You’ve most likely heard the joke “Why did the scarecrow earn a medal? As a result of he was excellent in his subject.” However The Final of Us’ Ellie (Bella Ramsey) by no means has. When she pulls it seemingly at random from her e-book of puns, she is making an attempt to spring it on Joel (Pedro Pascal), trying to elicit a ultimate eye roll earlier than they fall asleep. When he as an alternative gives up the punchline, she’s each delighted and aghast: “You dick! Did you learn this?”
There’s no manner, after all, for Ellie to know that it is a quite common pun, not less than outdoors a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland introduced on by mushrooms. But it surely’s telling {that a} scarecrow joke catches her off guard in a manner that not even a shock Clicker or random contaminated has in the remainder of the present. And whereas this wasn’t the primary time Ellie interacted with one thing new to her from the “outdated world,” it was an instance of what The Final of Us can do at its finest, discovering good methods to let the characters’ softness peek by way of, even in an extremely arduous world.
The center of that has all the time been the connection between Joel and Ellie. Although at first look they’re an odd pair, there’s a sure symbiosis between the 2; they’re each spiky, powerful, would-be loners who deliver out the softness in one another. And each the sport and the present rely closely on the concept that they kind a profound bond, robust sufficient to encourage brutal acts of violence to guard it. That’s true even when Joel finds the thought sort of shameful, embarrassed to have Ellie see him kill the Hunters who ambushed them, and he’s much more overcome when he hears that it isn’t the primary time she’s needed to kill somebody.
Moments like this in episode 4 offers us the perfect glimpse but into their relationship being extra than simply him as a chaperone, even when he’s nonetheless telling her she’s not household, she’s “cargo.” It lets us see Joel lastly drop his guard for a second and genuinely care concerning the life Ellie’s lived, maybe thawing barely from his grief over Sarah’s demise. And Ellie is letting herself be taken care of and care in return. When The Final of Us slows down for these moments, it makes time for Ellie to be greater than only a generic apocalyptic teen, and Joel her gruff-but-nonspecific protector. There’s texture to her world that we didn’t have earlier than, one thing that feels extra private to her.
No Pun Supposed: Quantity Too brings out the identical factor in Ellie’s character. When she’s studying to Joel from the e-book, it’s not solely a bonding second, it’s an illustration that our world is as international to her as hers is to us. And it’s simpler storytelling than her marveling at an airplane in “Lengthy, Lengthy Time.” We’ve seen folks in post-apocalypses linger at airplane crashes, remarking about how grand it will need to have been to “go up within the sky,” as Ellie places it. It’s comprehensible — air journey can depart even a seasoned passenger a bit awestruck — however it’s additionally overused, and misses the specificity that makes the The Final of Us’ characters fascinating and its finest moments actually shine.
In distinction to her normal means-of-transportation-based awe, Ellie’s affection for puns and her lack of cultural context round them is charming, and comes from her distinctive character. It’s not simply that she’s amazed at how folks received round, it’s that she’s stunned anybody had time to make use of language this fashion. By means of her delight and shock at Joel finishing the punchline, we get a way of her world and simply how joyless it’s been till now. And Joel will get to be charmed and saddened by that simply as a lot as we do.
It’s a smaller beat, to make certain. However The Final of Us, and specifically the connection between Ramsey’s Ellie and Pascal’s Joel, is constructed on minute moments. As Ellie is coming to study, the world is far greater and rather more difficult than she thought. Right here’s hoping The Final of Us can provide her the identical remedy.
