The Last of Us episode 2 landed on HBO Max on Sunday, and it noticed Ellie, Tess and Joel taking the primary steps of their darkish journey throughout the US. Followers of the classic video game will undoubtedly be happy at how carefully it mirrors the supply materials.
There have been a number of main deviations from the sport, although, so let’s dive into these.
Cordyceps origin
Because the recreation limits its focus to Joel and Ellie’s views, references to the pandemic’s origins are restricted to notes and previous newspapers scattered across the atmosphere.
In distinction, episode 2’s opening flashback reveals how the Cordyceps fungus introduced the world to destroy in 2003. After being bitten by an unknown particular person, a lady working at a flour and grain manufacturing facility in Jakarta, Indonesia, chomped on her coworkers earlier than being gunned down.
A number of of those individuals have been executed to cease the issue from rising, but it surely was too late. After being consulted by safety forces and discovering that the lifeless girl’s physique had been colonized by the fungus, mycology skilled Ibu Ratna (Christine Hakim) affords some terrifying recommendation: Bomb town to cease it from spreading additional.
Ibu Ratna realizes the world is doomed.
HBO
Apparently accepting that this was the tip, Ratna asks to be taken dwelling so she will spend no matter time she has left along with her household. Sequence author Craig Mazin informed CNET that is scariest moment in the show for him.
“That is terrifying to me,” he stated. “It grounds every part, and the extra we will make the peripheral really feel actual, the extra the middle will really feel actual.”
So, yeah, cheery stuff. In his deep-dive into the science behind the show’s fungal pandemic, CNET’s Jackson Ryan famous that we’re massively depending on rice, wheat and maize as meals sources. If any of those have been contaminated with a fungal pathogen, it may very well be devastating.
Within the recreation, Cordyceps spreads by way of spores — Mazin informed ComicBook.com that they changed it for the show to keep away from having characters carrying fuel masks on a regular basis.
The sport forces characters to keep away from Cordyceps spores.
Naughty Canine
A darkish destiny
Mysterious teen Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is proof against the fungal mind an infection that has lowered a lot of the populace to savage cannibals, so smuggler companions Tess and Joel (Anna Torv and Pedro Pascal) have been tasked with delivering her to the insurgent group often called the Fireflies. They hope to copy Ellie’s resistance and restore the world.
The episode’s 2023 story sticks carefully to the sport, proper all the way down to Tess hiding the truth that she’d been bitten by one of many contaminated within the Bostonian Museum. They attain the Capitol Constructing and discover the corpses of the Fireflies they have been meant to convey Ellie to.
Tess reveals her wound, accepts that she’s doomed and calls for {that a} reluctant Joel convey Ellie to their buddies Invoice and Frank, to allow them to assist get Ellie to the Fireflies.
Tess needs to see the world restored, even when she will not be there to see it.
HBO
“You get her there. You retain her alive. And also you set every part proper,” she says. “All of the shit we did. Please say sure, Joel, please.”
Within the recreation, troopers of the authoritarian remnants of the US army arrive on the constructing and Tess stays behind to delay their adversaries. She’s shortly gunned down, however her sacrifice provides Joel and Ellie the prospect to flee.
The present, nonetheless, sees a horde of contaminated descend on the Capitol Constructing, and Tess stays behind to cowl Joel and Ellie’s escape. She dumps fuel and grenades everywhere in the ground.
“Joel, save who it can save you,” she says, prompting him to drag a struggling Ellie to security.
Joel immediately finds himself answerable for Ellie.
HBO
Because the contaminated rush in, Tess struggles to ignite the lighter and blow all of them up. A very horribly mutated contaminated notices her and tendrils prolong from its mouth into hers — by no means have I wished a flame to ignite extra.
A lot to our aid, she manages gentle the fireplace and closes her eyes earlier than the explosion kills her and a bunch of contaminated. Ellie and Joel witness the blast from outdoors, and a quietly devastated Joel walks away.
We do not know why the present’s creators opted to make use of contaminated for this second as a substitute of troopers, but it surely appears doubtless they wished to strengthen the hazard of the Cordyceps fungus simply because it was revealed that Ellie may very well be the supply of a treatment.
The awful story continues on HBO Max next Sunday, Jan. 29.
