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Where did we last leave Joel and Ellie? Well, it was a little complicated. It was also over two years ago. Here’s a refresher.
April 12, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET
Videogame adaptations have not, historically, had the best critical reputations; and zombie apocalypse stories are a bit played out. This is what was working against “The Last of Us” when HBO debuted Season 1 in 2023. A series based on a game, set in a postapocalyptic landscape populated by ferocious monsters? Did we need another show like this, given that we already have something like seven iterations of the “Walking Dead”?
Apparently so, given the level of acclaim and popularity the first “The Last of Us” season enjoyed. Craig Mazin, working with the game’s creator, Neil Druckmann, reimagined and reinvigorated an exhausted action-horror subgenre, making it work for television by taking advantage of what the medium allows. They broke their sweeping, epic story into gripping individual episodes, filled with small but potent moments of tension and tragedy.
It helped also that “The Last of Us” has such appealing lead characters: the gruff mercenary Joel (Pedro Pascal) and the foul-mouthed teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who travel together across a country populated by murderous gangs and rapacious creatures. Viewers very quickly became invested in these two, pulling for them not only to survive but also to make the most of whatever time they might have left on Earth.
It has been over two years since the Season 1 finale aired, so some fans might need a refresher on what Joel and Ellie went through and where they are now. So before Season 2 debuts on Sunday, here is what you need to know.
So there are these mushrooms …
Some say the world will end in fire; some say ice. In “The Last of Us,” we fear the fungus. The story starts with an explanation of the fungi cordyceps, a parasitic genus that in the real world can infect insects, effectively seizing control of their brains. In the TV series, these parasites begin infecting humans in 2003 (perhaps through tainted flour). In a matter of days, the whole planet is overrun with mindless killing machines who can infect other humans with their bite.
Most of Season 1 is set in 2023, after many of the noninfected have been clustered into scattered, isolated enclaves, each with its own rudimentary government and social structure. In the decades since the cordyceps plague started, the infected have gone through changes, evolving new powers and becoming stronger, while guided by an interconnected fungal root structure. The best way for humans to survive has been to seal themselves off as best as possible from the rampaging hordes.
