The Last of Us Season 2 Finally Gives Isaac the Time He Deserves

This nonfiction contains spoilers for The Last of Us play 2, occurrence 4 and the video crippled The Last of Us Part 2.

The calm-yet-ruthless person of the Washington Liberation Front was an imposing quality successful The Last of Us Part 2 video game. Isaac Dixon, played by the ever-fantastic Jeffrey Wright, formed a long, acheronian shadiness implicit the struggle betwixt the militaristic WLF and the spiritual Seraphites. But that’s mostly each it was: a shadow. Isaac has precise small screentime successful the game, with little than a fistful of scenes done which to marque his required impact. The game’s restraint provides a large accidental for HBO’s tv adaptation, though, and The Last of Us play 2 leaps astatine the accidental to delve deeper into the beingness of Isaac Dixon, erstwhile again played by Wright, successful its beardown 4th episode.

I’ve antecedently expressed my reservations astir alterations made for the show, arsenic I consciousness HBO’s depiction of Abby is an awkward half-change that lone serves to weaken the story’s interaction alternatively than fortify the adaptation. The precise other tin beryllium said for Isaac, who successful occurrence 4 is introduced and examined crossed 2 almighty caller scenes written for the show. Not lone bash they supply a beardown instauration to Isaac for newcomers, they besides unfastened a larger model into the beingness of a quality longtime fans person been held astatine arm’s magnitude from. It’s not rather the dedicated occurrence attraction Bill and Frank got successful play one, but it does a akin job.

Isaac defects FEDRA and joins the WLF. | Image credit: HBO

Episode 4 acold opens successful 2018, a decennary and alteration anterior to the season’s existent events. In the backmost of a subject truck, FEDRA troops laughter and gag astir their brutal attraction of “voters”. It's a caller word for The Last of Us, but 1 mournfully explained by Isaac: regular citizens are mockingly called voters due to the fact that FEDRA stripped them of their antiauthoritarian rights. While Isaac delivers his lines successful a calm, astir reserved manner, it’s wide from his code that helium despises the group’s ruthless regularisation and murderous methods. And conscionable successful lawsuit that wasn’t obvious, 2 minutes aboriginal helium locks his squad successful the motortruck with 2 unrecorded manus grenades. Isaac doesn’t conscionable disagree with FEDRA, he’s connected a ngo to destruct it.

Fifteen minutes later, we’re reunited with Isaac successful the show’s existent twelvemonth of 2029, wherever he’s present caput of the WLF. He’s inactive calm and collected, softly discussing however helium longed for costly cookware successful the years earlier the quarantine. But arsenic the country unfolds into a brutal torture session, it becomes wide that Isaac’s chill caput is nary longer a motion of quiescent determination, but calculated brutality. The luxury copper-bottom Mauviel pans helium present owns (a “strange payment of the apocalypse”) are utilized to sear the soma of a captured Seraphite, each pain a futile effort to merchandise the plans hidden wrong their mind.

This 2nd country is inspired by Isaac’s instauration successful The Last of Us Part 2, successful which Abby concisely sees wrong a bath wherever a Seraphite is tied up. It’s wide that Isaac has been torturing him for information, but we spot thing of what is being implied. The show’s much-expanded mentation of that country allows america to witnesser Isaac’s methods. There’s a quiescent cruelty successful the mode Isaac has his captive connection retired their manus to beryllium burned. By not “succumbing” to a much classically brutal torture method – there’s nary heavy-handed beatings, nary assertive waterboarding – it becomes wide that Issac sees himself arsenic immoderate benignant of civilized interrogator. It’s an look of his superiority implicit what helium believes to beryllium a sub-human enemy.

Of course, Isaac’s calm, conversational attack is nary much oregon little effectual than immoderate different method. The Seraphite stonewalls him astatine each turn, adjacent offering his manus retired earlier being asked. This breaks Isaac’s demeanor, resulting successful a deadly amusement of aggravated force. It’s a objection of Isaac’s vexation with the results of the interrogation, yes, but there’s thing deeper here: helium knows that his warfare against the Seraphites has lone further calcified their cult mentality and galvanized their content successful The Prophet. The harder helium pushes, the much immovable they become. His run against them has lone ensured his ain defeat.

A unusual payment of the apocaypse is utilizing $1000 cookware to torture your enemies. | Image credit: HBO

The powerfulness of these 2 scenes is successful their duality. In conscionable 2 sequences, we person the full past of Isaac: a antheral who stood up against oppression, lone to go the oppressor himself.

A mentation of this communicative is readily disposable successful The Last of Us Part 2, but lone a existent completionist volition cognize it. Isaac’s past is revealed done snippets of dialog and respective written notes that, erstwhile pieced together, archer the communicative of a revolutionary turned warmonger. A erstwhile marine, helium joined the WLF during its infancy with a privation to erode FEDRA’s brutal regime. Following the execution of the group’s founders, Isaac was voted into bid and established a highly businesslike yet incredibly ruthless subject force, eliminating FEDRA from Seattle and forming a caller city-like surviving abstraction wrong the fortified walls of the SoundView shot stadium. But his goals did not halt with the removal of Seattle’s fascist rulers; his run saw him go obsessed with the full annihilation of the Seraphites, a section spiritual “death cult.” The 2 groups person been successful perpetual struggle ever since, the Seraphites lone emboldened by Isaac’s assassination of their leader, The Prophet.

Isaac’s circumstances are conscionable different portion of the game’s larger thesis connected however unit begets violence. He is, ultimately, supporting inheritance worldly – different acheronian echo of the aforesaid way some Ellie and Abby are following. As such, the information that his communicative is revealed lone done a fistful of documents isn’t an issue. The travel of the game’s protagonists, the women controlled by the subordinate and done whose eyes this satellite is experienced, is the important thing. It does mean that his communicative is small much than a model of facts, though. And truthful the show, which isn’t locked to a circumstantial viewpoint successful the aforesaid mode the crippled is, has the accidental to adhd overmuch much colour to that framework. By spending clip with Isaac successful 2 precise important eras of his life, we spot not lone his halfway characteristics – his calm demeanor, his determination, his focused goals – but we besides spot however those facets are wholly recontextualised arsenic the situation astir him changes.

Isaac is, of course, a quality successful Abby’s broadside of the communicative alternatively than Ellie’s, and truthful I don’t expect to spot overmuch much from him successful the coming weeks. Provided the amusement sticks to the operation of the crippled arsenic intimately arsenic it frankincense acold has, it won’t beryllium until play 3 that we get to spot overmuch much of the WLF’s interior workings. Regardless of however agelong we person to wait, my anticipation is that we get much of this benignant of quality expansion, not conscionable for Isaac but besides cardinal members of the Seraphites, too. If 1 of the show’s strengths is to bring caller perspectives done archetypal writing, past a much in-depth look astatine the struggle betwixt those groups – thing that arguably needed further enlargement successful the crippled – would beryllium a large space for showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann to take. Because if the amusement tin grow its scope beyond conscionable Ellie and Abby to analyse these characters further, its thesis connected revenge, conflict, and unit tin hopefully beryllium fixed further extent and value. Something wonderfully done present with Isaac, arsenic he’s yet fixed the other clip helium deserves.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.