What I’m Watching: The Last of Us

The Last of Us: Season 1, Episode 6 “Kin” (B+)

I was a bit surprised that Joel managed to find Tommy so quickly when I expected that to be the endgame of this show, but there was also something all too realistic about their reunion. It seemed like the dog was going to sniff out Ellie’s bite but instead she bonded very well with the dog, and they were brought straight to the safe haven established in Jackson. Joel immediately made an enemy of Maria, played by Rutina Wesley from “True Blood,” before learning that she was with Tommy now, and that put up a great deal of distance between the two brothers. It makes sense that the maintenance of these functional cities in a post-apocalyptic world would require strict borders and an insular nature, and that doesn’t track with Joel’s mission to bring Ellie to the fireflies. Knowing that his brother is alive but that they’re not the same people they used to be is almost worse than not having found him in the first place, though it’s possible that Ellie will try to return given that Joel is not in good shape and seems ready to die, which would be quite startling considering he’s the star of the show. The early scene with Graham Greene and Elaine Miles was a mildly humorous look at what it looks like to survive outside of the post-apocalyptic equivalent of a gated community, with important questions like whether Florence was telling the real truth that Marlon should confirm. I also enjoyed the lighter moments with Ellie claiming that Joel couldn’t make the shot because the gun didn’t aim right and then her expressly mocking Joel’s “still time to find out.” The two of them riding off into the Western sunset also felt like a shot out of a completely different show.