Out West, The Last Of Us delivers a gut punch
Pedro Pascal shatters us with that absolute wrecker of a monologue
TV Reviews The Last Of Us
Joel’s heart is breaking; let’s hope it’s only metaphorical. Twice in The Last Of Us’ sixth episode, “Kin,” our tough, terse hero (Pedro Pascal) staggers under severe chest pains. Is it a myocardial infarction? Or just the stress of twenty years catching up, from the killing of his daughter to panic that he can’t save her latter-day surrogate, Ellie (Bella Ramsey)? After two aortic scares, you might expect a third. Instead, it’s a baseball-bat shiv in the belly. And that’s how we leave Joel, bleeding out in the Colorado snow as Ellie begs him to hang on.
“Kin” was an extremely satisfying and well-crafted dive into character as we head into the last three episodes this season. Per the title, Joel and Ellie paused on their wintry Wyoming journey to reconnect with family and each other, as audiences watched them process the horrors they’ve seen or committed (more on that below). Craig Mazin’s script was full of unforced funny and touching lines, economical yet deeply felt exchanges between Joel and his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). And the teary showdown between Ellie and Joel, when he’s ready to abandon her for her own good, is precious to gamers for a reason.
This week we witnessed a fresh, hopeful vision of human survival in the fungal dystopia. Jasmila Žbanić directed with total control of tone, from epic sweep (those mountains and open ranges!) to intimate encounters (Joel’s anguished monologue) and the final gut punch, so to speak, of sudden violence. Probably the most visually gorgeous episode so far, the mini-Western family drama brought about a much-needed emotional reckoning.
After the shocking moral chaos of “Please Hold My Hand” and “Endure And Survive,” the orderliness and sanity of Jackson came as a welcome relief. Like, let down your guard and start sobbing relief. From the beginning, The Last Of Us has been a show obsessed with sociology as much as fungus. How would Americans preserve society in the wake of a global disaster in which technology and civil structures disappeared and the government imposed martial law? We saw corruption and crime in the Boston QZ. Bill and Frank fostered a micro-utopia, mirrored by the crusty older couple in the Wyoming log cabin (droll cameos by Graham Greene and Elaine Miles). The revenge-driven resistance of post-FEDRA Kansas City consumed itself—with help from a swarm of infecteds and one bloater.
“Kin” brought a vastly more hopeful vision in Jackson. Behind high metal walls, decisions are made among democratically elected officials. They get power from the nearby dam to light up a Christmas tree and allow plumbing, sewage and hot-water heaters. There’s a multi-faith house of worship. The gates keep enemies out. Pretty soon they’re going to serve bacon. As Ellie says in her typically profane way, “This place actually fuckin’ works.”
So far in these recaps, I haven’t had much to say about Bella Ramsey’s acting. Partly it’s because she has been consistently strong as the juvenile sidekick. Her wise-child demeanor offset by impeccable comic timing, Ramsey provides an excellent foil to Pascal’s stoic Joel, even as her sassy vibe constantly reminds him of the lost Sarah (Nico Parker). Ellie is smart, brave, a decent shot (she’ll get better), and most of all, resilient in the way that only children can be. But there’s a drawback in such resilience: We don’t always see the toll of trauma.
This is all to say the three-month jump from the death of Henry (Lamar Johnson) after he mercy-killed Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard)—shown at the top of the episode—denies us the chance to see Ellie recovering from such a scarring event. The Ellie we see trekking west with Joel, admiring the northern lights and cracking jokes about sheep by the campfire is her usual, irreverent self. What was Ellie like in the days after watching Sam turn and get shot?
I know: Review the show you saw, not the one you didn’t, but was an opportunity was lost? Joel might have guided a traumatized Ellie back to responsiveness, showed her tenderness and compassion? We do get a clue that Ellie is repressing pain, when she confesses to Joel that she rubbed her blood into Sam’s wound in an attempt to cure him. Sadness clouds her face, and Joel reassures her that a vaccine might be possible. If Marlene says they can do it, they can do it, he says. It’s a small moment, but it counts for something.
The “river of death” that Joel and Ellie must cross—the log-cabin couple warns them about bodies thrown in there—is an example of the teasing buildup and diffusion that Mazin and Neil Druckmann have used before. “If your brother is west of the river, he’s gone,” the old woman tells them. We tense up in anticipation of some gory atrocity, but it turns out that Joel and Ellie are discovered by a masked posse led by Maria (Rutina Wesley), Tommy’s wife and soon-to-be mother of his child. Similar to the uneventful trip through the KC tunnels made by Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam, the real trouble started when they got aboveground. It’s not a fake-out by the showrunners, just a reminder that you don’t know when danger is going to arrive.
For the moment, we can relax—if the characters don’t fully. Joel and Ellie are escorted to Jackson, which is paradise compared to everywhere else. After months walking a thousand miles from Kansas City to Jackson, not only are Joel and Ellie’s shoes and clothes in bad shape, but their trust is badly damaged. (And Ellie’s table manners are for shit.) Joel’s bear hug with Tommy is a brotherly blast of pure joy, but Joel soon becomes guarded around Maria. Does he suspect something sinister behind her friendly façade?
At the Tipsy Bison bar, Joel and Tommy have a drink. Joel lies about Tess being alive and why he’s escorting Ellie to the Fireflies. Joel resents Tommy cutting off radio contact when he joined the Jackson community. Tommy did it to avoid detection; and he’s expecting a child with Maria. Joel is wary around Tommy the way a family member would be distrustful of a relation who had joined a cult. Is Jackson a cult? Is there an ugly side to this town?
“Just because life stopped for you,” Tommy tells Joel, “doesn’t mean it has to stop for me.” Joel says they’ll re-supply and leave in the morning and exits the bar without another word. Outside, Joel has chest pain again, leaning against a post for support. On the street in a crowd, he sees a young woman from behind, with curly hair like Sarah (Nico Parker). But as she hugs a child, probably hers, he realizes it isn’t her.
Later that evening, Joel is at a breaking point as he tries to repair his cracked soul, er, the sole of a boot. Tommy enters and Joel admits the truth: Tess is dead, and Ellie is immune to infection. Overcome with fear, Joel says he thinks Ellie will die if she continues with him, just as (he doesn’t say) he failed Sarah. He’s having nightmares. “I’m failing in my sleep,” Joel whispers hoarsely. “It’s all I do. It’s all I’ve ever done. Is fail her. Again and again.” Pascal shatters us in this absolute wrecker of a monologue, as Joel’s shell finally cracks and the tears flow. He begs Tommy to take his place and escort Ellie to the Fireflies’ base in Colorado.
The climactic “breakup” between Joel and Ellie is even more wrenching, as he confronts her in her bedroom to let her know Tommy will take the reins. Ellie already knows: Apparently she was hiding in the shed and overheard the brothers. At first angry and dismissive—“If you’re going to ditch me then ditch me”—Ellie switches gears and tells Joel she’s sorry he lost Sarah, whom she learned about through Maria. But she’s not Sarah. Ellie says she’s lost people too. Joel is trying to keep it together. “You have no idea what loss is,” he hisses. Joel won’t change his mind. He won’t doom Ellie. “Come dawn, we’re going our separate ways.” Joel’s Texas twang and the high stakes of the scene make all this very super-Western, very Shane (also set in WY).
For her part, Ellie begins to reveal some of the psychic damage all this death and loss is causing, things I was missing seven paragraphs earlier. “Everyone I have ever cared for has either died or left me,” she says, her voice rising in anger. “Everybody fucking except for you! So don’t tell me I’m safer with somebody other than you!” Joel is unmoved. “You’re right,” he agrees, “you’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your dad.” The scene, brief though it is, hits hard. Break down, you silently command. Cry. Hug each other. Ramsey gives us a peek into Ellie’s fear and desperation, beyond the cursing, puns, and wisecracks.
