she also admits to Ellie that she’s pregnant, and the two kiss and make love in the theater.
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The next morning, they wake up in each other’s arms, with Ellie clearly happy for once. As they kiss again, Dina looks at Ellie’s tattooed arm and realizes the design covers the spot where she was originally bitten. Ellie admits that she previously burned herself to cover it up, joking that she wanted to wear short sleeves again. Ellie asks why Dina acted on her feelings now, and Dina says she believed that the future she wanted with Ellie and her child would never happen. Ellie admits she’d like to have a kid with Dina, and Dina replies that she’s sorry she took so long to confess the truth, since she knew how Ellie felt about her. She’d been stuck trying to make things work with Jesse, and couldn’t let herself just be, since she was scared of being herself.
Dina then shows Ellie the four positive pregnancy tests she took, and Ellie realizes that they’re having a baby — well, Dina, Ellie, and Jesse are having a baby. (And Ellie is going to be a dad!) Then, the radio Dina swiped from the WLF goes off, and they hear someone talking about Nora, who knows where Abby is, and who is at a place called Lakehill. They go to the roof to get their bearings on where they are in town, and they see black smoke and fighting going on in the distance — but they also see Lakehill, knowing this is their first real clue to finding Abby. Recognizing the danger that lies ahead, Ellie tells Dina she can stay behind, but Dina takes Ellie’s hand and says, “Together,” as they look out over Seattle.
One of the biggest changes in this season is that Ellie and Dina don’t arrive in Seattle already in love — but Episode 4 proves why that change is so important, as this love is new and real for Ellie, and while she wants revenge, she also sees the very real future that she may be risking if she goes forward. While this episode shows the light and beauty that can still exist in this world, as these two finally admit their love for each other, it also confirms just how immensely dark this world can be, as the horrifying, bloody fight between the Seraphites and the WLF takes shape. The fact that this episode can balance both of these beautifully throughout the episode, from the iconic “Take on Me” moment to the nightmarish interrogation scene, depicts the duality of The Last of Us‘ world perfectly. As Ellie seems like she could get lost in the darkness, Dina could potentially be her light.
New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 air on Sunday nights on HBO and Max.
The Last of Us’ latest episode does an excellent job of setting up the warring factions in Seattle, as well as what the dynamic is between Dina and Ellie.
- Release Date
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January 15, 2023
- Network
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HBO
- Jeffrey Wright is an intimidating and terrifying Isaac, bringing his game character to life in stunning fashion.
- The love between Dina and Ellie is handled beautifully, particularly the beloved “Take on Me” sequence.
- Episode 4 balances the darkness and beauty of this world to show what Ellie is risking on her quest for revenge.
