However in episode 6 of HBO’s “The Final of Us,” we see a brand new facet of Joel. He’s weak. He feels immense guilt. He doubts his skill to guard those he loves. And he overtly admits that he’s petrified of what may consequence from these feelings. In 10 years of this character’s existence, that is the rawest we’ve ever seen Joel Miller. It’s a facet we by no means obtained to know within the video games. It’s a facet that solely his brother Tommy sees.
Earlier than we see the brothers reunite, Joel and Ellie lastly arrive in Wyoming. They take a Native American couple hostage, and demand info. Ellie mirrors Joel greater than ever right here. It’s startling to see a 14-year-old lady maintain up an older couple along with her pistol, and that’s precisely what Ellie does, enthusiastically. The couple warn our heroes: Individuals who cross by means of the world are killed by some unknown group west of the river, the place Tommy lies. The performances for these two anonymous characters are memorable, humorous and charming, if brief. “The Final of Us” on HBO may be criticized for not dwelling a lot on particular person characters (particularly since so many die in the identical episode they’re launched), however each efficiency nonetheless swings for the fences.
Joel and Ellie truck alongside, and we get just a few extra minutes of them bonding. Right here’s one of many greatest variations between the sport and the present: In comparison with the sport, we spend little or no time with simply Joel and Ellie within the present. The sport was nearly fully 12 hours of the 2 interacting. We noticed their relationship kind as we performed. The present, in contrast, has to contrive scenes for simply the 2 of them to make sure that audiences kind the same bond with these characters.
Later, Joel stops to wrap his damaged boots with duct tape. Right here’s one other factor we get to see within the present that we by no means did within the recreation: Joel and Ellie stress-free and tenting. Within the recreation, the participant is consistently on the transfer. Within the present, we get to see how the world actually works. In fact Joel’s boots would break up open. He’s walked throughout greater than half the nation by now.
Ellie confesses to Joel that she tried and failed to save lots of Sam. The tragedy of Henry and Sam has remodeled each of them. Ellie is traumatized and desires her immunity to imply one thing. As for Joel, we’ll perceive the affect these occasions had on him later.
The 2 cross the river and a band of individuals on horseback strategy and maintain them at gunpoint. A canine is dispatched to find out whether or not Joel and Ellie are contaminated. Joel, after all, is clear. Ellie is the wild card, and Joel is powerless to do something about it. Thankfully the canine takes a liking to Ellie; we hear her giggle. A lady acknowledges Joel and escorts him and Ellie to Jackson.
Tommy and Joel lastly reunite. We be taught that the lady who acknowledged Joel is Maria, Tommy’s spouse. Right here, we see peace and order in world of “The Final of Us.” If the story has felt bleak and hopeless up up to now — that it doesn’t matter what a group does, it’s doomed — this Wyoming group is the counter argument. An orderly life may be achieved. Tommy says it’s all achieved by means of collective ordership. Joel observes that that’s “communism.” Reflecting his old fashioned American sensibilities, Tommy bristles on the suggestion, however Maria shortly corrects him: “This can be a commune,” she says. “We’re communists.”
The brothers take a while on the bar. Joel isn’t forthcoming about why he’s there and who Ellie is, which makes Tommy suspicious. Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie to the Fireflies; Tommy refuses. He reveals to Joel that he’s about to be a father. Joel’s response is to seize the bottle and take a swig. Tommy feels insulted by that response and Joel leaves, believing he’s intruding on his brother’s life.
Exterior, Joel appears to be having well being issues. It’s unclear why, precisely — past him being a 56-year-old man who simply walked throughout most of North America. He sees a lady with hair similar to his late daughter’s, and must cease to come up with his feelings. In the meantime, Ellie and Maria have a tense showdown over Joel’s checkered previous as a assassin and smuggler. Ellie lastly learns about Joel’s daughter, and Maria warns Ellie about following in Joel’s footsteps. Ellie defends Joel and insists perhaps she’s “smarter” than Tommy, who truly adopted in Joel’s murderous footsteps, and gained’t do what he did. Maria is impressed by Ellie sticking to her weapons and invitations her to the films. The commune has arrange a projector with some outdated movies. It’s yet one more occasion of attending to know what a peaceable existence seems to be like on this world.
