“Day One,” the fourth episode of The Last of Us season 2, sends Ellie and Dina from Jackson into Seattle, where new dangers arrive alongside a more intimate story about their relationship. Bella Ramsey gives Ellie’s guardedness, humor and tentative vulnerability room to coexist; the episode’s guitar scene makes the case for her performance especially well. This review includes major episode spoilers.
Spoilers for season 2, episode 4, “Day One.”
What happens in “Day One”?
The episode opens eleven years in the past before shifting to Ellie and Dina in Seattle. That time jump sets up a change in scale: the story leaves Jackson behind and enters a city whose danger is shaped not only by infected but by conflict between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites.
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Seattle is already at war
Ellie and Dina arrive to search the city, but the WLF–Seraphite conflict quickly becomes more than background. Their movements through Seattle bring them close to a violent struggle for control, and the episode introduces Isaac, played by Jeffrey Wright, as a WLF leader tied to that violence. The city feels divided before Ellie and Dina can make sense of it, which gives their search a persistent sense of threat.
A dangerous search becomes personal
As Ellie and Dina move through Seattle, their encounters and discoveries shift the episode from survival story to relationship story. The most consequential turn is Ellie revealing personal information to Dina. That disclosure changes what Dina understands about Ellie and gives their growing closeness a different emotional weight. The episode also puts them in an encounter with infected, a reminder that their relationship develops under pressure rather than in safety.
#1 Best Overall
- Runtime: 420 minutes
The guitar scene
Ellie plays “Take On Me,” and the scene gives Ramsey space to change registers without losing the character’s guarded edge. Ellie’s performance is not simply a declaration of affection; its tentative quality makes the moment feel exposed. Ramsey lets humor and vulnerability sit together, so the intimacy reads as something Ellie is risking rather than an easy emotional breakthrough. The Ringer also singled out Ramsey’s performance of the song while reading the episode as a significant step in Ellie and Dina’s romance.
Why Bella Ramsey shines as Ellie
“Shines” is a critical judgment, not a claim of unanimous consensus. What makes the praise persuasive here is the range Ramsey brings to Ellie across the episode. Ellie can be dryly funny, watchful, frightened and unexpectedly open; those shifts feel connected to a person trying to protect herself, not a set of disconnected moods.
Rank #2
The guitar scene is the clearest example, but it works because the episode has first placed Ellie in a tense, unfamiliar city and given her room to connect with Dina. Ramsey makes vulnerability feel provisional: Ellie does not suddenly stop being guarded, but she lets Dina see more of her. The episode’s strongest emotional work comes from that small change in what Ellie is willing to share.
Do Ellie and Dina’s scenes earn the romance?
The relationship is central to “Day One,” not a pause from the plot. Ellie’s disclosure, the guitar performance and the pair’s shared danger build intimacy through trust as well as attraction. The Guardian foregrounded the romance, and The Ringer described the episode as a meaningful step for the pairing. Those are individual critical readings, not proof that every viewer will find the same chemistry convincing.
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- COMPLETE SEASONS 1 & 2 COLLECTION – Includes every episode from the first two acclaimed HBO seasons across a 7-disc Blu-ray set
- BASED ON THE AWARD-WINNING VIDEO GAME – Faithfully adapts Naughty Dog's legendary post-apocalyptic masterpiece with cinematic storytelling
- STARRING PEDRO PASCAL & BELLA RAMSEY – Outstanding performances alongside Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever, Jeffrey Wright, Isabela Merced, and Catherine O'Hara
- HIGH-DEFINITION BLU-RAY – Experience every episode with exceptional picture quality, immersive audio, and bonus features
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The episode is most effective when its relationship beats grow out of the characters’ immediate circumstances. Seattle forces Ellie and Dina to rely on one another, while the quieter moments give that dependence emotional meaning. The result is a romance that feels consequential to the journey rather than added on top of it.
How the episode balances horror, action and intimacy
“Day One” asks its Seattle action, faction conflict and romance to share the same episode. At its best, that combination sharpens the emotional story: Ellie and Dina’s moments of closeness are more fragile because the city around them is violent. The infected encounter and the WLF–Seraphite conflict keep danger present even when the focus turns inward.
Rank #4
- Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna
The trade-off is momentum. The episode has several kinds of tension to establish, and its emotional turns can feel more compelling than the connective movement between them. Forbes offered a more mixed view of the season’s writing and characterization, a useful reminder that Ramsey’s strong work does not make every narrative choice equally successful. The performance is the episode’s surest asset; the larger balance of its threads is less consistently focused.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How “Day One” adapts the game
The episode draws on The Last of Us Part II, but the television version changes the order and presentation of events. GamesRadar’s episode-specific comparison discusses those differences. Viewers familiar with the game should not assume the show reproduces every scene or sequence in the same way; the episode is shaped for television’s pacing and its focus on Ellie and Dina’s shared experience. The game is optional companion material, not a prerequisite for following the show.
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Episode details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 2, episode 4: “Day One” |
| Air date | May 4, 2025, according to the Rotten Tomatoes episode listing |
| Writer | Craig Mazin, credited by TheWrap |
| Director | Kate Herron, credited by TheWrap |
| Season format | Seven episodes; HBO announced the season format |
HBO announced season 2 as a seven-episode season debuting April 13, 2025, with Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Isabela Merced as Dina. Its season logline describes Joel and Ellie as being drawn into conflict with each other and a more dangerous, unpredictable world five years after season 1; that description frames the season, not this episode specifically. See HBO’s season 2 announcement.
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