The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4 on HBO is a big one for Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced). The two young women finally arrive in Seattle, but before they can zero in on their target, aka Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her “Wolf” friends, they get a chance to explore. The two best friends explore the city’s abandoned tanks and music shops, the underground tunnels overrun with Infected, and, eventually, their true feelings for each other.
**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4, now streaming on MAX**
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4 is the one where Ellie and Dina finally confess their deepest secrets. First, that Ellie is immune and that Dina is pregnant after a recent reunion with on/off boyfriend Jesse (Young Mazino). Of course, they also reveal that they are in love with each other. The two friends officially become more than friends. In a sweet, sensual hookup scene, they officially become lovers.
Part of what makes this new romance on The Last of Us so effervescently infectious is Isabela Merced’s performance. Although the 23-year-old actress is a new addition to the HBO hit, fans already know and love her from her work on everything from last year’s Alien: Romulus and Madame Web to her breakthrough turns in Dora and the Lost City of Gold and Sicario: Day of the Soledado. Here, she shines as Dina, imbuing every scene with a unique combination of playfulness and practicality.
When DECIDER caught up with Merced last week, we talked about the genesis of Dina’s feelings for Ellie, why she found their arrival in the queer part of Seattle “sad,” and just why her character is stomping around the apocalypse in a $500+ Aviator Nation jacket…
DECIDER: I’m so excited to talk to you, in particular about the relationship that you build with Ellie over this season. It’s so sweet, so cute. So I’m just so curious if there was, in your mind, like a path, a trajectory, if you will, for Dina’s feelings? Did they evolve over time from friendship to crush to love? Was it always there?
ISABELA MERCED: Yes, I would say Dina, and I’ve been saying like, Dina doesn’t really know the word “bisexual.” She’s just strictly just going off of her own feelings. And I think she’s under the impression — the imposed impression — that she is straight. I mean, there’s not another option right now. I mean she does know her feelings and I don’t think it’s a manipulative thing. I think it’s just spur of the moment, heated, and inevitable in a way. You know, I think they keep finding themselves drawn to each other in a really beautiful, romantic sense. Now they have a shared purpose for going to Seattle and avenging Joel’s death. As well as doing it for each other, knowing that no one else would do that for them in the way that they would do it for each other.
You mentioned how she has no idea of what bisexuality is. It was so fascinating to me when the girls are riding Shimmer through Seattle in this week’s episode and they have no idea what the rainbows mean. They have no way to know that they’re in a community, in a neighborhood, that is a safe space for queer people and that’s where they take shelter.
Like, “Oh, they must have been optimists.”
Yeah, did you guys talk about the irony of that? And did it have any significance for you and for Bella, that they do take shelter in that space?
I mean, I think it does. It’s really endearing because it’s a little bit sad, too. Because you think about that support they would have had and the feeling of belonging that they would’ve had that they don’t have in Jackson. The forced assimilation that is put on Dina to sort of like choose one or the other and then Ellie just being inevitably outcast because of her innate preferences and her openness about it. Then also it’s endearing, but also it’s cool. It kind of immerses you in the world more. It gives you more cultural context because these people don’t know about the LGBTQ community, they don’t about Pride, they’ve never approached it. And obviously you have people like Seth, who carried his homophobia into the apocalypse because he’s just lived long enough to do so. But even then, you now, I think that initial interaction with Seth, Dina doesn’t actually care or doesn’t understand why he’s so upset, but understands that he’s being disrespectful.
I talked to Gabriel yesterday and he told me how musical the whole cast was. Knowing that, I’m just so curious if filming this stuff in the music shop with Bella, that iconic take on me scene, did you guys have even more fun because you guys already were playing on set? Did that help you guys for that scene?
Oh, yeah. I mean, well, it was interesting because Bella is an amazing singer. So they told Bella, like, “You have to kind of tone down your skills a little bit, bro. Like, you’ve got to sound like you don’t actually have as much talent as you do.” So Bella was obviously playing the guitar and singing at the same time, which is one of the hardest things to do, I think. Especially with that strumming pattern, that picking pattern. I’m really impressed. I was really impressed and it wasn’t hard to kind of lock into my emotions when I watched Bella do it that day. It was actually harder to hold them back.
One of the many, many things that happens in Episode 4 is Ellie is bitten and Dina thinks that she’s infected. How terrifying is that notion for Dina? Can you talk me through that scene and what’s going through her head?
I would say in my mind, it’s just altogether really, really conflicting. I think it was one of those scenarios where if the person that’s talking to you is telling you the truth, it sucks. And if they’re lying, it sucks. There’s no really good option or outcome. Getting to play that, like having that sort of material and challenge, was really, really fun for me. Like even when I’m doing these really intense scenes, I’m still having a great time. [Chuckles] Yeah, it’s really entertaining and I wanted to make sure people thought that I might actually shoot Ellie.
