{"id":1174425,"date":"2026-02-13T14:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=556703"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:40:19","slug":"please-the-last-of-us-dont-ruin-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/please-the-last-of-us-dont-ruin-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"Please, The Last of Us, don\u2019t ruin Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/please-the-last-of-us-dont-ruin-jackson.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/impressions\/552866\/last-of-us-season-2-review-preview\"><em>The Last of Us<\/em> season 2<\/a> has finally arrived, and the first episode shows a world that\u2019s just as brutal as we remembered it. There\u2019s already some rageful mourning, power struggles, betrayal, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/e\/556829\">a new type of infected for Ellie to contend with<\/a>, and that\u2019s just in the first hour. But episode 1 also has a twist you might not have been expecting: a peaceful town that seems genuinely nice to live in. Because of that, the show\u2019s brief tease that something may be amiss in Jackson, Wyoming, might have been its bleakest moment yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">[<strong>Ed. note:<\/strong> This post contains spoilers for <em>The Last of Us<\/em> season 2 episode 1.]<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">After all the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23638404\/last-us-finale-review-love-season\">running, hiding, and shooting<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23645114\/last-us-tv-show-game-comparison\"><em>The Last of Us<\/em> season 1<\/a>, it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/what-to-watch\/23648432\/movies-tv-like-last-of-us-show-series-watch\">hard not to be a little bit romantic<\/a> about seeing people living their lives around Jackson in the season 2 premiere. Joel\u2019s doing some bookkeeping and struggling through therapy; Ellie\u2019s got a crush on her best friend; Tommy and Maria are running the town and raising their kid; and sure, there\u2019s some homophobia, but even that feels more manageable than the infected outside the city\u2019s walls.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">So, when the camera lingers for just a few seconds on some <em>Cordyceps<\/em> sprouting out from the pipes under the city, it\u2019s hard not to feel a little resentful. Jackson should be allowed to stay a nice, safe little enclave where at least some of its residents can build something beautiful in the post-apocalypse.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/please-the-last-of-us-dont-ruin-jackson-1.jpg\" alt=\"Several people on horses, including Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Isabela Merced as Dina, listen to a man talk in front of them in The Last of Us season 2 \" title=\"Several people on horses, including Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Isabela Merced as Dina, listen to a man talk in front of them in The Last of Us season 2 \" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not asking <em>The Last of Us<\/em> not to be bleak; that\u2019s simply not fair to its nature: When given two choices, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23633990\/last-us-joel-kill-finale-why-rampage\">franchise will always choose the sadder and darker of the options<\/a>. All I\u2019m saying is that for whatever other tragedies happen in the season (and as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/reviews\/2020\/7\/8\/21316392\/last-of-us-2-reviews-spoilers-ellie-joel-abby-ending-revenge\">fans of <em>The Last of Us Part 2<\/em> will know, there\u2019s a lot to go around<\/a>), it\u2019s sort of critical to the plot that Jackson isn\u2019t part of it, at least for the most part. It doesn\u2019t need to stay perfectly safe all the time, but it does need to remain a bit of a haven, living, breathing proof that somewhere in the world people are finding a way to move on. It\u2019s not always peaceful or easy, but it\u2019s a communal path forward from the apocalypse toward a real future.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Knowing that a place like Jackson exists somewhere in the world of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/last-of-us\">The Last of Us<\/a><\/em> is key to underscoring the decisions each character makes. For their sake and ours, there has to be some kind of hope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">All that is to say: I think the <em>Cordyceps<\/em> we see in the first episode should simply slink back into that pipe and find somewhere else to explore. Jackson\u2019s doing fine, and it should stay that way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/tv\/556703\/tlou-season-2-jackson-cordyceps-ending\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Last of Us season 2 has finally arrived, and the first episode shows a world that\u2019s just as brutal as we remembered it. There\u2019s already some rageful mourning, power struggles, betrayal, and a new type of infected for Ellie to contend with, and that\u2019s just in the first hour. But episode 1 also has a twist you might not have been expecting: a peaceful town that seems genuinely nice to live in. Because of that, the show\u2019s brief tease that something may be amiss in Jackson, Wyoming, might have been its bleakest moment yet.\u00a0 [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 1.] After all the running, hiding, and shooting of The Last of Us season 1, it\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/please-the-last-of-us-dont-ruin-jackson\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1174426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Please, The Last of Us, don\u2019t ruin Jackson | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Last of Us season 2 has finally arrived, and the first episode shows a world that\u2019s just as brutal as we remembered it. 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