Tommy finds Joel and instantly apologizes for his crassness in saying his fatherhood. He realizes what he stated to Joel, particularly the excellent news of him being a father, would harm his brother. Lastly, Joel lets Tommy in on the true nature of his journey: to take Ellie to the Fireflies within the hopes of discovering a vaccine. It’s right here that we see Joel not like we’ve ever seen him, trying like a misplaced outdated man. He remembers how Ellie needed to shoot one other man to save lots of his sluggish, outdated self. He says he was powerless to save lots of Ellie when Sam attacked her. And when that canine tried to smell out Ellie earlier within the episode, Joel felt equally helpless.
“All I did was stand there,” Joel admits. “I couldn’t transfer. I couldn’t consider something besides I used to be so afraid.” He remembers the nightmares he’s had over the previous months, the place he’s unable to save lots of those he loves. “I’m failing in my sleep,” Joel says with a deep aching in his voice.
Tommy clearly hates seeing Joel this manner and agrees to take Ellie to the College of Japanese Colorado, the place the Fireflies may need a base. Ellie overhears all this, and confronts Joel: Does he care about her? Joel says after all he does. Ellie brings up Sarah and Joel tells her to cease. In fact, Ellie doesn’t hear and continues: Joel is the one individual in her life who hasn’t deserted her. Joel hardens again up and tells her she’s not his daughter, and he positive as hell ain’t her dad — a line lifted immediately from the sport.
The subsequent morning, Joel decides to supply Ellie a alternative: Go together with him, or Tommy. To Ellie, it’s no alternative in any respect. The 2 depart Tommy and the idyllic Jackson commune. Our two heroes mend their relationship and quietly reaffirm their dedication to at least one one other. We get a pleasant, enjoyable scene of Joel lastly educating Ellie how you can use a rifle.
Ultimately, the pair arrive on the college and discover that the Fireflies have gone. However instantly, the 2 are attacked by strangers. Joel kills certainly one of them, however not earlier than struggling a essential harm to his intestine. The 2 escape, however Joel passes out. He seems to be to be nearly useless. Ellie is mortified, and whispers, “I can’t do that with out you. Joel, please.” A canopy of Depeche Mode’s “By no means Let Me Down Once more” ends our journey this week, the identical music that closed out the primary episode. The lyrics replicate on a journey with a “finest pal” that will not essentially be in your finest curiosity, however that you just tackle anyway, in hopes of feeling full.
Some notes and observations:
- Tommy and Joel share the same previous as they did within the video games, the place Joel led Tommy to do some inhumane, terrible issues that neither of them ever really feel snug immediately addressing. However not less than within the present, their relationship is hotter and extra emotionally clever. Tommy appears aware of and sympathetic to his brother’s trauma. And Joel sees Tommy much less as an equal and extra as somebody he must “save.”
- We see a touch of Joel’s previous cruelty when he holds up the Native American couple at gunpoint. When he asks a couple of location on the map, he tells the husband that it’d higher be the identical reply as his spouse’s. Viewers aware of the sport know the darkish implications of this quip. If the reply was completely different, one of many two wouldn’t be telling the reality.
- Rutina Wesley performs Maria with a pointy tongue and a sharper thoughts. Whereas she’s not precisely in control of the Jackson commune, it’s clear she instructions respect — and has labored onerous to earn it. We be taught that Maria was a district legal professional, which explains her skill to talk with confidence and authority.
- The present utterly removes the pointless motion setpieces from the sport, particularly the firefights on the hydroelectric dam and the home the place Joel and Ellie argue when she overhears his request to Tommy. Each motion sequences have been demanded by the truth that “The Final of Us” is an motion recreation. However HBO’s interpretation is a tv drama, not an motion present. Plus, neither motion sequences actually helped us be taught something new about any of the characters. Nothing is missed, and as a substitute we get to know our characters extra by means of some compelling performances.
