One of the most iconic and butterfly-inducing scenes (and my personal favourite) in The Last of Us games comes in the sequel, in which Ellie and Dina dance together and kiss at the town of Jackson’s big shindig.
It’s the scene that led The Last of Us Part II‘s first gameplay footage shown at E3 2018, and to me, it was a slam dunk to watch our kick-ass protagonist Ellie confirmed as a lesbian in a AAA game (though Ellie was really first confirmed as canonically gay in 2014’s The Last of Us DLC Left Behind, which Season 1, episode 7 is based on).
Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (co-president of Naughty Dog and creator of The Last of Us) pay more than homage to the scene in Season 2 of their HBO adaptation, with actors Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced, as Ellie and Dina, going almost line-for-line, shot-for-shot, through the scene originally co-written by Druckmann and Halley Gross.
“That was a really special day just having a bunch of people in a room together having a good time. It doesn’t really happen in The Last of Us very often, with music, pretty lighting, and a dance,” Ramsey told Mashable’s Belen Edwards.
In both the game and the TV series, a flannel-shirted Ellie begrudgingly attends the Jackson dance (in the show, this marks New Years’ Eve 2029). The camera stands behind Ellie, centered in frame among the festoon lighting of the town hall, and then moves in front of her as she watches the dance. Preferring to stick to the bar, Ellie watches as Dina dances joyously with a number of townspeople. We know Ellie has feelings for Dina at this point; in the TV show, Mazin and Druckmann have Dina come to Ellie’s house earlier to help her get ready for a patrol (in the game, it’s a similar scene, but featuring Jesse, Ellie’s friend and Dina’s ex). In this scene, Ellie’s feelings for Dina are obvious to us as viewers through her reactions, but it’s unclear what Dina knows.
Back at the dance (in both the series and the game), Jesse joins Ellie as a fellow wallflower and remarks of his former partner, “She’s put on quite the show.” Dina comes over, downs Jesse’s drink, and drags Ellie to the dance floor, where they slowly move the vibe from goofy to nervous and intimate. Dina offers Ellie the sublime line, “Everyone should be terrified of you,” and the pair kiss.
Credit: Naughty Dog
Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO
This warmly lit room, full of merriment and normality, offers a rare and beautiful human moment in a brutal world overrun with aggression, blood, infection, and death. Between the grim reality of butchering former humans infected by Cordyceps, escaping cannibals, and scraping dwindling supplies together to survive, there’s somehow still room for human intimacy, love, and the glorious awkwardness of a first kiss.
“The kiss between them just felt like a really tender moment and a complicated one for Ellie.”
“The kiss between them just felt like a really tender moment and a complicated one for Ellie, because I think there’s an element of self-protection there. Obviously she feels a certain way about Dina, and she’s not sure how Dina feels about her, and whether it’s just for fun or whether she has deeper feelings like Ellie has,” Ramsey told Edwards.
“All of that going into it, it was a very layered scene and very beautiful and I’m so happy to see how it turned out. The actual shooting of that scene was beautiful, and we were supported on set by our amazing intimacy coordinator Kathy [Kadler]. It was a really safe environment to be able to explore this first romantic, intimate moment between Ellie and Dina,” Ramsey added.
In a real treat for fans, The Last of Us episode even features the music from the dance in The Last of Us Part II, with an appearance from Crooked Still playing their songs “Little Sadie” and “Ecstasy” — they’re credited in the series as Brittany and the Jug Boys. And recreating such a moment for the series involved both Mazin and Druckmann guiding the way on set.
“Neil was on set for some of those days and Craig was directing that episode, so you have the OG creators of the show and the creator of the game, so we were really well-informed,” Merced told Mashable. “We did many, many different takes, versions, and angles, but what was crazy was you could feel the magic in the room as we were doing it — and [it was] the kind of magic I initially felt when I was watching that cutscene. Everyone felt it that day and the preciousness of the moment, how scary it probably was but also thrilling for these two characters.”
The Last of Us Season 2 is now streaming on Max. New episodes air weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
