The Last of Us: Part 2 : Journey Series - Part 4 (Seattle Day 3)
*Spoilers Ahead*
Welcome back to our ongoing adventure with the Last of Us 2 that we are calling the Journey Series. On the fourth leg of our Journey, we are covering the game from the start of the the tracking lesson up until the start of your day three in Seattle. A word of caution spoilers are ahead, so please proceed with risk. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
At the start of the tracking lesson I am angered and confused about what has just transpired at the theatre. How long must this cycle continue but by the end of the tracking lesson I have come to understand just how wrong I may have been up until this point. The original Last of Us didn't make Joel and Ellie out to be heroes or even good people but in this new world they live in, is being decent good enough? Saving Ellie at the end of the Last of Us was not something that sat well with all gamers as it forced you to ask yourself what you are willing to pay.
Joel had already lost his daughter, Sarah and he understands how badly that pain sits with you, year after year. I don’t know that I would have the courage and strength to make a decision any differently than Joel. Based on his experience in this world, he was unable to save his daughter the first time and that is likely a scenario that played repeatedly in his mind. Joel has been forced to live with that pain for over a decade and he finally has a chance to do it differently this time. Human beings are the result of our experiences.
It is here in the Zoo, during Abbys tracking lesson that we meet her father, Jerry and learn about what a beautiful mind he seems like. A man who is trying to be the best that he can every day, whether that be teaching his daughter about survival, helping wildlife even when it interferes with duty and trying to create a vaccine to save the world. Our world comes crashing down when we realize exactly who Jerry is and what his role is in this universe.
Back at Saint Marys, Abby overhears her Dad having a conversation with Marlene and there was a very clear silence when asked if he operate if it was his daughter that had the cure in her brain. As strong as he is, there is a hard line to cross when it involves harming the ones you love and even harder when it’s your child. Abby voices her opinion that she would want them to operate if it was her choice. This is not the kind of easily made decision that doesn’t happen without being instilled with the right moral compass from your father.
However, I am still unsure if this procedure would have even worked with Ellie. If they can properly operate there is still the logistics of producing this vaccine in a world that has mostly been shut off from power and essentials. If that hurdle wasn’t enough, there is just the most basic necessity of survival and we have seen numerous times just how evil the world can be when the slightest wrench is put into the gears. If somehow word gets out about the cure, odds are someone will get greedy and want the power and fame for themselves and in the process doom mankind all over again.
Throughout the first half of TLOU2, the only information that we have regarding the WLF has been skewed towards a negative light. First, they tracked and attacked us in Jackson and all throughout Seattle all we have been reading in notes is how bad they seem, however as we get a closer look at life inside the WLF, there seems to be a decent chance that we are wrong. They have created an ecosystem within Seattle of raising animals, growing crops and even implemented an educational system. We have also learned that they had a truce with the Scars that was broken by the Scars. All the information we are now getting leads us to believe that the WLF are trying to re-establish society as best they can but unfortunately there is a shadow looming overhead. There have been plenty notes found along the journey depicting Issac, the leader of the wolves, to be unhinged. We have yet to meet this man but there is a feeling that his motives aren’t pure.
When I first picked up the controller to play TLOU2, I was aware that I was about to embark on a darker journey as Neil Druckmann said if the first game was about love then the second one is about hate. It was pretty clear that Ellie would experience a loss that would set this whole story in motion. I was interested to go along with Ellie to find out at what point she would find redemption or be satisfied on her quest for revenge. At first, I was even anticipating getting justice for Ellie and by proxy, myself but the further I go down the rabbit hole the less I am sure of what the end result should be.
Learning both sides of the story and the road we are currently on, I am not sure where I stand anymore as the game is constantly giving you conflicting information. This is exactly what the writers wanted as Naughty has always tried to subvert expectations. They didn’t want you to know who the good people are and who the bad people are, perspective is everything and at times we are only shown one side of things. I’m pretty sure that there will be no happy outcome for anyone in this situation as I can’t see any outcome where people walk away satisfied.
I have come to the conclusion that Ellie has already died in the chalet along with Joel. The amount of hurt one person can take has a limit and I think there is a good chance there is no coming back for Ellie. Whereas once she was a beacon of light and hope in this dark world, she now seems like a black hole that is going to consume everything around it until there is nothing left. We have already seen this have a large role in the people around her at the theatre. The amount of people that Ellie has lost at such a long age is enough to break anyone, let alone someone so young. She is not the same person anymore. I think at this point the only chance for redemption is to sacrifice herself for the greater good of humanity, if there is even a chance that specialists exist still and can do the procedure.
We finally get our first look at Isaac, the leader of the WLF. At this point, we have only read about him in notes that have been scattered across Seattle. These notes do not paint a nice picture of who he is. Our first glimpse into his life continues to solidify the notion that Isaac is not a good person and it seems that many of the WLF are not as good as we may have initially thought. It appears that the WLF have a detention camp where they have been torturing people, which I can most likely assume are mostly seraphites.
