“Day One” gives The Last of Us a new dramatic engine: Seattle’s battle between the WLF and Seraphites, set against the increasingly intimate and precarious bond between Ellie and Dina. The episode’s strongest moments come when those scales collide—especially in a quiet song scene and a brutal subway escape. Its emotional disclosures land, but the rapid turn from danger to intimacy can feel rushed.
Spoilers for Season 2, Episode 4 follow.
“Day One” is the fourth episode of HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2. Apple TV lists its release date as May 4, 2025, its runtime as 50 minutes, and its rating as TV-MA. Its synopsis places Ellie and Dina in the middle of a bloody Seattle conflict between the Seraphites and a militia. Apple TV’s episode listing establishes the basic details, while the episode itself makes the city’s competing histories and loyalties the hour’s central subject.
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What happens in “Day One”?
The episode opens in 2018, in Seattle’s quarantine zone. Isaac, then a FEDRA officer, breaks with the authorities and joins the resistance. That flashback gives the present-day conflict a history: the WLF’s fight against the Seraphites is not an isolated clash, but part of a cycle of political repression and violence.
In the present, Ellie and Dina search Seattle for supplies and shelter in a music store. Ellie plays A-ha’s “Take On Me,” and the private performance makes the women’s romantic feelings more explicit. The moment also carries the shadow of Ellie’s past with Joel, linking a new relationship to the grief and memories she still bears.
#1 Best Overall
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Elsewhere, Isaac interrogates a Seraphite captive. The scene cuts against the song’s tenderness: both the WLF leader and his prisoner appear certain of their cause, while the violence makes that certainty disturbing rather than reassuring. The episode asks viewers to see a conflict shaped by conviction on both sides, without making the cruelty disappear.
Ellie and Dina find evidence of violence at a news station, then flee through a subway tunnel as infected swarm them. Ellie protects Dina and is bitten. At the theater, Dina prepares to shoot her before infection takes hold. Ellie reveals that she is immune; when Dina sees that Ellie does not turn, she tells Ellie that she is pregnant.
The following morning brings a conversation about their relationship and what they now face together. A WLF radio transmission about Nora, followed by an explosion, draws them back into the conflict. Dina chooses to continue with Ellie.
Does Seattle give the season a fresh start?
The move from Jackson to Seattle changes the show’s scale and texture. The city is not just a new backdrop: Isaac’s flashback and the WLF-Seraphite conflict establish a political landscape that can drive the story beyond Ellie and Dina’s immediate journey. In that sense, “Day One” works as a soft reboot, resetting the season’s setting and introducing a new source of pressure.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →But the episode is also an orientation chapter. It has to introduce Isaac, the factions, and the danger of a city already torn apart, while keeping Ellie and Dina’s relationship at the center. The result is deliberately broad: its most memorable beats are often contrasts—the music store against the interrogation, the subway’s panic against the theater’s revelations. Seattle feels promising as a dramatic engine, though the hour is still laying track rather than delivering a fully developed account of the war.
Why does “Take On Me” matter here?
The song scene gives the episode room to breathe and gives Ellie and Dina a way to express feelings that danger usually keeps submerged. It is tender without being detached from the story: Ellie’s performance invokes Joel and the intimacy of their shared past, even as Dina becomes the person beside her now.
Rank #2
- Five years later An intense, harrowing and emotional adventure awaits Ellie and Joel return for an epic journey in the sequel to the critically acclaimed game by Naughty Dog.
- Experience the escalating moral conflicts created by Ellies relentless pursuit of vengeance. The cycle of violence left in her wake will challenge your notions of right versus wrong, good versus evil, and hero versus villain.
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The moment also illustrates how adaptation changes meaning through placement and context. The Ringer describes it as a recreation of a notable The Last of Us Part II moment, but argues that the show’s relationship context and the exchange about Joel alter its emotional coloring. Rather than treating the scene as a beat-for-beat copy, it is more useful to notice what the television version emphasizes: romance growing alongside grief, not in place of it.
Do Ellie and Dina’s revelations feel earned?
