Spoilers THE LAST OF US (TV Show) - SPOILERS (for all mediums)

[Casey]

Were you hoping for something different? That went, more or less, exactly like the game did.

[Craig H]

Killing Joel was fucking stupid in the game. Making you play as Abby to feel sympathy for her was even dumber.

And look, if their intent is to keep the story beats the same, fine, whatever, but I’m not sticking around to watch their depression and melodrama fest. There is enough of that shit in the world.

So the way it played out more than it actually happening is what annoyed me the most. This had all of the hallmarks of the worst crap from Game of Thrones, but worse. Before we even get to the incredible plot armor on characters, the way Abby and Joel meet is just so stupid and the biggest of convenient coincidences. She is presumably searching for Joel for 5 years. They’re stationed out of Seattle or wherever in the PNW. It’s ludicrous to think Jackson Hole, WY is the only large settlement they’ve come across because the game world has already established government controlled settlements across the country. Abby’s crew would have been murked a long time ago, but here they are and they’re just astonished at Jackson Hole not only because it’s larger than they thought seeing it in daylight, but because they have security detail, which is practically EVERY city settlement. This time they’re sure Joel is in Jackson. So Abby just happens to venture out by herself when they’re doing recon in pairs before that. She almost quite literally slips on a banana peel to trigger an infected Zerg rush. And while fungi and cordyceps can survive in extremely cold conditions, these are bodies that have deteriorated and have been buried in probably -20 to -30 degree temps and snow. Those bodies shouldn’t be moving that fast, but whatever, everything else is convenient so let’s allow it. Abby escapes one disaster after another only to be rescued in a random ass town by Joel? AND…you see these infected running fast enough to keep pace at a distance from a horse. Just a few minutes prior Abby is outrunning them. So Abby, in snow, is faster than a horse?!

By the time Abby goes golfing I didn’t even care or have the outrage I felt during the game. It just didn’t hit that hard because of everything that led to that point. Pairing Dina with Joel was maybe the one thing that may have better than Joel and his brother.

The rest was just spectacle for the sake of spectacle while shrouding anyone with a name in plot armor. Jackson Hole has all of these defenses and a wall, but they never bother to dig a wide trench around the perimeter to slow down anyone? The horde breaks through and ONLY the bloater and no other infected chase Joel’s brother into that back alley? Plus, it took a whole tank of fuel that ran out incredibly fast to barely take down a single bloater?

So just seeing that and knowing what I know, I don’t particularly care to continue watching flashbacks and Abby centric episodes.

Plus, my biggest complaint is that from the start I thought Dever would have been the perfect Ellie. Now here we are and Ellie’s character is so insufferable and looks so young that it just feels more like a little kid lashing out than someone like Dever who looks more mature and could make Ellie’s rebellious streak more tolerable. I’m just not very thrilled with what they’re giving Bella Ramsey.

[AxB]

In the games, Ellie is 14 in the part one and 19 in part two. Abby is supposed to be 2 or 3 years older.

[Curt McGirt]

Watched the second episode. 

Yeah, this isn't for me. As soon as I saw the bloater I thought "yeah this is based off a video game" immediately. Here's a boss character you have to defeat. *eye roll* It just gave me more running zombie vibes, more CGI, stupid people going in the dark doing stupid things, the girl gets bit and survives, she is 

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

insufferable

by the way. I know she's supposed to be a rebellious kid but it's just irritating as hell. She also looks really weird, like if she's 19 she somehow looks ten years younger. That's just a comment not a criticism. People can't help how they look and I'm sure she's a fine actor. 

I suffer from zombie burnout anyway. I also have to admit selfish reasons. Zombies were always a horror nerd thing and now they're an 'everybody' thing and I think that sucks, because I'm an elitist prick about things I like sometimes. All forms of horror have and will be for everyone but the popularity is something I just have to bear nowadays. It's not my little personal treasure of a fandom anymore, only for the weirdos and sickos. 

[Casey]

I feel like in Part 2 you kill way more actual humans than zombies/infected. Probably Part 1 too, I never played it only watched a YouTube playthrough because the PS3/PS4 game was janky. Comparing the game and show to Walking Dead isn’t a fair comparison, IMO.

Welp, looks like I’ll be the only one in this thread every week because I loved Part 2 and Joel should absolutely die for what he did.

[Curt McGirt]

[worldcupfever]

On 4/21/2025 at 7:01 PM, Casey said:

Welp, looks like I’ll be the only one in this thread every week because I loved Part 2 and Joel should absolutely die for what he did.

