Spoiler Warning: Major plot points from The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4 are discussed below, including character developments, show-to-game comparisons, and story reveals. If you haven’t seen the episode yet or played the game, now’s your chance to bail and come back later.
Alright, let’s talk about The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4, “Day One.” I have to say, after the intensity of the first three episodes, this one kind of felt like a step back. Don’t get me wrong – there were moments that worked, but overall, it was a bit of a drop from what we’ve seen so far. Some of it felt a little cringe, and even though the episode did have some key moments, they didn’t land as smoothly as I’d hoped.
The pacing seemed off, and while there were attempts at emotional depth, they didn’t feel as earned. So, let’s break this down – from the Seattle setting to the weird moments of forced romance, and everything in between. But just to be clear – this is my take. Let’s dive in.
Welcome to Seattle – Where the Rules Don’t Matter
“Day One” kicks off in 2018 Seattle, and it wastes no time throwing us into the thick of it. We’re riding in the back of an armored FEDRA van with a bunch of soldiers shooting the shit – and not in a charming way. One of them (Josh Peck, of all people) tells this messed-up story about a fellow soldier by the name of Greenberg who beats civilians, whom they call “voters.” When the new recruit naively asks what that means, the answer is cold as hell:
“Because that’s what we fucking call them. Who cares?”
But then we hear a different voice. Calm. Measured.
It’s Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), and his presence changes the whole vibe. He explains that “voters” is a sick joke – a way to dehumanize people after they lost the right to vote. And then Isaac flips the whole damn script. The convoy gets blocked by a school bus. He steps out, cool as ice, chats up the citizens, and then just casually grenades his own guys. No hesitation. No mercy. It’s a power move, but it’s also a line in the sand: Seattle ain’t under FEDRA control anymore.
He gives the newbie a choice – roll with him or end up like the rest, which is an easy choice if you ask me. And that’s how we’re introduced to this new chapter in The Last of Us.
With fire, betrayal, and a whole new flavor of messed up.
Ellie & Dina Are Awkward, Tender, and a Little Too Real
After that explosive cold open, we’re back with Ellie and Dina in the present-day ruins of Seattle.
They hit an old pharmacy, and we hear Ellie offscreen, doing her usual scavenging. Meanwhile, Dina is rummaging around before she suddenly blurts out that she’s going to go pee. Given the setting – and the fact that she was throwing up last episode – it’s not hard to guess what’s actually happening.
Then comes what might be one of the most meta moments in the whole show. The girls pass through Capitol Hill, Seattle’s historic LGBTQ neighborhood. Pride flags are still up, faint but visible, a reminder of the world that was. And here’s the wild part – these two queer girls don’t even recognize it for what it is. They’re walking through literal history, through what would’ve been their community, and they don’t have the context to name it.
Eventually, they reach a music store, and Ellie finds a guitar. What happens next is The Last of Us doing what it does best – low-key, emotional, and devastating in the gentlest way. Ellie plays a stripped-down version of Take On Me, and the moment is so emotional. Not just because Bella’s voice is beautiful (and it is), but because of everything baked into that performance. It’s Dina, realizing in real time that she’s in love with this girl. And it’s Ellie, still carrying the weight of Joel.
“All those lessons from Joel,” Ellie says quietly.
“He taught you well,” Dina replies.
Then Ellie, with that ache in her voice:
“He did.”
It’s a callback to that sweet moment in Season 1 when Joel asked her if she wanted to learn how to play guitar. And honestly? That scene worked. I usually side-eye musical interludes in shows like this (see Sirens of the Deep), and people online seem to think it was a cringe moment, but I completely disagree.
It’s pulled straight from the game, and Bella Ramsey did a beautiful job with it. If we want to talk about cringe, oh we will – just give it a few more scenes.
Isaac, the Wolves, and a Kitchen That Feels Like Hell
After all the tenderness of Ellie and Dina’s moment, The Last of Us yanks us back into the blood-soaked reality of this world – and hard.
The serenity of the music store cuts to black, and we drop straight into one of the season’s most brutal scenes: an interrogation that feels more like psychological warfare. We hear the clink of metal chains before we see anything, and then … there he is. A Seraphite. Completely naked, dick out and all bloodied. Tied to the floor of what looks like an old kitchen.
Enter Isaac.
It’s our first proper look at him in the present day, and he’s … charismatic, in the worst possible way. Isaac may have risen to become the leader of the WLF, but he hasn’t left his FEDRA past behind – if anything, he’s doubled down on its cruelty, only now it’s cloaked in a sense of purpose.
Isaac tortures him – burns his hand with a red-hot copper pan – but the guy doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t scream. He just tells Isaac, “You’re going to lose.”
