WARNING: Major spoilers for season two episode two ahead.

 Abby dreams of walking down a hospital corridor, as another version of herself warns her not to enter a room, telling her “His brains are on the floor.” She wakes with her party in an abandoned ski lodge overlooking Jackson. In the light of day, they can see the scale of the place – a lot larger and more heavily guarded than they anticipated. The group are in a bind – even if they were to infiltrate the settlement, they’d still need to locate Joel. Undeterred, Abby suggests capturing a patrol unit and interrogating them. Some members of the group object, saying they never agreed to hurt anyone other than Joel. To pacify her, group member Owen tells her he may have a plan, and Abby leaves to continue scoping out Jackson. In her absence, Owen admits he has no plan other than to persuade her to return home.

At the lookout, Abby notices two figures from Jackson on horseback. She begins her descent down the mountain to find them.

In Jackson, a hungover Ellie is rudely awoken by a banging on her door. We notice that her guitar is back in her room, having been restrung. Her visitor is Jesse – Ellie assumes he is upset about her kiss with Dina at the dance, but he is actually there to tell her a patrol unit has made a worrying discovery. After encountering a group of frozen infected outside of town, live infected burst out from the ground beneath them. The theory is that they are using their dead as insulation, and hundreds more could be under the snow. If they are disturbed, they could attack Jackson en masse. With the council still concerned over Ellie’s encounter with the Stalker, they are sending out new patrols and preparing for the worst.

Ellie suggests she and Joel head out, having apparently hashed out their differences. However, Joel has already left Jackson on patrol with Dina, so Ellie is partnered with Jesse. They head to the restaurant where Tommy is briefing the town on their defence plans. Before leaving, Maria invites Ellie to the kitchen, where Seth apologises for his actions the night before. Ellie says nothing more and leaves with Jesse on horseback. As they leave, they see a snowstorm is approaching.

As conditions worsen, the pair seek refuge in an old 7-Eleven convenience store which Eugene had been using as a weed farm. It is revealed that Eugene was both a Vietnam veteran and a former Firefly.

In freezing conditions and with the weather worsening, Abby continues to descend the treacherous mountain path. While making her way down a steep incline, the snow gives way beneath her feet and she tumbles down the valley, losing her rifle. At the bottom, she realises she there are a number of frozen infected surrounding her. With her fall disturbing them, live infected begin dragging themselves out of the ground – just as the Jackson patrol described.

Abby flees for her life as a horde of infected pursue her. She finds an old ski lift terminal and narrowly escapes the horde, but it’s a short-lived run of luck, as more infected hit and penetrate a chain link fence, almost trapping Abby on the other side. Just as it appears Abby is finished, she is saved by Joel, who quickly brings her inside the terminal and bars the door behind them. Dina, already inside with the horses, calls out for Joel, thus alerting Abby to his identity. She reaches for her sidearm, but that too has been lost in the commotion. With the door only buying them a few seconds before the horde burst through, Joel desperately tries to think of an escape plan. Abby tells him about the ski lodge and her armed friends, suggesting the infected may not have reached the top of them mountain. Without a better idea, Joel and Dina take Abby and ride at pace towards the lodge, pursued by hundreds of infected.

Back in Jackson, Tommy oversees preparations for the threat of the infected, with the most vulnerable taking shelter in the basements and the armed townspeople heading to the rooftops. As the snowstorm gets worse, Tommy tells Amy, the Jackson communications expert and radio operator, to get the patrols to return. She informs Tommy that she has been unable to reach Joel or Dina. Concerned, he tells her to keep trying.

One of the construction workers cracks the pipework seen in episode 1 and upsets the roots inside, revealing the cordyceps tendrils. As shown in season one, the cordyceps exist as a hive mind, and this action is enough to alert the horde. The infected halt their pursuit of Joel, Abby and Dina and change course towards Jackson.

Seeing the horde, Jackson assume their battle stations. The first wave is slowed by dropping barrels of petrol into the crowd and igniting them with torches. However, Tommy realises there is a Bloater in the horde, and immediately knows it will breach the town’s defences. As the town attempts to stem the flow of infected into Jackson, Tommy gets the attention of the Bloater and lures him away from the horde. Armed with a flamethrower, Tommy is able to bring it down, but it takes a full tank of gas to do so. Meanwhile, Maria heads to the kennels and releases the town’s attack dogs, who aid in stopping the invasion.

Back on the mountain, Joel notices the attack on Jackson and attempts to turn around. Abby tells him that they’re almost there, and once they’ve reached the lodge her friends will help him defend the town. With Dina feeling the effects from the cold, Joel acquiesces. At the convenience store, Ellie and Jesse get word that Joel and Dina have not reported back in. Taking the horses, they split up to search for them.

