HBO’s The Last of Us started its Joel-less narrative this week, cutting Pedro Pascal’s name from the opening credits of the show, as well as his silhouette prior to the title splash. We may feel anger and loss, but I found the show itself felt a bit indifferent to the loss of the lead character.

Sure, we saw flowers at the Miller residence, but unlike the game, three months have passed since the incident, and I felt a distinct lack of urgency and overwhelming grief. The biggest scene of grief I felt was when Ellie cried into Joel’s sleeve at his home. But said grief did not hang over the episode. By letting that amount of time go by, people have naturally accepted what’s happened and have started to move on, literally rebuilding their lives. So it was no real surprise that the Jackson Council elected not to send sixteen individuals to hunt down Abby and her squad, citing that the risks outweighed the prize.

Sitting in the center of the council is Tommy, and I’m finding myself conflicted with the character this season. I enjoyed his conversation with Gail at the peewee baseball game, despite its flaws (more on that in a sec), where they talk about nature and nurture in relation to violence, with Gail citing that she believes Ellie is inherently a violent person and Joel was not an influence on that behaviour, rather walking side by side. But Tommy also feels like he’s lacking agency this season. In the game, Tommy is the one who leaves Jackson first in an attempt to find Abby, which forces Dina and Ellie to chase after him. In the show, Ellie and Dina sneak off in the night with a little help from Seth, whose violent and hateful tendencies support the revenge mission. I don’t mind the changes made to Tommy, they make sense within the logic of the show, and Gabriel Luna is playing the character really well, but I find him being more of an authority figure than driven by revenge to be lacking some emotional nuance for the greater themes.

The scene with Tommy and Gail, in combination with having Seth be the support for Ellie, does give this episode a “tell, don’t show” approach though. It doesn’t feel subtle, and a lot of interpretation has been removed as the show forces the audience down these pre-selected paths (no pun intended, episode title after all) in order to manipulate our feelings, when we should be trying to figure them out for ourselves. Are the characters justified in their respective pursuits of revenge? The show is telling us the characters’ motivations and traits, as opposed to letting us, the viewer, interpret that for ourselves. There’s also a lack of mystery, thanks to the very early introduction of the Seraphites, aka Scars. While this particular group did meet its end by the WLF, (with Ellie automatically assuming it was Abby), the group and their whistling communication has been given a face early on, whereas in the game they are slowly teased and once you do meet them, there’s a horror to that as we’re left in the dark on who they are while also not knowing what they’re saying due to the whistling. It removes a lot of the tension and adds to a series of strange choices season two has been making thus far in relation to the game.

The Path was a well-paced episode and one that sets the stage for the rest of the show, now that Ellie and Dina have made their way to Seattle. But it also lacked nuance, and some of the changes the show is making, I find, aren’t landing as well as the source material’s version of events. I’d be curious as to your thoughts, though, and if you’re a newcomer to the franchise or a seasoned gamer who knows the story.