A Detailed Breakdown of The Last Of Us Series (SPOILER ALERT)

One of the most expensive HBO productions is behind us. It left behind a pile of beautiful, often bittersweet memories. If you sat in silence for even a few seconds after the finale, wondering what Joel did and whether he had the right to do it, congratulations. You’ve fallen victim to the same emotional rollercoaster as hundreds of thousands of gamers did ten years ago. Still, I hope you enjoyed it, despite the controversies, big or small!

Whether Joel's behavior was justified is a debate for psychologists and philosophers. I believe most of us would have acted the same way. Hope is a beautiful thing, but ultimately, none of us are absolute altruists, and what we do, we do partly for ourselves. We just don't want to admit it.

But let's go back to the beginning. Through these comments, I'll try to express my thoughts on each episode, mention its flaws, and highlight the positives. And as those who read my previous article First impressions of The Last Of Us series probably suspect, I will often refer to the main source material: the original 2013 game.

Once again, I’d like to point out that in this extensive article, I am expressing purely my own impressions and feelings. As always, I trust you will form your own opinion on the series and all its aspects.

So, if you're ready for some pondering over the immortality of a bloater, let's get to it.

Episode I. When You’re Lost In The Darkness

The opening episode. It brought everything important the viewer needed to know, and even more! It set the stage for a world we needed to understand and get to know. A world that is perhaps even more depressing than, for example, The Walking Dead, because the force that began to consume it doesn't just turn you into mindless, stupid, and slow zombies. Clickers and bloaters are alive. The Last Of Us is not and never was about zombies!

The mutated cordyceps is practically an autonomous organism, and we are just food, a means to its survival. I won't comment much more on the first episode – partly because you can find the freshest emotions regarding it in the article First impressions of The Last Of Us series, which I wrote right after the first episode ended.

Episode II. Infected

What does it look like when a pandemic breaks out and you know everything is lost? We got the answer to that in the second episode. Two days before the outbreak, a mycologist in Jakarta examines a body infected with the mutated cordyceps. This insight into the initial hours is absolutely fascinating and shows the creators' ingenuity.

In the second episode, we also got to know Tess (Anna Torv) better, but at the end of the episode, her character fell victim to an unfortunate fate. We got an action scene in a museum and a few good, witty lines. Unfortunately, thanks to them, we started calling the series Joel dum-dum at home.

Dumb is an English term for an idiot – and if you know the movie Night at the Museum, the talking moai statue calls Ben Stiller a “dum-dum” in the original – basically a blockhead. I can't help it, but while the game Joel is dangerous, distrustful, and sharp, Pascal's version is… a bit of a klutz. He often just stares, and rather than sharpness, I tend to see the same monkey playing cymbals in Homer Simpson's head behind that gaze.

Don't get me wrong, though. I am fully and completely devoted to Pascal's portrayal of the Mandalorian, but this is definitely not “my” Joel. :D

Episode III. Long, Long Time

The most controversial episode! A friend jokingly (but in a good way!) refers to it as “Brokeback Mushroom” (a nod to the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain). I definitely won't skip one clarifying point right at the start – this episode is not a product of activists. It doesn't need to push any agenda. Bill is gay in the game, too. It's not explicitly stated, but unless you're as dense as concrete, you'll figure it out. So, the third episode just expands on what we didn't have a chance to see in the game.

I won't lie, I was looking forward to Ellie's interaction with the grumpy Bill. Instead, I got a fairly normal, antisocial Bill who finds the love of his life and meaning in the dark times. The episode feels almost like a standalone film and works perfectly. I will never look at strawberries the same way again, and for the rest of my life, I will carry the beautiful nostalgia of this episode within me. And that ending? Pfffff… if I weren't such a weirdo, I wouldn't try to imagine what was left in that bed.

Episode IV. Please Hold My Hand

Probably one of the more boring episodes. Although it follows the game's development quite faithfully, it introduces us to a new character, Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), who, despite all efforts, seems shoehorned in and quite unnecessary. I would say – since you won't find her in the game – you don't really need her. She doesn't improve the plot or change the dynamics in any way. She just provides backstory for characters like Sam and Henry. And this background story disappointed me greatly (more on that in the next episode). However, thanks to Kathleen, Jeffrey Pierce, alias Perry, got a bit of screen time. He played Joel's brother Tommy in the game The Last Of Us.

Episode V. Endure And Survive

For me, Henry and Sam are an extremely positive element in the game. For a long time, they are the first people to represent positive characters in a world filled with treacherous bastards. Henry is a guy with a sense of humor who loves Harleys, even though he's never ridden one (but he's seen it in his dreams)! He takes care of his little brother carefully and almost sets the standard for the ideal relationship between Joel and Ellie in its “purest” form.

