"His brains are on the floor"

Right at the beginning, we learn about Abby's Dad's death in Salt Lake City. This scene is just kind of silly. Instead, of showing Abby's dad, we have a conversation between two Abby's????? It's supposed to reflect her disbelief, of the incident, I think? I just feel like it would be far more effective to show Abby's dad.

All new pacing

The events of the Second game's prologue have moved to the second episode of the show and not only that, but an all new part has been added to the prologue. Jackson goes under seige, a really tense part that happens AS Joel is killed. A lot for one episode. The seige is great world building for Jackson, actually, Jackson is really getting alot of love here. Jackson feels vulnerable, and when Tommy eventually leaves Jackson to find Abby, its going to be scary.

Ellie and Jesse

Dina gets more development with Joel than Ellie. An interesting choice, but it makes sense; Ellie, so far, hasn't really felt like a main character like in the game. It's been split between Joel, Ellie, Abby, and Jackson, for pacing. With this change, Jesse and Ellie are the ones that find Eugene's weed, which means no lesbeans scene. Theres a lot less lebonese energy in these episodes. This could honestly provide even more room for Ellie and Dina's relationship to grow naturally as they trudge through seattle. We'll have to see how that changes things.

The Music!?!

The music, mainly during the Jackson raid, is extremely on point. It shares many simularites to the game's music but with that TV flair. Like in the first season, some music is remixed from the game, mostly as fan-service. Honestly, I love to hear it, it adds a sense of familiarity and TLOU 2's soundtrack is one of my favorites, ESPECIALLY the combat music.

JOEL!!!!!!!

Joel and Abby meet each other in the exact same way as in the game, but it makes more sense now that Joel is confirmed to be a very helpful human being. Rather, than it being implied in game with the passage of time. Joel also gets to the lodge in the same way as the game, but this time, the tension is at an all time high because he can see Jackson burning up.

And now, the big event, its somewhat dwarfed by the Jackson raid but it is the most important part of the plot... JOEL DIES!!!! The torture scene is... it's not my favorite. To start, they inject Dina? I get being pacifist but was it too much to just bonk her on the head like they did to Tommy in the game? It just doesn't make much sense, considering what they do to Ellie later on. Secondly, Abby says, "You actually are pretty handsome." What? That seems so odd for someone she is about to MURDER. Thats not something someone with pure hatred says. Lastly, her speech goes on for just a bit to long and the anger that the orginal Abby gave in her performance just isn't there. The speech could have ended at Abby talking about her Dad, but it doesn't. She goes on about some military code stuff that just seems made up for the purpose of making Joel look worse even though killing Abby's Dad was basically enough. The writing on her speech seems kind of dry overall.

The choice to have the torture scene take place in a big room instead of in the small basement, though minor, does have a big effect on the tone. The basement was isolating, suffocating for Joel, in that moment, he was completely hopeless. The hallway leading down to it was also a key part of Ellie's experience walking into the torture room and it symbolized her pstd.

Now Ellie walks in. Of course, she gets beat down, but the acting is lack luster compared to the viseral emotions that the in-game Ellie gave. When Joel is stabbed, Ellie doesn't scramble to get up like in the game, the desperateness in Ellie's voice just isn't there like in the game. Her scream is also drowned out in the show. The scene plays out with, instead of Ellie blacking out, she crawls over to Joel. Both are effective for displaying Ellie's immediate grief, but I prefer the in-game version more because of its simplicity and more viseral acting. Ellie's reaction is far more heartbreaking in the game, it practically generates emotions in you, while the show lacks that. (Also, while I was reviewing the scene from the game, the music in-game is far better at creating a suffocating tone and overall evoking more emotion.)

Final Thoughts

The highlight of the episode is definitely the Jackson raid. Completely new material and they knock it out of the park. The toture scene was disappointing though. The cinematography is better in the game overall. Eugenes development was quite nice and I do like how Dina is paired with Joel. The overall atmosphere of the episode is high action and it focuses on far more people than the game.

Abby's introduction

Already, the pacing has changed drastically. We begin with Abby planning her revenge: Issac is namedropped to give us more background for the WLF, Joel is instantly namedropped unlike in the game where you learn that Abby is refering to Joel, and Abby is dead set on killing Joel basically one day after Joel does what he does at Salt Lake City. It seems kind of dry when you plainly state what Abby's goals are. They lose that tension that comes from learning what Abby is doing. She just kind of seems like a venegeful person with nothing else going for her. Also, Abby is so petite!!! I'm kind of disappointed she doesn't have muscles, it was a huge part of her character in the game as it, one, gave her different gameplay and added parallels to Joel, and two, it gave her bigger sister vibes with Lev and Yara that were key to their relationship.

The Guitar

Lets get the super huge elephant out of the room... WHERE IS THE GUITAR SCENE. My glorious king Joel is missing his moment, we have be STRIPPED. I guess its fine, but its not, and I'm sad. Joel attends therapy here, I do not like the therapy scene, because Gale's character pmo and the drop that Joel killed Eugene feels wildly out of place for a therapy session, but I think its a much much better way to show that Joel has humanized and it solves the complaint with people asking, "Well why would Joel help Abby?" Well now, Joel will help because he isn't a cold-blooded mf anymore. But, we lose the guitar scene and the confession to Tommy, some of my favorite scenes, because they characterize how Joel has come to regret his actions but also how he's willing to continue to lie to Ellie because of his love for her. (Ok, on rewatch, the therapy scene is well-done, Gale still sux and Eugene's death getting dropped is still out of place, but it sets up to do everything that the confession to Tommy did, and then some)

Ellie kinda sucks

Ellie's portrayal in the first season was alright, she got a good pass because she was 14 year old Ellie, but now she is 19 years old and still cracking jokes, being sarcastic, and pissing people off. I don't like Ellie, its so weird. Another thing, the story does not begin with Ellie and Dina dating. They go on a "Girl's Trip," as in, a patrol together, and then (another massive pacing switch) the dance scene is shown with Seth being a bigot and then Joel decking him, but Joel like actually decks him here. Dina just kind of advances on Ellie without a really great reason to besides being drunk, it feels a bit forced. Dina's line where she says, "I think they should be terrified of you" holds zero weight without knowing the awful murder spree Ellie goes on in the game. Ellie just feels more boring compared to her in-game counterpart.

On Ellie's "Girl Trip" she gets really cocky and then in this really goofy ass scene, fights a stalker. That scene was just so funny to me because despite Ellie's YEARS of experience with infected, she's somehow NEVER stumbled upon a stalker, nor has any idea what to do about it other than to look around cluelessly with a shotgun. Where's your listen mode, man. It makes a bit more sense after the council scene where we learn that stalkers are completely new to everyone, but the scene is still silly as hell.

Tommy is bigger, and so it Jackson

TOMMY HAS A SON!!! Tommy is shown running Jackson in full, he is the leader of the fort. It gives Tommy more personality but it also makes Jackson far livelier. Joel works with the construction crew and you see them operate, its just great world building.

Final Thoughts

Overall, a good episode but its VERY different compared to the game. We have Ellie's conflict with Joel clearly displayed. The dance scene is less impactful with the pacing but it is important to make the story more cohesive. Also, WAIT WAIT WAIT did they not do the porch scene? The very, emotional scene at the end of the game that shows Ellie attempting to come to terms with Joel's decision!?! They just didn't do it? They need a scene equivalent to that, just because of how important it is. As we get into the bulk of the story, I'm really interested to see the changes as those parts are heavily gameplay driven.