Writer: Craig Mazin
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Isabel Merced, Katherine O’Hara, Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever and Young Mazino
Genre(s): Post-Apocalyptic, Drama, Thriller, Horror
Production Companies: Sony Pictures Productions, PlayStation Pictures, Naughty Dog, The Mighty Mint, Word Games
Streaming On: Max
Episode 1: Future Days
Directed by: Craig Mazin
There’s no easy way to pick up from the emotional wreckage of Season 1—especially after Joel’s controversial decision at the hospital—and Future Days doesn’t make it any easier. We’re immediately introduced to newcomer Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), mourning the deaths Joel left in his wake. Revenge is her first language: an eye for an eye.
Flash forward five years. Joel and Ellie now live in the peaceful, snow-covered haven of Jackson, Wyoming. While their bond was solidified through trauma, the years have put emotional distance between them.
We meet Dina (Isabela Merced), a resident of Jackson with a close bond to both Joel and Ellie. She seems to serve as a quiet bridge between their growing emotional gap. Then there’s Gail (Kathryn O’Hara), a therapist whose sessions with Joel are layered with thinly veiled resentment—her husband was among Joel’s victims—but also a surprising honesty that challenges him to face truths he’s been hiding.
Ellie and Dina, assigned to a patrol led by Jesse (Young Mazino), soon abandon protocol to investigate threats on the outskirts. They encounter an infected unlike any they’ve seen before—more evolved, more dangerous. Is this a new strain?
Later, at a New Year’s Eve party, Dina and Ellie share a quiet, romantic moment on the dance floor, interrupted by local homophobia and Joel’s protective instincts. Ellie’s public outburst—”I don’t need your help!”—drives a deeper wedge between them. But bigger threats are brewing: infected begin seeping into town through a broken pipe, and Abby’s group is closing in. Their mission? Kill Joel.
This premiere executes brilliantly on several fronts, beginning with its moral complexity: Is Joel truly the “good guy”? After all, he risked humanity to save Ellie, murdering a doctor—Abby’s father—in the process. Does that make Abby’s revenge justified?
The new cast—Dever, Merced, and O’Hara—makes strong impressions. Each performance balances survivalist grit with emotional nuance. Pascal and Ramsey continue to impress, carrying their characters’ emotional arcs seamlessly across the five-year time jump.
The cinematography captures the stark beauty of Wyoming (filmed in Canada), contrasting serenity with creeping dread. We’re reminded that even peace in this world comes at a cost—and it’s never permanent.
Episode 2: Through the Valley
Directed by: Mark Mylod
We pick up with Abby and her group—Manny (Danny Ramirez), Nora (Tati Gabrielle), Owen (Spencer Lord), and Mel (Ariela Barer)—as they camp outside Jackson. Tensions rise. Her companions are concerned about her obsession with revenge and the danger it poses to others—and to themselves.
Abby goes off alone to scout, but stumbles into a nest of infected buried under the snow. A tense chase ensues. Just as she’s about to be overwhelmed, she’s saved—ironically—by Joel and Dina.
They agree to return with Abby to her shelter. Meanwhile, back in Jackson, Ellie learns Joel and Dina never returned from patrol and sets out with Jesse to find them. As town officials begin to notice the threat of infection spreading through the pipes, all eyes turn to the coming horde.
That horde arrives, fast and brutal. The town suffers casualties, and in the chaos, Abby lures Joel and Dina back to her lodge. What follows is the emotional and brutal climax we feared.
In one of the show’s most gut-wrenching scenes, Abby confronts Joel. Her performance is both searing and deeply conflicted: grief, rage, and righteous fury all woven together. She shoots Joel in the knee and proceeds to beat him with a golf club—a horrific echo of her pain.
Ellie arrives too late. Held down by Manny, she watches as Abby drives the broken golf club into Joel’s neck. Her anguished cry promises vengeance: “I’ll kill every one of you.”
The final image—Joel’s lifeless body tied to the horse—hints at what’s coming. Ellie’s grief will fuel her quest for revenge, continuing the cycle the show has masterfully set up.
With Joel gone, the story shifts into a new gear. Ellie’s sense of purpose is sharpened by grief and guilt, while the town reels from both internal betrayal and external threats. Kaitlyn Dever stands out as a powerful and complex antagonist, her performance forcing us to question: who really is the villain here?
Mylod and Mazin, once again, use the contrast of majestic mountain landscapes with raw emotional destruction to amplify the stakes. Season 2 is clearly not about survival anymore—it’s about the cost of it.
Looking Ahead: What Will Survive of Us?
As the series continues, here are some lingering questions we’re left to wrestle with:
- Can Ellie break the cycle of violence, or will she become consumed by it?
- Is Abby a villain—or simply a mirror image of Ellie’s future?
- How does grief shape justice in a broken world?
- Will Ellie’s search for vengeance give her closure—or cost her everything she has left?
- Are there any true heroes left in this world, or only survivors?
- With Joel gone, who becomes Ellie’s moral compass—if anyone?
- Could a fragile alliance between former enemies be the only way forward?
- Can love survive in a world where loss is constant and revenge is currency?
- Will the infected evolve into something even more dangerous—and what does that mean for humanity’s last hope?
- What happens when your identity is defined by pain?
- Are we witnessing the birth of a new protagonist… or a new antagonist?
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