Who knows exactly what changes Joel’s mind during the night. He goes back to his room, sits on the bed, and remembers decorating a Christmas tree with young Sarah. Žbanić shoots in closeup, hands draping ornaments on pine branches (that watch on Joel’s left hand). The next morning, Joel has rethought his decision and lets Ellie decide if she wants him to continue on the journey. She is comically curt in her affirmation, shoving her blue duffel into his arms. They’re back on the plain, as at the top of the episode: joking, riding, enjoying the spectacular views. Joel teaches her marksmanship. No sign of infecteds. Or humans. You may notice at that point there are ten minutes left in the episode, meaning bad stuff is probably about to go down.
In terms of pure plot, “Kin” didn’t have much—and didn’t need it. Jackson is a safe haven for now. The Fireflies based at University of East Colorado, where Joel hoped to deliver Ellie, have relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah. Joel gets stabbed by a raider on the university campus. Ellie gets him on the horse, and they ride away, safe near some train tracks, Joel falls off the horse, bleeding profusely. Ellie is the only one to save him. We don’t know if he’ll live.
Other than that, the narrative movement was emotional. After Joel’s agonized passage from despair to commitment, he and Ellie have drawn closer together. Joel seems to be accepting Ellie into his heart as a surrogate child, and that acceptance hurts but makes him a better man. Ellie, meanwhile, is getting a father she never knew or asked for. Tommy must balance his normal-ish domestic life with the shadow of a violent past with his brother—something that concerns law-and-order Maria. There’s a weighty moral question driving The Last Of Us: What are you willing to sacrifice to save the world? Now that we’ve seen a world worth saving, the question is more urgent than ever.
Stray observations
- Hey, Wyomingites: Which river is supposed to be the “River of Death” (and yes, we know it’s actually a river in Calgary)? A lot to choose from.
- “Dream of sheep ranches on the moon.” My favorite unexpectedly poetic line.
- Familiar TV faces this week: dryly hilarious Elaine Miles of Northern Exposure fame and the luminous Rutina Wesley from True Blood.
- When the infection-sniffing dog approaches Ellie, the camera pushes in on Joel and the sound design features subtle notes: A high whine mixed with the muffled pop of gun (perhaps) to suggest Joel flashing on the death of Sarah.
- Joel’s American Politics 101: “Some people wanted to own everything, and other people didn’t want anyone to own anything at all.” Clearly an undecided voter.
- When did Ellie have time for horseback riding lessons (FEDRA school)? She handles her mount pretty well on the ride into Jackson.
- In contrast to Will Livingston, Savage Starlight comic books, University of Eastern Colorado and the Tipsy Bison, the reusable menstrual device DivaCup® that Maria leaves for Ellie is real.
- Jackson Movie Night: The Goodbye Girl (1977). Pray they have other titles. Ask the Station Eleven kids: Culture should not be rebuilt on the foundation of Neil Simon.
215 Comments
If there’s any doubt we’re in post-apocalyptic times, I give you: Commies in Wyoming.It was nice to finally see the walls come down for Joel and Pedro handled the scene masterfully.
I loved that moment where Tommy feels he has to be like “Naw it ain’t like that, we’re not commies!”. I got the sense Tommy hadn’t seriously questioned or disavowed the commune’s political order at any point, and he was just slipping into his pre-apocalypse political persona in front of Joel to save face.
Tommy’s reaction when his wife points out that, yes, literally they’re Communists, was pure gold.
Reminder that you’re an inconvenience to everyone around you and no one loves you
The mining/oil companies, ranches and farms in Wyoming are more than happy to use socialism in the form of subsidies, BLM/public lands and sweet heart leases from the eeeeeebil Gub’mint, however.
I mean, they can do it with only 300 people.
So that was definitely Dina trying to get a peek at Ellie, right?The show giving us a flashback next week and making the newbies wait two weeks to find out if it really just pulled a Ned Stark (which the show up to now absolutely has sold as a genuine possibility) is beautiful.
I thought that might be Dina as well! It certainly looked like it could be.
Eh I don’t agree with it being beautiful. The Walking Dead pulled this shit all the time (making it seem like a character may die and waiting weeks or sometimes even months to reveal if they did) and it sucked. It’s just a cheap cliffhanger to keep viewers invested.
No, it’s not.It’s following the structure of the game. This is the exact same point in the game that this part occurs.
Couldn’t care less about the structure of the game – didn’t play the game and likely never will. Watching the show on its own merits.
The show is following the structure of the game pretty closely..as it is literally based on the game itself. To say you dont care about the structure of the game is saying you dont care about the structure of the show..I never played the game either but i don’t live under a rock so im familiar with how the general plot beat goes..Best of luck with season 2 and the absolute shitshow that’s gonna be..
(as it was for THE GAME also..)
The show is following the plot of the game, not the structure. The game, like any video game, lets you play at whatever pace you want. You could push right through the events of this episode and play to the very end in a single weekend if you wanted to. Any adaptation of a video game needs to make decisions about how to structure its episodes knowing there will be a break between them and how to pace the plot. Those are things that you can judge the show for that have nothing to do with the video game itself. The show can also choose to change the plot of the video game obviously – based on comments I’ve seen seems like that has already happened in some cases.And besides all of that, I think people just misunderstood my response. I was just telling OP I didn’t think it was a beautiful thing for the show to keep Joel’s fate suspenseful as I hate that approach with any show. Have no issues with Joel being injured or even dying if that is where the show goes. Just don’t like the cliffhanger.
Do you understand that you don’t have to have played the game to watch this show? It doesn’t seem like you understand that. Stop acting like this IP belongs to you.
Take a breath. Calm down. No one is saying the IP belongs to them. Im literally just stating a fact – the show is based on the game..and the game shits itself and dies in the sequel…so im expecting the same for the show..You’d be a fool to think its going to be different for the show as its so closely following the game. Thats all im saying.
“Couldn’t care less about the structure of the game – didn’t play the game and likely never will. Watching the show on its own merits.”
Yes, but context matters. You claim it was just in there as a cliffhanger, the other poster showed you that it isn’t. You haven’t played the game, therefore you don’t know, so how about instead of being a cunt, you just take the information as it was given to you? You don’t have to be “right” when it comes to things you’re objectively wrong about, you know?
Youre better off
Wasnt the flashback a standalone expansion and not in the main game?
I can assure you you won’t be waiting weeks or months to find out what Joel’s condition is.
I’m just responding to exactly what OP wrote…not looking for spoilers or assurances from people who played the game (not that I care about spoilers – I really don’t) and not judging TLOU, the show, without having seen the entirety of S1. All I was saying is I don’t find the idea of keeping a character’s fate unknown for multiple episodes or longer to be a beautiful thing.
No, that’s *not* all that you said. You made a definitive, declarative statement about it being a cheap cliffhanger, and you’re wrong.
Fair point on your response being directly to the OP’s point. I could’ve been more clear. I hate that crap too, actually. I was just trying to assure that I highly, highly, doubt the show will take that route of leaving a characters fate unknown for multiple episodes.
I’m sure we’ll find out Joel’s fate next week. TWD would take three weeks to find out the fate of characters.
The Walking Dead did not invent this, to be clear.
They sure used the hell out of it though.
Yeah I rolled my eyes, we know he’s not gonna die.
Didnt even think of that, entitely possible yeah that was Dinah. They have done a real good job setting up Part 2 in subtle ways.
My knee-jerk reaction was that as probably Dina. However, without so much a mention of a name, they’ll probably cast a different actress by the time season 2 starts.
You won’t be waiting an entire episode to find out Joel’s fate. I will either be bookended with the present time or cut back and forth like the Left Behind DLC.
I was sort of tempted to see how many tv-only LoU fans spoiled themselves by searching for answers, lol.
I thought so too!
