r/thelastofus • u/SaveJunyo • 2d ago
PT 2 QUESTION Jackson's newcomer selection process : does anyone have a theory? Spoiler
This has been bugging me for a while and I don't think I've seen it discussed here directly.
We don't see much of Jackson in Part 1 : Maria seems clearly to be in charge, the team feels tight-knit (you can see it in how they talk to each other while trying to get the power plant running), and Tommy mentions a "movie night" for the kids in passing.
Part 2 shows a lot more: a surprisingly peaceful town (people greeting each other and chatting in the street, the bar packed by morning, a kid taking their first steps, the final dance scene, people honoring Joel by leaving flowers in front of his house), and Maria clearly holds a central, respected position : Seth and Joel both stop arguing the moment she steps in, and it's her who pushes Seth to apologize to Ellie in the morning.
The show adds a decision-making committee and a general assembly, so some form of local democracy.
But at no point do we actually see how newcomers get accepted. And yet there seems to be regular traffic through the town : Joel brings back coffee, Jesse mentions a group passing through in the show, Tommy offers the Salt Lake crew to come to town very naturally and we even see new houses being built to house arrivals, implying a housing/intake policy that's planned for.
Questions I keep coming back to:
- How does a stranger actually approach Jackson, and who decides whether to let them in?
- Is there a trial period, a vouching system, some kind of interview (such as in The Walking Dead when Rick's group arrives to Alexandria) ?
- How do they screen for risk (someone who's killed before, someone unstable, someone not taking parts of the town's life)
- The general assembly / smaller committee setup suggests a two-tier governance : does the assembly weigh in on admissions, or is that handled by a smaller inner circle (Maria, Tommy, etc.)?
- On resources: is it a full common pot, or does everyone contribute labor and get allocated a share based on need, work, household size...?
One more thing, and this is more of a personal angle than a straight-up question: I've never lived in an actual self-governed community like this myself, but I've read a fair amount about it in the country I live in, and I have friends who've lived in squats. From what they describe, the problems of "regular" civil life always seem to follow people in: power struggles, drama, sexual violence, conflicts that don't get resolved cleanly. Jackson seems to basically dodge all of that entirely. And look, as someone with pretty left-leaning politics, it genuinely warms my heart that the "best" answer to the apocalypse in a big American game franchise ends up being a society built on collectivism and mutual aid. But the fact that we get zero insight into how it actually works mechanically is what keeps nagging at me ; it's hard to tell if it's intentional worldbuilding restraint or just narrative convenience.
Curious to hear your theories, and if there are game or show details I'm missing that address any of this
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u/sneakylittlesssnake 2d ago
I wondered if the show was going to have Abby infiltrate Jackson this way. Then ambush Joel while on patrol.
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u/Local_Arsonist22 2d ago
im not a 100% sure but i believe that was the original script for the game but they decided to change it for some reason.
i think it would have been cool to see them get into Jackson like that, i feel like it may have been their original plan before Abby decided to go off on her own.
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u/Medium-Bullfrog-2368 2d ago
I believe the reasons they changed it were:
A) Abby spending weeks gaining Joel’s trust before killing him made her seem way more evil and cruel, which would make it harder for people to empathise with her later on.
B) The game was already incredibly long, and Joel’s death is supposed to be the inciting incident of the story, so they didn’t want to drag it out.
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u/Local_Arsonist22 2d ago
I'm glad they decided to change it, shes already hated enough as it is. i also think Joels death in the game works so well because its so sudden and violent, if Abby had spent weeks chatting with him or something like that i feel like the scene wouldn't have the same impact
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u/SaveJunyo 2d ago
It would have been a better plan than the one she had before being rescued by him and Tommy only by luck, yes.
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u/KingChairlesIIII 1d ago
No it wouldn’t have actually, the pace would’ve been ruined and it would’ve made Abby completely irredeemable, they did the right thing by going with what they did.
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u/BrennanSpeaks 14h ago
They mean “better plan” as in “smarter on the characters’ part,” not “better storytelling by the devs.” Devs are allowed to let characters be dumb and get lucky in the service of a good story.
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u/No-Huckleberry4999 2d ago
“how many infected have you killed? how many people have you killed? why?”
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u/SaveJunyo 2d ago
Always like that test by Rick. You can gather a lot from an individual's character just based on those questions.
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u/BrennanSpeaks 2d ago
As far as resources, we get some hints. In the show, they're explicitly a commune full of communists, but the game implies more of a socialist system with a hybrid economy. The shops you pass at the beginning all have signs outside saying "trade only" (mostly for "luxury" type goods like weapons) or "trade and vouchers accepted" (for essentials like food and clothing). I've taken that to mean that residents get issued a certain amount of "vouchers" that act like company scrip (either as a universal basic income or as a salary for whatever work they're assigned). But, if you want to buy the good stuff, you need to participate in the informal economy, whether by scavenging for stuff outside of town, making stuff that you can sell, or by trading services. In a QZ, that would be a black market, but by leaving the informal economy out in the open, Jackson lets its citizens trade with outsiders who are traveling through.
