The Last of Us 2×07 Review: “Convergence”

The Last of Us season 2 episode 7, titled ‘Convergence’, offered an action-packed finale. However, it did feel a bit rushed.

After giving us flashbacks galore in the penultimate episode, ‘Convergence’ returned to the present with Ellie rejoining Dina and Jesse. I liked how the writers handled Dina and Ellie’s conversation. Ellie told Dina about making Nora talk after torturing her. Ellie’s realization of how easy it was to hurt Nora until she told her the truth about Abby’s location made sense because of the dark path Ellie’s been going down. As they say, taking the first step is the hardest.

As far as Dina’s concerned, Abby and her friends deserved to be hunted down after murdering Joel. Dina’s all about supporting Ellie because she could relate to Ellie’s pain of losing a loved one. However, Dina’s perspective changed after Ellie shared why Abby came after Joel in the first place. In a way, even though what Abby did was indeed cruel and brutal, it was understandable. Joel had killed her father as well as everyone else in the hospital. Yes, it was to save Ellie, but he still did it. One could argue there was no need for him to kill everyone, especially Abby’s unarmed father.

I do think Dina being pregnant and being struck with an arrow in her leg also played a role in changing her mind. It was time for Dina, Ellie, and Jesse to find Tommy and head back to Jackson. Ellie’s need for revenge, again, while understandable, needed to be shelved. It was a complicated situation for Dina after learning the truth about Joel’s past from Ellie.

As for Ellie and Jesse’s dynamic due to Dina being pregnant, it made sense for Jesse to want to stay alive for his baby-to-be. Not only that, he’s also being trained to be Jackson’s next leader. He had to look at the bigger picture instead of taking major risks to appease a single person aka Ellie.

Ellie and Jesse served as two sides of the same coin. For Ellie, supporting and protecting the community meant no man would be left behind. If anything ever happened to Jesse, Ellie would do what she could to save him, even if it meant she had to accomplish the rescue mission solo. In contrast, Jesse was more about weighing an individual’s interests against the interests of an entire community. And we all know such leaders opt for the majority vote. Both kinds of people are needed to keep society moving. So, I can’t fault Ellie and Jesse for standing on opposite sides.

Having said that, I’m on Jesse’s side when he stopped Ellie from saving a young Scar from being attacked by a bunch of WLF soldiers. As Jesse put it, this wasn’t their war. The duo needed to find Tommy and get out of Seattle ASAP.

While searching for Tommy, Ellie realized what Nora meant when she shared Abby’s location before succumbing to the infection (and her injuries). Faced with a choice, Ellie decided to leave Jesse on his own to find Tommy while she made her way to Abby’s hideout. Sigh!

I don’t know if it was necessary to have the scene where Ellie got captured by Scars and was spared from being killed because their village was attacked by the WLF army. But we got it, regardless. I would have preferred the writers to focus on fleshing out certain other moments in a finale that was less than an hour long.

Ellie confronting Owen and Mel could have benefited from more screen time. It was rushed and, in my opinion, failed to elicit the same emotional response as the scene from the video game. Also, I don’t know why, but Mel’s death in the live-action version had less to do with Ellie’s actions compared to the tussle she got into with a pregnant Mel in the video game. It’s as if the series writers really wanted Mel’s death to come across as an accident and avoid putting as much blame as possible on Ellie.

But yeah, regardless of how it happened, Mel’s death was necessary for Ellie to calm down a bit and make peace with the fact that she needed to return to Jackson and stop all of the violence, even if it meant Abby got to live. Being responsible, even if it was an accident, for the death of a pregnant woman was a step too far.

However, the circle of violence continued. Due to Ellie going around and having killed Nora, Mel, and Owen, it was time for Abby to track her down to avenge her friends. I liked the surprised look on Abby’s face when she realized the culprit was Ellie. Like, girl, who the heck did you think it was? If your crew started getting picked off one by one after you recently murdered a particular man in front of his daughter-figure, a daughter-figure whom you let live after the tragedy, you better sleep with an eye open.

Abby vs Ellie during the second season concluded with Abby pointing her gun at Ellie, and the screen fading to black after a gunshot. I mean, we know Ellie’s not dead. But it still served as a nice cliffhanger after the two finally came face-to-face again.

As for The Last of Us season 3, ‘Convergence’ concluded with a flashback focusing on Abby getting ready to do something for WLF. The upcoming third chapter will focus on Abby’s storyline. We will get to see what she went through over a specific period for Isaac to think of her as the next leader of the WLF army in the present. I think we will also get an answer to why she was missing in action when it was time for Isaac to attack the Scar village.

The ratings for The Last of Us season 2 have been okay, in my opinion. I don’t think even the season 2 finale will manage to cross the 1 million live-viewers milestone, something that the final three episodes of the first season did. And with the third season focusing on Abby, I think the show will continue to see a decline in viewership. Apparently, there are plans for a fourth season. But let’s see how the third chapter performs well enough for the series to continue.

What did you think of The Last of Us season 2 finale?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary