The second episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” premiered this week, and it’s safe to say that everything from the story to the acting to the worldbuilding is impeccable. The season could run for 20 episodes, and we’d watch them all, given how amazing each episode is proving to be. To keep the audience hungry for more, HBO released the trailer recently to give us a sneak peek into the next week’s story. As the episodes progress, new characters join the fray, and tensions rise, so each week presents tougher times for Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The trailer is just a minute long, but it paints a picture of what the next week might bring. Here’s what this week’s trailer had to say.
Spoilers Ahead
Bill And Frank
The trailer kicks off with Bill (Nick Offerman) staring into six CCTV monitors, one of which features an armed crew, as he says that it’s not the day they will get him. In the original game, Bill is a suspicious grump who prefers staying cooped up in his safe house, having laid out traps everywhere around the town. So it’s easy to assume that he has eyes in every nearby area and knows about the militia’s movements. Bill lives in constant paranoia, and in the trailer, while working in his chop shop with a welding machine, he hears an alarm buzzing. He’s seen walking towards a freshly dug hole with a gun in hand, where he finds a man. This man introduces himself as Frank, and Bill says, while pointing a gun at him, that if he offers Frank food, every person who knows about it will come seeking a handout and that his house is not an Arby’s. To give an idea of how much food Bill has stored, he’s seen picking carrots from his homegrown farm and enjoying dinner all alone, with a wine glass visible at the table. Additionally, behind his carrot farm, a partially visible church can be seen, and canonically, this church is where Bill was holed up when the city was overrun. To add a comedic flair to an otherwise dark and grim show, Frank says that Arby’s was a restaurant and that they never offered free food, as Bill stares at him incredulously.
Ellie Picks Up A Gun
The pace starts quickening as the focus shifts to Ellie, who is seen picking up a gun from a drawer while wearing the iconic red T-shirt that’s almost synonymous with her. A letter is also visible underneath the gun, and it can be assumed that it’s the one Frank left. Eagle-eyed fans will have noticed that it’s the same gun that Ellie uses throughout the game, although there she obtains it in the hotel after saving Joel’s life. Joel warns Bill that raiders will attack, and their attacks will come in the dark of the night. This is a scene from a flashback because the silhouette of Tess can be seen. In Episode 2, before sacrificing herself, Tess begged Joel to take Ellie to Bill and Frank, so it’s obvious that they were in contact. This is entirely reimagined for the series because Joel admitted in the game that he had never been to Lincoln, Bill’s hometown, so some things are being tweaked for the sake of continuity. A fight breaks out in the night as someone is set on fire, thanks to Bill’s traps, and Frank is seen shooting with a sniper rifle wearing a white T-shirt in the middle of the night. He kneels down beside an injured Bill, who asks him to call Joel. Episode 1 showed how Joel used to communicate outside the QZ—playing music on the radio from the 1970s through the 1990s. It can be assumed that playing any 1980s music would signal danger. In the game, we interact with the character of Frank, and Bill and Joel later come upon his hanging body while running across town. The show has taken a few creative liberties, but given what we’ve seen so far, we can trust the showrunners to take it in the right direction. One can only hope this won’t taper off into disaster like the fantasy series George R.R. Martin created..
The Walk To Lincoln
Back to the trailer, Joel and Ellie are seen walking across a green meadow, gun in hand, and two skeletons can be seen in the distance. One of those two is of a child, so you already know the world outside the walls is a brutal one where human life is the daily currency. It can be easily assumed the two are headed to Lincoln, where Bill is supposed to be in the game, and where a chunk of the game happens. The next thing we see is a truck blasting through a gate, and we already know that it is Bill behind the wheel. The next shot is of Ellie opening her jackknife and approaching a stalker that’s about to lose its sanity as it’s on its way to becoming a clicker. It already has fungus shooting out of one eye, and the creature is set to go blind very soon. It’s stuck under a pile of rubble with only its head sticking out, so it cannot do anything but watch Ellie approach. If there’s a shred of humanity left inside it, it will want to be killed instead of turning into a monster with mushrooms for a face. The last shot is of Bill assuring Joel that they will be alright, although seeing as how Tess is dead and Joel and Ellie are stuck with each other, only time will tell what shockers the show has in store for us.
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