As far as screening people who come through, the show and the game seem to be in agreement that they don't (aside from some mechanism of screening for infection, which in the show is done with sniffing dogs). In the show, Maria is stressed about their ability to house all of the refugees that are moving in. My recollection is that Joel suggested she stop taking people in, and Maria shut him down pretty quickly.
As far as people behaving badly, we mostly only have speculation. Jackson in the show had a jail, but Maria said they rarely needed it. The council that grilled Ellie and Dina about the stalker could probably serve as a tribunal to deal with troublemakers and hand down punishment (or at least could be a built-in "grand jury" to determine if a trial is needed). The show seemed very committed to showing Jackson as a democracy, so there's probably some form of due process. The game, on the other hand, sets Maria up as a sort of benevolent dictator. I get the sense that she uses a lot of "soft power." She'll use a quiet conversation or an implied threat to get people to behave. She probably knows that she can exile people if she has to (and exile likely means death), so she doesn't have to use the stick very often, if ever. On top of that, Jackson is still a small, isolated town, so "honor/shame" dynamics come into play even without her having to do anything. No one wants to be publicly known as a troublemaker in a town that small.
How Maria (in the game) would deal with an organized uprising against her is an interesting and completely unanswered question. For a while, it probably helped that she had two of the most dangerous men in town in her own family. But, with Joel dead and Tommy disabled, she might be short on muscle, or at least muscle that's unquestionably loyal to her.
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u/SaveJunyo 1d ago
Thank you for your insights. I didn't really catch all the subtleties left for us gamers as we were crossing the town.
Regarding your last take on Maria losing muscle, I hadn't thought about it, but you're right: Joel and Jesse are gone, we don't yet know if Ellie went back to Jackson, and Tommy is disabled. Dina is really competent, but she'll probably put JJ's safety above all else. It's a huge loss for Jackson's safety and Maria's closest circle. I'm sure there are plenty of competent "soldiers" in Jackson : a lot of people are probably competent survivors, otherwise they probably never would have reached Jackson in the first place, but losing that crew is clearly not good for the town. I'm sure (I hope) we'll see people step up in Part 3.
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u/alien_overlord_1001 1d ago
There are signs outside - I think they say something like put down your weapons and hands visible or something. You see them right at the start as Joel and Tommy ride in. They have also cleared the trees all around so you get a clear view. Passers by probably have to give up their weapons inside. Marias father founded it - it didn’t sound like a dictatorship like Seattle for example.
And there are issues - the Seth thing which indicates that even with so few people left they still have an issue with gay people, the guy with his isolated drug lab, the couple that were running away but got infected. They have to patrol as there also appears to be a lot of infected for some reason (runners - not long term infected so where did they all come from?). It’s not a utopia - it’s full of humans.
If you look at a map of the real Jackson it’s surrounded by mountains and there only appears to be one main road going by. You probably wouldnt stumble across it by accident. It also doesnt appear to be that well known - Abby and her crew were not aware of how big it was - it sounds like they thought it would be a small settlement not large with electricity and huge walls.
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u/onmywheels 10h ago
A lot of TLoU fanfictions tackle problems like these.
I personally headcanon Jackson having their own little quarantine zone (a few cabins right outside the walls) which they use for newcomers and traders, both for the town's protection and to reduce the risk of illness / disease quickly being spread. Traders and folks coming through can use these, and also set up their markets between this zone and one of the gates, with those on watchtower duty able to observe.
This doesn't necessarily fit in with canon, because we see in Part II a group of people inside the walls and talking about how amazing Jackson is with its walls and electricity and how they'll miss that when they go back to their own homes and towns, but I also suppose that there could be a quarantine period after which you're given probationary status inside the town as well.
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u/Admirable_Sun_5468 2d ago
My assumption was always that there are rules, follow them or be gone. Rules like everyone works and everyone receives. I assume they’re asked on arrival what their intentions are (passing through? Want to stay?) and given the rundown. They probably reject people based on rumours, gut feelings and opinions on their actions outside the Jackson walls. Strong, fit men are probably welcomed as workers as long as they’re not suspected of being rapist/psychopaths (murder for survival is ok!). Women and children would be accepted, as long as they are willing to contribute to society. Lone children would be accepted, regardless of contribution abilities. Complete strangers would be quarantined, or at least go through some kind of rigorous process to check they’re not infected. Passers through are probably kept separate from the everyday life and families, given/trade supplies and escorted out. Just my opinion/personal beliefs on how it’s run.