This article contains spoilers for The Last Of Us Season 2 Episode 2
Summary
The first episode ofThe Last of UsSeason 2 began on a promising note and balanced drama with enthralling content. The premiere took a five-year time jump to see how Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) were now living in Jackson, Wyoming. They are not talking to each other, and Ellie is not even living in the same house as Joel. Meanwhile, Ellie seemed to have found Dina (played by Isabel Merced) and has romantic feelings for her.
The first episode laid a strong foundation for things to come and ended on a terrifying note. While Abby and her group are closer to Jackson, the ending made it clear that the Cordyceps infection has made its way to Jackson through the pipelines. It’s already evident that things are about to get catastrophic for the residents of Jackson, especially Joel and Ellie. But how would Ellie react to Abby? And will Abby be able to find Joel? Let’s take a look at what happened in the second episode ofThe Last of UsSeason 2.
Ellie tells Jesse about her intimate moment with Dina, while Owen wants to change Abby’s mind
After the emotional and terrifying ending of the premiere, the second episode ofThe Last of UsSeason 2, “Through the Valley,” begins on a more ominous note. Viewers seeAbby Anderson (played by Kaitlyn Dever)walking in the dimly lit hallway in Salt Lake City. She is clearly nervous about what’s happening and has a weapon. While she is trying to figure out what is happening, an older version of Abby pops up, who is talking about someone who has just lost their life. Both versions of Abby get into a conversation, even when the younger Abby tells the older one that she doesn’t recognize her. The younger Abby wanted to know who was dead and wanted to see their faces. Surprisingly, the older Abby stops her from that room and doesn’t want her to see the carnage. However, Abby didn’t stop and started crying as soon as she entered the room. Meanwhile, the alarms started to get louder and louder as both the Abbys broke down. But it turns out that everything viewers saw on the screen was actually a nightmare that Abby saw while sleeping.
In the final moments of the first episode, Abby and her group seemed to be inching closer to Joel and Ellie’s settlement in Jackson, Wyoming. In the second episode, it seems that the group decided to spend the night inside a Ski cabin near Jackson. However, things are not as they would have wanted them to be. While looking at the settlement, they realized how heavily guarded it was, and it could be difficult for them to just break into the settlement. The group begins to have conversations about their plan and decides that they won’t let anyone from the group die because of revenge. As a result, Owen starts making a strategy, and when Abby is not around, he tells everyone that he plans to change their initial strategy. He believes that they need to stop thinking about revenge because it seems like people in Jackson are ready for a full-blown fight, and if they try to attack them, the group will be killed.
Honestly, a wise decision. But Abby is too consumed with the idea of killing Joel.
Is Ellie finally trying to talk to Joel?
Meanwhile, in Jackson, people continue to do their things after enjoying last night’s New Year party.Jesse (played by Young Mazino) knockson the door of the garage where Ellie is living and wants her to get ready for the patrol. Ellie gets ready for the patrol while talking to Jesse, and during the conversation, she finally reveals how she kissed Dina (played by Isabel Merced) during the party. Jesse is shocked to hear that Ellie kissed his ex-girlfriend, and acts like he is pissed about what she did. However, in the end, he laughs and tells Ellie that he doesn’t have any problem with it and was messing with her because they (Dina and Jesse) are not a couple now, and he won’t come between them. However, this moment of playfulness suddenly changes to something terrifying when they come across a good number of infected that are frozen. But that’s not all. While searching the area, they discover more infected coming out beneath the bodies of the frozen ones.
This entire situation makes everyone nervous because no one knows how many more will turn up the next moment. A few minutes later, Ellie stuns Jesse when she says that she wants to patrol with Joel because all she has been doing since Salt Lake City is avoiding him. On the other hand, she confesses that things might not be as good as they once were, but she is still Ellie, and he is still Joel. But it seems Joel has already left for the patrol, and the person accompanying him is none other than Dina. The news of the infected ones has reached Tommy and Maria, and now they are planning what to do if the town is hit. Tommy knows how dangerous this situation can get, and he would need everyone’s support.