I didn’t see the preview for next week, but from the trailers before the show started I knew the DLC flashback was coming. So I just assume next week will be like the DLC – half set in the past (showing Ellie’s origin) and half set in the present (how Ellie deals with Joel).
I haven’t played the game so I don’t know the significance of Dina, but between Shannon Woodward’s tweet and something Craig Mazin said on TLOU podcast (about Ellie noticing a girl watching her as she ate), it’s Dina.
as someone who hasn’t played the game, I hate encountering comments like this. Zero tension in thinking Joel is dead.
—Nice to see Elaine Miles, Rutina Wesley and Graham Greene. The show is really doing good job in the casting.—So are human the only ones affected by the fungi? Or all primates? Or all mammals, like horses, for that matter?—So is there any kind of grains left that are safe to eat?
—So does cold weather have any effect on the fungus?
Primates are affected I believe(hence the testing on the monkeys at the university), but most other animals are safe. To being infected I mean, not ripped apart by zombies.
I’m not overly familiar with Elaine Miles, but I did think, “You guys got Graham freaking Greene and that’s all you’re going to use him for?” Nice to see him, though, even though I was hoping for a little more screen time. Miles was hilarious, too.
This could have been just a primer introduction for the characters that sets them up to return when to story comes back to Wyoming – at this point its generally considered a very, very minor spoiler to acknowledge there is a second game and it feels likely that the show will adapt it. The other very minor spoiler is that what the town looks like and the characters we meet there comes from that game, not the first. So, I think it’s a fair assumption that one of the ways they can have their cake and eat it too is the creation of a bridge arc based on the time that is skipped over in the gap between LOU1 and LOU2 with some totally original elements and characters.
they could do an episode of the DLC, or a few eps
Yeah, a bridge season feels logical to me. Season 2 to cover the flashbacks, but filled out with original material to explore life in Jackson in greater detail. Season 3 to cover the main events of Part II. Among other things, it seems more practical when you’ve got Bella Ramsey being an actual person who’s likely to visibly age over the next few years, and cutting back and forth in the timeline could draw attention to that.If that is the approach, the main question is whether they make Part II’s inciting incident a cliffhanger season 2 ending, or hold it back for season 3’s opener. Personally, I think holding it back might be the better approach, and the final flashback would make for a decent ending in the event of it not being renewed.I’m curious about when they introduce Abby. She could potentially appear as soon as this season’s finale, but if they go with a bridge season and don’t do the cliffhanger ending, it’s possible that we don’t see her at all until season 3.
I think they intend to honor the story of LOU2 but also know it would be a waste to not, ahem, take advantage of the very talented actors whose characters are either not in the game or are not “on screen” in the game very much. One season about life in Jackson with original content feels perfectly reasonable without turning it into The Walking Dead That Never Ends.
Among other things, it seems more practical when you’ve got Bella Ramsey being an actual person who’s likely to visibly age over the next few years, and cutting back and forth in the timeline could draw attention to that.Bella Ramsey’s a grown-ass adult. They just bind their chest to play Ellie.
I was an occasional viewer of Northern Exposure, but Elaine Miles’ deadpan delivery was always a highlight. It seems Greene was matching Miles’ tone which made this opening scene fantastic. Those two should take the show on the road.
Yeah, I remember something about an ant infestation in Northern Exposure, and Joel (that Joel, not this Joel) asks Marilyn for some “native wisdom about nature” or some such on avoiding ants. Deadpan answer: “Don’t leave food out.”
Best part of the episode!
Elaine Miles used to star as Marilyn, Joel’s nurse on Northern Exposure. If I remember correctly she had no prior acting experience and she beat out her mother for the role.
Yeah, I was also surprised that Greene was gone after the first 5-10 minutes of this episode, especially since he got a couple of lines in the original season trailer.I wouldn’t be surprised if he and his wife show up later in the season.
In the game there’s research notes and recordings you can find in the university, and you find that primates can be carriers of the infection but it doesn’t progress beyond that in them.
So it’s confirmed that Ellie is a primate!
—So does cold weather have any effect on the fungus?In the games, yes… somewhat. During winter you come across many infected that froze to death and those that haven’t seem to huddle to together in structures. That doesn’t stop the games from occasionally pulling the ole, you assume these infected are all dead but suddenly some rise from the snow to attack you moments. As a whole though, winter is portrayed as safer for Jackson, while during the warmer months roving bands of infected move freely and are serious threat. —So is there any kind of grains left that are safe to eat?No grain plants were infected. It’s what they carried on their surface. The fungus can’t infect plants. Vast storage facilities of grains and flour and sugar, etc., are just a great substrate for a fungus to grow unnoticed, then get processed and sent out to the world. The fungus is just a hanger on. So then people eat the mycelium/spores and become infected. In the real world, grain, corn, sugarcane, etc. silos are filled with various fungi, but they’re all harmless. Not to mention normal industrial processing goes way beyond the temperature a fungus could survive.In the game it’s a “mold” and the spores that hitched a ride on food exports from South America that started the outbreak. The show took spores out of the equation, despite that being how fungi propagate, with the mycelium now being how the infection spreads. Neither are remotely possible, but spores make more sense in the “not remotely possible” realm.
The cabin scene was delightful. The stress from the nearly hour-long buildup was real—I had full-blown anxiety by the time they rode onto campus.
Just a public service announcement for any Clubbers who feel the need to take off and horseback ride for 5 days straight with little or no previous experienceYou’re going to be in a world of hurt.
As much as I love this show so far, I did think “where would she have learned to ride that well?”
Westeros
This is covered in the game. We’ll see if they use the same justification in the show
i played the game i dont remember that part
Eh, its barely a line in the game, but it was covered and expanded on in a prequel comic. Essentially there was one cop who Ellie and her friend trusted who taught them to ride an old work horse while they were in school. The horse and cop die/are killed a couple months before the game starts
In the game when you first enter the dam and are talking to Tommy and Maria, Ellie sees a horse and mentions that she knows how to ride. You get an optional-conversation prompt and can ask her “Since when do you know how to ride a horse?” and she explains that one of the soldiers in the Boston QZ gave her lessons.
Comfort/ability to ride and soreness after a ride are actually two different things.
The soreness from horseback riding isn’t from experience though, it’s from unusual muscle use and the angle your legs are at for using those muscles. Even an experienced rider would be sore if they had a long ride after a period of not being on a horse at all, though a horse at a walk or slow trot is less taxing than a canter. On a multiday ride the continued use kind of lets you stretch through the pain even if you are a novice. So, even if the in game explanation covers why Ellie would be able to ride and not have an adjustment on the horse, the better in world explanation is that the kind of hiking that Ellie and Joel have been doing while carrying supplies have given them enough thigh muscle and core/back strength to minimize the adjustment and they are just used to being sore overall, so the ride isn’t particularly noticeable.
It’s mentioned in the base game, then shown in the DLC
FEDRA school, I guess?
Seriously, she had never even been in A CAR. Not not driven one, BEEN in one.
and how did those horses manage to sneak up on them in the first place? Stealth shoes?
Same
Why were you horse humping for 5 days? Needed some action?
Dom, is that you?
This is one of the reasons I still come here, to learn about such things that otherwise wouldn’t occur to me. Thank you once again and definitely not the first time after all these years.
I did a 6 day horseback riding trip. 8-10 hours a day. The end of day two was one of the most painful times in my life. I couldn’t even get off the horse. I had to just kind of roll off and have someone catch me. By day 5, things were much better.
Hey, by the 5th day, you have a lot of experience, right!?But yeah, the one time i rode a small horse on a guided ride, it was pretty consistently frightening. Any time the horse even slightly bent forward, I was bracing myself to be thrown. And at a slow trot? I almost just jumped off. The most startling thing that I think most people don’t realize is how high up you actually are on horseback. It’s basically like sitting on the roof of a car.
