While The Last of Us Season 2 has often plunged us into festering pits of ungodly despair, there's also been some light.
That includes the season finale, episode 7, in which Ellie (Bella Ramsey) picks up a little reading material for mother-to-be Dina (Isabela Merced) while on a dangerous rendezvous mission.
It's a book, and not just any book but Jon Stone's 1971 Little Golden Book classic The Monster at the End of This Book, illustrated by Michael Smollin.
Reader, when Ellie picked up this title, of all the somehow-surviving children's books in the Seattle bookstore where Jesse (Young Mazino) is meant to meet up with Tommy (Gabriel Luna), I squawked. I'm probably not alone in having grown up reading Stone's book to pieces as a kid. A Sesame Street story starring the eternally chaotic Grover, the book involves the blue furry monster doing everything possible to stop you reading on: brick walls, elaborate rope knots, generally screaming at you. Don't you know? There's a monster at the end!
Of course, by the time you do get to the end of the story, Grover, a monster, realises, "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me," and chastises you for being so afraid, like the adorable little gaslighter he is.
The Monster at the End of This Book is the perfect book for Ellie to pick up for two reasons: 1) It's a book about overcoming your fears, which Dina's kid will absolutely need in this post-apocalyptic reality, and 2) it's a story of perspective, of not knowing that you, in fact, may be the monster. Considering Ellie is single-handedly blasting her way through the Washington Liberation Front buds to get to the person who killed her father, there's a fair amount of self-assessment needed around here.
Who, exactly, will be the monster at the end of this story?
The Last of Us Season 2 is now streaming on HBO and HBO Max Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
