‘The Last of Us’ director breaks Ellie and Nora’s confrontation

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for season 2, episode 5 of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’, which now streams at Max.

Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) chase for revenge after Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) Tragic death through the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in episode 2 is brought to a completely new level in the latest episode of “The Last of Us”.

That is because after Ellie Nora (Tati Gabrielle) has detected, an important member of the Washington Liberation Front who was at Abby when she killed Joel – and Nora tortures for information about Abby’s residence. After Nora to make a gun and hit a piece of pipe in her belly, Ellie demands: “Where is she?”

It is a point of no return.

But Joel’s influence is felt at quieter moments during the episode. A particularly emotional scene comes early when Ellie plays a guitar to an empty theater, clearly thinking back to her time with Joel. Director Stephen Williams, who is new to the world of ‘The Last of Us’, explains that the scene was filmed on location in the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, and when Ramsey finished singing, everyone on the set was just left ‘wet eyes’.

“It was such a suggestive moment – it is as sad and filled with desire, desire and heartache as Ellie revives the brutal murder of Joel in front of her eyes. It continues to chase her and finds this incredible expression through her music,” says Williams, “says Williams,” says Williams Variety. “Bella stepped up, grabbed the instrument and delivered it – crushed it. And we just recorded the sparkle that unfolded for us.”

The episode also sees the return of familiar faces, mainly Jesse (Young Mazin), which we learned behind Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) the day after they had left for Seattle, had left behind. Below, Williams explains how Jesse’s well-timed return Ellie reminds Joel, how he thought of weaving emotional moments between Ellie and Dina with tense action sets and why his approach was to just “get out of the way” when directing that spent last confrontation.

The final scene that Ellie Nora confronts with Abby is so intense, with the revelation that Ellie actually knows that Joel has killed everyone in the hospital to save her. Knowing how important this end note would be, how did you approach filming?

So much of how we approach the work on “The Last of Us” comes first and foremost from the richness of the scripts of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and, of course, the characters that are developed from the game. If season 1 was devoted to notions of endurance and survival, season 2 delves deeper into questions about revenge and grace. Performing the climatic scene of episode 5, where Ellie Nora confronts, really hangs around Ellie’s decision to keep looking for revenge for everything Abby and Nora and their crew did with Joel.

Bella Ramsey in particular is so stoic at that time. How did you focus on Bella and Tati Gabrielle, who have already developed confidence with each other before you became creatively involved in ‘The Last of Us’?

Bella is a natural force. They are so tied up and so inhabited so brilliantly inhabited the character that there was very little that I had to say to them. I just had to get rid of it. And then Tati, who plays Nora, just did an incredible work the entire episode. They were both so dedicated to the material and dedicated to the ways in which their characters function within everything that was built around the scene. It was really just about creating a safe environment that they could both carry out.

It was a big surprise to see Jesse (Young Mazino) in action again. Because this episode is so focused on Ellie and Dina, Jesse really changes the dynamics and energy, so how did you approach his return?

There is a kind of love triangle that constantly evolves and liquid between Jesse, Ellie and Dina. When Ellie and Dina were looking for Seattle looking for revenge on Abby and her crew, Jesse follows and appears on a very refuge that Ellie and Dina are with some of the infected. For a moment, while Ellie is saved by Jesse’s timely arrival, it reminds her of the experience she had on so many different occasions with Joel in season 1.

The order when Jesse returns is a huge set of piece in the basement. Were there important visual references that you had when making that?

What we start to do is ensure that it is not just a large action set. We anchor the characters in the context of all subsequent action. The trick is to never lose sight of the characters in the set. In this case it is that Ellie feels protective of Dina, who feels under great coercion and Ellie who feels responsible for Dina and desperately tries to ensure that they both make it alive. It is clear that when Jesse arrives, that also applies to his character.

This episode contains the first time that viewers really see the faction of scars in action after their introduction back in episode 3. How do you think about the way they move as a package?

Part of what is happening this season is that we are starting to investigate how different factions of humanity react to the extreme circumstances in which they are located. So the Washington Liberation Front tries to rotate around the axis of a militia, while the Serafites, or the scars, respond to their circumstances by devoting to a foundation belief. And in our episode we show some extremes that are based on each choice, to a certain interpretation of faith as a way to tackle extreme circumstances. That can sometimes lead to very graphic images, of which I think many viewers will see in our episode.

And with that opening scene between two of the WLF leaders, you put a lot of confidence in the viewer because it takes a while before we find out what even happens with the new infection. Was that a difficult choice?

The episode opens on a very mysterious note in which a new way is introduced in which the Cordyceps -Besfloette manages to send itself. That takes a while before the audience catches up, what they do with Nora by the end of the episode. But in the beginning the audience is in the same place as the characters because they have just encountered an air form of this mutant infection in a new way. So I think it is OK that viewers are temporarily disoriented, until the later revelations about where these traces are generated in the air and the extent to which they have infected this specific facility in Seattle.

With the dynamics of Ellie and Dina there was a huge turning point in episode 4 when Dina Ellie says she loves her for the first time. How did you woven in this incredibly intimate relationship, while their lives are threatened so heavily? Their relationship feels like the key to the entire season.

One of the things that Craig and Neil do so well when constructing the series is to generate these moments of intimacy between characters that are established against the background of more epic set pieces. The interplay between those elements gives the story an incredibly well -founded feeling of momentum when we, together with our characters, experience what it would feel like to be in this terrible series of circumstances. Life goes on and there goes further and affection and confirmation continues simultaneously with revenge, revenge, anger, anger. All these things are part of the complex interconnectivity of the characters.

And finally, that last flash for the credits shows a tender memory of Ellie and Joel. Why was that the right time to end this episode?

Since episode 2 everything has been about payback time in this season, and this incredible stew of emotions that Ellie experiences. The loss and the heartache and the things that are not pronounced between her and Joel is the motivating metronome behind all narrative beats. It felt appropriate that the episode ended in a rehearsal of Ellie’s memory of Joel – especially after the intense scene that preceded it. It was the right tonal gearbox.

This interview has been edited and condensed.