This text comprises spoilers for The Final of Us season 2, episode 4 and the online game The Final of Us Half 2.
The calm-yet-ruthless chief of the Washington Liberation Entrance was an imposing character in The Final of Us Half 2 online game. Isaac Dixon, performed by the ever-fantastic Jeffrey Wright, forged a protracted, darkish shadow over the battle between the militaristic WLF and the spiritual Seraphites. However that’s largely all it was: a shadow. Isaac has little or no screentime within the sport, with lower than a handful of scenes via which to make his required influence. The sport’s restraint supplies an excellent alternative for HBO’s tv adaptation, although, and The Final of Us season 2 leaps on the likelihood to delve deeper into the lifetime of Isaac Dixon, as soon as once more performed by Wright, in its robust fourth episode.
I’ve beforehand expressed my reservations about alterations made for the present, as I really feel HBO’s depiction of Abby is a clumsy half-change that solely serves to weaken the story’s influence slightly than strengthen the variation. The very reverse might be stated for Isaac, who in episode 4 is launched and examined throughout two highly effective new scenes written for the present. Not solely do they supply a powerful introduction to Isaac for newcomers, additionally they open a bigger window into the lifetime of a personality longtime followers have been held at arm’s size from. It’s not fairly the devoted episode therapy Invoice and Frank received in season one, but it surely does the same job.
Episode 4 chilly opens in 2018, a decade and alter previous to the season’s present occasions. At the back of a army truck, FEDRA troops snicker and joke about their brutal therapy of “voters”. It is a new time period for The Final of Us, however one mournfully defined by Isaac: common residents are mockingly referred to as voters as a result of FEDRA stripped them of their democratic rights. Whereas Isaac delivers his traces in a peaceful, nearly reserved method, it’s clear from his tone that he despises the group’s ruthless rule and murderous strategies. And simply in case that wasn’t apparent, two minutes later he locks his squad within the truck with two dwell hand grenades. Isaac doesn’t simply disagree with FEDRA, he’s on a mission to destroy it.
Fifteen minutes later, we’re reunited with Isaac within the present’s present 12 months of 2029, the place he’s now head of the WLF. He’s nonetheless calm and picked up, softly discussing how he longed for costly cookware within the years earlier than the quarantine. However because the scene unfolds right into a brutal torture session, it turns into clear that Isaac’s cool head is now not an indication of quiet willpower, however calculated brutality. The posh copper-bottom Mauviel pans he now owns (a “unusual advantage of the apocalypse”) are used to sear the flesh of a captured Seraphite, every burn a futile try to launch the plans hidden inside their thoughts.
This second scene is impressed by Isaac’s introduction in The Final of Us Half 2, wherein Abby briefly sees inside a rest room the place a Seraphite is tied up. It’s clear that Isaac has been torturing him for data, however we see nothing of what’s being implied. The present’s much-expanded model of that scene permits us to witness Isaac’s strategies. There’s a quiet cruelty in the best way Isaac has his prisoner provide out their hand to be burned. By not “succumbing” to a extra classically brutal torture methodology – there’s no heavy-handed beatings, no aggressive waterboarding – it turns into clear that Issac sees himself as some form of civilized interrogator. It’s an expression of his superiority over what he believes to be a sub-human enemy.
In fact, Isaac’s calm, conversational strategy isn’t any kind of efficient than every other methodology. The Seraphite stonewalls him at each flip, even providing his hand out earlier than being requested. This breaks Isaac’s demeanor, leading to a lethal present of indignant power. It’s an indication of Isaac’s frustration with the outcomes of the interrogation, sure, however there’s one thing deeper right here: he is aware of that his battle towards the Seraphites has solely additional calcified their cult mentality and galvanized their perception in The Prophet. The tougher he pushes, the extra immovable they develop into. His marketing campaign towards them has solely ensured his personal defeat.
The ability of those two scenes is of their duality. In simply two sequences, we’ve the whole historical past of Isaac: a person who stood up towards oppression, solely to develop into the oppressor himself.
A model of this story is available in The Final of Us Half 2, however solely a real completionist will comprehend it. Isaac’s historical past is revealed via snippets of dialogue and several other written notes that, when pieced collectively, inform the story of a revolutionary turned warmonger. A former marine, he joined the WLF throughout its infancy with a want to erode FEDRA’s brutal regime. Following the homicide of the group’s founders, Isaac was voted into command and established a extremely environment friendly but extremely ruthless army power, eliminating FEDRA from Seattle and forming a brand new city-like residing area inside the fortified partitions of the SoundView soccer stadium. However his objectives didn’t cease with the removing of Seattle’s fascist rulers; his marketing campaign noticed him develop into obsessive about the whole annihilation of the Seraphites, a neighborhood spiritual “demise cult.” The 2 teams have been in perpetual battle ever since, the Seraphites solely emboldened by Isaac’s assassination of their chief, The Prophet.
Isaac’s circumstances are simply one other a part of the sport’s bigger thesis on how violence begets violence. He’s, in the end, supporting background materials – one other darkish echo of the identical path each Ellie and Abby are following. As such, the truth that his story is revealed solely via a handful of paperwork isn’t a difficulty. The journey of the sport’s protagonists, the ladies managed by the participant and thru whose eyes this world is skilled, is the vital factor. It does imply that his story is little greater than a framework of info, although. And so the present, which isn’t locked to a selected viewpoint in the identical manner the sport is, has the chance so as to add way more color to that framework. By spending time with Isaac in two very vital eras of his life, we see not solely his core traits – his calm demeanor, his willpower, his targeted objectives – however we additionally see how these aspects are fully recontextualised because the surroundings round him adjustments.
Isaac is, in fact, a personality in Abby’s aspect of the story slightly than Ellie’s, and so I don’t count on to see way more from him within the coming weeks. Offered the present sticks to the construction of the sport as carefully because it to date has, it gained’t be till season three that we get to see way more of the WLF’s interior workings. No matter how lengthy we’ve to attend, my hope is that we get extra of one of these character enlargement, not only for Isaac but in addition key members of the Seraphites, too. If one of many present’s strengths is to carry new views via unique writing, then a extra in-depth take a look at the battle between these teams – one thing that arguably wanted additional enlargement within the sport – can be an excellent angle for showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann to take. As a result of if the present can develop its scope past simply Ellie and Abby to analyse these characters additional, its thesis on revenge, battle, and violence can hopefully be given further depth and worth. One thing splendidly achieved right here with Isaac, as he’s lastly given the additional time he deserves.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.
