Brief Consideration: 28 Years Later (2025)

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

I was reminded whilst waiting for 28 Years Later to start just how prevalent the horror genre has become. I mean there are programmed trailers and all, but it’s near saturation point. However, 28 Years Later has stood out in my mind as a film to be curious about (especially when returning to the original recently). Anyway, have you seen the Danny Boyle-directed sequel? Let me know in the comments below.

Brief Consideration

28 Years Later is a harrowing and poignant sequel that greatly moved and terrified me. Set nearly 30 years after the original outbreak, the film is about a father-son duo, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Spike (Alfie Williams), who venture from their island to the mainland to carry out a series of coming-of-age rituals. 

If the original was about the notion of empathy and killing then the sequel is about the loss of innocence. Many moments throughout the movie show something fairly benign being undercut by the haunting reality. The opening involving an episode of Teletubbies being savagely interrupted by an adult rage virus attack illustrates this aspect well. 

Alex Garland’s screenplay posits that no matter what, a child’s purity is going to be ground down, whether it’s a tear-inducing ceremony to mark a parent’s passing or the first time Spike is commanded to kill recently turned infected. 

At the same time, Garland takes a macro societal view that even when we are ravaged by a virus that’s wiped out most of the population, we still repeat the same patterns. We still train and treat our young like soldiers in war (in the name of the queen and region), and the maternal instinct is still a formable force that keeps any virus thinking at bay. This is coupled with the opening and coda suggesting that institutional abuse is still prevalent, especially if it wears the face of a local vicar or a seemingly helpful man who is very oddly dressed.

In this way, it feels as though Garland has more of a voice in this film than the 2002 film. However, that could be recency bias given his preoccupations in his directorial efforts (Men and Civil War in particular). 

Having said that, Danny Boyle, along with returning cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, creates some striking imagery. This is apparent in a shimmering effect that results in some shots having a desert dune quality and visceral zombie point-of-view shots (filmed using multiple iPhones). 

But some of my favourite shots were Boyle and Dod playing with colour. There are dreamlike depictions of the infected in red that give the movie a surreal Giallo quality. These instances of medium shots and close-ups are punctuated by newsreel footage that accentuates the themes in profound ways. The editing also plays with time in a way that disorients us and gets us to experience the concept through a fragmented lens (matching the plight of one of the characters).

Overall, 28 Years Later pleasantly surprised me. Aside from its themes, filmmaking and acting (Jodie Comer is the highlight in her heartbreaking depiction of a fractured mind), the film reminded me why horror cinema is so appealing. It can get us to confront tough subject matters with an accute sense of frankness that can be healing and cathartic.

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Brief Consideration: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)

Posted on June 7, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

Well this feels strange. Coming of the Season 2 train for The Last of Us has been odd, but glad to become a full time movie blogger once again. With that in mind, have you seen Ballerina. Let me know in the comments below.

Brief Consideration

John Wick felt like a breath of fresh air in a cinematic landscape where universes seem at bursting point. It combined organic and efficient world-building that fostered a Russian doll-style unravelling of its universe. This aspect coupled with a dry wit and an effortless subtle swift in genre resulted in an ultra-violent soap opera franchise. It is with this paradigm in mind that Ballerina enters the fray. 

John Wick’s first spin-off is an interesting and impressionist film that blurs the line in its universe-building. Set in between the events of the third and fourth film, Ballerina tells the story of an aspiring assassin called Eve (Ana De Armas), who stumbles upon a clue, leading her on a retributive path for her past that puts her on a collision with John Wick (Keanu Reeves). 

Many of the best filmmaking moments in Ballerina are medium shots where the audience’s view is obscured or blurred, whether it’s through the use of fire or water. The technique gives us a faint impression of what we’re seeing. It’s also key for illustrating Eve’s journey and how it’s not seeing the forest for the trees.

Her vengeance is singular and selfish but does not take stock of the historical pact or cycle she’s undoing. It’s this aspect that makes the movie intriguing. Much like the character, the audience is caught up in the fulfilling promise of exacting revenge, but we soon find ourselves caught up in the larger ramifications of the story and themes. 

In this regard, Ballerina retains the narrative and world-building acumen of the mainline series. But in incidental moments, it also captures the darkly comic edge of my favourite entries. Moments such as a Chaplin film being used as a punch line to a killer blow or an amusing riff on Chekhov’s gun (involving a violent barmaid being locked in a room) illustrate this aspect in spades.

