Who is Isaac on ‘The Last of Us’? Jeffrey Wright’s expanded origin story, explained

This article contains spoilers from The last of Us season 2, episode 4, “day One.”

As promised, the creators of HBO’s The Last of Us continue to play with time in telling the story of season 2. The latest episode, “Day One,” jumps back to expand on the origin story of a crucial character from the video games.

Jeffrey Wright debuts on the drama series as Isaac Dixon, the same character he originated in The Last of Us Part IIwhich was released on the PlayStation 4 in 2020. In the present timeline, Isaac is the leader of the WLF, the Washington Liberation Front. Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew — Owen (Spencer Lord), Mel (Ariela Barer), Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and Manny (Danny Ramirez) — are all members of this heavily militarized group, which took over the city of Seattle, Wash., from FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) at some point after the Cordyceps apocalypse.

The WLF, or “wolves” as they’re nicknamed, are now in a war against the Seraphites, another group that’s local to Seattle but one that’s far more religiously cult-y. To their enemies, they’re known by the more derogatory term “Scars,” as a reference to the ceremonial scars carved into their faces.

Even in the game, not much is known about Isaac’s life before he ascended to warlord status, but season 2’s fourth episode contains two scenes that offer longtime The Last of Us fans and newcomers to the show more information.

Overthrowing FEDRA in Seattle

One scene that arrives a third of the way through the episode paints a picture of pre-outbreak Isaac, who comes across as someone shy and lacking confidence around women. He could, however, cook — but couldn’t afford the Williams Sonoma accoutrements he so craved.

But more on that in a bit… The first scene we get of Isaac in the episode itself takes us to Seattle in the year 2018, 11 years prior to Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina’s (Isabela Merced) revenge odyssey. FEDRA stills maintains control over the city’s quarantine zone, similar to the regime within the Boston QZ where we first met Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie in season 1.

At some point, that once-shy Isaac became a high-ranking sergeant for FEDRA who leads a squadron of soldiers on patrol — one of which is played by former Drake & Josh star Josh Peck and another by The Gilded Age actor Ben Ahlers. Based on clues from the conversation that occurs in the patrol truck, the WLF and Seraphites are both growing in numbers.

Isaac explains how FEDRA started calling the Seattle citizens “voters” to mock them after taking their voting rights away. (This isn’t dissimilar to how present-day wolves refer to Seraphites as Scars.) You instantly hear how the seeds of descent have grown within him at this point, but he shows his cards moments later. Members of WLF, led by a woman named Hanrahan (Euphoria actress Alanna Ubach), set up a blockade. When Isaac steps out to greet them with a soldier (Ahlers) he hand picks to join him, he turns on the remaining FEDRA by locking them in the truck with active grenades.

Speaking on the official The Last of Us podcast, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the last of us being a co-creator of the video games, explain how this sequence is based off a piece of the game: “a truck that you find that has been blown up with the people still inside as part of this uprising,” Druckmann said.

“You understood that in Seattle, there was a moment where FEDRA officers started turning on FEDRA because it was not working well and that there was, in fact, a kind of internecine warfare,” Mazin explained. “And you also do find a FEDRA truck at one point that you can climb into. And so all those things were bopping around my head.”

According to Mazin on the podcast, this piece of the adaptation gave them an opportunity to not only tell more of Isaac’s backstory, but also “a separate story” about Ahlers’ character.

“It’s clearly his, what? I don’t know, first week on the job,” Mazin said. “His helmet doesn’t fit very well, and he doesn’t quite understand this brutal nature that these guys have, this us versus them, you know, the people are beneath us. And perhaps that is why Isaac chooses to give him a choice, as opposed to just…fragging him like he does the rest of these guys.”

Rise to power

Now, back to that other scene…

In the present timeline, while Ellie and Dina are falling in love in a record shop, Isaac is seen torturing a captured Seraphite for information on his group’s next moves. The Ahlers-portrayed soldier is now a loyal member of WLF and Isaac has ascended the ranks to leader by this point.

“We don’t necessarily know what he did for a living [before the outbreak]but we understand he liked to date,” Druckmann said on the podcast, referring to Isaac’s speech. “This is how he would attract women. He would cook for them. But it becomes pretty clear that this is not the first time he’s told this story and that there’s a purpose behind it. And the purpose is to intimidate, is to intimidate somebody because Isaac gets to relax and tell a story while somebody else is in chains, bleeding.”

We can fill in some of the blanks to how Isaac rose to power, thanks to The Last of Us Part II video game. According to the source material, Isaac initially joined the WLF under the leadership of Emma and Jason Patterson, and primarily dealt in the spread of anti-FEDRA propaganda and the theft of FEDRA military supplies. The Pattersons, as well as many other top WLF officials, were eliminated at various points, leaving the group to vote Isaac into leadership. He then embarked on a violent strategic onslaught against FEDRA, massacring their numbers and claiming power over Seattle.

Isaac proved to be a ruthless leader who showed hostility towards most outsiders, including the Seraphites, who follow the teachings of a female Prophet. Violence soon broke out between the two groups, forcing them into all-out war. When we see Isaac on the show torturing a Seraphite, both sides committed so many atrocious acts that it’s difficult to distinguish what event became the point of no return.

“There’s another piece of information we get from Isaac that is interesting,” Mazin said. “When we first met the Seraphites in our third episode, we meet them through a father and a daughter. They seem peaceful. The daughter asks, ‘Why can’t she keep us safe?’ The prophet. Ezra says the prophet is eternal and moves through the sky…Her dad’s like, no, prophets are just people. Well, here, Isaac says something to this kid…she’s not some magic fairy in the sky. Some of you know she was just a person. And this beaten young man, who has every reason to not argue, argues and says, ‘Heretics.’ So we understand, not only is there the WLF and the Seraphites, there’s a schism inside the Seraphites themselves.”

Choice

All of this serves as the backdrop for Ellie and Dina’s trek through Seattle and will become more important later on. The pair first spot dead Seraphites, including children, on a dirt road. Later, they see the other side of it: WLF soldiers killed and strung up by their necks in a radio station.

Kate Herron directed Wright through episode 4, and she tells Entertainment Weekly the key to understanding Isaac is the word choice, specifically how the idea ripples across the entire show.

“With Isaac, it falls very much into the cycles of violence,” she explains. “You are seeing him at the beginning of our episode. He sees this rookie and he sees a bit of himself in the rookie. He’s like, ‘This is your choice. Make it,’ because clearly Isaac had to make a choice, as well.”

On the show’s official podcast, Druckmann and Mazin tease this whole story continues into the third season. “The question is, what is Isaac pursuing?” Mazin asked. “These questions about this war may not be fully answered this season. There will be some mysteries.”

“Now that we’re renewed for season 3,” Druckmann added, “we could say, you will definitely get those.”

“That’s the thing,” Mazin continued. “We just didn’t know if we were getting canceled, guys. We will absolutely find out exactly what they’re about, exactly what he wants, which is the most important thing to understand about characters, but there will be some mystery to sit with for a while.”