😭😭😭What about a single afternoon?
While we’re at it, it’s also a really bad idea to wade through water (or swimming!) with all your clothing and equipment when you’re out on a long hike.
Every time in the game when Joel goes in the water I think “Well, so much for those molotovs!”
And clothes, boots, socks… Getting that stuff soaking wet out in the wilderness is bad news, even if there are methods for drying at least some stuff while on the move.
All they would have had to do is add a line when you and Tess first get your backpacks saying “Good thing these things are waterproof.”
I mean it’s a moot point because between a grown man, a teen, and all the shit they packed on the horse it wouldn’t last terribly long. Especially with them making better time. Horses can generally carry about 20% of the horse’s body weight. I was convinced that the horse collapsing under them was going to be a plot point until my husband, who played the game, told me it wasn’t going to happen.
What’s odd is that in the game this is actually explained. Joel asks her how the hell she knows how to ride. Boston FEDRA use horses to patrol, and Ellie explains that a FEDRA soldier, who she thinks took some kind of pity on her because she was an orphan, would give her riding lessons in his off time. It’s particularly odd because Ellie, in the game, has an affinity for horses. They even introduced her future horse Shimmer in this episode, but they gloss over how or why that affinity exists.
If FEDRA was teaching the teenagers to be soldiers in a post-apocalyptic environment were most vehicles are tireless, fuel-less wrecks that have been rusting out for 20+ years then horseback riding would definitely be on the curriculum. Although I agree that seeing them ride off on a horse possibly years since the last time they rode one really stretches credibility.
In the game, when describing the crashed military vehicle in Bill’s Town, Bill says that the military are the only ones still making vehicle parts. So the military are still depending on vehicles as their primary means of transportation.
Each week gives more reasons Pedro should get an emmy. I can’t believe some people didn’t have faith he or Bella would do well. That monologe was brutal.
Her delivery of the line “I’m not her you know” was so good.
Oh forgot to mention this, but Joel looking at that woman with a child reminded me a lot of myself. When my mother died I vividly recall always seeing happen mothers with kids everywhere I went. I hated it, I was terribly jealous almost to a rage to see people happy in a way I can’t ever experience. Its not remotely fair to them I know, but it was a feeling I couldn’t not think of. Tommy telling Joel you just want others to be miserable because you are is pretty close to how I felt. I wanted time to just stop and people to not be happy. Its like that Skeeter Davis song, don’t they know its the end of the world, the day I lost your love. I wake up in the morning and I wonder, why everythings the same as it was. Looooong winded way of saying, the shows handling depression pretty damn well.
Out West, The Last Of Us delivers a gut punchUgh, come on, AV Club! You guys have really gotten fucking sloppy over the last while, didn’t you even watch the episode?!Gut stab, come on! SMH damn standards slipping…(sorry, sorry, love ya, couldn’t resist 😀 )
Am I the only one underwhelmed by this episode? I guess I saw this coming though, after last week’s episode being so bombastic, they had to quicken the pace. I just thought it was a lot.
I know right! Nothing exploded in this episode.Give me a break.
Imagine a world where people have differing opinions.
He said during his back handed attempt to police my opinions…
I thought it was fine, but I don’t love the panic attacks. It’s such a tv trope. You just KNOW it’s gonna conveniently factor in again, and the most inopportune moment.
Thank you!
I was also. This show is just plowing through plot lines. In the beginning it was this huge task for Joel to try to get to Wyoming to find his brother. They did nothing in episode 3, which means they went from Boston to Wyoming in three episodes – four if you want count this one. That’s it.In this episode alone they met Joel’s brother and then left Joel’s brother after less than a day, made it to a facility in another state, and left said facility. Joel decided he was incapable of helping Ellie and then decided that maybe he could after all. Joel had multiple panic/heart attacks and then got stabbed and maybe died (seems unlikely).Another article noted that they’d be doing a time jump in between seasons. I guess that’s how the game goes, but it seems like a huge waste to me. They really couldn’t think of anything to add for the main characters on their journey across America infested with zombies?
I suspect a lot of that comes down to a restrictive deal on how many episodes the money they got could cover. Had they realised how successful and acclaimed this would be, I feel it probably would have been given at leat three more episodes.
I dunno. I thought it was a “spared no expense” kind of show. Google says $10-$15 million per episode. And wasn’t it predicted to be a hit before it was ever released? I guess I just don’t get why they had to complete the entire game (apparently) in one season.
It’s just better, more economic storytelling, IMO. Are you sure the seasons’ worth of padding and filler of The Walking Dead (or any other TV show adaptation of an IP that tried to milk it for all it was worth and then some) hasn’t given you Stockholm Syndrome? 🙂 Every chapter of the story is essential to the journey of Joel and Ellie. It’s paced more like a miniseries or a movie and I think after you watch the finale that will make a lot more sense in hindsight. Breaking up this story into two seasons just doesn’t work and would make for a significantly worse show.Plus, those three months we cut would have been walking through Kansas (probably along Rt 70) and then north through Eastern Colorado. If you’re American you know it’s barely an exaggeration to say there’s literally NOTHING to see on that journey lol.
I think there is a big difference between The Walking Dead and what they’ve done so far on this show. It’s not that I need to see more of Kansas and Eastern Colorado. It’s that they gave us nothing from the main characters for that time.
I mean, that’s the issue with “No expense spared” because it’s never really true (I mean it’s basically impossible). I suspect they were told their series budget early on and did their best to accommodate it efficiently. The higher ups at the umbrella Warner/HBO/etc. have messed up before on budgets with Swamp Thing in particular standing out, so I can envision they’d be pretty tight on most budgets. As for the predicted hit, that can be a double-edged sword if the prediction is wrong. Of course, I could well be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time 🙂
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Joel convincing Ellie everybody loved building contractors pre-outbreak was kind of my biggest laugh of the episode.
That was a good one
Same. My partner and I collapsed into giggles after that bit – Pedro’s face cracking up made it for us. In general, I’ve loved any moment in this series that shows Joel’s character softening through humour after something really dramatic has happened (the pun jokes towards the end of episode 4 being another example).
Was this the show with the lesbo or the tranny? Gotta get it right but dont cant memba which. Maybe because both dont matter
• The elderly couple were fantastic. Hilarious, tough, nice…I’m glad there was no unpleasantness besides Joel briefly holding them hostage. “You made them soup?” • I was wondering if they were going to give Joel a heart problem or if they were just showing his panic/anxiety manifesting physically. They did a great job of illustrating what it must look like to an outsider and how the world tunnels around you. I’m very into that change.• Once again, top-notch banter. I chuckled out loud a few times, but the best was “Joel…say congrats..” Just spectacular.• When Joel had his second panic attack that pole he leaned against looked frozen as hell. All I could think about was his hand being stuck to it.• The talk between Joel and Tommy was heartbreaking. If Pedro doesn’t win awards for this, it’s a war crime. Seeing him be vulnerable with someone after being such a hardass made it so much more emotional. “I’m failin’ in my sleep.” gave me a lump.• The fight between Joel and Ellie was so good. It felt like good friends fighting, I hated what was going on. Seeing how hurt they both were was crushing. Ellie silently accepting her fate and leaving the next morning was devastating.• Their friendship opening up like it did after the fight made me grin like an idiot until the end. The shooting, the horseback chats, the contractor talk, the singing…it was all perfection. My only issue is I wish they had time to prolong it. If they gave us more time with this new aspect of their relationship, what came next would be much more difficult.• I also laughed out loud at the random band of hooligans who showed up to the college. Like legit bat-wielding, beanie-wearing hooligans.• If this music doesn’t win an Emmy with everything else I’ll flip a car. It’s SO good. I also love that I can just open up the albums right now and find corresponding pieces.• Shocked and appalled at the lack of rebar trauma.Interesting that the preview looks like we get a break and the prequel next week. I wonder if they’ll intercut the old stuff with new stuff or if we just have a straight-up “last year” episode. I think it’s going to be the first real test of viewer patience if it’s an entire prequel hour. I also just realized the dread of having to wait for a second season is slowly gaining ground.
