These tensions emerge in season 2 in Jackson, Wyoming, where dozens of survivors of the Cordyceps plague have built a somewhat safe and stable existence. Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and his wife Maria (Rutina Wesley) helped establish the settlement; Ellie, now an effective fighter and sharp-shooter, helps protect it. But it has also become a microcosm of America in the early aughts.
“One of the problems with Jackson,” says Mazin, “is that they’ve become a bit complacent. They feel safe enough that somebody can get drunk at a party and start tossing out homophobic slurs, to repeat the kind of shitty little sins that [people] used to feel free to commit when the…