So far, the weaker points in this season seem to be coming from flashback episodes. The first flashback episode (s1e3) seemed like it could have been a short spinoff film or a bonus episode in between seasons because of how little it continued, advanced or added to the main story arch. This episode does feel like a proper flashback episode in a sense that it did progress the story a small bit but also added to Ellie's backstory and filled in some blanks but it would be dishonest of me to say that I didn't find this whole episode to be very predictable and a little bit on the lengthy side.
I prefer to keep my reviews spoiler free so without giving away any of the key points, I will say that I was not surprised by anything that happened in the least bit but it did confirm some suspicions that I had leading up to it. It's worth noting that I have not played the games so I do not know if this strayed away or stayed true to the source material, but I have a feeling there may be some more debate about miscasting that comes as a result of it.
I was tempted to score this one a 7/10 but the backstory that was started here left me wanting more of it and for it to be finished so I bumped it up to an 8. I also had to give credit where it was due, that the performances from both leads were exceptionally good, miscasting or not - that's a debate that I've stayed out of and plan to remain that way.
I prefer to keep my reviews spoiler free so without giving away any of the key points, I will say that I was not surprised by anything that happened in the least bit but it did confirm some suspicions that I had leading up to it. It's worth noting that I have not played the games so I do not know if this strayed away or stayed true to the source material, but I have a feeling there may be some more debate about miscasting that comes as a result of it.
I was tempted to score this one a 7/10 but the backstory that was started here left me wanting more of it and for it to be finished so I bumped it up to an 8. I also had to give credit where it was due, that the performances from both leads were exceptionally good, miscasting or not - that's a debate that I've stayed out of and plan to remain that way.