I wouldn’t be surprised if what they do is devote MOST of the episode to her and Riley; then, in the last 5 minutes, cut to Ellie killing a rabbit/deer, and finally meeting David. Cliffhanger. End of episode.
Like legit bat-wielding, beanie-wearing hooligans. I literally lol’d as those guys were such a clear video game type group of hooligans/raiders. Perfect!Shocked and appalled at the lack of rebar trauma. I think since TWD had Rick fall off his horse and get impaled by the rebar the showrunners felt like that would just be a rehash (I know it’s in the game, but still). So next best thing? Broken bat to the gut. I told Joel to not take it out….he never listens to me. 😉
They changed it because in the game you can get away with way more injuries and survive. I mean he drinks stuff in the game to regain health. So they though falling on rebar would be too much in the more grounded version the show is.
I thought the same of the lack of rebar injury.
• If this music doesn’t win an Emmy with everything else I’ll flip a car. It’s SO good. I also love that I can just open up the albums right now and find corresponding pieces.I’m not sure how Emmy eligibility works, but it is possible that the show might not be eligible since so much of the music is coming straight from the game.
No other unpleasantness? Ellie stole their rabbit! The old couple’s gonna be out for vengeance after that.
The DLC is half Ellie’s origin story and half of Ellie dealing with what happened to Joel, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they did the same thing in the next episode.
In a post-apocalyptic USA where there are likely more guns than non-infected humans, it’s strange that the four hooligans didn’t have a single gun between them. I’d expect everyone to be carrying at this point.
But where do you get more ammo? Supple chain issues in the fungal post-apocalypse are an absolute nightmare.
Was it just me, or did the masked man with the dog in the posse that surrounded them look like Troy Baker?
Baker is in the show, for sure, but I thought I heard he was going to be in David’s crew.
But it was David’s crew at the university. So still possible.
That’s not the posse that surrounded them with the dog. That was a Jackson group.
Yeah I think he’s part of the group Ellie comes across later on.
My heart gets filled with joy imagining how the people who have been complaining the show has been “woke” due to LGBTQ+ characters will react to this: the world as people knew fell apart at lightspeed after, due to the Capitalist way of suplying for demand, global market distribution of goods facilitated the spreading of the mutated cordyceps… And then, after 20 years, the only place we see that is actually functional…
And spoken by a white character in the game who’s turned black.
He reverse Michael Jacksoned! But why would anyone downgrade?
Lame. Justin Trudeau can turn black too.
Considering that Sarah was black (or bi-racial), apparently Joel and Tommy have “a type”.
Let me guess, you are too young to remember the Berlin Wall and how people from the glorious worker’s paradise of the GDR were shot for the “crime” of attempting to flee the republic to get to the decadent capitalist West.
Soviet and Communist aren’t synonyms by a long shot.
70 years on and the Red Scare is still doing a number on people’s brains.
But both mean dumbfuck!
That wasnt real communism comrade! Wait for Chairman Bernie’s revolution!
The problem you are having here isn’t about them not being synonyms, which they aren’t, but that they are not antonyms, which they also are not.
Dumbfuck
FFS. Not this stupid shit again. And who has cheaper (with better outcomes) socialized medicine now? The “free” capitalist EU. And how is The “freedom” in Putin’s capitalist Russia now?I guess China’s state capitalism looking so super free?There is giant chasm between totalitarian regimes with central planned economies and socialized institutions run by democratic systems.People are realizing that maybe, just maybe, unregulated capitalism isn’t the fucking freedom utopia you shit for brains keep screeching it is. When clearly any totalitarianism is fucked. Regardless if it’s Elon Musk in charge or Mao. But I guess you can go on and pretend the worlds largest socialized institution isn’t the US military if you want.
How odd, I didn’t know communism was directly responsible for a government deciding to shoot political dissidents. Does this mean every time that happens we blame whatever form of govt and economy that they have at that time? Could you elaborate on what happens to people in America when they can’t pay their rent? Surely they aren’t just shot by the cops.
Joel’s answer to Ellie was mostly correct though, when she asked him if that’s how things were like in the before times: “No, the country was too big.”
What’s funny is I spent all week after Episode 3 like, “If you’re triggered by gay people, wait until we get to the anarcho-communists.”
How much did you pay for that sweatshop-made sticker?
Dumbfuck
Dumbfuck
Episode was mostly great but I just kept wondering…why don’t Joel and Tommy BOTH go on the trip. Wouldn’t that increase the odds of success and isn’t Ellie important enough to warrant that? Hell, Tommy could’ve sent them off with a whole posse like the one that confronted them earlier.
Tommy spelt it out quite well: He’s becoming a father and he’s afraid to die.
except he was willing to go when Joel couldn’t take her! Oh but now that joel can go he’s scared of dying again. whatever
I can kind of understand that — Tommy was willing to take her when Joel couldn’t, but he wasn’t willing to risk it if it wasn’t totally necessary.What bothered me more was that Tommy didn’t give him better directions when they made the switch (especially because at the beginning of the episode Joel was a little lost!). No warnings about where the raiders have been seen? No tips about protected places to camp? Just “go south for a week.”
When they were leaving I was yelling at the screen “Joel, ask him how you find the lab when you get to the university! Ask him what the building looks like!”
It kinda depends how you look at it: does the both of them going boost the odds of both of them living, or just the odds the odds of Ellie making it (one of them dies and the other can finish the job)? I think Tommy acknowledged Ellie making it was most important, which makes it weird it wound up just being Joel and Ellie. I guess the sell is partially that Tommy has entirely his own life now; not just that he has a kid coming, but that Joel’s business isn’t automatically his anymore. Maybe that’s why Joel had to sell them on whole redemption thing.
And it’d be one thing if there was nobody else to take Ellie but to say he needs to go with his brother would be the end of that marriage.
Yeah, that kind of irked me. Tommy already agreed to go, now he can go WITH Joel–the brother he hasn’t seen in years–and make it a much safer trip… And he just peaces out? He knows how important Ellie is, but he’s like, “C-ya, we’ll save a spot for you here if you make it back!”
“Tommy already agreed to go”
Joel basically forced him to agree to it. Of COURSE he “peaces out” when he isn’t being guilted into going, he’s got a wife and a child coming. What kind of asshole abandons his unborn child like that?
he didnt want to go, but was willing to because he thought Joel couldnt-(or wouldnt, whatever)-when Joel changed his mind, I guess Tommy thought “ok, now i dont have to go.” Simple, makes sense.
Don’t know if anyone else has discussed this but not only was there a deviation from the source material in this episode, it’s been by far the biggest one yet and they handled it absolutely beautifully.It had never occurred to me that Joel had frozen in all those moments he discussed in his monologue and that in the three months since Kansas City, they probably didn’t see much action but thanks to the monologue bringing that to my attention I have to say brought a fantastic extra emotional dimension to Joel that would just not have been possible in the game*. It also work’s especially well if you know just what lays up ahead.*especially the way I played it with my occasional tea-bagging of the scores -if not hundreds- of raiders and infected that I would deliberately go out of my way to kill in the most violent and hilarious ways.