I'll be here as well, I just was a bit behind because all of the Mania week shows got me behind on my programs.

[driver]

Finished up season one and caught up on season two over Tues/Weds. Hell of an ending.

[Casey]

This was a slower episode, probably meant to give the viewers (and characters) room to breathe after Joel's death. Interesting that they've switched it up with Tommy not leaving for Seattle first, I'm assuming he'll do what Ellie & Dina did in the game and stumble upon their kills and eventually save them with his sniper skills.

I'm so curious how the season will end. It's episode 4 this weekend, so either 4 or 5 left after this Sunday - do we get into the thick of the revenge tour this season, or save most of it for Season 3? If we get into it, there's several good points where they can leave off on a season finale type thing. I have a preference, but they'd really have to speedrun the kills of Abby's crew, and I don't think that'll happen, since they're also fleshing out the WLF versus Seraphites and backstories for both groups as well.

[Craig H]

I think it’s only 7 episodes this season.

[EVA]

Not sure about where they’ll finish in the present action, but I would imagine the emotional climax of the season will be the flashback to Ellie learning the truth.

[Contentious C]

Far enough along with the second game that the show can't really spoil anything for me, since I'm probably past any meaningful flashbacks once you get to the Rattlers. 

At first, I thought the narrative structure of the game was manipulative gimmickry, and while it's certainly the first word there, I don't think it's just a gimmick. When you only know a limited amount of information, it's easy to plow forward and 'fuck yeah' your way through a bunch of head shots and mini-bosses.  But the compelling thing the game does is let you cheer what you think are victories at the hands of Your Hero and then rips every single one of them away from you, as we see the depravity climb and we glimpse the real mindsets of opponents/victims. And so the Abby section isn't to feel sympathy for her.

It's to feel sympathy.

All of it is a nightmare, all of it is Hell, and a totally avoidable amount of it is brought on by fear, and grief, and guilt, and rage.  Some deaths couldn't be helped, like Nora once she falls into the sub-basement. But the specifics, the how? That was a choice. And it leaves its mark.

Whether the show can find a path towards the same strength of emotional connection, I'm not sure. It's naturally different just because it's no longer immersive, and that already makes the job harder.  Shows and movies usually excel at smaller keystone moments that were blink-and-you-miss-it fast in the game (like Lev knowing the perfect time to ask what the deal was with Abby and Owen). I guess they're trying to give the show the time to lean into that build-up. 

I do agree about Kaitlyn Dever, though; if they'd done the first season more contemporaneous with the game releases (like starting the show in 2018 & airing this in 2022), she would have been great as Ellie. But the casting for the other Wolves bugs me a bit. Mel and Owen especially, but then again, their VG faces were not Patrick Fugit or Ashly Burch to begin with. 

Edited May 5 by Contentious C

[Casey]

I'm confused, are they doing spores now? The teaser for next week's episode implies it, which is interesting.

At this point, it kind of feels like they're saving the bulk of the killing spree for Season 3, which... eh, okay I guess. There's like three moments I would have loved for them to end this season on, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen (Mel & Owen, Nora in the basement or Abby & Dina).

[EVA]

I dunno. They made it all the way through Day 1 in Seattle in that episode, and they’re clearly getting through Day 2 next week. They could knock out a day per episode the rest of the way and get to the showdown by the finale. Only question is if they break up Ellie’s story by doing a Joel/Ellie flashback episode (which I’m pretty sure they are) or do an Abby-centric episode (less certain about that now).

[Casey]

They made it through Day 1 on Ellie's side, yeah. I guess a big tell of what they're doing with this season is that I believe they never cast (or announced, anyway) the roles of Lev & Yara. This season is probably slowly introducing us to the Scars to prepare us for a Scar heavy S3?

So, what, Abby vs Ellie theater fight by the finale, and then S3 picks up with Abby's side of Days 1-3 and we jump to the present with the final trek to Santa Barbara? I guess that could work. They're definitely going to change things about the Mel confrontation and the conclusion to the theater fight, unless they really want to do a

Spoiler

murder of a pregnant woman and a brutal beating of a pregnant woman

within minutes of each other (or separate episodes).

[Contentious C]

I was thinking about that myself, but it's a little weird that WBD would be shy about it, while Disney just did a film last summer with corpse desecration played for laughs and no one batted an eye.

[Casey]

I don't think it's because they'd be shy about it or anything (they did it in Game of Thrones years ago), but it's more about giving each moment its own space to breathe and exist instead of cramming both so close together. It's why I wish they weren't seemingly doing Ellie S2 and Abby S3 1/2.