We immediately learn of his plan to try to eliminate the seraphites completely during a thunderstorm. The same night of the storm that Ellie went to the aquarium and the same night that Abby tracked down the group back to the theatre. If Abby is back at the theatre during the thunderstorm, then this means that she didn’t follow her orders from Isaac. He mentioned how crucial of a role she was going to play in the invasion and if there is anything that I have learned from TLOU its that people close to her are going to suffer due to her thirst for revenge. Abby gets word that Owen, someone who she has strong feelings for has possibly let a seraphite go, but Abby doesn’t believe what she is hearing and knows that she can sneak out and get to Owen first to find out the truth.
When plans go awry with Abby, she is captured by the SCARS, during the scene that we were shown without context years ago. Abby is seconds away from being disembowelled when other members of the SCARS return with more important cargo, which actually turns out to be another member of the SCARS by the sounds of it. With the aid of Yara and Lev, the two outcast seraphites, Abby is spared from certain death by hanging. In a bright glimpse of the good of humanity we see these people work together for the survival of the three of them. Yara and Lev could have left Abby hanging by the noose and Abby could have killed the two of them as soon as she was cut down.
There is a certain amount of decency and trust within these three people for this plan to work. Once they feel like they are safe, they find a shelter for the night. Once again we see Abby care for these two strangers as she helps set a broken arm for one of them and warns them they are unsafe to stay for long. For reasons unknown at the moment, there has clearly been some type of divide between Lev, Yara and the rest of the SCARS for them to do such unthinkable things to Lev by smashing her arms with a hammer. I am interested where this thread will go as it is unlikely that Naughty Dog will have created this characters for us to care about just to have them be an insignificant part of the story.
Abby finally reaches the aquarium to find Owen at the end of the rope with the WLF and being their errand boy. Once again, in true Naughty Dog style we are given conflicting information for whether or not Owen is a good person. On one hand, we have seen in flashbacks that Owen seems to be a good hearted person with feelings for Abby and trying to show her a good time at the Aquarium. However this show of love goes unrequited as Abby is more focused on finding Joel and getting revenge for her father. How much different would things have been for a lot of these people if Abby would have chosen love over hate.
Years pass as we learn more about a lot of these ex fireflies, which is another indication that these were, at least at one time, good people who wanted to help get humanity back on its feet. Owen has moved on and is now with Mel who I assume is pregnant with Owens baby. I may have missed it but I don’t think the game has outright said it. Owen has created an escape from the madness of the world at the aquarium with warmth and love and based on the darts score, it’s a secret getaway for him and Mel. Finally, we also learn when Abby tracks him down against Issacs orders that he did actually shoot the other member of his squad, but it was only in self defence. Owen came to the realization that hate is not the answer and decided that his time with the WLF was over. Word has spread of the fireflies reforming in California and Owen wants a better life.
All of these reasons lead you to think that he is a good person and then we hear his plan is to go to California and leave Mel behind. Assuming that child is his, leaving the mother to raise the child alone is not the right thing to do. We also discover that Abby and Owen still have deep feelings for each other which escalate on the boat, which once again, is not the kind of behaviour that you would expect from someone decent with a child on the way.
As expected Lev and Yara return to the main story line as Abby has horrible visions at night and decides to try to help them no matter the cost. She risks her life numerous times and eventually becomes at odds with the WLF. I have been trying to figure out why Abby would go to these lengths to help two seraphites and I’m confident that Abby sees how important Yara is to Lev and understands how painful it can be to lose someone intimate in your life. Subconsciously, she is trying to protect her from the hurt and pain that she has already experience in her own life.
There have been multiple times where there has been an extended focus on the small aluminum boats which I may be reading too much into but I think the symbolism Naughty Dog is going for is that both Ellie and Abby are these small boats trying to stay afloat on the ocean. In many writings, a boat symbolizes life and the journey that we go on. Sometimes it’s smooth sailing and sometimes those waters can be rough but there is always the possibly that no matter how deep and dark the waters appear, the boat can still float above. The deeper you go into the water the more the light is consumed until you are at the bottom and there is nothing left but infinite darkness. It could be that or it could be that Naughty Dog really likes their wave technology.
On the more specific side, we see Abby attach her boat to Owen’s sailboat back at the aquarium, which is bigger than just a coincidence. Since her fathers death, Owen has basically been the only ray of light that she has had. He has been there for her with emotional support and he has been by her side on her quest for justice. We see Abby push away Owen multiple times, no matter how close they get and this is clearly Abby’s defence mechanism to block people from getting too close to her to avoid getting hurt again. Deep down this could have meant that Abby wanted to go to California with Owen to track down the fireflies.
With Ellie, we have seen her boat flipped over in terrible thunderstorm on the way to the aquarium and this is symbolic of how her emotions are after the chalet, she is unstable. We can assume that the boat capsizing shows us that Ellie is lost to the darkness
This is the end of the fourth leg of our journey. I hope to see you on the next and final journey with The Last of Us Part 2.