Ellie saves Joel’s ass multiple times in the game by this point, in cutscenes, because he fucked up. Yes, while playing, Joel (or Ellie) are going to kill a ton of people, by nature of it being a game, but Joel being a bit too old for this shit at times is intrinsic to the game. It’s also intrinsic to building their bond, which I feel like show is missing. It says it’s there, but it oddly jumps over all the times that would show the viewer why it’s there.I can see what the showrunner’s are building to, when Joel doesn’t “freeze up” anymore,” and I actually like holding that dimension back for an adaption like this. I just don’t think they’ve built up enough the relationship between Ellie and Joel to earn a lot of this stuff. Pascal is amazing in that scene, and conveys Joel’s fear and doubt, but they’ve skipped over where he’d even began to truly feel that connection, let alone where Ellie would feel Joel is the only person she’d trust. A “Three Months Later” title card pretty much skips all the important stuff. I’d also note, Ellie is getting a short shrift in the show. As far as writing, not Ramsey’s performance. By this point in the game Ellie is a good bit more capable than she is in the show. The things she’s seen and the killing she’s done to survive at this point has hugely informs her character in this and the next game. In the show she can’t even shoot well or hunt. I’m not sure how the show is going to make it convincing that she could suddenly possibly survive without Joel for any time.
“Ellie saves Joel’s ass multiple times in the game by this point, in cutscenes”This happens during actual combat. By this point of the game, when Joel if fighting enemies Ellie will either throw a brick or bottle at them (stunning them), jumping on their back (humans only, I think) to stab them, or shooting them with her gun.
True, that actually starts happening in combat against humans from Pittsburgh on (which is early in the game). There are also great little touches in combat where when you take cover, and Ellie can fit in the same cover, Joel has these animations that make it feel like he’s instinctively trying to protect her.
YMMV but I pretty much went on a mad murdering rampage from the get-go when I was playing. I’m a bit disappointed we never got to see the giraffe though. For some strange reason that’s the cut-scene that sticks in my mind the most 10 years on…
Old post, but isn’t the giraffe in Salt Lake City?
“but not only was there a deviation from the source material in this episode, it’s been by far the biggest one yet”How quickly some people forget the Bill/Frank episode.
Bill/Frank was a thing in the game – they just gave them a happier ending than their original breakup however in the game by the time Joel ended up in Wyoming, by my hand he’d killed hundreds and enjoyed every damn minute of it! TBH his rampant bloodlust has only been exceeded by that of those psychopathic antique collectors Nathan Drake and (rebooted) Lara Croft.
The Bill/Frank relationship in the game is completely different from the show.In the show they have a romantic relationship that is a love story for the ages with a beautiful ending.In the game there is no indication that either of them actually loved, let alone liked, the other. Frank leaves Bill because he’s sick of living with him and literally tells him in his suicide note that he never liked him – based on that note I’m not even sure if Frank said goodbye, he probably just left when Bill wasn’t looking. Bill decides to rewrite history so that when he tells Joel about Frank, Bill is the one that “dumped” Frank instead of the other way around.Yes, there is a Bill/Frank relationship in the show and game, but it is the biggest deviation from the game to the show, hands down.
Was anyone else bothered by the fact that Maria didn’t sweep up the hair clippings before they left the house?
I legit said to myself “it’s ok, we’ll clean this up later” because my brain couldn’t process leaving hair snippets on the floor.
Yeah, she could have studied the hair’s DNA and made their own vaccine!
the two leads suck. no chemistry, and the actors have to deliver absolutely garbage dialogue. The kid swearing constantly is annoying and distracting (this is a show for adults!)it’s so funny how they’re constantly encountering people who help them, warm respites from danger, little oases in the middle of the apocalypse, etc. That’s all that fucking happens! Where’s the danger?also that was the most cancon episode yet. The sets are somehow looking even cheaper. I can just imagine paying $10 CAD for a lukewarm cider and walking around that fake old timey village on a boring family outing! fuck this show!
You’re coming off a particularly laaaaaame try hard dingus
maybe the people who made this show should have tried harder?
I got a RockHard dingus for ya
“Review the show you saw, not the one you didn’t”Please don’t confuse a recap with a review.
I have a question that maybe someone who knows the game can answer: how old is Maria supposed to be? She was old enough to, pre-infection, have had not only a kid but a law degree and a good job as a lawyer. So, 26 or 27 at the absolute youngest? So that would make her in her mind to late 40s now, which is pretty old to be getting pregnant, especially considering that the preceding 20 years would not have been healthy stress free living. Its not impossible, but it is nagging at me, especially because the Diva cup scene was a nice nod to the fact that the realities of women’s bodies and how they change would be something people would still have to navigate.
Black don’t crack.
Black smoke crack
Didn’t she say she was an ADA? If so, that’s a job you can get right out of law school (and pass your state bar), usually for the DA you interned for. So closer to the 24-25 year old range outside of exceptional cases.
Also, ADA in Omaha probably isn’t the hardest ADA job to get, so getting it right out of law school seems likely. That still puts her in the “geriatric pregnancy” range though (a terrifying term to use for anyone pregnant over 37). but still a pretty high-risk pregnancy.
Acknowledging that would have also further justified Tommy’s reluctance to go with Ellie.“Joel, Maria’s not young, it’s a miracle she’s pregnant at all. This is my last chance to be a father, and I need to be here in case she has trouble.”
Yeah, there’s over 30K DA’s in the US at different county levels and well over 50K ADA’s according to stats I looked up. Hell, in some smaller counties there’s people elected to DA as young as 30 years old and people becoming ADA’s right out of law school is the norm. That said, you do have to pass the bar to be an ADA so, yeah, unless Maria was some kind of wunderkind who went to college early, she’d still be in her early to mid forties on the show. As you note, that’s a higher risk pregnancy with our medical tech today. So it’s a super high risk pregnancy in the world of the show. Maria being pregnant is an invention of the show which was, in my opinion, unnecessary and just invites questions like this.
I had the same thought. It seemed strange that a woman 45+ living a hard life would be naturally pregnant.
Maybe she was a post-collapse ADA, prosecuting fungus zombie crime.
My maternal great-grandmother had her 17th child in 1921 at 45 years old 7 years after immigrating from eastern Germany to Baltimore then to Alpena Co. Michigan with about 6-8 of those 17 children in tow. My maternal aunt had her 7th child at 44 in 1990.Individual women can be/are amazing.
My mother had my sister at 45 (despite decades of chronic health issues). One of my best friends is pregnant right now at 45. My aunt had my cousin at 46. My coworker just had a child at 48. Several of my colleagues with children had them when they and their wives were mid 40s.
Are mid to late 40’s pregnancies (technically SUPERgeriatric pregnancy) less common? Sure. Do they sometimes take additional effort or carry additional risk? Yes. But they are totally within a plausible fertility window. Of all the people I know who had kids in their 40s, there are only two who needed fertility treatments (not in the list above, just two other close friends), and at least half were just “accidents” as women were forced to shift hormonal birth control methods after their late 30s and they and their partner were kind of “the universe is telling us something” about it.
But given my aunt and my mother I will continue to be paranoid about birth control probably until I am actually 60.
It was a beautifully filmed and directed episode, but for someone who had never heard of the game, the arc of: – Joel being regular tough Joel holding a Native-American couple with a gun along with Ellie (including sinister threats if the husband does not point the same location in the map as the wife), followed by:- Joel’s complete emotional meltdown and vulnerability with Tommy; followed by:- Joel emotionally hurting and physically abandoning Ellie a few hours later; followed by:- All being ok and dandy in the morning.All happening in a 24-36h period after Joe and Ellie spent the last 4 months together escaping death or worse, it just felt rushed and contrived. I guess the source material just provides the set pieces, but the writers had shown they could develop those set pieces beautifully and meaningfully in episodes 3 and 5. This episode felt more like there was an absolute need to show the Joel and Ellie confrontation, so the scene with Tommy was set up to justify it. Regardless, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey did a great job in those scenes, and it’s good the confrontation is out of the way now…
As an avid fan of the games, Joel and Ellie’s relationship on the show feels rushed to me, but I’ve been feeling like that’s because I can’t separate the games from the show in my head. It’s interesting to hear the thoughts of viewers who haven’t played the game in that regard. Talking to some coworkers today, who have no clue about the game, said they really liked this episode (the acting was fantastic) but they both mentioned they would’ve like to have seen more build up to Joel and Ellie’s relationship, rather than skipping months. The short period of Joel and Ellie arriving at Jackson and Joel pawning Ellie off on Tommy and then changing his mind is directly from the game, though Joel and Tommy’s conversation is different. The confrontation between Joel and Ellie is mostly word for word. It’s a gut punch in the game because the perspective is 100% just Joel and Ellie surviving and fighting across the country and their bond feels way deeper. A lot of the dialogue of their journey is not in the show, as well as the action and shared trauma. So when, in the game, Joel tries to duck out on Ellie it hits hard. It’s Joel cowardly trying to avoid the connection that he has built with Ellie and her reaction hits home because you feel the bond he’s running away from.In the show, I don’t really feel like they’ve built the bond between Ellie and Joel for that to really land. Yes, they add a scene where, an extraordinarily good Pascal, expresses those emotions to Tommy, but I feel like they’ve spent so much screentime on everyone but Joel and Ellie that you don’t see where their connection would come from.
