HBO‘s The Last of Us is a show about a great many things. It’s about mushroom zombies and fighting fascism. It’s about processing grief and overcoming trauma. It’s about daddies and their daughters, Linda Ronstadt-loving husbands, and, yes, girls kissing.
**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1, now streaming on MAX**
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 ends with nineteen-year-old heroine Ellie (Bella Ramsey) sharing a swoon-worthy New Years Eve kiss with her drunk bestie Dina (Isabela Merced) in front of the entirety of Jackson, Wyoming. Not only does the HBO show give Ellie a new love interest this season, but affirms that it’s not messing around with homophobes. Ellie and Dina’s kiss is followed up with series badass Joel (Pedro Pascal) shoving the one mean bigot trying to yuck their yum. The Last of Us is going to stay woke, folks!
The Last of Us Season 2 is an adaptation of the super-popular 2020 video game, The Last of Us II. That game deals with the fallout of events in the first video game, wherein after battling across a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland to safely deliver immune teen Ellie to Fireflies in Salt Lake City, Joel proceeds to murder those same Fireflies to save Ellie from dying in a procedure designed to create cure. The new season of the HBO show introduces us to Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), one of the playable characters in the sequel game, who is dead set on killing Joel for killing her dad in Salt Lake City.
But like who cares about that grim revenge plot when The Last of Us Season 2 also introduces Dina? Dina’s fun, guys! This show really needed Dina!
The Last of Us Season 2 takes place five years after Season 1. Ellie is now a rebellious 19-year-old harboring a crush on best friend Dina. It’s hard not to appreciate why Ellie would be pining after her (seemingly) straight friend. Dina is effervescent and beautiful, plucky and brave. She’s just as capable of hunting infected as Ellie and happily makes jokes while doing so. Even Joel explains to therapist Gail (Catherine O’Hara) that Dina is just so nice and lovely to be around. Dina rules.
Dina’s also in an on-and-off romantic relationship with young local leader Jesse (Young Mazino) that is decidedly off on New Year’s Eve. So Dina gets drunk and flirtatiously dances other guys in Jackson just so Jesse can see what he’s missing. What she may or may not realize, though, is that Ellie is also watching.
Later in the night, Dina pulls Ellie onto the dance floor. As the conversation grows more and more flirtatious, Ellie opens herself up the joy of being held romantically by her friend. Dina kisses Ellie, but the moment is soon trampled upon by a drunk Jackson resident named Seth (Robert John Burke). He calls the girls the d-word, prompting an overprotective Joel to cause a scene.
Now Ellie seems pissed at Joel, but I think he was in the right. Dina and Ellie were not doing anything that would be considered immodest if they were a heterosexual pair. The double standard that Seth ascribes to them is not only gross, but stupid in a world where humanity is doing its best to survive. A community like Jackson only works if bygones can be bygones and the citizens can live and let live.
Moreover, The Last of Us is affirming that despite critics who found the first season “woke,” they’re not going to cow in the face of criticism. Oh, you didn’t like that the standout episode of the first season was a tender, tragic love story between two men? Too bad! Ellie has already been established as a queer character and she will continue to be one. You want just zombie hunting and skull crushing? You’re going to have to deal with whatever is simmering between Ellie and Dina to get it.
Indeed, The Last of Us Season 2 premiere leaves us with some key mysteries for the rest of the season to solve. What’s the deal with the new type of infected, the “Stalkers,” who are capable of using logic and strategy? What’s going on with the fungus growing in the Jackson pipes? Will Abby and her cohorts really kill Joel in the weeks ahead? (They definitely arrive within hiking distance of Jackson at the end of the episode!)
Most importantly, though, does Dina like Ellie, too?!? We’ll just have to tune in for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 next Sunday to find out.
The post ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Stays Woke: Ellie Kisses Dina, Joel Shoves a Homophobic Hater appeared first on Decider.