Ana de Armas delivers on the promise she showed in her brief appearance in No Time to Die. She brings a scrappy physicality that combines with forthright line deliveries that hide a deeply wounded interior. And Keanu Reeves delivers some subtle moments of empathic resignation in his brief appearance as Wick. Much like his performance, Ballerina works because of the notes it plays. It gets us to pause as opposed to wishing the bubble would just burst.

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Review: The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 7: Convergence

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

I’ve honestly been dragging my feet on this review. Despite seeing the finale at a relatively sensible time, I guess I’m feeling paralyzed in writing about it. I guess that’s sentiment for you. It can be bewitching and sweet. But it can also be a giant pain, the kind that stops you in your track. Personal thoughts aside, have you seen the finale for the second season of The Last of Us? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

Much like Season 1’s closing chapter, the final episode of The Last of Us’ second season is fleet and short. In this way, Convergence proves to be a double-edged sword. It gets us on an interesting track for the third season but at the expense of dramatic potency. After finding out some information about Abby’s whereabouts, Ellie and Jessie venture out in search of Tommy.

Despite its length, it’s a credit to Convergence for how much it covers. The majority of the time is focused on Ellie and Jessie. In particular, the latter goes from someone who chastises Ellie’s approach and mission to developing a begrudging respect for the young woman. As a mini-arc, it’s not bad as it expounds more on the love triangle and makes Jessie’s death even more tragic. 

However, it does take away from the core drama between its central lead characters. Ellie and Dina’s pivotal scene in the game where the former’s injuries are being attended does not have the same punch as its source material. Instead, its different emphasis only really draws interest in the silent introspective moment that Dina has. Isabella Merced commendably portrays the seeming internal warryings of Dina, who realises that her and Ellie’s pursuit may be all for nought. This coupled with the moment where Ellie does not look at Dina after returning from murdering Owen and Mel results in the episode’s most subtle and powerful drama. But it does reinforce a problem with the season in terms of what it chooses to focus on and highlight etc.

The same goes for odd contrivances and off-screen antics that seek to make the season feel shallow as opposed to rich and interesting. What remains is a slow embrace of the bleak tone that permeated the game. To that end, there’s also another interesting attempt to parallel Ellie and Abby. The former’s berating of Jessie for not saving a Seraphite kid has echoes of Abby’s eventual arc with Yara and Lev. It also reinforces Ellie’s notion of community and how it’s not relegated to people within a certain space, but to the people she meaningfully encounters (especially applicable to Joel).

On a cinematic level, the episode does remain consistent with the virtues of the rest of the series. In particular, the lighting continues to be a bright technical spot (pun very much intended). In fact, perhaps more than any episode in the season, the lighting choices give the episode a real-time quality via the time of day having subtle shifts. This combined with natural sources in the form of fire torches and the use of moonlight combine to create an urgency that’s sometimes lacking in the central drama of the episode.

The episode is also somewhat redeemed by the ending, which feels like a stark shot across the barrel in illustrating the game’s structure and approach to TV viewers. There’s artistry in the transition from startling cliffhanger to a dreamy beginning for Abby’s third-season prominence. Along with the promise of the character being used to grapple with the show’s preoccupation with post-outbreak leadership, and you have the makings of a fascinating Season 3. 

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400th Post: Why Writing is Important To Me

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Raw and unleashed. These may sound like buzz words for a pay per view wrestling match. However, in all seriousness, it’s important to exercise these qualities once in a while. Anniversary posts can be bitter sweet. They can be celebrations for the milestone in question. Or they can be like terrifying admissions that the well is dry. Outside of what you write about, the lingering doubt of whether you or not you truly have anything to say is persistent. And as I sit here amidst a Bank Holiday weekend in May, I’m throwing caution and all pretense to the wind, and instead trying to indulge in a little raw sentiment.

As A.I. continues to dominate our cultural landscape, I’m reminded more and more about why writing is important to me. Without wanting to sound highfalutin, but I think there’s something inherently primal in the act. For as far back as we can remember, we’ve attempted to immortalize our stories and experiences through the written word. In fact, many translations of great works of art involve transcription and written context. And in the pre-digital age, Film Critics’s reviews were a gateway into a time and place of our culture (through the prism of a film). I truly believe that despite the abundance of videos, shorts and reels that take up our bandwidth, there’s something pure and personal in a piece of writing.

