HBO’s The Last of Us has been riding the same wave of popularity since its debut last week, as the original game did when it came out in 2013! Helmed by Craig Mazin of Chornobyl and Hangover (no, really) fame, the post-apocalyptic zombie drama quickly climbed the Rotten Tomatoes chart with a very impressive 97 percent rating.   

While some of us are still reeling from the shock of the first episode, the second episode was released yesterday night and it is as emotionally devastating as the last one. Here’s what the official synopsis reads – “Joel, Tess, and Ellie traverse through an abandoned and flooded Boston hotel on their way to drop Ellie off with a group of Fireflies.”  

The 55-minute-long episode was directed by Neil Druckmann himself, writer and creative director of The Last Of Us (2013) and The Last Of US II (2020).   

For those who are not familiar with the video game series, TLoUS follows the journey of Joel and Ellie, played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay respectively in the series, traveling across America against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, warring factions, and a military dictatorship. In between all of this, the pair forms an unlikely father-daughter bond in the end, akin to Kazuo Koike’s Lone Wolf And The Cub.   

Apart from the two Game of Thrones alumni, the show also stars Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman, Anna Torv, Merle Dandrige, Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Jeffrey Pierce, and Murray Bartlett. Additionally, reports have also indicated that Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, who voiced Ellie and Joel in the games will also feature in undisclosed roles.   

Coming back to the second episode, here’s how the internet reacted: