The Last of Us Episode 2 review: Clickers and tragedy strike

The Last of Us Episode 2 builds on the tragedy, suspense, and horror of the show’s opener by adapting one of the key moments from the game: the museum and its clicking terrors. 

Episode 1 of HBO’s adaptation has already positioned itself as one of TV’s biggest juggernauts in 2023. It wouldn’t be appropriate to say it defied the odds: the talent speaks for itself, and the video game curse has been broken.

In less than 90 minutes, it managed to expand upon and nail the game’s harrowing opening, effectively explain the Cordyceps infection, and set up Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and Tess (Anna Torv) on their journey outside the Boston quarantine zone. 

With Episode 2, the stakes are raised by the perils beyond the wall, and it’s reminiscent of Game of Thrones’ best quality: even when the characters barely go anywhere, we learn more about them and what makes them tick… or click. Spoilers for The Last of Us Episode 2 to follow…

The Last of Us Episode 2: Another chilling prologue 

We’re thrown back to 2003, two days before the outbreak. This time, we’re in Jakarta, the source of the fungus in the show. All seems well in the city; people are gambling, eating, and driving, hustling and bustling – but the wails of sirens can be heard in the normal current of life. 

Police officers descend upon a cafe, where a seemingly random woman is finishing her lunch. This is Ibu Ratna, a professor of mycology at the University of Indonesia. They need her to examine a woman’s body, one with a bullet hole in her head and bite mark on her leg. 

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When she cuts open the wound, mold seeps out like grew cotton wool. When she sticks some tongs into her throat, she pulls out tendrils looking to curl their way onto anything with a pulse. 

The police officer explains that they took other victims away for observation, but were forced to execute them – and the person who bit them is still on the loose. He asks Ibu to help them. “I have spent my life studying these things, so please listen carefully: there is no medicine, no vaccine. Bomb. Start bombing. Bomb this city and everyone in it.”

The Last of Us Episode 2: Joel and Tess interrogate Ellie 

At the end of Episode 1, Joel beat a FEDRA guard to death after he tried to test Ellie for Cordyceps. The screen claimed she was infected, but Ellie was bitten three weeks prior and has shown no signs of turning. 

She wakes up on a patch of grass in a ruined building, the sun shining down through the wreckage of the building. Joel and Tess aren’t so relaxed, and begin quizzing her on everything they can about her bite. “It’s not getting any worse, is it?” Ellie says. 

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A compelling, evolving dynamic is established between Joel and Tess: the former, recovering from the rage of the previous episode’s climax, wants to stop acting like Ellie has “some kinda life in front of her”; the latter is visibly taken aback by Ellie’s situation, and sees it as a chance to right the wrongs their brutal actions over the past decade. 

Importantly, Joel and Ellie’s relationship is humorously developed. “There’s not anything bad in here,” she asks as she goes into a room to pee. “Just you,” Joel quips. When she asks for a gun, he firmly says no. “Okay, jeez, fine, I’ll throw a f*cking sandwich at them,” she replies. Pascal is playing him more frostily than Baker in the game, while Ramsey effortlessly embodies Ellie as we already knew her.

The Last of Us Episode 2: The Clickers are here 

The game lends itself to characters being conversational; scenes don’t cut ahead, you progress them with your own movements, so they need to fill the void with chatter. In return, we grow closer to them. Episode 2 allows itself a few quiet moments for talking, whether it’s Tess learning about Ellie’s age, Ellie slyly avoiding any mention of Riley (if you don’t know, it’s best to wait), or Ellie trying (and failing) to probe Joel on his past. 

In order to get through to the Boston Capitol building, the trio are forced to take a shorter way, as the safer route is overrun by hundreds of infected, all connected by the overgrown fungus running throughout the streets and underground, with threads as long as a mile. This means one thing: going into the Bostonian Museum. 

Anyone who’s played the game will let out a soft gulp here. It’s not quite the hotel basement (again, it’s best to wait if you don’t know), but newcomers will see the most terrifying monsters in all of The Last of Us for the first time: Clickers, a deformed breed infected with fungus all across their face, left blind, crazed, and with jagged teeth from the infection. 

The ensuing set-piece is nail-biting, managing to represent the butt-clenching tension of tip-toeing past them and eventually ruining everything with one stumble. The noise, somewhere between clicking and a screech, is nightmare-worthy. Bullets end up flying, but with the exception of a small bite on Ellie, they all seem to emerge unscathed.

The Last of Us Episode 2: Tess’ luck runs out 

When they arrive at the Capitol building, they find nothing but boxes of gear and dead, bloody bodies. “One of them got bit, the healthy ones fought the sick ones, and everyone lost,” Joel tells Ellie, but while he seems fairly accepting of this being a sign to go home, Tess desperately tries to think of a solution.

I knew it was coming. Many of you did. But for those who didn’t, Tess was bitten in the neck by a Clicker, and the infection is starting to run its course. “Our luck had to run out sometime,” she tells Joel. 

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She gives Joel her last wish: she wants him to take Ellie to Bill and Frank’s, and “save who you can save.” On the ground, a nearby corpse suddenly crawls forward, and Joel shoots him in the head – but one death begets a horde, as the vibration of the gunshot is felt along the vast network of fungi, and hundreds of infected start sprinting their way. 

Joel grabs Ellie, and Tess awaits a fiery death surrounded by fuel and grenades – but her lighter won’t work, even as an infected gives her a horrid, yucky kiss of death, with tendrils going into her mouth and down her throat. At the last moment, it comes alight, and she sacrifices herself in the explosion. 

The Last of Us Episode 2 review score: 4/5

A giddy episode for the players, and a terrifying experience for all, The Last of Us Episode 2 proves its first chapter wasn’t a one-off. Nobody is safe in the Cordyceps apocalypse, and it’s best we all accept this before reaching the heaviest hits. 

The Last of Us Episode 3 will be available to watch on January 29 in the US and January 30 in the UK. You can check out the rest of our coverage here, and the trailer for the weeks ahead here.