It is quite tense there for a moment, and then it leads to, you know, finally Dina and Ellie kiss soberly, for real. She tells Ellie later that she was kind of inspired by Ellie’s survival to make that move, to consummate that relationship. I’m curious, do you think that she has been wanting to kiss Ellie since the New Year’s Eve party? Is this something that she’s been meditating on, or is it kind of a spur of the moment impulse?
No, yeah, the tension’s been there for sure. Yeah, yeah. It’s been brewing like a nice stew, you know, the longer it takes to cook, the better it’ll taste. Yeah, I really think that was a long time coming. Because she’s so conflicted and because she knows she’s pregnant, it took a lot more for her to actually do it. Also, I mean, at the beginning when she didn’t know she was pregnant, they were already setting off on the journey, there was tension. I think a lot of it was coming from a place of guilt when it comes to Jesse. Because she didn’t understand that you could be bisexual and you could actually have feelings for a man and a woman. There wasn’t a duality there. It was kind of just a complicit heterosexuality.
I do want to ask you about the hookup with Ellie in the episode, too, because it’s very quick, it’s very sexy, and it’s also very sweet. I think I put in my notes, “They’re so cute!!!” Like, with exclamation marks. I’m curious how you and Bella approached that scene. What did you want to bring to it, and what was the tone that you wanted to set for these two women embarking on this romance?
Yeah, I mean, I definitely was super excited for that scene. I feel like it’s so necessary and it’s so hot and really feels placed correctly in the sequence. But on top of that, it looks really spur of the moment and passionate and random, but every single movement from the jacket to the belt to the “this” and “that” was really calculated and it was very choreographed. I think just because we wanted to make sure every movement was authentic to the characters themselves. Like something they would do and also like a form of like physical consent as opposed to just verbal. I think at one point I nod. At one time I move Ellie’s hand down. Like it’s very calculated and thought-through.
Dina does tell Ellie she’s pregnant and in the morning after, Ellie has this very cute response where she’s like, “So we’re having a baby” and “I’m gonna be a dad.” What does that mean for Dina to know that Ellie is already one hundred percent on board with this baby?
I think it means everything. I mean, Dina was already really vulnerable when she was saying, like, “I don’t even know if that’s what you want.” Because she was just assuming that that was gonna be their future together. She’s already basically in love with her. So now, she’s putting herself out there again by really just kind of confirming like, “Yeah, I’m putting it out there. It’s in the air. It’s the fucking baby. It’s coming.” And Ellie’s like doing what Ellie does best and making the moment really sweet and tender and being like, “I’m gonna be a dad!” I think it’s great. It’s a great line to put there and totally takes Dina off the edge of fear.
Totally shifting gears. I have kind of a silly question, but I love Dina’s jacket. The pop of color tells me so much about her. Did you have any input on the costume design?
Yeah, [costume designer] Ann Foley definitely included me in a lot of those decision-making [conversations]. She was like, “Girl, whatever you think is cute!” I think Dina is a fashion icon even though she’s in an apocalypse. I really wanted Dina to be a girly girl. She really cares about her look. Because I think I would be the same way in the apocalypse, honestly. Like I want to still, you know, be hot while killing zombies. [Giggling]
But yeah, I think the rainbow jacket being gay was kind of a coincidence just because I think Craig just really liked the jacket. They went through a lot of hoops to try to get that jacket. It’s like a $500 jacket and the designer is like some really cool lady, who I guess just was like, “Why do you want this jacket? Are you sure you want this jacket? Well, you gotta pay for this jacket.” Yeah, it was a funny process that ended up being really rewarding.
One of my favorite things that Dina does throughout the series is when there’s an Infected nearby she counts off by sound. In Episode 4, it’s very tense when they’re in the tunnels. Do you get any like, you know, audio cues for that to help you? Is it like timed out, is someone making like an infected noise for you to react to? I’m curious about the logistics behind that.
Yeah, it’s just Craig screaming. No, it was actually usually Paul, the AD, just going, “Clicker.” And then, “Second clicker.” He kind of sounds like Squidward a little bit in my impression of him. He doesn’t actually. But, yeah, he would just call him out. And we would kind of make fun of him because he wouldn’t really try to make it intense because, boy, he’s not an actor. [Giggling] So we really had to pretend like it was a scary scream when it was really just Paul and his underwhelmed tone telling us cues.
Before I go, the show has already been renewed for a third season, and I know that there’s more narrative in the video games. Do you have an ideal dream ending for Dina? Is there anything from the games that you’re hoping to tackle in the next season?
Oh, well, I mean, I like the changes that they’ve made so far. I feel like I’ve just been trying to just bombard Craig with questions about what directions he’s going to take for this next season. Because I’m curious, too! Because of these changes, I think, inevitably, some of the character choices from the second game will change. Because otherwise, they just wouldn’t make a lot of sense. But Craig Mazin is a notorious script doctor in Hollywood, so I think he’s pretty good at making changes for the better of the projects. And, yeah, I have my own preferences as to what I think should happen story-wise, but I don’t even wanna put it out there. In Craig Mazin I trust.
This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.
The Last of Us returns next Sunday, May 11 at 9 PM ET on HBO and MAX.
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