Very good perspective. It almost hints at Mazin and Druckmann having decided to rely on prior knowledge of the game from the viewers to skip those 3 months of relationship building and advance the story quicker. A somewhat strange decision, given how episodes 3 and 5 spent a significant amount of time providing beyond-game development for characters that ultimate meet their demise at the end of the episode, and yet those episodes were brilliant. I do very much understand not being able to dissociate a TV/film adaptation from the source material. A good example for me is the DUNE novels. You build up a visual picture of this complicated world in your head and then you watch the David Lynch version and you can’t even consider the movie on its own merits, as it subverted so many important aspects from the book(s). Thankfully, Denis Villeneuve’s version is much closer to my own imagined version (the Gom Jabbar scene is mesmerizing). I’ll never know what my impression of Lynch’s DUNE would be without knowledge of the books, but I doubt it would be very positive after the silly scene with Sting in a loincloth or whatever that may have been… With that in mind, I think The Last of Us adaption is remarkably good so far!
A somewhat strange decision, given how episodes 3 and 5 spent a significant amount of time providing beyond-game development for characters that ultimate meet their demise at the end of the episode, and yet those episodes were brilliant. True. The Frank and Bill stuff was very different from the game, but it made for a brilliant episode. The Sam and Henry episode was also fantastic and hewed closer to the game, at least in how it ended, but Sam was 13 years old in the game and not deaf. Episode 4 is where I think they could’ve skipped trying to give backstory to the Kansas City uprising (it’s Pittsburgh in the game.) In the game you can find various notes around Pittsburgh that give the backstory of the people of the Pittsburgh QZ overthrowing FEDRA and eventually becoming so desperate they start preying on passers by. By the time Joel and Ellie get there though, they’re just hunters you have kill or avoid. That segment starts with the ambush depicted in the show and leads to one of the more white knuckled stretches of the game. I’m not going lie, I was disappointed that show chose not to go the route of having at least a bit of that. It’s there that Joel and Ellie run into Sam and Henry. Henry gets the drop on Joel and is beating on him momentarily until Ellie slashes Henry with her knife and Joel gets the upper hand. Which is another missed opportunity where the show could’ve shown Ellie to be already be more proactive and capable. After everyone realizes none of them are hunters, the Sam and Henry segment proceeds fairly similar to the show, but without all the hunter backstory and the ground caving in and releasing a ton of infected and a Bloater scene. Episode 5 really could’ve been episode 4 if the show hadn’t decided to portray the hunter group’s story, which I personally found of little overall value.
“Hey, Wyomingites: Which river is supposed to be the “River of Death””
*sigh*
Maybe it’s the river that has seen a lot of death in the 20 years since the fungus took hold?
My favourite deadpan one-liner of the series so far: “Who’s been cutting your hair?”“World-class salons.”
Not just Calgary locations, but other great places in our province, as our fine friends at Travel Alberta share here (updated after every episode):https://www.travelalberta.com/us/articles/2023/01/locations-featured-in-hbo-the-last-of-us/
Beat it Nazi! Alberta is not woke!
I definitely felt like they could have made more than one single stop on their way across most of the gd country. And why did it take three months to get from KC to Wyoming? I mean, having driven across Kansas a few times it is a pretty big darn state, and that’s 1000 miles, but still…it seemed like they could have stayed at the compound and went out on a mission or something. Have they only ran into two groups of infected across the whole country? This episode definitely felt like they were mostly saving on budget…it wasn’t a bottle or anything but they made it through with minimal special effects. Anyway, great monologue…I kind of wish they didn’t stab Joel, feels manufactured.I actually love that HBO has repertory players who they hire again and again, so it was nice to see Rutina Wesley after True Blood, Melanie Lynskey-Togetherness, Murray Bartlett of course, not to mention Bella Ramsey herself. And if you expand it out to either include Showtime or generally “prestige tv” it’s like the same few people are hired again and again forever.
They were walking. 10 miles a day seems like a good pace.
I definitely felt like they could have made more than one single stop on their way across most of the gd country.As a fan of the games, I feel like the show has oddly spent far more time on ancillary characters from the games, and spent entire episodes on them (some not even in the game), rather than building the core relationship between Joel and Ellie, which is 99% of the game. This episode uses almost the exact dialog from Joel and Ellie’s confrontation about him abandoning her, which is a gut punch in the game, after the characters have been through so much together. The show just skips all that time and says, these characters have these emotional fears and attachments now, so this should be a gut punch. It’s very well acted, but I’m not finding it earned. I find it particularly odd when it comes to the show’s portrayal of Ellie. By this point in the game’s story she’s seen and partaken in killing people to defend herself and Joel. That she’s had to even be involved in such violence at such a young age informs her character going forward. It also informs Joel and Ellie’s relationship as to where survival comradery turns into something deeper emotionally, for better or worse. The show also has setup an Ellie that doesn’t know how to shoot or hunt, and is obviously going have her be suddenly be able to shoot and hunt.
Maybe we’ll get a montage sequence. But seriously, KC was their only substantive stop between Boston and Wyoming…I would have taken like a real-time episode of them walking through a forest, or working together to cross a river…or just him teaching her how to hunt could have been a good episode…if there’s no reason why they can’t have an uncovered fire basically everywhere there’s no reason they couldn’t have practiced shooting somewhere else or like raided the archery section at a Bass Pro.
“And why did it take three months to get from KC to Wyoming?”They are walking, not driving.“Have they only ran into two groups of infected across the whole country?”
Joel says in this episode that the Infected congregate in the cities and that you don’t find them in country/open areas.
In the game Henry shoots himself (in Pittsburgh instead of KC), fade to black, Joel and Ellie meet Tommy in Wyoming. That quick.The show actually did add more.
“I’m failing in my sleep,” Joel whispers hoarsely. “It’s all I do. It’s all I’ve ever done. Is fail her. Again and again.”
I don’t remember if that line actually appeared in the game, but it’s a good meta-reference to how you/Joel die a million times while playing through the game.
Joel doesn’t say this in the game – it’s a creation for the show. In the game Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie to the Fireflies because he brought him “the cure for humanity” and that it’s Tommy’s cause (from when he was a Firefly).The reason in the game that he tells Ellie what he does is because he’s aware of how he’s starting to care about Ellie and is afraid, so he wants to dump her on Tommy and leave (it doesn’t tell you this, but it’s pretty clear).
Joel’s American Politics 101: “Some people wanted to own everything, and other people didn’t want anyone to own anything at all.”Ah! An “Enlightened Centrist” (https://www.reddit.com/r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM/)!
I finished Netflick’s Laramie an hour before in which Graham Greene plays a heavy. Then this. The man has chops. My introduction to Mr. Greene oeuvre was Edward Montrose, demolition enthusiast of the Red Green show.