The series' Henry is more on the dark side. Here I come to the information that disappointed me – Kathleen is after Henry because Henry sacrificed Kathleen's brother to save his own. Do you feel the slight parallel with Joel and Ellie? I wonder why Druckmann and Mazin came up with this idea. In my personal opinion, it somehow degrades Joel's decision in the final episode to just “one of many.”

Did the creators of the series want Joel's decision at the end of the series to be taken more positively by the general public because he wasn't the first to act similarly? I don't know.

Logically, it is of course probable that thousands of such decisions must have taken place in the world of The Last Of Us. But the unnecessary Kathleen created an unnecessary backstory for Sam and Henry and turned these two beloved characters into just two more people for the meat grinder.

In the game, Sam and Henry were a positive element. Pure. In the series, thanks to a small but still black mark, they took away that aura of a ray of sunshine among rain clouds, trampled it into the ground, and flushed it down the drain. I apologize for the light metaphor, but I really perceived Sam and Henry in the game that way. Henry goes completely against the grain of all the world's negativity with his character. For a small moment, he even makes Joel smile! That made their dramatic death an even more traumatic experience for me.

What I must praise about this episode, on the other hand, is the bloater. Also, the change that Sam is deaf – and actually played by a deaf actor, Keivonn Woodard – brought a completely different dimension to all the scenes. And then the clicker-child! I enjoyed that very much. Paradoxically, about 30 seconds before the clicker-child appeared on the scene, I asked into the silence why we don't actually see any clicking children in TLOU.

In the series, we see them! And how beautifully they twist!

Episode VI. Kin

Three months after the events of the previous episode, in the utopian town of Jackson, Joel finally met his younger brother Tommy. I was curious about Gabriel Luna, as Tommy is an amazing character – he's a tough guy, an idealist, but above all, a good person. Even if he might not think so about himself.

Again, we saw some visual and plot changes here – Maria, Tommy's wife, is pregnant. At first glance, a fairly insignificant change serves more as a means for a heated exchange of opinions between Tommy and Joel. Joel's “weak” moment shows the main character as an insecure fifty-year-old struggling with his own demons and physical shortcomings – which is a novelty and probably the first scene where I had to praise Pedro for his acting performance.

The truly iconic scene in the house where Joel and Ellie argue is played brilliantly by Bella Ramsey, but not so much by Pascal. I don't believe the heated interaction from him. He looks somewhat stiff.

I see Gabriel Luna as the biggest positive of this episode. Hand on heart, I have some reservation about every actor compared to the game casting. Something grates on me with everyone. Whether it's Pascal's “dum-dum Joel,” Bella using the word “fuck” a bit too predictably, the unnecessary Kathleen, or the anti-hero Henry.

But Luna? Nada… nothing. From the first minutes, I got exactly the kind of emotions from him that the game Tommy evoked in me after the encounter at the hydroelectric plant. I bow, I applaud, and I thank him very much for that glimpse of the good old days.

Episode VII. Left Behind

The episode title Left Behind is the name of the game expansion of the same name. I have good news for those who don't like that I'm constantly comparing the game and the series. I haven't played Left Behind! So I have nothing to compare it with – and for the purposes of this article, I haven't looked at the expansion yet.

As the first positive, I see the song by Pearl Jam that plays shortly after the episode's intro. I'm a Pearl Jam fan. And it's not the only track by this band that is connected to TLOU, so a second thumbs up from me.

The seventh episode takes us back a few weeks when Ellie is part of a military school. It shows us something of her past. How she is perceived as just another survivor in a post-apocalyptic society, and she has no clue about her uniqueness yet. Although the episode is again a bit of “filler,” it lets the viewer look into Ellie's soul, and again for those who might have had misguided assumptions – yes, Ellie is a lesbian in the game too. 😊

Paradoxically, I probably don't have much more to add to the episode. It's a bit like episode III. It just works as a standalone element. It's slow, but visually spectacular. It has something magical in it, but also something heavy and dramatic.

Episode VIII. When We Are In Need

For me, the best episode of the entire series. Even though it was in this episode that I realized for the first time how much I miss encounters with clickers, runners, bloaters, etc. The series is actually not action-packed at all. And I'm not a fan of action movies. I prefer to think rather than listen to the sounds of screeching tires or machine guns. But Ellie in the game goes through some pretty tough moments with David, the leader of a group of survivors from Silver Lake, and because of that, the player might have a slight tendency to ask whether David is really “evil.”

Of course he is! I'll even dare to say that because David got more space in the series, he is a much bigger [insert favorite swear word] than I thought. I'm not exactly blown away by Scott Shepherd's performance – the game version of David, played by Nolan North (Nathan Drake from the Uncharted game series), is much scarier in tone of voice and in that friendly approach of a textbook psychopath. Shepherd's David is treacherous from the first look, so there's not much to think about.

In the episode, we also briefly meet a character named James. David's right-hand man.

It was interesting to watch how Troy turned a completely secondary and whiny young sidekick into a character with something that could be described as moral depth. Perhaps even a conscience.

