WARNING: Major spoilers for season two episode three ahead.

In Jackson, as the bodies of infected lie still burning on the ground, Tommy visits the body of his brother, Joel, as it is being cleaned in a makeshift morgue. He takes over the cleaning duties and notices his broken wristwatch. He asks Joel to “Say hello to Sarah for me”.

Elsewhere, Ellie wakes in a hospital with a collapsed lung. She immediately relives the moment Joel was killed by Abby and begins screaming. Nurses sedate her and she falls back into unconsciousness.

We fast forward three months. Jackson is still rebuilding after the attack, and Ellie is only just able to leave hospital. Before she does, Gail visits to evaluate how she is doing mentally. Ellie admits that she and Joel were close, and she is sad, but is flippant through the exchange – clearly eager to leave. Gail asks her about New Years Eve and their confrontation. Ellie says the last time she saw Joel, he was sitting on the porch and she chose not to talk to him. She says she regrets that (in a somewhat theatrical way), but she doesn’t believe last interactions define relationships. Gail isn’t convinced, and mentions how the last time she saw Joel, he had said he had wronged Ellie by “saving her” and asks what he might have meant by that. After confirming that Gail knows nothing more about Salt Lake City than that sentiment, Ellie feigns ignorance and flatly states she didn’t feel wronged by Joel.

Released from hospital, Ellie heads back to the home she shared with Joel.  She walks through the rooms with everything bringing back memories of their time together, finding a box on his bed containing the broken wristwatch and his gun. As she passes his closet, she finds his jacket, and the scent of him finally brings her to tears. She is interrupted by a knock on the door, as Dina has come to visit her.

Dina has brought cookies as a pre-emptive peace offering – while Ellie has been recuperating in hospital, she has been withholding intel on the WLF group that murdered Joel. In the brief time she was held captive, she was able to confirm the names of most of the group, and recalled that Eugene spoke once about the Washington Liberation Front, (also known as “Wolves”), and said that, like the Fireflies, they were a rebel militant group formed in opposition to the totalitarian government's military faction FEDRA, and that they were based in Seattle.

As predicted, Ellie is furious that Dina has sat on this information for so long, saying she let them get away. Dina explains that Jackson’s defences were still being rebuilt following the attack and could not spare the manpower to send out a search party. Plus, the last thing she wanted was Ellie forcibly leaving the hospital while still gravely injured. Ellie accepts her explanation, and they bring the information to Tommy. He tells them they will need to bring this before the council, as they will need to vote on whether to send out a posse. He scolds Dina for not bringing this to him earlier but tells them that they will have his support in the vote. He tells Ellie that they have buried Joel ten miles out of town, if she should want to go visit him. She replies she will, on the way to Seattle.

While she sits watching a junior league baseball game, Tommy approaches Gail for a moment of her time. He is concerned that Ellie will be following the same path of violence that Joel did in his life. Gail posits that in the battle of nature vs nurture, nurture only makes so much of a difference, and that Ellie’s anger comes from who she is as a person – no one can change that.

Meanwhile, on a path near Seattle, a group wearing simple robes, carrying simple weapons and crescent-shaped scars on both cheeks are making a journey on foot, using a system of whistles to communicate with lookouts. One walks with his young daughter and explains to her that while their “prophet” has been dead for ten years, she lives on in them. It becomes clear they are refugees fleeing conflict, and he tells hers that distance from the war will by them more safety than any weapon. Another whistle comes from the lookout, and the group all quickly look to find shelter and hide. The daughter asks what is coming for them, and the father simply says “wolves.”

Ellie, almost fully recovered, continues her training with Jesse. After their session, Jesse, who is now a member of the council, advises her that the council will need to hear out the townspeople of Jackson before deciding on whether to send out a group to find Joel’s killers. He tells her the angrier she gets, the less likely people will be to vote in her favour, so asks her to write down her thoughts first before presenting them at the next day’s hearing. Ellie asks him if she can count on his vote, but he refuses to say.

At the hearing, a great number of residents wish to have their say, with Ellie last on the list. One resident asserts it is too soon after the attack and sending 16 of their best fighters will leave the town too vulnerable against further attacks. A second pleads for the town to show mercy, and that revenge will lead to nothing but pain. This aggravates Seth, who speaks out of turn, and accuses the town of acting like victims. Finally, Ellie has her say. To some surprise, she follows Jesse’s advice and reads out her argument in a collected fashion. She tells the town that it’s not about revenge, but justice. Doing nothing will basically be them joining the rest of the world in doing nothing to help them.