And as A.I. ramps up and continues to be part of writing systems, I think a little spark of humanity will die. We will be relying on tools for our expression as opposed to doing the hard work of trying to give life to them. I’ve never bothered with Chat GPT and nor will I. In my stubbornness sprinkled with a little ego, I believe my digital chicken scratchings are fine as is (warts and all).

At the same time, writing keeps me accountable. Like anyone, I have my demons and they’ve sadly flared up in instances this year. But the one thing I have always had is my writing. Each blog post is an act of self faith that the blank page will be filled with authentic and considered thoughts. It’s never enhanced by a system or mind altering substance. Instead, I always believe that something will come, even if its at the eleventh hour or during a seemingly dry spell. And in the 10+ years that I’ve done this, that’s been a constant.

As the old adage goes, the best things come in three, so with that in mind, my final reason for why writing is important is because of the community it fosters. I may be a good old fashioned lurker (to use a bit of streamer lingo), but I truly enjoy and am humbled by the reviews that I read. I’ve also had the pleasure of interacting with some excellent folks on this site and Letterboxd. It’s been great to see the talent on display and how various people articulate their thoughts. On a larger point, this is why it’s good to not indulge in echo chambers. Reading contrasting views and opinions leads to a deeper appreciation on a piece of art or subject matter.

If you’re still here, then I thank you greatly for listening to my TED talk. I really have tried to write as spontaneously as I can. Hopefully there’s some small measure of consideration that you usually find in my other posts. But for now, I appreciate your continued indulgence. I’m just a humble man with a blog with enough ego to think my stuff is good enough to publish. I’ve hit some highs and lows in recent years on the writing front. And I would not trade a single moment of it for the world.

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Review: Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning (2025)

Posted on May 22, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

Well, this is quite a contrast. I was ready to publish this review last night but instead opted to sleep on it and do further edits in the morning. It’s amazing how writing about different mediums can make you go from a chap with writer’s block to an enthusiastic energizer bunny. But personal writing stories aside, have you seen the latest and touted final entry in the Mission Impossible series? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

Up until this point, the Mission movies have been singular in being transportive cinematic experiences that mix spy intrigue and impressive stunt work (courtesy of main star- Tom Cruise). However, The Final Reckoning feels like a bug in the franchise machine. Cruise’s second round with A.I. is a self-important and indulgent experience that chases the worst trends of modern tentpole cinema. 

Picking up six months after the events of Dead Reckoning, the eighth Mission Impossible movie depicts Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) continual search for a means to destroy The Entity whilst dealing with the ever- escalating threat of nuclear annihilation from the A.I. program.

“You were always the best of men in the worst of times”, a grave President Erika Sloan (Angela Bassett) intones early on in The Final Reckoning. By itself, it’s an earnest means to get Hunt onside. However, it’s the start of a problem that plagues this latest instalment, namely a persistent attempt to mythologize its central hero and the events that he has experienced. What was once a solid set piece now turns into a moral quandary of whether or not Ethan has ruined the person who the stunt directly affected. 

This aspect is compounded by a series of flashbacks that play in a clip show reel fashion to remind the audience of nearly every little aspect of Hunt’s career. It makes the movie too self-serious in a manner that takes away from the weight of events and its ensuring consequences. This is a far cry from prior Christopher McQuarrie entries, which were able to be lighthearted, dramatic and even post-modern at times (especially Fallout).

At the same time, this quality also fundamentally breaks the spirit of the series. We were in on the fun of the spectacle, and now we’re reminded that it was burdensome for Hunt. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and up until this point, Hunt climbing a tall building was just precisely that. In this regard, it seems the Mission series has caught the bug of other tentpole movies, whereby nearly everything has to be connected and have meaning. It appears as though being the American tonic to James Bond was not enough. 

Despite this problem that’s compounded by an overly long run time, The Final Reckoning is surprisingly nimble in its editing. Exposition scenes are given a comic momentum due to a rapid cross- cutting of reactions that gets mileage out of its variants on bewilderment. It’s in the intimacy of the camera moves where Final Reckoning soars, whether it’s Film Noir esque close-ups of Gabriel (Esai Morales) or a medium shot that captures Grace’s (Hayley Atwell) horror at seeing Ethan’s violent actions up close. 

There’s also something deeply amusing about one of Cruise’s central set pieces being so anti-action. Instead, it’s a near-real-time sequence where the character swims amid the remains of a Russian submarine. It’s mesmerizing, ominous and everything in between. Finally, in a movie stuffed with portent and weighty exposition, it’s a credit to the screenplay that Sloan’s character arc registers as well as it does. Part of this comes from Angela Bassett’s subtle performance that goes a long way in illustrating the weight of her office and choices.