And Isaac, almost amused, leans in with that cold certainty of someone who thinks he’s already won:
“Are we? Son, we have automatic weapons and hospitals, and you lunatics have bolt-action rifles, bows and arrows, and superstition. So tell me, how are we going to lose?”
But the Seraphite isn’t fazed. He talks about the Prophet – Her – and how every day, another Wolf converts.
“And none of us ever leave to become a Wolf.”
You can see it rattle Isaac for just a second, and when he turns to grab the pan to deliver another burn, the Seraphite is already holding his hand out. At that point, Isaac gives up the game. He puts a bullet in the guy’s head and walks away.
The Cycle Continues
Last week, Ellie and Dina stumbled across a caravan of dead Seraphites on the road into Seattle – slaughtered, mutilated, and left to rot. Among the corpses was the body of a child. That alone was brutal. But what they find this week? Honestly, it’s worse.
Inside the news station, WLF soldiers hang from the rafters like grotesque Halloween decorations. Their intestines are spilled out across the room like party streamers, turning the place into a gore-drenched funhouse of vengeance. And that’s exactly what it is: vengeance. The WLF slaughters Seraphites, the Seraphites retaliate, and the cycle spins on. It’s the same loop Ellie and Dina are trapped in. Eye for an eye. Bullet for a bullet. Blood for blood. Abby killed Joel to avenge her father, and now Ellie’s walking that same violent path, either unable – or unwilling – to step off it.
By the way, did y’all know those were real actors hanging? That’s crazy man.
They snag a working walkie-talkie off one of the bodies, but more Wolves show up and force them to flee. They bolt into a subway tunnel, gunfire chasing them, but that’s not the worst of it. Infected are down there too. A whole swarm of them. What unfolds feels straight out of the game: sprinting through collapsed train cars, ducking under debris, vaulting fences, barely clinging to life. At one point, Dina gets stuck behind a rusted turnstile, a runner lunging straight for her. Ellie doesn’t hesitate – she throws her arm out to block the bite, gets bitten, and gives Dina just enough time to shoot and scramble through.
They escape – barely – and hole up in an abandoned theater across the street. Ellie shrugs off the bite like it’s nothing, but Dina doesn’t. She’s shaking. She’s crying. She pulls a gun on Ellie, ready to do what needs to be done if it comes to that. And for the first time in what feels like forever, Ellie lets the walls drop. She pleads.
“Please, listen to me. I would die for you, I would. But that is not what just happened.
Fuck – I’m immune. I can’t get infected.”
Then Dina drops her own bombshell: she’s pregnant.
And then they have sex.
… And that’s where the show completely lost me.
I get what they were trying to do. The emotional stakes are sky-high. These two are traumatized, exhausted, bonded by love and shared pain. But man, the execution felt off. Ellie had just been fending off clickers, throwing hands into infected mouths – and now she’s using those same hands to, uh … pleasure Dina? Covered in sweat, blood, grime? It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t tender. It felt like fanfic that suddenly forgot where it was going. It yanked me right out of the moment, which sucks, because everything surrounding that scene was so strong. It just didn’t need to happen like that – not then, not like that.
Luckily, the show regains some of its footing the next morning. The two finally talk. Ellie opens up about the chemical burn she gave herself to hide her original bite. Dina talks about struggling with her sexuality, her mom, her fears around the pregnancy, and Jesse. But the quiet doesn’t last. Explosions go off in the distance. The walkie crackles to life. A name: Nora. One of Abby’s crew.
They rush to the roof, take in the chaos unraveling across the city, and fix their eyes on the next step of their bloody journey. Dina tells Ellie to wait. Ellie tells Dina to stay behind. Neither listens.
“We’ll do this together.”
It’s a solid note to end on. But yeah. Still trying to shake off the cringe.
Final Thoughts
Episode 4 had a lot going for it – gruesome visuals, tight pacing, and some genuinely powerful character moments – but that one scene in the theater nearly derailed the whole thing for me. It’s not that intimacy between Ellie and Dina doesn’t belong here – it absolutely does – but the timing, the setup, the execution … it just didn’t land. It felt tonally off in a way that the show usually avoids.
Still, there’s no denying the momentum is building. The infected sequence was one of the best action set pieces we’ve had so far, and I’m fully on board with Ellie’s descent into obsession, even when it’s hard to watch. Dina continues to be a grounding force, and now with her pregnancy out in the open, the stakes are even higher. We’re deep in the shit now, and the show is doing a solid job of reminding us there’s no clean way out.
It’s not a bad episode. It’s just … a messy one. Which, to be fair, might be the point.
Score: 7/10
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