This season has kept the gut-wrenching, heart-stopping action moving, and this episode is fantastically the same. We open on the WLF, to a possible flashback, but certainly an unknown timeframe, unless I missed something. We see Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) meeting with another WLF. Elise Park (Hettienne Park) needs to discuss why she killed her own team, or rather, shut them in to die. Yikes, can imagine there’s a rather serious explanation at hand. And even more tragically than we can realize, there’s not much in the way of dead people down there in the basement of the hospital, but instead a hotbed of fungi spore release. “It’s in the air,” her son radioed before telling her to seal them in. I appreciate the symmetry and juxtaposition between parental figures choosing between the community and their child. Joel (Pedro Pascal) chose Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and Elise chose the people. And still, everyone loses.
Dina (Isabela Merced) is using some geometry skills to find them a path through to the hospital where Nora (Tati Gabrielle) is stationed. “I hear fucking everything. They never shut up.” It absolutely had me cackling. And I appreciated the continued balance of brawn and brains. Ellie cannot go in gung-ho. She needs someone to balance her rashness, and Dina is the perfect friend. She’s smart and pieces things together. She susses out that given the overly talky nature of the group, they aren’t worried about having their radios listened in on. Classic hubris in action, but Dina also realizes the religious group, the Seraphites, aren’t using technology. Everything about them screams old-school, Luddite type, where they focus on their religious faith and not necessarily on machinery. More on them to come.
“I trust you. I don’t trust Seattle.”
The two begin making their way through, using Dina’s methodology. Along the way, they encounter a group of slaughtered Seraphites. This causes Dina to hurl again and gives Ellie a moment of profound realization. She’s dragged her pregnant girlfriend into a genuinely terrifying situation, and should she really be asking her to do this? Dina explains some of her own background and the heartbreaking reality that led to Dina becoming who she is and ending up in Jackson. I cannot fathom killing your first person at 8 years old, no more so than I can fathom finding your mother and sister beaten to death. Dina is behind Ellie with everything she’s got because she would have gone to the ends of the earth to kill the man who hurt her family. She just didn’t need to. Tragedy around every corner with this show, but damn, it’s good television.
The two make their way to the dead spot in the WLF patrols. The question is why? Why is this spot inactive for them? “Haunted, but empty.” “Oh, just like us.” The plan is just to get through quietly, no guns, and if there’s Infected, then it’s running time. Unfortunately, there’s a whole gang of Infected. Not just the usual type, but the smart ones. And Ellie knows they’re not making it out of there without some sacrifice. She can handle being bitten, but will she get torn apart?
She makes the choice and kisses Dina goodbye, hoping it won’t be their last. For a moment, it certainly seems that way until an angel appears. Well, it’s Jesse (Young Mazino), so I don’t know if you’d call your girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend an angel necessarily, but at this moment, he is. The two are beefing over their masculinities, and it’s a tad funny. But he gets them out of trouble…for now.
They end up in a local park, losing the WLF on their trail. But they wandered out of the frying pan and into the fire. Now the Seraphites are closing in, and we see the brutality of both groups. The celebration of violence is a subtle reminder that even though humanity has survived, the soul can still be lost, and these groups are both terrifying in their own ways. I keep harkening back to Dina’s line, “What the fuck is wrong with Seattle?” A lot, Dina. A lot. Including the arrow the Seraphites manage to aim in your direction. Dina is now injured, and Ellie tells Jesse to get her out of there; she’ll draw their attention away. Ellie manages to give them a merry chase, hiding out in a large tree. And once she emerges and moves a bit, she finds herself where she most wanted to go: the hospital.
We see Nora taking care of some wounded WLF, handling different chemicals and treatments. Ellie’s gone from prey to predator, now having her own chase through the hospital after Nora. The elevator provides the only means of escape, and now the two of them have entered the basement…uh-oh. I know Ellie will be fine, I can only assume Nora won’t. Absolutely fantastic cinematography as Ellie corners a slowly dying Nora. Watching Ellie walk through the spore-breathing Infected caused my own chest to tighten, knowing whatever was ahead would be brutal. Nora realizes who Ellie really is and decides to poke the bear a little bit more. She tells Ellie everything that Joel did. “I know.” Well, that’s a plot development I didn’t expect. Ok, maybe a little. Turns out Ellie knows exactly what Joel did, and I have to wonder when that happened. But her mind is on one thing and one thing only: Abby’s whereabouts. The questioning alone won’t work, but maybe that pipe will…
We finish on a flashback, Ellie in bed in their house in Jackson, not yet moved out to the garage. She opens her sleepy eyes. “Hey, kiddo.” “Hi.” And I can only imagine more heartbreak ahead for us this season…
