Spoilers.
For everyone who has faithfully tuned in to the post-apocalyptic video game turned television series “The Last of Us” through its first season, the last two months have been a wild and bumpy ride.
That’s true in every sense. Thematically, viewers have endured everything from a brotherly reunion to a cannibalistic cult, the treacherous birth of a beautiful baby girl to the untimely death of a deaf boy and his tormented brother. The contrasts have been poignant.
Morally, it’s been no less turbulent. Just three episodes in, a near-feature-length vignette introduced us to two characters, Bill and Frank, who reject the natural order not only in their sexual relationship but also in their responsibilities as men. In committing suicide together, they send the message that selfishness is “incredibly romantic,” love is coercive, and healthy masculinity can involve renouncing the responsibility to defend the vulnerable within one’s care.
If episode three was a dark valley, however, the finale offered an unexpected beacon of light.
Joel and Ellie — now bonded into a compelling father-daughter-like relationship by mutual self-sacrifice, shared experiences, and equal but opposite trauma — finally make it to their destination: the hospital where the Fireflies and their resistance leader Marlene have planned to create a cure for the deadly Cordyceps fungus using Ellie’s unique immunity.
It isn’t the rosiest of roads to get to the hospital. As they exchange puns while wandering through an old Army emergency camp, the traveling duo gets knocked out by armed Fireflies.
