HBO’s television adaptation of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed video game The Last of Us is slowly coming to the end of the first season. The series was praised equally by fans of the original video game and viewers who have never come across the game before (now they have a good reason to play it since it’s set to arrive on PC this month, almost ten years after its original release on PlayStation 3).
Two episodes ago, episode 6 showed us how Joel and Ellie finally reached out to Joel’s brother Tommy, who told them that there might be a few Fireflies left at the University of Colorado. Although they found a bunch of monkeys there, there were no Fireflies or anyone else. Well, except for some men that they managed to escape from, but not before one of them stabbed Joel in the stomach. Joel managed to kill him, and Ellie escaped with a wounded Joel on her horse. All of this lead up to the events of this week’s episode.
In the newest, penultimate episode of the first season, we witnessed events that are already well-known to the game’s fans. While taking care of Joel in some snow-bound village, Ellie meets David and James, and as the episode is going, we find out that those men from Colorado were, in fact, a part of David’s group. David’s group is seeking revenge against Joel for killing that man called Alec that stabbed him in the previous episode.
Beware of spoilers for The Last of Us episode 8. Keep reading at your own risk.
How does this week’s episode continue the story of the previous ones?
Episode 6, aired two weeks ago, followed Joel and Ellie as they finally reached Tommy in Jackson, Wyoming, where they also met Tommy’s wife, Maria. Joel wanted Tommy to drive Ellie the rest of the way and take her to Fireflies as he had promised. As it was later revealed, Maria told Ellie the truth about Joel’s deceased daughter Sarah, and after Ellie mentioned her to Joel, he changed his mind and decided to complete the task given to him in the first episode.
Joel and Ellie rode on horseback to the University of Colorado, but once again, Fireflies had already left the place. Joel and Ellie soon meet the group of raiders. When they attempt to escape, Joel is attacked by one of them. Joel manages to kill him but is stabbed during the struggle. Ellie helps Joel to get back on the horse and escape the other raiders. But once they escaped, Joel collapsed, and it was up to Ellie now to save him. The next seventh episode is titled Left Behind, which covers the story of the homonymous DLC of the first game. The episode showed a time when Ellie was trained by FEDRA and her relationship with Riley, which eventually led to her being bitten and finding out she was immune.
The latest episode included a part that gaming connoisseurs will immediately recognize. Although Joel is the main playable character in the game, this part of the story is the first time the player plays with Ellie. Ellie did what she could to dress Joel’s wound, and when she went hunting, she met David and James. When you play the game for the first time, the game even tries to convince you for a while that David is actually a good guy until the plot twist happens. The series compressed that part of the game to fit it into a single episode, but it still managed to deliver it in a satisfying way.
Ellie learns from David that his group is looking for the guy who killed Alec, a member of their group, and he also tells her that the man they’re looking for traveled with a little girl, realizing it’s Ellie. Ellie runs back to Joel as David prepares a group of his men to look for them the next day. Ellie tries to drag them away from Joel but is captured. While Ellie is locked in David’s cage, Joel wakes up, kills David’s men, and finds his way to Ellie, who has meanwhile managed to kill both David and James in a rage.
Only one episode left… for a while at least
There is only one episode left in the first season of the series. HBO has already renewed the series for the second season, but it’s presumed we will wait a while before it happens. Next week we will see the closure of this first season, and we will meet some new characters, including Ellie’s mother, who is played by Ashley Johnson (who played Ellie in both games).
The series’ star, Bella Ramsey, has previously teased that the season finale will probably divide fans. The game’s fans already have some idea of what will happen, and we do not doubt that the first season of this acclaimed adaptation will go out with a bang. The first season’s final episode is set to arrive on HBO next week, and this week we watched the penultimate episode that has set the stage for the finale. Fans have no reason to worry. HBO already confirmed the second season.
The first season of The Last of Us will conclude on March 12, 2023, on HBO. The series is streaming on HBOMax.