Arriving at the lodge, Abby instructs her team to help Dina. While being treated, Dina catches a glimpse of a WLF badge on their equipment and asks who exactly they are. Abby then reveals to the group that she has brought Joel to them and holds him at gunpoint. She tells Mel, the medic, to sedate Dina, and she complies, knocking her out with an injection. Abby tells Joel to confess where he last saw the Fireflies – threatening to kill Dina if he lies, and Joel admits he was at Salt Lake City. She thanks him for his honesty, and he reminds her that he saved her from the infected. She shoots him in the leg and instructs Mel to apply a tourniquet to him to prevent him from bleeding out.

Abby tells him he killed 18 Fireflies that day and one doctor – her father. She says that she has been training with the WLF militant group since that day, who normally live by the code that they will not kill the defenceless, but in this case, with Joel’s actions being so reprehensible, she is willing to breach that code. Tired of her speech, Joel tells her to get it over with. Abby finds a golf club and tells him “You don’t get to rush this” and beats him repeatedly.

Ellie arrives at the lodge. Weapon drawn, she finds Abby beating Joel to within an inch of his life but is disarmed by one of her team. In the struggle she injures one with her knife but is pinned to the ground. Pleading with Joel to get up, he tries but is too badly beaten. As Owen tells Abby to finish the job, she retrieves what is left of the golf club and drives it into Joel’s spine, killing him. Ellie promises that she will kill all of them but is incapacitated. The injured group member looks to shoot her, but they instead spare her life and leave her to grieve over Joel’s lifeless body.

Jesse arrives at the lodge after Abby’s group has left. As Jackson deals with the aftermath of the attack, he, Dina and Ellie return home, bringing Joel’s body with them.

Yes, sorry. You can’t walk something like that off.

The good news, if we can call it that, is while Joel is dead and gone, we may still see him in future episodes. The story of The Last of Us isn’t always linear, and it’s been confirmed upcoming episodes will be set in the past.

This is a famous Hollywood myth. While action movies and video games have long shown us that shooting an oil drum will create a massive explosion, the truth is somewhat less exciting. For the gas to ignite, it needs a spark, and the impact of a regular bullet on the barrel is unlikely to create one big enough to cause an explosion. So, as shown in this episode, the way to make a barrel explode is to shoot it first, to allow the flammable liquid to spill out, then ignite it with something else – in this case, a flaming torch. Once exposed to fire, the liquid will catch and the ensuing pressure will give you your explosion.

Bloaters are the most advanced form of cordyceps infection seen so far, resulting after years of exposure to the parasite. Like the preceding form, Clickers, the fungus has taken over their skull, making them blind. However, the fungus has grown to a point where the body has become grotesquely distended (or bloated), and the once human body is about twice it’s normal size. This added mass gives Bloaters immense strength, able to penetrate any just about defence or crush a normal human body with ease should they be able to grab them. The fungus also covers their entire body, giving them an armour that can withstand heavy gunfire.

Like all infected, Bloaters have no defence against fire. But even then, as seen in episode 2, they can take a huge amount of damage before eventually going down. In the games, Bloaters were an extremely dangerous opponent, and with resources being limited, players were often advised to avoid confronting them and use stealth to sneak around them instead.

The fate of Joel in The Last of Us follows the video game quite closely, but there are minor differences. Joel is paired with Tommy in the game, meaning he is in the lodge when his brother is killed. Meanwhile, Ellie and Dina hole up in the convenience store, where they consummate their relationship.

Abby’s friends’ reaction to her revenge differs from the game. In the series, her friends are disturbed by the length she goes to make Joel suffer – Mel, in particular. In the game, they are just as eager to see Joel die as she is. The “code” Abby mentions is absent from the game, with the WLF being just as morally grey as the other military factions in the world of The Last of Us.

The final blow is also slightly different, as in the game Joel is finished off with one last brutal strike from Abby’s golf club. In the series, she stabs him through the spine with the broken club. Otherwise, the scene almost plays out shot for shot.

The Battle of Jackson, however, is an all-original addition to the series - Jackson is never shown as being attacked in the game. Likewise, the “hive mind” of the infected is expanded upon in the series, with the cordyceps redirecting the horde to Jackson when its tendrils are disturbed there. We also see a new character introduced in the series who does not appear in the game – Amy, Jackson’s communications expert.

< Episode 1 – ‘Future Days’

Episode 3 – ‘The Path’ >