The council make their vote – it's eleven to three against. The town files out of the restaurant with the exception of Seth, who remains seated.

Somewhat predictably, Ellie immediately begins preparing to leave Jackson on a mission to find and kill Abby. Dina arrives, knowing exactly what she is up to. She quickly points out all the flaws in Ellie’s preparations, showing that she is ill-equipped and is not clear on where she is going. Dina, however, has put much more thought into it, with a route and supplies all worked out – it's clear she won’t be letting Ellie go on her own. When Ellie asks where she plans on getting the supplies from, she says “she knows a guy.” They agree to meet at the gate out of town at 3am.

At the rendezvous point, Ellie is irritated when Dina brings Seth, who in turn is leading Ellie’s favourite mount, Shimmer, laden with equipment. He tells her there are several in town supporting their cause, and he would go himself, but got hit by friendly fire during the attack on Jackson. He trades her rifle for his superior one and opens the gate for them to leave. Ellie remains cold towards him but shakes his hand as they begin their journey.

As promised, Ellie begins her journey by visiting Joel’s grave. While there she takes out a small bag containing some coffee beans and tearfully lays them at his headstone.

The trip to Seattle passes peacefully, with Dina and Ellie playing games to pass the time. They camp out when a storm approaches, and Dina brings up their kiss at New Years Eve. Ellie brushes it off, saying she was drunk and it meant nothing, while Dina is mockingly annoyed it didn’t mean more to her. Ellie suggests she can get back together with Jesse, and Dina reveals that, in fact, she did. However, she says there is a certain sadness that he carries that makes her feel insecure.

The next day, as the close in on the city, the pair come across a dead body on the path – one of the scarred group we encountered earlier. They notice a strange symbol on his robe, and that he had been shot several times in the back – meaning he was attempting to flee. Ellie notes from the bullet casings that the rounds all varied in type, and deduces whoever shot him, they were not FEDRA. Meanwhile, Dina makes a discovery that causes her to vomit. Ellie investigates and finds the entire group of refugees has been slaughtered, the father and his daughter included. They continue toward Seattle, with Ellie suspecting that the WLF was responsible.

The pair finally reach the outskirts of the city, and observe the famous, but now ruined skyline of Seattle. Dina suggests that because they haven’t observed any WLF activity yet, perhaps their numbers aren’t as great as they feared.

However, as they make their way into the city, Manny – the WLF member that Ellie injured with her knife – sits in a tower overlooking the city and gives the all-clear for a patrol to move out. It’s anything but a small patrol – it's an army.

This is a call back to episode four of the first season of The Last of Us. After finding Bill and Frank’s bodies in the previous episode, Joel found some coffee beans that had been keeping. In the world of The Last of Us, coffee is a rarity, and when Ellie woke the next morning to the smell of it, it was the first time she’d ever experienced it. She wasn’t a fan of it.

While we’ll spare most of the details for now, the scarred refugees seen this episode are known as the Seraphites, or “Scars” as the WLF colloquially call them. They are a religious sect that eschew technology and other advancements in favour of a more austere life. Instead of firearms, they utilise bows, arrows, hammers and sickles to defend themselves. They are currently in a state of war with the WLF.

The Washington Liberation Front, informally known as “Wolves”, are a military splinter group based out of Seattle, Washington. Formed as a response to the increasingly totalitarian government and its armed group FEDRA, they were able to depose them from the city and now control much of the state of Washington. They are currently at odds with the Seraphites.

While the first two episodes inserted original scenes into the story, they generally followed the plot of The Last of Us Part II quite closely. However, this episode diverts from the game in some notable ways.

Perhaps most significantly, in the game it is Tommy who leaves in pursuit of Abby and her WLF group initially. Ellie and Dina are then charged by his wife, Maria, with finding him and bringing him back to Jackson alive. In the series, Tommy remains in Jackson, while Ellie and Dina mount their own secretive mission.

In fact, all this episode shares with the game is the start point, in Jackson, and the end point, in Seattle. Everything that happens in between is brand new to the TV show. Jackson’s recovery, the council’s vote, and the events that transpire on Ellie and Dina’s journey to Seattle are all original creations.

The Seraphites are also introduced to the series much earlier than in the game. In the game, the Seraphites are heavily featured in the second half of what is a quite lengthy experience. Many fans were wondering if they would make it into this season at all.

< Episode 2 – ‘Through the Valley’

Episode 4 – ‘Day One’ >