The scene in the burning house then awakened in many of us who encountered the game version a desire to throw bricks and empty bottles. My thoughts also revolved around the expectation of whether Ellie would jump at David's throat several times (as it was in the game). Neither of those happened, but it didn't take anything away from the drama of another iconic scene.

In the final scene, when Joel catches up with Ellie shortly after the young teenager let loose on the nasty abuser, I have to agree with Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin again. Pedro's expression perfectly captures something between fear, apology, and remorse that he didn't fulfill his duty as her self-appointed protector.

Unfortunately, even here I let out a slight sigh. Joel and Ellie meet outside in the village, where there is absolute silence and not a soul in sight, while the steakhouse is burning quite obviously.

Where is everyone?

In the game, Joel finds Ellie in that burning house, and a blizzard is raging outside. Their escape from Silver Lake is therefore well hidden. During a beautiful calm like in the series, they are easy targets, and anyone can follow them.

Episode IX. Look For The Light

In the last episode of the series, right at the beginning, we meet Anna - Ellie's mother, who was played by none other than Ashley Johnson - the game Ellie.

The last episode (at least from the beginning) follows the game's development. The beautiful scene with the giraffes is a real gem in the game, and they copied it almost perfectly in the series. They even hired a real giraffe named Nabo. But then we got a few changes that, on the contrary, spoiled the experience of the dramatic finale.

I really missed the scene in the tunnel where Ellie almost drowns just before reaching the goal.

I still don't get the sequence where Joel looks at the list of floors (to find out where pediatrics is), then asks the guy where Ellie is, and when he doesn't tell him anything, he snaps that he doesn't have time for this and shoots him. What exactly doesn't he have time for? For confirmation? He already knows where to go! Why then does he waste time with questions at all? ….other than the obvious intention of the creators to imitate the scene from the game.

In the game, Joel doesn't know where to go, so he ambushes a guard. He puts a gun to his stomach and asks where the operating room is. When the guard is silent, Joel replies that he doesn't have time for this (logically, he doesn't have time for games) and then shoots him to force him to talk through torture. When the guard doesn't cooperate, he shoots him again. And then the guard answers. Joel finds out what he needs and puts the guard out of his misery.

That sequence makes more sense. Honestly, the series version of this situation reminds me of that “Tired of drama?” commercial for Zalando. 😀

During Joel's progress through the hospital, I would highlight the use of mournful music in the background of the whole situation. That was very well done and created a beautiful contrast.

Final Thoughts

The creators and actors repeat it. The Last Of Us is a series about love. About the kind that brings joy. But also the kind because of which innocent people will die. The series is very elaborate, largely faithful to the game source material. It maintains a constant pace and only occasionally stumbles in episodes where the creators wanted to expand the existing lore.

The game The Last Of Us Part I. is dramatic, even horror-like. I know more than one player who had wild dreams because of it. Which speaks to its ability to get under your skin. Unfortunately, the absence of more frequent encounters with the infected makes the world in the series less scary. The need to be on guard and constantly watch your back is missing. Often, a few such clickers could have pushed the emotions to the maximum.

Pedro Pascal, although I am very satisfied with him as the Mandalorian (or rather with his voice work, as he himself is not on set that often physically), I don't believe his Joel. He portrayed him as too inaccessible, unrefined, cold, and flat. Just a few days ago, I watched the game cut-scenes from the game for the umpteenth time and tried to clarify what bothers me about him so much. I know now. He doesn't act like a father. He acts like a bodyguard, not like a dad.

When Joel carries Ellie out of the hospital at the end of the game, you feel and see a certain dilemma - he knows he's doing something wrong, but he does it anyway. It's fighting inside him, and you perceive it. Pascal is a bum-bum burrito who kills everyone and looks like he doesn't really care.

Probably the only moment when I caught that right warm feeling that should be appearing in Joel for a short moment was the scene where Pedro starts laughing spontaneously at a silly joke about diarrhea. It somehow breaks that shell of indifference, and only when he says almost at the end: “Go to sleep,” does he sound like a parent.

Joel is not insensitive. He is brutal, tough, and unyielding. But there is also a large dose of care and empathy in him. In the series, however, it often seems to me that Bella is a better parent to Pascal than the other way around.

Overall, my opinion of the series is that I perceive its contribution to cinematography. It set the bar damn high for game adaptations, and I believe it will take home several awards in the coming season. It helped a completely new group of viewers discover what the rest of us have loved for years – albeit in a different form.

Rated by numbers, I give it 80%. I can't go higher because I lack a reason to return to the series. I am the type of viewer who can watch a movie or series until I go crazy. That is a key factor for me, through which I know that a work has completely consumed me. I've seen the cut-scenes from The Last Of Us at least thirty times. Some episodes of The Mandalorian more than ten times. But the TLOU series? Thanks, but I don't need to. I'll be back for the adaptation of The Last Of Us Part II.

author Eva Lassler