The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Convergence

With The Last of Us Season 2 coming to an end, Season 2 Episode 7 “Convergence” feels like a soft conclusion to what could be a more intense story. While it still retains the tension and emotion from Season 2 Episode 5 “Feel Her Love”, it still feels like it could’ve done a lot more.

Whereas the previous episode, “The Price”, reaffirmed the dynamics between Ellie and Joel, this episode goes to show how Ellie’s independence gets pushed to its limits. What results is an episode that somewhat feels all over the place, but has moments that hit the right tones.

This shows very clearly from its beginning, where Jesse, Dina, and Ellie reunite after nearly escaping the clutches of the Scars.

From the beginning of Episode 7, you can’t help but feel this certain undertone that Jesse really knows what’s going on. Though Ellie and Dina try to keep their relationship, and Dina’s pregnancy, a secret, it does feel like Jesse is hiding some sort of jealousy for their relationship.

However, it isn’t in a more conservative way that led Joel to believe otherwise. Rather, Jesse wants to care for this child because he’s the one that got Dina pregnant in the first place. Putting Ellie, Dina, and the unborn baby in this situation has riled him up to a point where he just wants to get them to safety.

Unfortunately for Ellie, she doesn’t want to go back because she’s mentally put herself in this position of being the hunter. In her explanation to Dina as to how she got Nora to speak at the end of “Feel Her Love”, Ellie actually starts to feel this regret for brutally killing her.

In these ways, Ellie is essentially following in the same steps as Joel, going so far as to avenge him the same way he saved her at the end of Season 1 Episode 9 “Look for the Light”.

Yet, she still has this reluctancy to go so far as to spare those who didn’t play a role in Joel’s murder. Ellie might think she’s this arbiter of justice and wants to do the right thing, which goes to show when she and Jesse find a young Scar being brutalized by WLF soldiers.

Despite wanting to help the poor kid out, Jesse holds Ellie back because he doesn’t want her to get killed. He later explains this as him protecting his community, but Ellie believes she sees right through his claim as a way to only care for himself like Joel.

All of this builds up to an eventual confrontation between Ellie and Jesse when they come to decide whether or not to hunt down Abby or help Tommy. Here, Ellie finds herself mentally blinded in leaving Jesse to take Abby out because of her emotions, which have been gradually building up.

As such, her rage carries Ellie to the aquarium, constantly staying on the move from dangers like the WLF and the Scars. Her venture to get to Abby incidentally leaves her on Scar territory, which feels more like a roadblock more than anything. It does feel like this portion could’ve been used for something else, but I’m guessing the WLF-Scar war took priority.

Luckily, when Ellie does finally get to the aquarium, she doesn’t find Abby but two of her team members instead: Owen and Mel. Despite her trying to negotiate with them at gunpoint, Owen takes the easy way out. However, Mel nearly lives in her last moments, revealing that she also has an unborn child.

This is perhaps the biggest tipping point for Ellie: she knows that she can’t go back as her morals have changed. As Mel bleeds out, Ellie tries to save her, but decides to let her die in peace mercifully. Ellie realizes that at this point, she’s pretty much like Joel.

This case also goes for Abby, which was made very clearly by Isaac’s talk with Elise as he tells her that Abby was his chosen one to lead the WLF in the future. Through a vision of what could be later on, it looked like it could very much be the case until what happens at the end.

The ending of “Convergence” is about as chaotic as you’d think with Abby finding Ellie instead of the other way around. Through all the trauma and pain that Ellie’s gone through, having this moment, as fast as it feels, tries to make you feel worried for Ellie. Yet, everything happens all too quickly to fully resonate with you.

Instead, it leaves you with that cliffhanger ending, making you wonder if Ellie is still alive or not. It’s a lot to take in with this conclusion, but with a two-year wait ahead of us, we can only hope she does.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7 “Convergence” is a shaky conclusion that leaves more room to explore Ellie’s psyche, but also needs more time to flesh out its linear narrative. Though its cliffhanger gives us something to think about when it comes to the rivalry Ellie and Abby will have, this episode shows that Season 2 could’ve done more beyond its source material.

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All episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 are now streaming on Max.

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