The HBO series, faithful to the structure of the game, will probably only reveal this complexity when it chooses to follow Abby’s point of view (Kaitlyn Dever), commander under the orders of Isaac. It is through his eyes that spectators will undoubtedly discover the life of ordinary citizens of Seattle under the WLF regime. A striking contrast with the harmonious community of Jackson.
We do not yet know all the parameters of the story, and the episode of the week, which can therefore appear a little wobbly, therefore focuses on another story: the emerging idyll between Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced). Both walk the city in search of food. Each makes a heavy discovery of meaning: Dina finds pregnancy tests, confirming in private a suspicion born of her brief affair with Jesse (Young tooth), while Ellie finds a guitar and tenderly plays “Take on Me”, quickly joined by Dina for a small intimate concert.
Joel, says Ellie, taught him to play; A detail that invites the attentive spectator to think about what this post-apocalyptic youth knows from the past, and what she has forgotten. Ellie knows for example by heart the Apollo missions, but ignores everything about the flag of pride, just like Dina. These small touches, straight from the game (like A-HA’s song), add a poignant depth to their universe. After all, they are only children.
-Alas, they grew up in a nightmarish world, and choose to dive even deeper into it. After discovering a WLF patrol massacred by the Seraphites, they meet other WLF soldiers, then a horde of infected. During their flight, Ellie is bitten, and Dina witnesses it – which triggers a stretched scene in an abandoned cinema, where Dina points a weapon on Ellie. First incredulous in the face of the immunity that Ellie reveals to her, she watches nervously over her all night. Then, convinced, she in turn confesses her secret: not only is she pregnant, but that by seeing Ellie being bitten, she also thought she had to collapse her dream of living by her side forever. After this tender confidence, they spend the night together.
In the morning, Ellie tried to persuade Dina not to accompany her in her quest for revenge. They still have neither truly idea of the real magnitude of the WLF. Ellie worries about Dina and the unborn child (“damn, I’m going to be a father,” she launched the night before). But Dina does not want to know anything. She takes Ellie’s hand, saying that they will face all this together, for better and for worse.
Initially published by Vanity Fair Us
