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Episode 2: “Through the Valley” Details

• Available On: Max
• Public Release Date: April 20, 2025
• Director(s): Mark Mylod
• Writer(s): Craig Mazin

Episode 2 “Through the Valley” Recap (With Spoilers)

Abby gets her revenge. It was unexpected, her running into Joel, never mind the man saving her after her awakening hundreds, maybe ever a thousand, clickers all seemingly hibernating in the snow. But, she was able to convince Joel, with Dina, to come to the lodge she and her friends were in, and after knocking Dina out, Abby tortured Joel for at least half an hour.

As all this happened, a snowstorm blew in, the clickers Abby awakened attacked Jackson Hole, causing massive casualties, and Ellie? Thankfully, she was on patrol and discovered a weed stash that likely will be needed to get her through her trauma. For once she heard Joel didn’t check in, damn a storm and how complicated their relationship was in the moment, she went out to search for him and for better or worse, she was perhaps the last person he saw before Abby stabbed him in the neck and left Joel’s corpse where Ellie could cry over it, while a knocked out Dina, via drugs, laid still in the background.

But, on a positive note, despite the casualties in Jackson Hole, Tommy and Maria lived through the assault, and Tommy barely survived a bloater.

Review and Commentary

Highlights

• Ellie Seeing The End of Joel [86/100]

On The Fence

• The Episode (Mostly) Felt Boring [71/100]

Overall

Our Overall Rating [78/100]

To be frank with you, most of this episode felt very boring to watch, and I’m unsure if it is because I knew what was coming or because, until Ellie saw Joel getting the life beaten out of him, I felt unaffected. Taking it from the first angle, knowing what is going to happen doesn’t always ruin a scene or moment. I saw Wicked when it came out, know what happened in the show, yet still was crying when Cynthia Erivo sang “Defying Gravity.” So with that in mind, I think I blame the build and maybe even the performances.

There was just a lot going on from Jackson Hole being attacked, Maria and Tommy’s lives being threatened, and just feeling like The Last Of Us was having its Game of Thrones moment. So when ti came to Joel and Abby’s scene, it felt like an afterthought. Though what doesn’t help is that the build wasn’t really there. We’re in episode 2 and have barely gotten to know Abby, and with the people behind the show deciding to be upfront on why Abby did what she did, and that not drawing much in the way of empathy, there are no shades of gray with her killing Joel.

Add in, as much as there was this push that Abby didn’t need the physique to be intimidating, formidable, or have that special oomph, I increasingly feel like that might have been wrong. For if what is supposed to come next is Ellie hunting Abby down, considering the physique of Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever isn’t all that different, I feel like we may have a lot of anti-climactic moments in store for us. The kind that could make it so that The Last Of Us, while brilliant in its first season, may suffer from a sophomore slump unless creative measures are taken to fill in the gaps between Ellie’s revenge and where we are now.

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