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The internet reacts to Ellie and Dina's The Last of Us kiss
Isabela Merced and Bella Ramsey on The Last of Us season 2 episode 1.
Diehard stans of The Last of Us finally got the sapphic kiss they've been waiting for!
The Last of Us season 2 started not with a bang, but with a kiss!
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Fans of The Last of Us were excited for season 2 of the hit HBO show when it was announced that Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) would be joining the cast as Dina, Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) girlfriend, and the show wasted no time in setting up their relationship.
Right on the grand premiere of season 2, Joel and Ellie are seen having settled down in Jackson, Wyoming with other survivors, including a girl around Ellie's age named Dina. Ellie and Dina are best friends and love going on patrol together.
While out on patrol, Dina asks Ellie if she'll go to the settlement's New Year's Eve party with her, as "BFFs." But after they start dancing, it's very clear that Dina had other intentions in asking Ellie to the dance.
Fans of The Last of Us franchise are even recognizing that parts of the scene were taken directly from the original video games. "There's one shot in particular inside the church where we see Ellie from behind and these beautiful lights and people dancing. It's pretty darn close to what's there in the game," Craig Mazin, who created this live-action TV adaptation, told Variety.
"I remember walking on set being like, whoa," Ramsey added. "This really feels like I'm in the game, even though I hadn't actually played it."
When they slow-dance up close, Ellie tells Dina that every guy is staring at her, to which Dina suggests maybe they're staring at Ellie… because they're jealous of her.
"No reason to be. I'm not a threat," Ellie says.
"Oh, Ellie, I think they should be terrified of you," Dina replies before leaning in for a kiss.
Ramsey spoke to Variety about how the character navigated the kiss.
"Ellie thinks that Dina is straight and in a relationship with Jesse," they said. "She's so afraid of the feelings that she has for Dina and ruining a friendship that means a lot to her. There's definitely a self-protection thing of needing to know how Dina felt before she could make any sort of a move. She’s still confused by it, even when Dina does start making a move on Ellie in that dance and leans in to kiss her. I think Ellie is still like, 'Is this actually happening?'"
Unfortunately, homophobia still exists in the apocalypse, and an old man named Seth tells them to stop because "it's a family event." When they keep dancing, he shakes his head and says, "We're in a church, dykes."
That's when Joel comes in from nowhere and knocks the man down to the ground. But this upsets Ellie, who says she doesn't need Joel to protect her.
Mazin noted that they kept this scene on HBO's The Last of Us to reflect the reality of the real world. "If there is a moment that is upsetting, it is in and of itself a reminder of the way things were," he told Wired. "We didn't just want to sweep that under the rug."
Of course, the internet is going wild over the kiss — which is something that many fans have been waiting for since the first season of the show.
The romance between Ellie and Dina is a large part of The Last of Us Part II video games, so fans have been hoping they'd get a lot of the couple this season on the show. So far, it does look like they won't be disappointed!
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
