Yeah he turned into John Wick but he did say he was in the army or marines I don't remember, maybe he was special forces.

It's based on a video game where most of the game you are in control of Joel and that whole final hospital scene is the last level of combat in the game to save Ellie. If you had strained belief in the way they made that scene in the show then your head would explode in disbelief at the body count Joel runs up in that part of the game. Imagine about 20 to 30 more soldiers with superior weapons. In the show he only had to get through a handful. Regardless it's just a show so sometimes you just have to let your guard down a bit to 100% reality.

I grinded through The Wire a few months back for the first time and loved it but one of the other things it did for me was made me realize how ridiculous some of the action scenes, etc were in Breaking Bad in comparison yet I still enjoyed watching and consider Breaking Bad a great show.

His brother joined up with the marines joel was a construction worker. He learned/adapted since the apocalypse though. The KC episode showed that with the line "ive been on both sides" during the ambush and Sam realizing he is the heavy who can get them out of the city.
Not a single bullet from assault rifles hitting joel in the narrow corridors of the hospital did feel a bit like john wickt hough tbh.

Poor finale, good season with some very high highs. 7.5/10 for me.

I thought this was going to be 10 episodes, so I didn't actually know it was the finale until I opened this thread, heh.

I think where they went wrong is that Marlene isn't the villain. But they made her sound villainy with the whole "we are in your debt" spiel, then three seconds later its "Kick him to the curb, give him this knife as a memento, and kill him if he tries anything". You just said you owed him...

I don't think any human alive would actually act that way.

Good points Coordi and just re-watched the game scene to see the differences and the game's version was better and more believable in my opinion. Although I think they were trying to be hospitable to Joel in the show which also sort of makes sense in a reality where he came all that way with her and delivered the possible savour of mankind to them. That's why they probably made Marlene seem more cordial in the show but agree with your point that she then does a complete 180 only a few short minutes later.

Yeah that is wayyyy more believable an interaction, at least imo.

Didn't David (cannibal leader) say he sent the four raiders out to find supplies?

It just occurred to me that "supplies" probably means "food" which means "people".

There was no obvious reason for the raider to attack Joel. But, if his goal was to kill for food, it makes sense.

As someone who has never played the game and couldn't give two shi*s about how close the show is or isn't to the game, I enjoyed the first season quite a bit. It was very well done.

Only saw finale now, I liked it but like a lot of stuff in this show it just felt a bit rushed to me. This show could've used some long scenes without major plot but just character development. I know we got quite a bit of these, but it still feels like it wasn't enough.

One thing I didn't fully understand, did Ellie realize she was going to die? Was that why she was sad during the first half of the finale? Or was she sad that her trip with Joel was ending, and she was entering the big unknown? I'm quite convinced it's left up to interpretation, but want to make sure. Is it more explained during the game?

For me, Joel came out of the finale as a very flawed character, you understand everything he does in the finale, and I still root for him, but I am thinking "should I still root for him?". I feel like the show really tried to make it look like he did what he did more for himself than for Ellie. The scenes before they got taken really gave off "Joel can't see a life without Ellie anymore, regardless of what Ellie would feel or want"-vibes.

Once he kills everyone he of course has to lie to Ellie, but still it felt very dirty to me.

Do you feel the same in the game? Or does the game manage to make it look like Joel does "purely" a good thing by saving Ellie?



It also almost comes across as unrealistic that him & Ellie would have never discussed this potential scenario in their travels (that Ellie needs to die for the cure), but I guess Joel sees Ellie as an innocent kid and wouldn't want to discuss that topic ever, even if Ellie would try to approach it. I assume it's also never a topic of discussion during the game?



I wonder if Joel thinks to himself right now "I will tell her and let her choose when she turns x years old". He will never do it, but I wonder if he is lying to himself right now. If this comes up in TLOU2, I don't want to know . I already know too much about TLOU2 .

good stuff bbfg. It probably should feel rushed as they mostly just replicated the story or narrative from the game. Mostly just re-shot the cut-scenes from game with a few additions here and there.

There are two ways to tackle this problem in my opinion....

1) add more character development and or characters(who cares if it follows the game frame by frame). The game is called 'The Last of Us' so give us the backstory and bring the other characters into greater definition or just add new characters into Joel and Ellie's world.

2) follow the game's story line frame by frame but have way more action because obviously in the game you are constantly battling infected or human adversaries through action gameplay.

Apparently HBO and the creators decided to do neither and instead they did a fairly good re-iteration of the game's cut-scenes and told a reasonable story.

I enjoyed it but I do think most people that liked or loved the game would appreciate it just being made to begin with as it's one of the top rated video games of all time. It's also easier for people that played the game to fill in the holes or lack of action as we played as Joel and Ellie and realize all the constant **** they were put through in the game.

So in response to some of your questions.....