Phenomenal performances across the board, Pedro slayed that monologue and the bedroom argument had the same weight as the game. In particular, I loved how Bella’s Ellie finally broke down on the “Everyone fucking except for you!” She’s been so tough trying to not let things rattle her around Joel but that was truly the moment that the scared kid finally came out. Her numb reaction to Tommy the next morning was heartbreaking.And speaking of whom, if they say that acting is reacting, somebody give Gabriel Luna an Emmy right now. He has only been in (and will probably only be in) a few scenes this season but this man is so in the moment and in-tune with his character. Everything from his realization at Sarah’s death, the look on his face when he realized he’s living in a commune, and the way he absorbed Joel’s entire speech is so perfectly modulated, he’s quietly elevating every scene he’s in.Maria being a former district attorney makes so much sense for her.
I cheered when I saw Elaine Miles on the screen. I just wish there had been more of her. Since her character didn’t die, I will hold out hope we’ll get more of her in future episodes.
Holy crap, that was Marilyn from Northern Exposure? I didn’t recognize her, but now that I know, I totally see it.
Her voice hasn’t changed, still that same pleasant-but-exasperated tone.
“When did Ellie have time for horseback riding lessons (FEDRA school)? She handles her mount pretty well on the ride into Jackson.”In the game you can literally ask Ellie this question when she tells Maria that she knows how to ride a horse (Joel: “When did you learn to ride a horse?”). She tells you that she got lessons from one of the soldiers at the FEDRA school.
POTENTIAL GAME SPOILERSWhere was the picture of Joel and Sarah???? I need this moment!
Not specific to this episode, but we’re 2/3 of the way through this season and I just realized this …In the game Ellie not being able to swim is a continuing thing that you have to deal with by finding a pallet to get her across water. But in the show, aside from her telling Joel and Tess that she can’t swim, has it come up again at all? I don’t think so.It’s like they had Ellie say this in the show because it’s in the game and they knew the fans would riot if they didn’t include it, but decided not to do anything else with it (although there’s one key “can’t swim” moment late in the game that I suspect might be included in the show).
Much like you, I have been assuming that this is going to come up again in one of the upcoming set pieces from the game/show. There is still one left from the game where it could be a factor. Although who knows-a lot of the sequences from the game have been significantly changed from the show!Whatever the creative team does, I have full faith. The series, like the game before it, has been excellent. My Mom and my wife are not gamers, but they can’t wait to tune in each week.
“There is still one left from the game where it could be a factor.” Yeah, I’m sure we are talking about the same event.At this point I have faith for the show to get us to where we need to get to, even if it’s a different path. For example, everyone who played the game was expecting Joel to get injured in this episode (once we knew we were getting to the university) so I kept waiting to see a piece of rebar sticking up from the ground, or Joel to get dangerously close to a balcony edge while on the second floor. So when Joel gets stabbed by the baseball bat-shiv it legitimately surprised me, even though I was already expecting the injury.
Agreed. I think all of the deviations from the game have been really good choices except maybe the addition of Kathleen. I thought the performance by the actress was good, I just didn’t think adding a specific antagonist to that part was strictly necessary. Although: her last exchange with Henry was a really good reinforcement of some of the themes of the game/show.The series has felt a little rushed for me, but I think that is inevitable for anyone who has played the game. In the game we just got a lot more time with Joel and Ellie than the nine hours we are going to get here. But I am just really impressed with how well this classic has been adapted to make another classic. I was also waiting for the rebar. 🙂
Joel’s bear hug with Tommy is a brotherly blast of pure joy, but Joel soon becomes guarded around Maria. I may be the sole overlap between fans of The Color Purple and The Last of Us, but I watched Pedro Pascal doing his best Whoopi Goldberg (seeing her sister after decades apart).
Who deez bitches?
You’re not the only one! (Although I’ll admit I like the book much better than the film).
At the beginning of the episode, when they are trudging through snow in what looked like relatively new snow boots, I thought to myself, “Are there just abandoned REI stores that they can raid?”. They had a lot of new gear.
I’m VERY disappointed in this show. Six episodes and Joel has yet to throw a brick at anyone.
Hi, hello, greetings. Real-live Wyoming resident here. The dam was likely the Buffalo Bill dam near Cody (assuming they’re on the same path as the game) named after the bad guy in Silence of the Lambs and the river they were crossing was probably the Shoshone based on them saying “west of the river.” Could be the Yellowstone River too. But everyone knows the real River of Death in Wyoming is Crazy Woman Creek. Eyes up if you’re driving or hiking through the Crazy Woman Canyon. The hills have eyes.
the Buffalo Bill dam near Cody (assuming they’re on the same path as the game) named after the bad guy in Silence of the LambsUm. Maybe it’s the level tone, and I’m tired, but I’m missing a sense of ‘/s’, here, the dam being named after the William “Buffalo Bill” *Cody, one of the *town founders.Did see that Crazy Woman Creek has some associated legends, which you allude to. Might be interesting to hear why it’s locally considered the ‘real river of death’…
I was talking out of my ass on Crazy Woman Creek, though the canyon is gorgeous and I hope it opens before I leave the state so I can drive through it again. Buffalo Bill Reservoir was just me making a joke. I thought it’d be funny if the Cowboy State named a reservoir after a character in a 1991 film instead of the legendary western fella, that’s all there was to it lol
Former whitewater guide in Jackson here! Joel and Ellie most likely went to Cody, as that’s where Tommy’s last signal came from. As such, the most likely rivers are the Shoshone River which flows through Cody or the Snake River (most likely) which flows out of YNP/GTNP from Jackson Lake through Jackson Dam. It could also be Palisades Reservoir/Dam 50 miles south of town but it doesn’t make as much sense to cross there because it’s downstream from a confluence. I didn’t guide in the national parks so I’m less familiar with that dam and don’t recognize the footbridge. I’m also not certain if the dam powered electricity in Jackson or was for the national parks only.
The map on the table was showing Lake Yellowstone, which means the river of death to its northwest would be the Yellowstone River.
It’s a shame that this show can’t be like Game of Thrones where there was separate reviews for fans of the book and separate for just the show. It doesn’t really make sense I just wish there was a space to discuss this show online where fans of just the show can have separate conversations from game fans. I’ve never played the game but I can guess based on things I’ve seen here that Joel and Ellie create a father-daughter type bond and I’m gonna take a wild swing at them deciding the vaccine is fake and staying together.
It’s impossible to discuss this show online without some fan of the game assuring me where the story is headed. The gamers level of excitement that this has entered the mainstream is really spoiling it for the uninitiated.
I get it several years ago you bought a game that duped you into think it was a zombie game but it was actually a beautiful story wrapped in a disguise. Now you’re bursting with excitement to share that special thing with others. I get it. But openly discussing that your worried that Joel’s chemistry with Ellie doesn’t seem as strong as in the game or whatever really doesn’t do anything but annoy fans who are experiencing this story for the first time. I know I know then don’t come here to the reviews. Trust me I’ve stopped reading the scene by scene recaps above. I just want a space online to discuss this show that isn’t crawling with game fans eager to spoil it for me.
End rant.
I feel this too. They aren’t going to pay another writer though. Maybe they could have a forum type space on the AV club for newbs to discuss it after the episode? Like comments without the recap? The comments have way more insights than the recaps anyway these days.
So, all Woke TV boxes checked:- Main character has Bi-Racial kid, check.- Black Kid is smartest one in the room/White men are dummies, check.- Lesbian teenage girl, check.- Deaf kid, check.- Interracial marriage, check.No, I’m not racist or Homophobe, just so tired at how predictable TV writing has become. (Random question: where’s the obligatory Kid with Asthma?)
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“They get power from the nearby dam to light up a Christmas tree and allow plumbing, sewage and hot-water heaters.”PSA: there is no such thing as a hot-water heater.Enjoy your stay! 🙂