Note: This review contains spoilers for Episode 8 Season 1 of the series The Last of Us. You can read the review of the episode The first. Andthe second. Andafor a third. Andfourth. AndFifth. Andsixth. Andseventh. And the eighth.
The first season of the series has ended The Last of Us And finally, with the ninth episode, which is titled Look for the lightwhich not only provides a near-identical conclusion to what we saw in the game, but also answers one of the biggest questions from both the game and the series: Why is Ellie immune to infection?
The episode is divided into 3 main sections, the first being new flashback footage of the game in which we see Ellie’s mother Anna (played by Ashley Johnson, the games Ellie’s voice actress) running through the woods from the infected chasing her. The last few episodes have been so lacking in the appearance of any of the infected, that we begin to forget that they exist in this world. But finally, this episode begins with this terrifying and wonderful scene, which is stunningly cinematographically set to tense background music.
Ellie’s mother was bitten seconds before she was born, and it appears that the fungus passed on to her before she could cut her umbilical cord, but instead of infecting her, the fungus took hold and made her immune. This was one of gaming’s big unanswered questions, and the series manages to deliver that answer in a great way, in a compelling way. We also get to see Marilyn in the past and how Ellie became her responsibility after her mother’s death in a very touching scene.
The second section is what’s left of Joel and Ellie’s trip to the hospital. We clearly see (and a great performance by Bella Ramsay) how Ellie is affected by what happened to her in the community of cannibals. Not only did she kill David in self-defense, she emptied all the anger and grief within her on his skull, which turned into minced meat from her blows with the machete. Those terrifying moments still dominate her, so she gets out of her usual fun and dives into her silence and wandering, with Joel’s repeated attempts to draw her attention and cheer her up. Those scenes that brought them together at the beginning of the episode were among the most moments in which we see Jules acting tenderly and expressing his feelings so far, and the most moments in which we see Ellie calm and silent as well.
The most prominent sights on that trip were the sight of giraffes. Although it is almost completely identical to the game, it takes on a more dramatic character with highlighting the facial expressions of Jules, who says through his looks much more than dialogues of thousands of words, so he looks at her with the looks of the father full of tenderness and love as she feeds the giraffe and smiles for the first time after each What happened, that was a moment of serenity and it is very important because it was the moment that woke Ellie from her stupor after she saw before her that there were still beautiful things worth living, and for both of them also as they remember that each of them is worth fighting for (i.e. each other).
Where we see after the end of that moment Jules hesitates, as he does not want to reach the end of the road as they approach their destination, he does not know what will happen if he reaches it, will they be able to stay together? Will this be the end of their journey together? But Ellie refuses to go back and half-solutions, after everything she’s been through it must all make sense, and after she’s killed all those people, plus others she considers her cause of death like Tess and Sam, she should be able to help find a cure to save many lives Maybe she can make up for it.
And speaking of killings, Ellie answers one of the lingering questions as well, What happened with Riley? In the game, Eli tells Joel about Riley and what happened, but she does not literally tell him that she killed her, but in the series she says to him: “I had to do that”, indirectly indicating that she killed her after she transformed. It was a revelation that was not easy for her to talk about.
Another notable difference from the game is Joel’s confession to Ellie that he shot himself in an attempt to commit suicide after the death of his daughter Sarah. And he reveals to her in a very touching scene that after his daughter’s death, he no longer sees any purpose in his life, and responds to Ellie’s words that time is enough to heal all wounds because it is her, and not time that makes him feel the importance of life again. Pedro Pascal’s ability to convey so much emotion through his facial expressions and looks without any words deserves awards, which made this one of the most prominent and influential scenes throughout this season.
Pedro Pascal’s ability to convey so much emotion through his facial expressions and looks without any words deserves awards.
The past two episodes have centered almost entirely on Ellie, but this one is a well-deserved Joel episode. Pascal’s ability to switch so suddenly from tenderness and love to brutality is commendable. They are two completely opposite faces, and Pascal performs this spectrum of feelings brilliantly. Whereas, in the third part of the episode, after they finally found the fireflies, Joel is forced to go to save Ellie after discovering that they are going to kill her in order to extract the fungus from her brain. In the game, he tells Marilyn that a fungus is growing “around” the brain, while in the series he tells her “inside the brain” which means the inevitable death of Ellie. This gives a more logical than gaming motive for what Joel does next.
The series is clearly trying to give Joule a less ruthless personality than the games. In the games, players are accustomed to seeing the murderous side of Jules with the many confrontations that he wages against the bad guys or the infected alike, but in the series we did not see this side of this magnitude except for the last episode when he tortured members of the cannibal community, and other than that we only heard About the extent of his cruelty and his ability to kill. But here, even when he has to kill or torture, there is always a rationale that makes us understand what he is doing.
However, the final episode offers us a very cool action scene that unleashes Joel’s fighting abilities. He suddenly transforms into John Wick style, killing everything around him even if he doesn’t have to, enhanced by the bleak soundtrack of the show’s theme tune but with a darker beat, adding more impact to the scene because we feel like we’re inside the mind of Joel who no longer sees. Or he hears anything around him because he’s focused on only one goal: to save Ellie, even if that means killing all the people around him to get to her. She became his world and his whole life, and he will not allow what happened with Sarah to happen again with Ellie.
Not only does he save Ellie from the Fireflies, but he also tries to protect her from herself by lying to her. Marilyn makes him aware of the shocking truth: Ellie has accepted to sacrifice herself in order to save humanity, and he will not accept to risk it, so he tells her that there are many like her who are immune and that the Fireflies have stopped looking for a cure. It remains to be asked, was this the right choice? The obvious answer is, of course, no, especially since Ellie trusts him so much, and thus he would betray her trust in him. But do we understand why he did that? Of course we do!
Another question we might ask is: Did Ellie really believe him? We cannot know the exact answer, but we can conclude that despite her doubts about what happened, she does not engage in discussion much. She asks him to swear to her that what he says is the truth, and she is satisfied with that. but why? Perhaps because she, too, did not want to know the truth in order to relieve herself of the burden of guilt, she would not want to die, especially since she had finally found the family she longed for with Jules. Her greatest fear was living alone, but she found it, the image of a loving father who would do literally anything for her.
And so the first season of the series ends with the pair’s arrival in near Wyoming where Tommy’s sympathetic community lives in peace and security, the perfect environment for their family to live in together. Although the season lacks a lot of injured people, it establishes a wonderful relationship between Joel and Ellie, and portrays their journey with enough sincerity to the game, and at the same time delving into new revelations through flashback shots to give more depth to the events. And with the promises of Neil Druckmann and Greg Maisen that the game Part II “Needs More Tv Season, Definitely” Which means it can be divided Part 2 To at least two seasons, as well as confirming that there may be some moments that are radically different from what players experienced in the game The Last of Us Part IIAnd based on what we’ve seen so far in the first season, I’m very excited to see where the series will take us in its upcoming seasons, and the same applies to everyone, both players and viewers alike.
Pedro Pascal shines this episode with a wide range of emotions, and he closes the season with one of his best action scenes to date, albeit devoid of casualties. The episode sticks to the game for the most part, but when it doesn’t, it gives us answers to some of the most lingering questions from games and series alike about our beloved heroes’ pasts. I can’t wait to see where the series takes us in its next seasons.