Ellie does act like that in the game and it's not necessarily because I think she worries of death but more so she's probably become slightly addicted to the survival and her relationship with Joel. The 2nd game kind of shows this more with Ellie. Ellie isn't developing into an at home take care of the kids type Mom of a woman. She's probably starting to get addicted to the action and the elements of survival in the post apocalyptic world. So for the most part I think she is just overthinking things like many teenagers might be thinking around her age and contemplating all the aspect of their journey until this point and also to as where it will lead in the future.

As for Joel. I'm not sure how you'd take him as only watching the show. Obviously in the game; gamers are mostly playing the game as Joel protecting Ellie. I had no problem with his decision although I see both sides to his choice.

Naughty Dog mentioned in their recent podcast that when they made the first game it was a controversial ending unto which people that played the game and had kids seemed overwhelmingly to support Joel's decision but that there was less decision amongst people that played the game and didn't have kids. It's not an easy choice and I certainly can understand both sides which is why I think it makes the game and the story so great in a way.

The “rushed” thing was my only real complaint about the show. I think the reason it’s bothered me as much as it has is that the show did it at the end of episode 6 once Ellie and Joel left Jackson. That was the most “TLoU” the show felt and it was done in a very short period of time.

With the last episode’s lengths all being 52min or less, so much could have been done in those. It didn’t need to be pure dialogue scenes either, just simply a short hand developed between them for how they traverse areas. Environmental storytelling and such.

I did feel a bit of a difference between the game and show in what the “Okay” meant, though Neil and Craig said otherwise. I also felt a big difference in some of Joel’s reasoning. I’m 100% for what he did, but in the show, it came off as more selfish and in a way made Ellie’s reaction feel different. The “time heals all wounds” and his “it wasn’t time that did that” were added in the show and changes the vibe of the ending for me. Unfortunately, a Part 2 exists when it didn’t when the original was made.

Good point - I did not put this together until you spelled it out. Joel was no different than a deer to them

Speaking of that episode, I was initially under the impression that only David, Buddy Boy and maybe 1 other knew what they were really eating. But I’ve heard from others who thought that quite a few others knew what was going on, but the main guys didn’t know they knew. Also that when the said “…rabbits and such…” that it was about their hanging bodies…. Can’t wait to rewatch this episode lol

I'm not sure who knew but that last meal they showed them eating after David smacks the young girl; does anyone think that they may have been eating her Dad? She wanted them to bury her Dad in the beginning and David mentions the ground being too cold and they were desperate for food and later it doesn't really look like they cut up the deer they brought back from their encounter with Ellie and shortly before that scene of them eating the young girl talks over him at the meeting for not avenging her Dad's death.

It's clear that they wanted to show David with a much greater portion of food than the rest of the group and they did but something in my mind thinks that they also may have been eating her Dad and that David was getting great satisfaction of it.

I think she knew and was worried that they’d eat her dad if he didn’t get buried. Due to the sizes of the bites from the others and the size of David’s plate… 100% her dad. Never been a doubt in my mind lol

I think a reasonable portion of people needed to know to be able to capture and cook the bodies, so you've gotta have the hunters in on it, possibly some cooks unless the hunters are doing the skinning/cutting of meat and the cooks can't tell the difference? I've never chopped a human body up for consumption so can't really say.

But judging by the general demeanor of most everyone in that mess hall when it was mealtime, I have a feeling many of them at a minimum suspected what was going on with the food supply, if they didn't outright know.

Quick take: "The Walking Dead" for adults. One of the best shows on TV. I picked up the video game and already finished. Show is very faithful to it.

I was dubious about Bella Ramsey at first, but she's awesome in that role.

It seemed strange that he did indeed have so much more on his plate than the others, and no one raised an eyebrow. I get that in situations like this people might be prone to latching onto a figure as their unquestioned leader and savior, but when you're starving and one guy himself gets to eat more than several others combined - I can't see how that can play out long term without pushback.

True but everyone in that group looked completely checked out and probably would rather die than deal with what they’re dealing with. But they can’t bring themselves to do it

I'm bingeing the series at the moment and enjoying it and reached ep 7. I just want to say as I know the last 2 eps will be a lot better but for that episode to be turned in for a HBO produced show and by the co-creator and creator of the actual game was a pure disgrace. I assume Mazin is the showrunner and just gave Druckmann free reign to write this episode himself with no other input and just said stuff it let's go with it when he read the script because it is god awful. If it wasn't for how fanatical the support for the series is it would easily rate in the low to mid 6s on IMDB. Rant over. Need to do a lot better for season 2 than to roll out that tripe

Now that was a crappy cliff hanger.

I dont know about this show .. some of its REALLY good, dark and gritty, and then we got the CW teen drama right alongside it.

Main problem for me, just like the games, is Joel was by far the most interesting character.
I get it story wise and what they are going for, but i really dont care that much about all the other characters. It all feels very rushed to, just like the S1 finale.

Probably gonna watch S3, but this was a big step down from S1 imo. Highlight was action in ep 2 and episode 6... because of Joel.

Agree completely.

yes Joel is the draw of the show for me, probably cos male/same age group etc

but in general i really like this series the one episode a week kills it though i think