The Last of Us (HBO)

[LittleLinda]

Episode 4 was kinda underwhelming after last week's but still good. Ellie is really growing on me.

I'm always a bit confused when they cut to scenes so suddenly with all these new people and we're meant to understand what's happening - some woman's brother is dead/missing and someone called Henry is being blamed for it? I'm guessing the guy and his kid at the end were Henry and Sam? They're a separate community who are against FEDRA and Fireflies?

Yes, the two at the end were Sam and Henry. In the game, they just happen to pass through town like Joel and Ellie.
There is no personal connection to the Hunters, they are just a group of merciless marauders, who rob and kill “tourists” for resources (and, yes, they hate FEDRA, but pretty much everyone does).
I guess for the series they invented this female character and Henry being allegedly responsible for her brother‘s death to give them more reason to hunt the four down. It might come off a bit strange if they chase down a measly four people, just for a handful of resources (although one could probably justify that with the fact that some of their people got killed during the attempted ambush).

I must say, though: I hate that new female character. Total miscast in my humble opinion. She came across like a bratty child rather than any kind of leader that others would likely follow.

[aaliyahman]

The last episode was kinda boring. After Ellie helped Joel out, I kind of warmed to her a bit.

The Soccer Mom villain leader was *a choice*.

[Jason2379]

Episode 5 was probably my favourite.

Spoiler!

I found it sadder than episode 3. Jesus Christ

[GreekGeek]

Episode 5 is the best so far. Shocking and epic. The bloater was amazing!!!

[Thriller]

It was so bloody sad and depressing

The sinkholes are epic. What the f*** was that huge beast?!

[GreekGeek]

^It was a bloater. I don't know if they will explain it at the show, so I used the spoiler tags with some more info. Be cautious.

Spoiler!

The bloater is the next evolution stage of a clicker and it takes many years to develop; it's obviously more strong. Because of it's thick skin, it's way more harder to kill.
Runner>Stalker>Clicker>Bloater

[aaliyahman]

I liked that episode. Finally for me I got to see some touching moments with Ellie. She annoys TF out of me most of the time.

Does this happen in the game? I think it may get a little stale to have them visit a new area and then all the characters (storylines) are so neatly and definitely *concluded*. It’s the same thing the walking dead did albeit at a much slower pace.

[GreekGeek]

^Yeap. She's annoying in the game too.

[LittleLinda]

^Yeap. She's annoying in the game too.

I didn’t find her annoying in the game at all. I don‘t mind her in the show, either, but I do think that version comes off a bit more “bratty” than her game counterpart. Maybe that’s also because (at least to me) Bella looks much younger than 14 and naturally seems like more of a little kid.

She also comes off as a bit of a gun fetishist on the show, whereas in the game she also keeps asking for a gun but it seems much more rooted in common sense and the simple desire to not feel useless in dangerous situations.

@ aaliyahman: The Sam & Henry storyline was quite a bit longer in the game, but the conclusion was the same. In the game

Spoiler!

we generally spend more time with them fleeing through the city and there is a moment where Sam & Henry ditch Joel in a dangerous situation and Ellie jumps back down to stick with Joel instead of fleeing with them. They later redeem themselves by saving Joel and Ellie from drowning and there is an interesting little section in the sewers where the group gets separated by a blast door, leading to Joel having to protect Sam and Henry having to protect Ellie until they rejoin.

Overall, I felt that in the game the outcome was even more impactful, because we spent so much time with them, but it is obvious that for a TV series you have to trim down a lot, as in a non-interactive medium it would probably seem a bit drawn out and redundant.

I was disappointed that they completely brushed over the fate of Ish and his sewer crew, in the game his story was only told through notes and corpses, but it was very sad. I obviously didn’t expect them to read notes in the series - that would’ve been stupid and clumsy exposition, but I did expect them to show or at least hint at a certain room.

But overall I liked the episode a lot. As usual, I feel like they are keeping a nice balance between faithfulness and diversion.

[aaliyahman]

Okay please fill me in on Ish and the sewer crew. I read all the notes in games like this and live playing these games for that reason

[aRat]

I am starting to get bored by this. The parallels to The Walking Fad are just too much just like Rihab said earlier.

[westhammer]

I’m finally up to date - what a great series. Ep 5 was the best so far, thrilling!

I really like Ellie - she’s an amazing actress. She’ll definitely be getting award nominations for this

[LittleLinda]

Okay please fill me in on Ish and the sewer crew. I read all the notes in games like this and live playing these games for that reason

Spoiler!

