Sunday night delivered exactly what fans of the 2020 Naughty Dog sequel have been waiting for. Ellie and Dina finally hit the ground running in Seattle. The 53-minute episode packed in hanging Seraphites, claustrophobic infected encounters, and a tender acoustic cover that instantly went viral. Yet, if you look at the user ratings this morning, you would think the series just aired its worst hour of television to date.
Seattle Delivers The Perfect Bleak Atmosphere
Jeffrey Wright barely has to raise his voice to make you hold your breath. When he reprises his role as WLF leader Isaac Dixon, the tension bleeds through the screen immediately. He did not need a grand, shouting monologue to convey absolute control over his faction. His quiet, heavy presence alone communicated exactly what kind of man Ellie is up against.
The transition into the heart of the city felt incredibly true to the source material. Ellie and Dina uncovering the aftermath of a Seraphite ambush in the TV station sequence was shot with unsettling precision. The dangling bodies and the eerie silence mirrored the 2020 game perfectly, setting a tone of constant dread.
The pacing never gave the audience a chance to relax. The subway scene hit like a freight train, blending raw infected chaos with genuine emotional vulnerability. It is a balancing act that the HBO series has mastered, showing how the characters react to unrelenting terror in dark environments while still keeping their humanity intact.
A Single Acoustic Guitar Silences The Chaos
Amid the clickers and religious cults, the quietest scene hit the hardest. Ellie playing the guitar in the shelter brought everything to a dead stop. The adaptation of A-ha’s iconic pop song was gorgeous, and it makes total sense why social media timelines are flooded with clips of the performance.
Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced did not just act the scene out. They lived in it. The quiet performance of Take On Me allowed the moment to breathe, perfectly capturing the sweet, awkward reality of two teenagers trying to find comfort at the end of the world. There was a beat of silence after the song that let the weight of their situation settle into the room.
Then came the intimacy that shifted their entire dynamic. Dina finally confessed that her mom told her she liked boys, a revelation that landed like a stone. Viewers who were previously confused by Dina’s hesitance finally understood her internal struggle. She was never unsure of Ellie, but rather scared of herself, and she finally decided to stop running.
The emotional core of the episode thrived on these small, human moments:
- Faithful recreation of the quiet shelter conversations
- Subtle facial acting that conveyed years of hidden fear
- A breakthrough in communication that cemented their bond
One Out Of Six Viewers Hits One Star
At the time of writing, over a sixth of IMDb reviewers stamped a terrible rating on the episode. Let’s be clear about something. Having mixed opinions on pacing or story choices is completely fine, but a coordinated wave of negativity popping up the moment two women kiss is not a real critique.
The review bombing pattern is stark when you look at the raw numbers. Despite critics and the core fanbase largely praising the performances, a very loud minority decided to tank the public score.
| IMDb Score Rating | Percentage of Votes |
|---|---|
| 10 Stars | 24.1% |
| 8 Stars | 17.2% |
| 1 Star | 16.1% |
If you read the actual comments attached to these one-star ratings, the motivation becomes obvious. Users complained about “more and more gay scenes” and mocked the idea of characters finding romance during an apocalypse. As one Reddit user pointed out, literally all four episodes of the series that feature a queer kiss have been review-bombed online at an alarming rate.
This is an exhausting trend across television right now. Shows like The Witcher, She-Ra, and Heartstopper face the exact same punishment whenever queer joy takes center stage. The internet can be incredibly loud, but volume does not equal validity.
Ratings Ignore The Online Noise Completely
The linear television broadcast pulled in 774,000 viewers according to Nielsen, but that is just a fraction of the real story. When you look at the big picture, the show is an unstoppable juggernaut for HBO and Max. The season two premiere already saw a 13 percent increase over the series debut, proving the audience is still hungry for this world.
Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could.
Executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann shared that sentiment regarding the show’s massive reach. The reality is that the series is averaging 37 million global viewers per episode, a number that completely drowns out the fraction of angry internet commenters. Fans have flooded social media to praise how Bella Ramsey shines through the darkness, bringing authentic teenage vulnerability to a grim setting.
There are definitely fair critiques to be made about the season’s pacing. Some viewers feel the mystery surrounding Abby has been toned down too much compared to the game. Others are just waiting for Ellie’s rage to fully erupt as she hunts down the Washington Liberation Front. Those are valid conversations about story structure, completely separate from the review bombing campaign.
This was not a filler episode by any stretch of the imagination. It moved the physical threats forward while cementing the emotional stakes that make those threats matter. Whether you care about the ongoing online drama or just want to see how #TheLastOfUs handles its darkest chapters moving forward, this adaptation of #DayOne proves the writers are not backing down from the story they want to tell.
