The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Through the Valley

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2, “Through the Valley,” is one of, if not the most, devastating episodes of the series.

It’s he one that finally starts to put Ellie on a new path, and if there were any episode from both seasons of The Last of Us that I, like many others, was heavily anticipating the most, it would be this one.

Given how brutal The Last of Us: Part II established Ellie’s path of newfound independence, I expected The Last of Us Season 2 to absolutely go into the trauma as soon as possible. With “Through the Valley,” it really delivers on the action and drama, carefully balancing both elements to create a high-stakes episode.

While The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 “Future Days” sought to reaffirm the dynamics between Joel and Ellie in addition to creating new ones, “Through the Valley” slowly and steadily cracks those bonds we know and love.

When we got that affirmation of connectivity between Joel and Ellie in “Future Days”, there was this tension to suggest that Ellie wanted to move on. Getting into that huge fight with Joel was somewhat heartbreaking, but it created this gut feeling that they’d eventually get back together.

Of course, fans of the games know this wouldn’t happen, but grasping onto that hope made this emotional fracturing feel special.

Throughout “Future Days,” Ellie continually pushed back, which led to Joel taking Dina under his wing for those years. With Ellie thinking Joel is babying her because of his overprotectiveness, it’s clear why she’d want her own sense of control.

Here, on The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 “Through the Valley,” she’s able to get that control, which is carefully fleshed out. Joel and Dina are off on a patrol, and Jesse hopes Ellie can join him since Joel didn’t want to wake her up.

This also has a cute moment where Jesse reveals that he knows about Ellie and Dina, though thankfully is played subtly enough to generate that heat.

It’s a small comfort moment, which continues to play on the feels when they march into town later on. While Tommy notifies the town of the recent Infected changes and safety plans, Ellie gets her moment to reconcile with Seth, the man who called her and Dina out for kissing.

Ellie has continually shown her resilience to change, which is further proven when Seth tries to forgive her despite her innately dismissing him. Sure, it has some of those comedic undertones to it, but with Ellie being too determined to go on her own, there’s a slight sympathy that you just have to feel for Seth.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t feel bad for Ellie. Though her inner sense of self-confidence can feel like arrogance at times, you can tell that she still cares for Joel, which gets truly proven later on. 

When the snowstorm comes in the middle act, we eventually start learning more about Eugene. As Ellie and Jesse find shelter and end up in a pharmacy-turned-weed lab, it turns out there’s a lot more to Eugene’s story than we thought.

Where we learned on The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 “Future Days” that Eugene was Gail’s husband, we learn that he actually took part in the Vietnam War and eventually turned to the Fireflies. While the reason behind Joel killing Eugene remains a mystery, there’s this feeling that it wasn’t for good reasons.

Of course, Eugene’s lore in The Last of Us: Part II isn’t as integral as it is in the series, but the Fireflies’ connection with Joel, Gail, and Eugene can further influence Ellie’s arc. As details continually get strewn about Season 2, it’s likely that it can see Ellie following the same steps that Joel took in killing Eugene.

Meanwhile, Abby’s been going through some tough changes. The way that “Through the Valley” opens up with Abby’s psyche trying to reason with her spirit to try and change things does a solid job in humanizing her. You know that she’s a danger, but at the same time, you can somewhat understand her motives.

While she remains determined to kill Joel, her team considers leaving her and going on their own. Though Abby takes some turns, the huge horde of infected try to hunt her down, leading to some claustrophobic escape sequences.

That’s when Joel and Dina save her at the last minute, and I couldn’t help but feel the tension between her and Joel. From that one moment, I knew that “Through the Valley” would be the episode that changed the game and the build-up to that moment didn’t disappoint.

While Tommy and the rest of Jackson County tried to defend themselves from an insane onslaught, Joel and Dina incidentally find themselves captured by Abby and her crew. This leads to a standoff, where Abby finally reveals her motives for getting Joel to where she wants him to be.

This moment is heavy in The Last of Us: Part II as fans initially didn’t expect Joel to die. However, now that we know how that moment was executed, I was left wondering how they’d do it here. Fortunately, it doesn’t disappoint as the slow burn that Abby promised Joel delivers those hard-hitting blows.

Kaitlyn Dever’s performance is absolutely chilling as she delivers one of the most nerve-wracking monologues about Abby’s father and how she wants revenge. In a world where the apocalypse rules over all, Abby found the one line where no one dared cross and Dever shines in this very brutal moment.

As Ellie finds her way to the lodge and Joel gets heavily beaten up by Abby, everything just feels painful. The camerawork, the prosthetics, and the score mesh together to increase that uneasiness, which plays off those beats beautifully.

Then, the climax kicks in as Ellie tries to save Joel, but in a heartbreaking shot, Abby drives in the broken handle of the golf club. In those last few minutes, it feels hauntingly perfect as Ellie tries to cope over Joel’s body to a somber song. Everything’s changed for Ellie and you just can’t feel anything but sadness at the end of it all. 

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2, “Through the Valley,” will successfully break you in the most tragic ways, enhancing those tear-jerking moments that made The Last of Us: Part II memorable. With this episode being the one that finally puts Ellie on a new path, it left me both excited and terrified for what else this series can have in store.

Stray Thoughts:

• I honestly thought the hordes were going to attack each other when they were hunting Joel and Dina, but it turns out that they found themselves unified because of the Cordyceps plant in the settlement!
• The whole “Abby finding the frozen infected” moment felt like that ending from The Shining, and I was honestly thinking they might’ve been dead.
• I absolutely need more of Gabriel Luna with a flamethrower because him fighting that Bloater was genuinely awesome.
• The whole Jackson County defense sequence had some moments that shined, but ultimately felt like it was an attention-grabber in the end. That said, I love a good reinforcement moment with the hounds.
• When they played “Ellie’s Song” at the end of the episode, I think I started to tear up a bit because I didn’t expect that to play.

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The Last of Us Season 2 releases new episodes at 9 PM EST/PST every Sunday on Max and HBO.

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