This article contains spoilers for the The Last of Us season two. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to three.
Despite growing up amid a fungal apocalypse that she alone may have the ability to undo, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is a typical teenager in one key regard: constant sarcastic backchat. We’ve seen the unfiltered 19-year-old dish it out to friends and authority figures alike, rarely thinking twice before saying whatever is on her mind. Which makes it all the more affecting when she spends so much of this episode in pained silence, grieving for the surrogate father she helplessly watched get killed at the end of last week’s relentless emotional wringer.
