Review
"The Last of Us" is back - and immediately hits the pit of the stomach again
by Luca Fontana
"The Last of Us", episode 7: Unfortunately, the ending doesn't live up to the promise of the beginning
27.5.2025
Translation: machine translated
The visually stunning finale of "The Last of Us" season 2 loses its narrative balance. Our review of episode 7 "Convergence" about staging strength, emotional breaks and a main character who goes round in circles.
«The Last of Us» delivers a visually stunning finale - but loses itself in its own main character. While the atmosphere and staging are convincing, Ellie remains too erratic as a moral centre. A pity. Where Joel's decisions were still comprehensible, hers often seem illogical and contrived. What remains is a season with great ambitions that ultimately fails to fully convince.
In the Spoiler Factory, Michelle, Domi and I talk openly, critically and emotionally about the current episode as always - with spoilers, but without a preview of what's to come in the game.
Here's a little sneak peek:
If you haven't seen the seventh episode yet and still want to know what it was like, here's my short review - without spoilers.
Between storming violence and story disappointment
«The Last of Us» closes its second season with a bang - at least visually. «Convergence» is atmospherically grandiose, the setting imposing, the music driving and the camerawork precise. Rain lashes over towering waves, lightning rips through the night ... and somewhere along the line, decisions always lead to dead ends from which no one emerges unscathed.
It's the kind of finale where everything comes to a head - and yet not everything works out.
As visually stunning as the episode is, some of the characters' inner lives feel a little bumpy. Especially with Ellie. Her path through this episode - and through the whole season - fluctuates between impulsive anger and sudden remorse, between self-sacrifice and self-pity. This may be meant as a character arc, but it often feels like emotional ping-pong to me and makes it difficult to connect with a character I should actually be close to.
Source: Sky Picturemedia / HBO
With Joel, the morally dubious worked because his decisions arose from a comprehensible logic. He did the wrong thing, but for reasons we felt: Loss, fatherly love and fear. Even his lies didn't seem random, but like a desperate attempt to bury a truth that would otherwise break him.
With Ellie, on the other hand, remorse and vengefulness alternate by the minute. She makes impulsive, often stupid decisions - and then seems surprised that they have consequences. Instead of learning from them, she stumbles into the next short-sighted act. This is not a case of a heroine who picks herself up again afterwards. This is circling. And that makes it hard for me to stay on her side.
In retrospect, what remains is a season that started off great, continued in a rousing way and then lost its way somewhat towards the end. A season that has high ambitions - visually, emotionally, morally. But it doesn't always have the patience to realise these ambitions in a meaningful way. Maybe that's why the season will resonate for a long time. Just not in the way I had hoped.
If you haven't seen the previous episodes, you can catch up on them here:
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Hosts
Luca Fontana
Luca is living proof that our parents were lying: There are no square eyes from watching too much TV. Rumour has it that he was already watching «Star Wars» films and reading Marvel comics in his mother's womb. Today, after many years of field research, he knows his way around the Disney universe better than Al Capone in 1930s Chicago. He uses the same password for his 14 streaming subscriptions because otherwise he would forget them. The only people who are allowed to disturb him in his «work» are his two cats.
Source: Thomas Kunz
Michelle Brändle
While others break into a sweat just drawing a stick figure, Michelle uses every tablet test as a template for digital artwork. Somewhat more tangible are those from the 3D printer, which regularly model her smartphone reviews. The gadget enthusiasm that almost every new member of the editorial team succumbs to can be seen on their desk, which is flanked by a home-made RGB keyboard and matching RGB mouse. She only feels even more emotion, which even gets under her skin in the form of tattoos, for Pokémon.
Source: Christian Walker
Domagoj Belancic
If anyone games more than Phil, it would be Domi. If his dog didn't regularly drag him out into the sunlight, he would have long since collected all the platinum trophies on the Playstation. His heart also burns for another well-known Japanese company, Nintendo. This is proven by the various retro consoles that adorn his office, as well as his encyclopaedic knowledge of all Pokémon - even those that have yet to be invented.
Source: Christian Walker
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
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