Throughout the season, Ramsey has evoked all the right emotions in all the most important scenes. The Last of Us season 2, episode 5, Ramsey was tasked with pulling off one of Ellie’s darkest and most challenging scenes from the game — the moment the character becomes truly terrifying — and they pulled it off spectacularly.

Bella Ramsey Nailed Ellie's Torture Scene In The Last Of Us Season 2

Torturing Nora Is A Major Turning Point For Ellie

Joel’s death, and she corners Nora in a red-hued hallway full of spores.

As Nora dies of a coughing fit, Ellie beats her with a lead pipe to force her to give up Abby’s location. There was no way that the TV show could make this sequence quite as shocking as the game, because the game forces you to press the square button, making you the one who’s beating Nora to death. In the TV show, you’re less of an active participant. With that in mind, I was impressed with how close the TV show got to replicating that shock, and it’s all down to Ramsey’s performance.

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Ramsey brings a chilling coldness to every line delivery as Nora pleads for her life. Nora tells Ellie the basement is full of spores, so she’s killed them both by bringing them down there, but Ellie bluntly asks, “Did I?” Nora tells Ellie that Joel killed all the Fireflies, assuming she doesn’t know that if she’s so adamant to avenge him, but Ellie simply says, “I know. I don’t care.” There’s a blatant lack of empathy in the way she speaks to Nora; she’s just embodying pure rage and hatred. It’s a stark contrast from Ramsey’s usual happy-go-lucky bubbliness.

Ramsey's Ellie Is As Genuinely Scary As Her Video Game Counterpart For The First Time

She Comes Off As Callous & Cold-Blooded

What makes this moment so powerful in the game is that Ellie is genuinely scary. You can’t believe the kind of brutality she’s capable of as she pummels Nora over and over again with the pipe, flagrantly ignoring her cries of agony. Ramsey recaptures that scariness perfectly in the TV show. There’s an unhinged glint in their eye that hauntingly conveys Ellie’s cold-bloodedness in this moment. She’s solely focused on exacting revenge and her humanity is taking a backseat.

Ramsey has displayed a ton of incredible acting moments throughout The Last of Us: the look of shock and dissociation after hacking David to death; the look of mistrust after Joel swore he was telling the truth; the stolen glances at Riley and later at Dina. And now, they’ve given a tour-de-force portrayal of the iconic torture scene. Anyone who still doubts Ramsey’s acting abilities or suitability for the role of Ellie hasn’t been paying attention.

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The Last Of Us

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Drama

Action

Horror

8/10

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8.3/10

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Cast

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  Pedro Pascal

  Joel Miller
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  Bella Ramsey

  Ellie Williams

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Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Writers

Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin

Franchise(s)

The Last of Us

Creator(s)

Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann

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