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Review: The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 6: The Price

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

I’m coming to this preamble at the 11th hour insofar as editing before going to see a movie shortly. Despite being stuck after writing the first paragraph for this review (for a good long while), it’s amusing how that’s now become the case for this little intro. But anyways, have you seen Episode 6 of the Last of Us’s second season. Let me know in the comments below.

Review

So far, the second season of The Last of Us has not been afraid to wrestle with its source material insofar as adhering to its unique structure whilst adding to its themes. The season’s penultimate episode, The Price, is perhaps the boldest episode to grace the series and its preoccupation with parental love. Taking place over several years, the sixth episode depicts the ever-increasing souring of Joel and Ellie’s relationship as the young woman tries to navigate the complications that arise from being a teenager in a post-apocalyptic world.

Rather than doll out each Joel flashback in a piece-meal fashion, The Price uses them to weave a narrative about Joel and Ellie’s surrogate father/daughter dynamic. The result is something that feels thematically strong in getting to the heart of what the video game and show is about, namely the lengths we go to protect the ones we love. At the same time, the episode illustrates the hope that all parents have, which is articulated in an early scene involving a young Joel and his police officer father.

It’s the hope that each subsequent generation of male parentage can do better than the last insofar as a cycle of violence is concerned. The added back story suggests a capacity for violence that is at once an act of love as well as a means of discipline. The echoes of Joel’s father’s rationale for violent action are haunting in how they paint the character at his most cruel and merciful.

This comes to the fore in how Joel deals with Eugene insofar as taking him out before he’s a danger to him, Ellie, and the community at large. It speaks to how Joel correlates violence with love and how one cannot exist without the other. It broadens the scope of the cycle of violence exploration in the game by showing it through the character who ignites it in the first place.

The episode speaks to how much of a boon Pedro Pascal has been for the character of Joel. His best acting moments are the ones where there’s a push and pull between the stated and unstated. This is best shown in the porch scene where the character gives a series of nods to some questions posed by Ellie. It culminates in an outpouring of sentiment from the character that feels heartbreaking and emotional to witness. But it also shows how the shell of the character is fundamentally broken, that he has to resort to quoting his father’s words in what feels like an act of shame and an admission of guilt for his failure as a human being. It’s a very powerful moment, despite clearly underlining and putting the broader subtext of the show in bold.

This quality, along with some of the recreated video game moments not having the same weight does drag down the episode. However, some of the new material does work in illustrating a fascinating what if situation for Joel trying to raise an adolescent (given the age that his daughter Sarah died at).

Filmmaking wise, I liked how low-angle shots were used to depict a sense of awe for when Ellie sees a dinosaur. And the closing moments that have the young woman in a medium shot effortlessly portray to distance that Ellie feels from Joel.

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Review: The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 5: Feel Her Love

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

This might be the quickest and meta preamble that I’ve ever written. Whilst I watched episode 5 at a reasonable time, my thoughts on it were slow forming. This was in addition to being absorbed with Doom: The Dark Ages during its early access period. It’s solid and engrossing so far, but it is a terrible distraction for a weekly schedule. Anyways, have you seen the latest episode of The Last of Us Season 2? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

At its worst, “Feel Her Love” highlights the problems that have permeated the sophomore season so far. The episode depicts Ellie and Dina’s continual search for Abby and her friends, as they close in on Nora, who works at a Seattle hospital. For all its new additions that have mostly worked for me, the lack of urgency is a major problem with The Last of Us’s second season. Whilst the game was fueled by Ellie’s singular and terrifying desire for revenge (for half of its running time), the show feels shockingly light on its feet. 

This comes from the Dina and Ellie relationship. While it’s mostly sweet and endearing, it takes the sting out of the show’s drama. Whilst there’s a moment where the pair connect on the notion of vengeance, I can’t help but feel that their budding relationship removes tension that they could have as a couple. It’s a problem that never really felt lacking in the game’s version of the pair. This is coupled with some awkward plotting that favours a surprising reveal as opposed to drama that’s built into the new changes and established dynamics.

Jessie’s shushing of Ellie is almost an emblematic quality of this problem, as the show feels it’s in a hurry to get to the next plot point. And Tommy choosing to leave Jackson matches the game but fails to capitalise on the show’s new element of Tommy seeing Ellie as a surrogate daughter whom he feels responsible for after Joel’s death. The same could be said for the episode’s inconsistent writing, namely instances where Ellie and Dina use their firearms when they try to hatch a plan not to do so. Contrivance city is putting it mildly.

