The Last of Us (HBO) TV Show • Page 69

Them trimming out the looting/major infected parts of the game and just focusing on the core storyline of the first game has been great. I don’t know what more they could accomplish with a bigger university scene aside from just the more infected you encounter there? They did a good job capturing the essence of the game play with that scene at the Boston history museum, I don’t really think you need to focus on it further much in the tv series.

 

The university stuff fits within the context of the storyline we have seen to this point. Newcomers got what is going to seem like a random storyline thrown in that doesn’t push the story forward.

I would appreciate this episode a bit more within the context of the show if the series wasn’t showing some pacing issues.

 

Totally fair - The University stuff was just a much, much bigger section of the game vs being only a passing mention in the series. I understand the reason for skpping the exploratory stuff and have mostly loved that, but my only point would be the left behind stuff does no more to push this story forward than additional university stuff would have, both for gamers and newcomers alike. And this episode could feel completely out of context for those who haven't played the game/dlc.

 

You ever feel like you're watching a different show than someone else

 

haven't played the game and I didn't really feel anything off with the university sequence. maybe a tiny bit rushed but it was nothing egregious and the ending shot was pretty powerful

honestly the end of this episode threw me off more lol, was like it just ended mid scene. did she disinfect the wound at all or???

 

shame on them for developing a character

 

theres a guy in my office who has, very apparently, played the games a ton - and every monday morning he spends his first like hour breaking down each episode to other coworkers and comparing each scene to how it happened in the games, but like, more lamenting "this should have been this" and "this was better in the game" and "well they should have done this" and it really makes already bad monday mornings even worse.

 

shit I’ve been watching this is us the entire time

 

whenever someone says the fast series isn’t good

 

is this not the bluey thread

 

tell him to get a life lmao

 

This bothered me almost as much as them not sleeping in the truck earlier this season.

 

i think theres plenty of valid criticisms on last night's episode, but this one feels like the first episode (and i could be wrong) where the people who really like it are gameplayers and people who really didnt are non-gameplayers - kinda felt like they made this episode for the people who played the game. it was a bit weird at times, honestly kept waiting for them to begin like singing or something while they were jumping across the rooftops, felt like a weird scene out of a musical or something.

overall i love the backstory and development, and man just once again even a few brief interactions between her and and joel are so powerful.

 

There's valid criticisms for the show - but things like "ugh i wish they did it like the games more, so much better if it was 1:1" or the unrelenting "WOKE" stuff - dumb, dumb dumb.

Anyway, I really liked how Left Behind is now a sister episode to Long Long Time. Instead of the nearly 2 decade long love story between 2 grown men, we get one night of young dumb teenage romance when anything feels possible - even in the apocalypse.

 

I didn’t play the game and this episode was made for me. It showed me a lot of good character stuff for Ellie. It informs me of how she is feeling in present day. I learn that she awkwardly built up to her first kiss and how it was taken away almost immediately, making her a harsher/more jaded person. Another person who “abandons” her. When Riley sort tests the waters saying she was imagining Ellie in the lingerie and then Ellie does a quick check in the reflection, as if she was like “OMG, does she like me, do I look good?” It all worked really well.

But that was just for the game players? Huh.

Also, massive LOL at complaining about not moving the story forward. Tell me you don’t understand stories next time. That’d be more honest. As someone who grew up on Power Rangers and then got into shows like LOST, needing the “story” to move forward every episode has never ever ever been a metric I use for tv or any story broken into pieces in some way.

 

"FILLER EPISODE" needs to be removed from discourse around tv just like "woke"

 

If anything I think it’s made for non-players. Even if it doesn’t move the general storyline forward it gives one of its main characters development up to her time to meeting joel. I feel like her time at the school, first love interest and how she had gotten bitten which they didn’t tell viewers up til this episode are s big development in her arc.

but I guess there are viewers who don’t care about that which is fine! But it’s still integral to her.

 

for a lot of people Joel seems to be the main draw to the series— and I get that bc I love his character just as well— but Ellie has always been the heart and soul of it to me, especially with Part II. I think this episode gives some necessary insight into her character and it adds weight to her fear of “ending up alone.” and it feels important to get to see a bit of Riley as an actual character on screen, adding some weight given Ellie will likely mention her at the end if the show stays true to the game’s ending (which I see it doing given the scenes they have decided to adapt most faithfully). it’s also possibly the most faithfully adapted episode yet, some very minor differences but overall so much of it felt ripped from the DLC directly. idk I get that it wasn’t quite as intense as some of the prior episodes have been, but it has a lot of heart and I think it might have Bella’s best performance so far for me. she felt so authentic as a nervous 14-year-old who is trying to play it cool with her crush and also deal with the conflicting feelings of resenting Riley for leaving her and also obviously being very elated to see her again and pretty much swept right off her feet by the night Riley’s planned out for them. it had such tender sweetness up till the end which made the dread all the more tough to bear to me, and really amped up the horror and tragedy when they end up jumped by the infected and bitten.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s my favorite episode, but I definitely don’t think it’s the weakest episode yet (I think on its own merits 4 is definitely my pick for weakest so far tho I still love it as a companion piece to 5). I also feel like, despite the fact it’s presented in a weekly episodic fashion, it’s best to be taken as a whole rather than judged on a per-episode basis. I have a hunch some people are going to like this episode more once the show is finished and they’re able to revisit it on their own time.

 

Since we are going to be following Ellie for 2 more seasons, episodes like this are very important on a macro level

 

I think I probably would have liked it more if we had seen how her and Marlene met tbh. Like, I didn't need to see her kill Riley, but I would have liked to have seen a scene where she's struggling to understand why she isn't changing and Marlene walks in with the rest of the Fireflys and etc.

 

I think it's pretty apparent at this point what the show is, and considering we've had a whole episode side story already, and other moments where the story meandered a little, it should not have felt out of place. It's taking its time on the emotional beats in lieu of action beats and they have said in the podcast, that they consider an episode like 6 with all the tough conversations, to be every bit as exciting as an actual action sequence.

I also disagree that it does nothing to push the story forward. Knowing who Ellie is now, and what her background has been (and how she got bit.. was that not a massive question on everyone's minds??), adds so much to the scenes we're already seen, and no doubt will add additional weight to the moments ahead.

One piece of advice I'd give is to go back to episode 1 and just re-watch Ellie's scenes with Marlene (as those basically take place right after this episode) and it'll give you a new appreciation for it and additional questions.

example, my wife thought I spoiled something when I said that Marlene knew about Ellie and that's what Riley was talking about and she said 'no... Marlene just meant 'no Riley, you can't just recruit random friends'' so we had to go back and watch the first scene where Marlene says she placed Ellie in Fedra School. She had missed that Marlene was specifically aware of Ellie and specifically trying to keep Ellie from the fireflies^ game people - I do not know how this ties into the game... it's always been a bit fuzzy to me but if anyone wants to read this and then respond in spoiler kind about the game comparison in case I missed anything that'd be cool.
Basically is it clear in the game Marlene and Ellie's mom's connection and is it basically implied that Marlene know Ellie was immune from birth or is she just being protected due to a friendship bond? The show seems to be setting up her immunity as something long know

 

Also in a non-subtle attempt to derail this thread into bickering and chaos my episode ranking so far is:

1 / 3 / 6 / 5 / 2 / 7 / 4

 

6 > 3 > 5 > 1 > 7 > 2 > 4

 

god damnit.

 

Loved the episode…but figuring out a Mortal Kombat fatality when having never played the game, easily the most unrealistic thing in this so far.