Ish had a small fishing boat. When the outbreak hit he first decided to stay on the water in hopes that things would blow over, but obviously he was eventually forced to get back on land and holed up in the sewers. He met some strangers (Susan, Kyle and their children) but was hesitant to tell them about his safe haven out of fear from all the looting and killing that was going on around him. Eventually, his loneliness grew so much, that he decided to seek them out and invite them into his hideout. They started to become more and more self-sufficient (water filtration systems and so on) and invited more people, growing into a small community with lots of children. So basically he turned from a cautious loner to the revered leader (together with Danny, from the “Ish & Danny - our protectors” child’s drawing) of a loving little community.
Due to a simple mistake by someone, infected made it into the hideout and the community got completely overrun. Kyle barricaded himself in a room with most of the children, with infected clawing at the door and no way out. He ends up mercy killing all the kids and committing suicide, to spare them from becoming infected or being torn apart by clickers (we find all the bodies and his farewell note). In the game the former members of the community still roam the place as infected. Later, in the next section (suburbs) you can find a note from Ish in one of the houses, where we learn that he and Susan made it out of the sewers with some kids (not Susan’s, they died with Kyle). They basically lost everything and most of their friends and their ultimate fate remains unknown.
Ish’s note implies that he doesn’t know how to console Susan and that he feels suicidal, but still has faith in humanity and wants to stay strong for her.

[Rihab]

I am starting to get bored by this. The parallels to The Walking Fad are just too much just like Rihab said earlier.

girl you almost made me doubt myself

now I’m glad we didn't bother with it beyond that one episode

[Thriller]

Episode 6 much slower than the last one but that ending surely not…!

[aaliyahman]

LittleLinda Thanks I think that would have been a great story to include rather than fleshing out Soccer Mom’s vendetta.

The last episode was pretty boring. It was great seeing one of my favourites Rutina. Missed her since True Blood. I’m also glad it wasn’t the typical; turn up, all of a sudden the community ‘goes wrong’ and is destroyed in 1 episode.

Ellie still annoys the hell out of me. I get that she hasn’t been around society but the timing of her interactions with others abc the constant bravado swearing. I just want her to shut up.

The ending was sad though.

[GreekGeek]

Ep. 7 was another brilliant and heartbreaking episode. Congrats to HBO!

[Jason2379]

Oh no episode 7 was by far the most boring for me.

[aaliyahman]

This episode was awful. I understand exposition but we are literally watching a television series of ‘flashbacks’. In 7 episodes, there’s been like 2 hours of actual ‘progress’ in the story.

Im getting really sick of this ‘trauma of the week’ approach where it’s intended to make us give a damn about a character, kill them off so that we can ‘feel more’ about Ellie. This whole episode, whilst nice, was a waste of time and could have been ‘episode two’ at half the length.

Theres been a few very high points this season but TWD has it beat for its consistent story telling early on.

[spiritboy]

This episode was boring, i'll agree with that.

[LittleLinda]

I was curious to see how they would handle the David storyline. Pretty close to the source material.

One thing that surprised me (technically, that was already in the last episode, but the Riley storyline was just a DLC and not part of the main game), was that they didn’t use the big cliffhanger from the game:

Spoiler!

In the game, when Joel gets injured at the university and falls off the horse, there is a time jump from Fall to Winter and we start out with Ellie in the woods, hunting the deer. It isn’t until she asks David and James for penicillin that we figure he must still be alive (although her lie about now being part of a group could also have been true, for all we knew at that point). While most TV watchers would probably assume that Joel somehow survived, it could have been a nice little guessing game, if they had drawn that reveal out for a while - but they decided to show it in the very first scene of Ep 7.

[aaliyahman]

Although this was again a ‘villain of the week’ episode, I enjoyed it. I had pretty much figured the ‘twist’ at that freaky ass town from ‘when can we bury him’.

The fight was good and the underlying intentions of that evil ‘prophet’ and his need for young girls was pretty compelling when it unfolded.

A friend told me that the ‘doubting cult member’ was the real Joel voice actor?

[Jason2379]

Yeah I really enjoyed this weeks episode. A big improvement on last weeks

[GreekGeek]

A friend told me that the ‘doubting cult member’ was the real Joel voice actor?

Exactly.

This week's episode was fire!

[LittleLinda]

Although this was again a ‘villain of the week’ episode, I enjoyed it. I had pretty much figured the ‘twist’ at that freaky ass town from ‘when can we bury him’.

The fight was good and the underlying intentions of that evil ‘prophet’ and his need for young girls was pretty compelling when it unfolded.

A friend told me that the ‘doubting cult member’ was the real Joel voice actor?

Yep, Troy Baker. Btw, he sounds nothing like Joel in real life, he did a really awesome job of mimicking a “fifty-something Texan guy” in the game.
As far as I know Ellie’s voice actress will appear in the finale, although I don’t know in which role.