TheDevilScroll

Ultimately, the most significant thing I understood from this episode is that the series and the game are two very different things. Each of them is a work in itself with characters in themselves, and the game's Ellie is not the series' Ellie, just as the series' Joel is much more of a father to Ellie, and this is reflected in the most personal episode of the series since the masterful Episode 3 in the first season - an episode that is entirely a love letter from Neil Druckmann, who wrote and directed, to the series, the game, the fans, the characters, and in general to his incredible work that has made him one of the greatest creators in the history of the medium in which he works. Usually, episodes or movies that are built from flashbacks and such significant time jumps don't work, especially in the context of pacing and writing. But Neil makes the transitions so smoothly, so cleverly, just as he did in building the narrative of Last of Us 2. The addition of Eugene is welcome, and although there were small changes that I found strange and although there were still bad lines of dialogue (probably due to the involvement of Craig Mazin, who we've already seen is a bad dialogue writer), Neil delivers the best episode of the season here, easily and by a wide margin above all the rest. We can only hope that he will take over the third season and save it from mediocre dialogue and bad pacing, as was the case this season.