America Is Still America-ing In The Last Of Us Season 2

In The Last Of Us Season 2, we’re five years into the future from when we were last with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and, for the most part, things still look pretty familiar. Sure, there are a few new faces around, and the safe haven of Jackson, where a now-distant Ellie and Joel have settled with his brother’s family, has grown a bit bigger, but the infected run rampant and the U.S. (and the rest of the world?) remains ravaged and desolate. Structurally, life is different, yes, but as our characters rebuild, it doesn’t seem like much has changed societally — America is still very much America.

This is most evident toward the end of the premiere, which aired Sunday, when the Jackson community gathers at the local church to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Ellie is hanging out at the fringes, watching with a longing smile as her best friend — and crush — Dina (Isabela Merced) livens up the dance floor. Soon, Dina drags Ellie to dance with her, the music changes to a slow song like it’s actually a rom-com and not the zombie apocalypse, and the pair share a goofy moment before pulling closer to sway along. As Dina snuggles closer to Ellie — head resting on her shoulder, hand caressing her back, whispering flirty remarks in her ear — you can see all the tingle-inducing emotions flicker across Ellie’s face. It’s all the giddy promise of teenage love: disbelief, desire, yet still trying to keep it cool, and it culminates in a tender, hesitant-turned-passionate kiss that feels like a sigh of relief. Until they’re interrupted, that is, by an angry older man who calls them a slur and utters his disgust that two teen girls would dare to kiss at “a family event.”

As the infuriating scene plays out, all that ran through my head was of course. Of course one hate-filled man ruined a beautiful moment — which, surely, are few and far between given, well, everything else — for Ellie and Dina, tainting the memory of their first kiss forever. Of course no one else in the crowd (besides a late-to-the-scene Joel) offers them any support. Of course queerness is still under attack even as the outside world succumbs to crisis. It’s the reality we live in, after all. Currently, the ACLU is tracking 563 bills across the U.S. that are targeting the LGBTQ+ community in a myriad of harmful and dangerous ways, and, last fall, the FBI released a report that revealed they had recorded 2,936 anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in 2023, up around 8.6 percent from 2022. In Canada, where I’m from, police-reported hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community jumped a devastating 69 percent in 2023 from the year before, and Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party who is currently campaigning to become the next Prime Minister, is on record spewing transphobic rhetoric. 

So no, it wasn’t surprising that Ellie and Dina are met with hate. But in a show as bleak as The Last of Us, it’s incredibly depressing. When building a new world — or even just a town like Jackson — people should be striving to be better rather than attempting to recreate the inequity-filled status quo that existed pre-infected. Jackson is a small, tight-knit community of people who have beat the odds and are surviving through a violent, frightening time together. They go on supply runs together, they hunt infected together, and they have committed to keeping each other safe and alive. Why would Ellie, Dina, or any other queer person living in Jackson — who may not have even had much time to explore their queerness and how it might be received publicly given the whole fight-for-survival thing — expect to be attacked for their sexuality by the people they have been fighting alongside? They, like everyone else in Jackson, are key members of the community who shouldn’t have to worry about the respect they’re afforded because of who they are or who they love. At the very least, they should be able to count on others to not let homophobia go unchecked.  

The scene in which Ellie and Dina are confronted is the most glaring and, so far, consequential way that The Last of Us’ new world older looks like just like the biased-filled pre-pandemic way of life we all recognize, but quieter moments in the premiere do indicate that this isn’t just a one-off. At one point, Maria (Rutina Wesley), a town leader and Joel’s sister-in-law, emphasizes that they need to be building faster to be able to accommodate more people fleeing the infected because she can’t bear to “leave them out there.” Joel’s response? “If our life boat is swamped, yeah, we leave them out there.” He’s immediately contrite about the way he expresses his valid concerns — they really can only construct shelter at a set speed — and the show isn’t setting out to make Joel look like a bad guy. But the parallels to right-wing anti-immigration sentiment, which has been using “build the wall” as a motto since Trump’s first presidency, are startling. If Joel, or any of Jackson’s leaders, let this thinking fester, then Jackson will no longer be a haven; it will become a place where safety is a privilege only afforded to a few, and that’s really not something worth rebuilding. 

Stigmas from pre-infected life also play out in smaller, more personal ways, too. Early in the premiere, Dina asks Joel why Ellie is so angry with him, and he gives a very thoughtful and self-reflective answer about the state of their relationship. When he’s done, Dina laughs and asks, “Are you in fucking therapy?” (Spoiler alert: He is.) Joel gets embarrassed and tries to deny it, and the conversation moves on. 

In some ways, this could be seen as a charming moment — here Joel is having a meaningful conversation with his adoptive daughter’s best friend, and they’re comfortable enough with each other that they can trade teasing remarks — but it’s also so, so sad. In our world, stigmas around mental health are still inescapable; according to a 2022 survey by the KFF and CNN, 62 percent of adult respondents said stigma was a big problem when it comes to actually seeking mental health help. And in The Last of Us, Dina is still a teenager, which just goes to show how deeply embedded these stigmas can become. Joel shouldn’t feel like seeking help is something he has to hide, nor should he be made fun of for it, even if done in good nature. In fact, I’d argue that seeking therapy while going through the trauma that has unfolded in the show is something more characters should be doing. Jackson could be a place where mental health is as valued as physical wellbeing. Instead, shame still thrives because it’s not as urgent of a matter while chaos looms, which will only create fractures within the community as time goes on. 

My point isn’t that The Last Of Us should be creating a Jackson that is a magical, oasis free of judgment, hate, and societal issues — that’s probably more of a fantasy than a mushroom zombie apocalypse. But the characters should be trying. It would be nice, at least, to have the impression that some of them have the longterm goal of making things better than they once were. Yes, the world beyond Jackson’s walls is unpredictable hot garbage. Within its walls, however, they’ve been given the chance to remake their corner of the world into something new. Instead of doing that, they’re just inching their way back to the same old version of America — one that was full of flaws that too many people were willing to abide by.

Should the day ever come where our characters’ most basic needs — shelter, food, and sense of security against the dangers of the virus — are consistently met, they’ll realize that sticking to the pre-infected status quo won’t bring them happiness or a sense of belonging in their community. You can’t just work to survive, you have to work to create a world where tackling hate, injustice, and personal hardship head on is second nature, whether the infected are out there or not.