Spoilers below for the Season 2 premiere of The Last of Us, so anyone who hasn’t yet watched on HBO or with a Max subscription should be warned!
To be expected, The Last of Us’ Season 2 premiere set the stage for heart-shattering and brain-melting outcomes, many of which I covered as they happened in my live Last of Us watchalong coverage on Sunday night. In the days that have since passed, I haven’t stopped thinking about some of my favorite moments. As a Kaitlyn Dever fanatic, her debut as avenger-in-mourning Abby comes close to the top spot, but the sheer abundance of video game references really took the cake. (The cake is not a lie.)
Pedro Pascal’s Joel getting more physical with Seth than it went down in the game. Suffice to say, the episode ended by giving Ellie another reason to be mad at Joel, but that specific reference to the games is not one I’ll be celebrating. I just want them to be happy and cool with each other again. Sigh.
Here are some other excellent moments that came straight out of the pair of Last of Us video games.
- Ellie and Tommy sniping Clickers (even if the time-frame was changed for the TV show)
- The Savage Starlight poster on Ellie’s wall is the same as the one from Part II
- Dina bringing up the movie Curtis and Viper, which is a series that Joel loves
- Eugene’s weed connection (which will probably be explored in the next episode)
- Ellie detail-cleaning her gun, which happens each time the player upgrades a character weapon
- Ellie writing in her journal
- The banjo player at the party is musician Gustavo Santaolalla, who has crafted music for both the show and games, and was also in Part II himself, also playing a banjo
The Last of Us will continue giving fans epic moments from the video games in the weeks to come, as well as moments that were crafted specifically for the TV show. (Such as the second episode introducing Joe Pantaliano as Gail’s husband Eugene, who only existed via photograph in the game.)