Another week means another offering of The Last of Us was released, and this one was the most spot-on episode compared to the entire game.
There will be spoilers revealed in this review so please read with caution.
First off, kudos to HBO for making sure this episode was not released on Sunday. I loved the fact that they realized the biggest sporting event of the year meant no one was going to catch the premiere, so they released it on Friday. This meant that we didn’t have to wait as long for a new episode, but now we have to wait longer for the next one.
I want to jump right in and reiterate how close this episode was to the game. The scene with Joel running to the house of the sniper put me right back into the mission. It further shows how badass Joel is as well as how much he cares for Ellie. I loved how, as Ellie is trying to save everyone, Joel is right there hitting every single clicker in sight.
But I also want to talk about the bloater. Seeing him in live-action was unbelievable and just as terrifying as in the game. Watching him rip the head off that raider was beyond satisfying, but it shows how dangerous the infected can get. Plus, we get to see more of how scary the clickers can be when the reincarnation of the exorcist girl runs around and bops the Karen of the raiders.
However, by far the most important part of the episode is Henry and Sam. I loved that we got to see more of the backstory behind them and why the raiders were hunting them down. I thought the writers did a great job of showing the innocence of Sam and how Henry is trying to keep a strong face to preserve his innocence.
This leads to the most heartbreaking scene: Henry has to kill Sam when he becomes infected. That interaction is always traumatic no matter how much you have seen it. The acting there was phenomenal and made it just as shocking when Henry kills himself; he can’t deal with the pain of having to kill his brother.
I keep wanting to reiterate this because idiots on social media don’t realize this. This show is not about the infected at all. It is about human relationships and emotions during a time where this is hard to come by. Everything with Henry and Sam emphasizes that this is the main message of the show and the game.
This episode was unreal and probably my favorite of the season so far. It truly has become one of my favorite shows of the last 5 years and arguably one of my favorites of all time. You better tune in next week on HBO Max and catch up while you can.
Rating: 95/100 – Inferno