All I know is if they change the Santa Barbara and farmhouse ending, I'll be really upset.

[Contentious C]

I can't decide if Abby making a crack to the tune of, "Is there a paramilitary organization you people haven't toppled?" before the final fight would be sacrilegious or a welcome bit of levity for that grueling ending.

[Craig H]

I was bored and decided to see what has happened. My god. That last episode was so fucking cringey and baffling. Ellie’s delivery of, “I’m gonna be a dad!” made me wonder just how fucking dumb these characters are. Like, the timing of saying it, how she said it, just everything had all of the gravitas of Giovanni Ribisi in the Other Sister. Plus, WHY AREN’T THESE CHARACTERS FUCKING FILTHY?!? Neither has cleaned up or showered in over a week. They then continue HBO’s long tradition of most awkward and ill timed sex scenes. I thought back to how ironic it was for Dina to ask Ellie if she needed yeast infection medicine when they bookend the episode with Ellie’s filthy ass fingers all up inside Dina. Why is Dina so gorgeous and made up? Why does her hair look perfect? Why does Ellie have a smudge of dirt on her face in one shot and it’s gone in the next? Why do they repeat stupid shot from the game like making unnecessary noise when they think the area is clear when it’s abundantly clear that the infected are smart? 

It’s so frustrating to watch because all of that is juxtaposed with really beautiful moments and scenes like Ellie playing and singing Take On Me, intense moments with Isaac who is perfect, and really beautiful scenery and sets. Like, what the fuck is going on here. I’m over them going golfing at this point because of how dumb some of this other shit is. Much like we’d wonder why Vince couldn’t learn from the mistakes of WCW, why can’t Druckman and Mazin learn from the mistakes of the Walking Dead?

[Curt McGirt]

Because The Walking Dead STILL has people watching variants so there's no need to learn?

[Contentious C]

I thought Isaac didn't get nearly enough of what was coming to him in the game, but DAMN if that wasn't a hardcore introduction in the show. Hi, Jeffrey!!

And TV Dina is such an improvement over game Dina.

Edited May 10 by Contentious C

[Casey]

I was smiling ear to ear for the entirety of the hospital scenes. I’ll probably do that every time they directly adapt the revenge killings. I’m still baffled as to why they’re doing the spores now after an entire season of not doing it, but whatever.

next week is the penultimate episode (and it appears to be a flashback), so I’m genuinely curious as to where they end this season. One episode left basically if the next is entirely flashbacks, and there’s still Mel/Owen, Abby arriving at the theater and killing Jesse/the first Abby & Ellie fight/beating the piss out of Dina.

These motherfuckers are gonna end the season with Ellie killing a pregnant woman, aren’t they?

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Seemingly the natural stopping point would be Abby killing Jesse and you leave the showdown with Ellie as your cliff hanger. But there's too much to get through I would think.

Only way around it is if next week is only half flashback and half the lead up to the Mel & Owen confrontation. You start the finale with that confrontation and end with the Abby killing Jesse. But that seems pretty rushed when this show has been very good about it's pacing so far.

[Casey]

57 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Seemingly the natural stopping point would be Abby killing Jesse and you leave the showdown with Ellie as your cliff hanger. But there's too much to get through I would think.

Only way around it is if next week is only half flashback and half the lead up to the Mel & Owen confrontation. You start the finale with that confrontation and end with the Abby killing Jesse. But that seems pretty rushed when this show has been very good about it's pacing so far.

Actually, they have a lot more to cram into the last episode if 1) around this section of the game is their end point, and 2) if the pen-ultimate episode is a full length flashback. Manny gets sniped by Tommy, Ellie goes to confront Mel & Owen alone, then Jesse dies at the theater, Abby chases and fights Ellie, beats the fuck outta Dina.

Ending the season with Ellie distraught over what she just did to Mel sounds good to me, though. Then you start Season 3 with another shock (Abby killing Jesse, beating the piss out of Dina) and then we transition into Abby's three days in Seattle before we go to the Homelife and Santa Barbara sections towards the end of the show. But I have NO idea how they'll fit Abby's side and the final part of the game into one season, it'll have to be like 10 episodes or something.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

That's right I forget they still have to reconnect with Tommy and have him snipe Manny. And if they plan on telling the whole flashback with all the astronaut stuff its going to need a full episode for sure.

Your ending point makes sense then. The shock of killing a pregnant woman. Ep 1 of S3 can start with Abby finding out and marching into the theater and end with Abby having Dina at knife point and Lev staying stop. Then ep 2 jumps into the Abby flashback and leads us back to that same point as the s3 ending point where she let's them go.