What happens in the opening episode of season two, ‘Future Days’?
WARNING: Major spoilers for season two episode one ahead.
As the new season begins, we are reminded of how Ellie (Bella Ramsey) asked Joel (Pedro Pascal) to swear that his story is true. That the resistance group known as The Fireflies were unable to extract a cure from Ellie using her immunity from the cordyceps parasitic fungus. Joel swears, knowing full well that he massacred the Fireflies rather than let them kill Ellie in the operation, and in doing so doomed any chance of humanity finding a cure against the infected.
Elsewhere, a group of young Fireflies mourn their dead. They know Joel murdered their friends and family, and one, Abby (Kaitlin Dever), vows to find him. However, they lack intel and know Joel has a five-day head start on them. One of the group suggests they join up with another faction in Seattle, as they may have more resources. Once established, they will then help Abby find Joel and kill him. As Abby lays a Firefly pendant on a grave, she qualifies that they will help her kill Joel “slowly.”
Five Years Later
We rejoin a now 19-year-old Ellie as she trains in hand-to-hand combat in a survivor’s commune in Jackson, Wyoming, under that watchful eye of Jesse (Young Mazino). She successfully takes down her much larger, male opponent, but is irritated when she finds out he had pulled his punches out of fear of upsetting Joel.
Joel is now working as a foreman in construction projects around the settlement. While he works on mending breakers, his team dig up some pipework to find the insides filled with dense roots. A young settler, Dina (Isabela Merced), joins him and raises the subject of Ellie. It becomes clear that the relationship between she and Joel has become strained of late, and Joel has taken to receiving therapy sessions from Gail (Catherine O’Hara), another survivor.
Joel meets with Maria, who is his brother Tommy’s wife and a member of the council that run the settlement. Maria expresses concern that the rate of new survivors arriving at the camp is outpacing the rate of construction. Joel’s advice is to stop letting new refugees in and to put the current settlers first, but Maria disagrees, reminding Joel that he too was a refugee once.
Joel attends a session with Gail, (which he pays for in weed), but finds that she has been drinking. Gail confesses she woke up depressed as it is her birthday, and realised it was the first one since the death of her husband, Eugene. Joel attempts to discuss his situation with Ellie, but a frustrated Gail stops him, knowing he is keeping something to himself. In the hope of getting Joel to open up fully, she shares that she carries hatred towards him, as it was Joel who killed Eugene. However, by airing this grievance they can now work on fixing things and making things right between them. She invites Joel to air what is truly on his mind, but Joel refuses, only saying that he “rescued” Ellie.
The Patrol
Elsewhere, Tommy takes Ellie outside the town’s walls to test out the scope on a sniper rifle. As they head back, he tells her he is putting her on guard duty rather than letting her join the patrol. Ellie is upset by this, and Tommy tells her it’s due to reports of her being reckless and not following her captain’s directions, but it quickly becomes clear Joel has asked him to keep her safe. Ellie stubbornly argues with him, and Tommy relents, allowing her to join a group as they patrol the nearby alpine track.
She joins a group of five on the patrol, including Dina, with Jesse warning them not to engage with anything more than a couple of infected. If they spot anything unusual, they should return to base and let them arrange a larger party to deal with it. While on the patrol, the group come across a blood trail that leads to an abandoned grocery store, where a number of dead infected lie next to a gutted grizzly bear. Ellie spots a trail leading into the upper level of the store, and she and Dina go to investigate.
Inside, they find a clicker (a blind, but dangerous variant of infected) and are able to kill it. Ellie’s overconfidence is her undoing, however, and she steps onto a weakened section of the floor, crashing through into the store below. She is unharmed, but as Dina attempts to find a way to help her, it becomes clear Ellie is not alone. As she walks through the empty aisles, something is stalking her. Ellie catches a glimpse of the creature – an infected with bear wounds – but is taken aback when it does not run at her like others might. Instead, it retreats and hides, only to launch and ambush when Ellie’s back is turned.
Ellie kills the stalker with her sidearm but is bitten in the stomach before she does. Dina arrives, having found a way down, and the group return to the outpost where they report back to the council. Dina backs up Ellie’s story, even though she wasn’t present during the attack. This isn’t lost on Maria, but she still chooses to believe Ellie’s word. After Dina and Ellie leave, she expresses concern about an increase in infected sightings nearby.
Now living in the garage of Joel’s home, Ellie returns to see to her wounds and journal her thoughts. Joel visits, but unable to think of anything to say, notices her guitar needs new strings, and leaves to see to it.
New Years Eve
Later that night, the community hold a party to celebrate the New Year. Dina is drunk, stoned and enjoying dancing, while Ellie talks with Jesse. Jesse and Dina have been on-again, off-again for a while, and Ellie believes they will be back again soon, but Jesse disagrees. Dina grabs Ellie and they slow dance. Dina tells Ellie that everyone is looking at her, and that they should be “terrified of her”. She then kisses her, which draws the ire of Seth, a more conservative survivor and the local barkeep. He uses a homophobic slur, but before Ellie can do anything about it, Joel appears and attacks him, ejecting him from the party. Ellie is furious and tells Joel she doesn’t need his help.
As the party winds down and the revellers return home, a discarded sparkler shows that the mass of roots in the pipe contains cordyceps tendrils. And a group, led by Abby, approaches the settlement from the alpine pass.
Who is Eugene?
Gail’s husband, Eugene, is a new character to this season of The Last of Us. Based on an off-screen character in the video game, Eugene has been confirmed to appear later in this season, presumably in a flashback episode where we will find out how he met his end.
What are “Stalkers”?
Stalkers are a type of infected introduced in the first of the The Last of Us video games but not seen in the TV adaptation until now. In the lore of the games, this is the second phase of the infection, taking hold between two weeks and one year after exposure to cordyceps spores. Unlike the first-phase infected, "Runners”, stalkers do not immediately rush their prey once detected. Instead, they will most often seek a hiding place and follow their quarry – hence the name – before launching an ambush attack. The next stage of infection sees them lose their eyes to the fungus and become “Clickers”.
What are the differences between this episode and the video game?
The most notable difference between this premiere episode of the series and The Last of Us Part II is that we immediately know what Abby’s intentions are. In The Last of Us Part II, Abby is introduced as a playable character right at the start, and the player does not know anything about her backstory or her goals. Fans of the games will also note the series has taken a different direction with the casting of Abby, as she was originally designed with a much more muscular, physical presence to reflect years of training and combat.
The TV adaptation also introduces some original characters, chiefly Gail, Jackson’s resident psychotherapist, played by Catherine O’Hara. She and her husband Eugene have a history with Joel which looks to be explored in later episodes.
Otherwise, the plot of the opening episode “Future Days” adheres quite closely to the story of The Last of Us Part II, with several scenes almost matching the game shot for shot.