Abby is attacked by the infected, but Joel saves her
Things were getting bad to worse for Jesse and Ellie because Tommy relayed the message of a massive snowstorm coming their way. However, Ellie and Jessie couldn’t hear those messages because of how far they were. In the end, they had to take shelter in a store and wait for the weather to get better. On the other hand, Abby is out in the snow and looking around the area. While returning to the cabin, she looks at the area and finds two spotters at a distance. Instead of returning, she followed those two spotters so she could get to know what they were doing. She was trying to walk on the slope when the ice broke, and she slid down the slope. Abby didn’t know that something more dangerous than a snowstorm was waiting for her on the other side. At the bottom of the slope, she finds herself surrounded by the infected, and when she tries to run away, the infected start following her.
There came a point when it seemed like Abby was not going to survive the situation and might become a zombie. However, Joel arrives on time to save her by killing one of the infected ones who was very close to biting her. Abby comes face to face with Joel, but doesn’t know that he was the person she was looking for. She only gets to know about Joel when Dina calls him by his name, and Abby realizes that she was saved by the person she wanted to kill. When the trio realizes that they can’t go back to Jackson,Abby suggests they should go to her cabin, where her friends are also waiting for her to arrive. Conversely, Ellie and Jesse return to Jackson and learn that Joel and Dina haven’t arrived. They both panic and, once again, go out of the city to look for them.
Abby’s torture begins as Ellie looks out for Joel and Dina
Abby, Joel, and Dina arrive at the cabin where Abby’s friends are waiting for her. It doesn’t take much time for her to call Joel by her name, and when everyone gets to know that, they take out their guns and hold the duo at gunpoint. Now, if people have playedThe Last of Us Part II,they’ll realize what was about to happen. First, they take out Dina by giving her an injection, which will put her to sleep for a while. After that, Abby confronts Joel about the people he killed in Salt Lake City. Joel tries to tell her that he saved her life from the infected, but that makes her angrier, and she shoots Joel in the leg. But she wanted him to die slowly, and she wanted to torture him.
After doing so, Abby talks about the people Joel killed that day, and one of the people he killed was his father. Although Abby was told never to kill a person who couldn’t fight back. However, she made it clear that she won’t follow that rule for Joel and took one of the golf clubs from the bag of clubs nearby, and hurt his already injured leg by striking it with a golf club.
Abby finally takes her revenge as Joel faces a brutal death
Ellie, who was out in the snow to find Joel and Dina, finds horse tracks, and she realizes that those tracks are going towards the resort where Abby and her friends were living. Inside the resort, things were not looking good for Joel as Abby continued to beat him up, and beat him up so much that it was difficult to watch. After entering the resort, it doesn’t take much time for Ellie to find Dina and Joel’s horses. But she didn’t know that she would see Joel in such a situation, and when she finds out about Joel’s condition, she tries to shoot her and save Joel. But things didn’t go out well for her as she couldn’t fight Abby’s group alone. Ellie sees Joel, who already feels like a lifeless body, and tells him to get up. Owen couldn’t take this anymore and wanted Abby to end it as soon as possible.
Abby finally hears Owen, and with one swing to the neck, she kills Joel with a golf club. Ellie was in disbelief after seeing what had happened, and she screamed in rage. The group leaves while Ellie crawls to Joel’s body and wraps her arms around Joel. Meanwhile, in Jackson, people are fighting the infected ones and find out thatthe Cordyceps infection has reachedthe pipes of the settlement. Tommy and Maria survive the onslaught, but the city has endured a lot in the attacks.
This episode delivers a gut-wrenching blow that’s as emotionally devastating as it is brutally violent. Joel’s death, executed with chilling calm by Abby, hits like a hammer to the chest, not just for Ellie, but for the audience who has journeyed with him for years. The scene doesn’t hold back — it’s raw, unflinching, and deeply personal. Ellie’s helpless scream, Joel’s broken body, and the eerie silence afterward linger long after the devastating death. This episode belongs to Ramsey and Dever. Both have been simply extraordinary in their respective portrayals. “Through The Valley” is a masterclass in tension and heartbreak, forcing viewers to sit with the horror of revenge and the irreversible damage it leaves behind. Absolutely shattering.