The subway sequence makes Ellie’s immunity disclosure concrete. Dina has just watched Ellie risk herself to protect her, then sees the bite that should mean death. Her preparation to shoot Ellie is a grim, understandable response to what she believes infection will do; Ellie’s survival forces the two of them to confront a truth that changes their relationship.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesDina’s pregnancy revelation raises the stakes in another direction. It is a major piece of information delivered during a crisis, and the episode moves quickly from the theater’s fear and disclosures into intimacy. The Ringer criticizes that transition as abrupt. The concern is persuasive: the episode gives the revelations weight, but its pacing leaves limited space for the shock, trust, and uncertainty they create to settle before the relationship shifts again.
The next-morning conversation helps by allowing the characters to address their connection and shared situation more directly. Dina’s decision to continue with Ellie then becomes an active choice, not simply an aftermath of the theater scene.
What does Isaac add to the conflict?
Isaac’s flashback makes his role legible: he has crossed from FEDRA to the resistance in a world where institutions enforce control through violence. In the present, his interrogation shows that escaping one regime does not necessarily make a person less brutal. The captive’s conviction and Isaac’s certainty frame two groups that each see themselves as justified, while the scene refuses to soften what Isaac is doing.
This is effective setup for a season increasingly interested in how people rationalize violence. The interrogation is forceful, perhaps almost declarative: its function is to establish the brutality and moral tension of Seattle quickly. Its value will depend on whether the conflict continues to develop beyond the stark opposition introduced here.
Rank #3
How does the episode compare with The Last of Us Part II?
“Day One” draws on recognizable material from the game, but the useful comparison is about adaptation choices, not a claim that every scene maps directly. The “Take On Me” performance is one clear point of connection; in the show, its timing and relationship context make it part of Ellie and Dina’s changing bond and Ellie’s continuing grief for Joel.
For viewers who know the game, the show’s rearrangement can make familiar material serve a different rhythm: the episode places romance, political context, and action in a single hour that also has to introduce Seattle’s factions. For newcomers, the same scenes work on their own terms. The emotional and dramatic meaning does not depend on recognizing the source material.
Verdict: a compelling pivot with an uneven emotional landing
“Day One” succeeds most when it sets opposites beside each other: a song in a ruined city, political conviction alongside cruelty, and the fragile intimacy of Ellie and Dina against the infected and armed forces closing in. The Seattle setting opens a larger story, and the subway escape gives the hour real urgency. The episode’s main weakness is compression: its pivotal disclosures are powerful, but the rapid move from danger to intimacy undercuts their emotional aftermath. It is a strong pivot for the season, even if its relationship beats do not all have room to breathe.
Episode details and reception
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 2, Episode 4, “Day One” |
| Release date | May 4, 2025, according to Apple TV |
| Runtime | 50 minutes, according to Apple TV |
| Rating | TV-MA, according to Apple TV |
| Tomatometer | 100% from 22 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes when accessed in 2026; a changing critic-review snapshot, not an audience score |
| Episode viewership | No episode-specific viewership figure was established by the cited sources |
Rotten Tomatoes’ listed critics consensus highlights the performances, Seattle setting, intrigue, and violence. Its 100% score is not a measure of audience approval, and the figure can change as reviews are added or updated. The Ringer’s May 5, 2025 recap offers a contrasting critical perspective on the episode’s pacing and the transition after Ellie and Dina’s disclosures.
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Behind one small moment
The episode’s quiet details were planned as carefully as its action. In a Television Academy interview, co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin read the planned stage direction for Ellie waking after being bitten: “A plip from high above lands on her cheek, and she stirs awake, instinctively wiping wildly at her face.” Mazin said the flashlight beam entering the frame was scripted, not a happy accident. The detail reflects the episode’s attention to the physical sensations that make a dangerous setting feel immediate.
HBO’s companion podcast listing describes a 47-minute discussion of this episode, hosted by Troy Baker with showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Published May 5, 2025, the listing says the conversation covers the explosive opening, subway-station shoot, and a scene the team felt pressure to get right; the listing establishes the discussion’s subject and participants, not the specifics of what was said in the audio.
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