On the other hand, the episode does illustrate how strong the cold opens can be in telling one-off stories that have pay-offs that hold greater significance. In this instance, the opening is a harrowing introduction to the spores, which parallels Joel and Ellie’s singular, violent choices with a gut-wrenching utilitarian twist. The opening also paints a very human portrait of the person whom the Seraphites deify, which further fleshes out the world in a fascinating way. It also introduces a potential theme of this season, which is the difference in perception versus reality insofar as the gap between how one person thinks of someone versus the reality, etc.

Also, much like last week’s episode, the lighting takes centre stage in showing the cinematic qualities of the show. In particular, Ellie’s confrontation with Nora is haunting in its nightmarish use of reds and black that paint the young woman in almost demonic light as she descends into a space that’s reminiscent of hell. Bella Ramey delivers her best performance to date in this moment. She combines an almost machine-like disregard for human life and seething hatred that feels unflinchingly raw.

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Review: The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 4: Day One

Posted on May 7, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

By the time credits roll on the two plus season adaptation of The Last of Us Part II, I will be sounding like a broken record. And that’s in relation to over stating the importance of each episode as a small part of the larger story. It’s a testament to how much I value the video game’s narrative. But with that said, have you seen episode four of The Last of Us Season 2? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

So far, season 2 of The Last of Us has surprised in its adaptation of the second game. With this in mind, Day One is haunting as much as it is intimate and touching in its depiction of the relationship between Ellie and Dina.

The fourth episode picks up with the young pair moving further through Seattle to reach Abby and her crew. Meanwhile, the leader of the WDF, Isaac, interrogates and tortures a member of the Scars (aka the Seraphites).

Day One returns to some of the interesting thematic material that pervaded Season 1 of the show, namely the emergence of leadership and power structures in this post-apocalyptic world. In a new scene for the show, we’re introduced to the central figure of the WDF, who gives a sense of who he was before the world went to hell. He also points to a karmic sort of equalitarianism whereby he got his wish of owning expensive kitchen utensils. This aspect had echoes of the ironies in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, whereby the least looked upon in the societal and job hierarchy becomes the most stable authority figure in a crisis. At the same time, the new scenes involving Isaac paint him as a ruthless person who can radicalise and inspire (illustrated in the opening scene where he blows up a truck full of soldiers and gives a choice of death or compliance to the last one left standing).

Along with a bit more fleshing out of the Scars and their deified leader results in the show tapping a rich vein of what the title truly means for humanity. In his reprisal of his video game character, Jeffrey Wright brings a great deal of casualness that hides a truly dangerous and determined nature. 

This aspect is juxtaposed with Ellie and Dina’s blossoming relationship. While I initially thought the pair stumbling on decayed Pride flags and decorations was a little overt. However, on reflection it was a good reminder of how much this relationship means to the LGBTQ + community. And in its unravelling, it’s endearing as much as it’s sweet. Like the best onscreen relationships, the emotional truth comes when one of the pair lets their guard down. And in this regard, Isabela Merced strikes a chord in her reaction to Ellie’s guitar playing as much as expressing the truth about her sexuality.

Visually, the set design proves to be the show’s secret weapon as long shots depict the Seattle streets with a beautifully faithful eye. The same could be said for the lighting that punctuates some of the episode’s most tense moments, such as a swarm of infected that attacks Ellie and Dina.

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Brief Consideration: Thunderbolts* (2025)

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

At this point, I don’t go into an MCU movie with my arms crossed and a sense of impress me bro energy. Despite a quality drop from the post Endgame era, I don’t think the subsequent movies have been all for nought. Thor: Love and Thunder resonated with me emotionally and provided some meta textual interest. WandaVision was shockingly good with a Twin Peaks esque lens of how it used Americana to explore quite potent subject matters such as grief and power. 

Even mixed efforts such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Widow had some solid elements. They both split the difference with directorial authorship and credible dramatic elements. 

So, I guess in my longish and rambling sort of way, I’m saying that I don’t expect Thunderbolts to be an indication that the MCU is back. To me, it was never gone but rather like one wise Hobbit once said, “Sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” With that said, have you seen Thunderbolts? Let me know in the comments below. 

Brief Consideration

At this point, comic book fidelity is a tricky thing to come by. Unless you’re Sin City, Spider-Verse or even the first Avengers, then you’d be hard pressed to evoke the appeal of the medium. Despite not entirely escaping the problems that plague the MCU movies, Thunderbolts* still plays like a unique one shot comic book. 

On the surface, the 2025 film has the skeleton of team up movies in the sub-genre including a morally duplicitous boss, expendable team and giant beam esque third act battle. 

However, the difference comes in the emphasis. Crucially, Thunderbolts* wears its emotions and anguish on its sleeve. It’s front loaded as a form of therapy whereby Yelena (Florence Pugh) attempts to sooth the emptiness of her every day existence and guilt of her past sins. Pugh is excellent in taking the dry and straight talking appeal of her character and filtering it through an emotionally vulnerable lens. It’s also used as a means of manipulation whereby the team dynamic is called into question as it gets in the way of singular purpose and true potential (in regards to the central antagonist).

But the third act takes the cake in terms of showing the thesis of the film. This comes from the concept of “The Void.” It’s a looming shadow that sucks people up and forces them to relieve their most painful memories on an infinite loop. Much like comic books such as Barry Windsor Smith’s Weapon X, this idea takes the grammar and syntax of the medium to depict simple concepts such as daily and mental struggle. 

Even a sequence where we follow the after effect of the antagonist’s attack, feels comic booky in how it frames each ensuring incident like a Final Destination moment, as the audience follows destruction in a prolonged micro level.

The movie still can’t escape the looming shadow of the MCU’s humour that feels excessive (despite a few attempts to convey it in the framing of certain shots). But in a problem that feels unique to this film, certain plot point have a looseness that’s meant to mirror the messy nature of the central team.

Instead, they come across as playing into the worst impulses of universe franchise building, namely a hurried pace to lay down the tracks for future instalments. This mostly comes from the film’s final moments that paired with a sizable post-credits scene seeks to feel like an inorganic status quo. 

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Review: The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 3: The Path

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Sartaj Govind Singh

Preamble

In writing this preamble, I’m almost reminded of the phrase of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted or run away. That’s how fast the tide of the internet turns whereby two days can make something new seem like old hat. Well, that’s enough old man esque shouting at a cloud. Have you seen the latest episode of The Last of Us? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

In contrast to the previous two episodes, The Path is a sombre and reflective episode that allows the audience to mourn the loss of Joel as much as the characters. Picking up three months after the tragic events of the last chapter, The Path sees Ellie recovering from her ordeal whilst the community of Jackson tries to heal and recoup after the Infected attack.

There’s a lot of silence and use of pauses in The Path, signifying how there are almost no words when it comes to loss and grief. These are juxtaposed with a lot of natural light that makes the pain feel resonate due to how nature and indeed life goes on. A death will not make the seasons cease or the world stop turning. Instead, it’s only our small orbits that will be changed by the event. Scenes such Tommy silently mourning Joel, along with Ellie going through his house beautifully illustrate this quality. At the same time, there’s also something almost Werner Herzog esque about the episode insofar as its depiction of nature is concerned. This aspect can be seen in a lot of scenic shots in the tail end, which make Ellie and Dina seem small in the grand scheme of things.

The episode also articulates what may be the central theme of the season. This comes from an extended section in the middle of the episode where the Jackson community express their views on the council vote about retributive justice for Joel (via sending a pack of sixteen people to kill Abby and her crew). The debate explores the notion of how revenge can be repurposed as community justice and the cost of one death weighed against community safety and longevity. It adds to the game’s singular depiction of revenge insofar as suggesting that it’s not just about how it can affect the soul but also our fellow man.

But in the episode’s most telling scene, Gail spells out Ellie’s character. She tells Tommy that the young woman is a liar whose nature may be ferocious as opposed to being fostered by the nurture of Joel. It’s an interesting addition to what made the second game so fascinating to me, namely the deconstruction of Joel and how both his good and bad traits are filtered and reflected in Ellie and Abby.

In a season so far where co and guest stars have stolen the show, it was really nice to be reminded why Bella Ramsey is an excellent Ellie. The hints at darkness in Season 1 are paid off here in stark ways such as her anger filled facial expressions when hearing people downplay Joel’s death during the meeting. But her best moment comes from a speech she makes whereby it goes from her sounding fake to authentic, which goes to show the lengths the characters is willing to go for her revenge. She’s willing to reframe it benevolent ways that feel foreign to her but good to everyone else. It’s arguably the moment of the season so far as it clearly surmises Ellie’s character and her resolve to write a personal wrong.

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