Episode 1 of The Last of Us ends with a big reveal and a sequence that promises problems for the rest of season 1. We explain.
[Mis à jour le 17 janvier 2023 à 16h31] Attention spoilers of episode 1 of The Last of Us in the rest of this article. Episode 1 of The Last of Us opens with footage from a 1968 show in which an epidemiologist explains that fungi have the potential to harm civilization if global warming allows them to proliferate. In particular, he cites the cordyceps among the threats to the human race. In 2003, we discover little Sarah Miller and her father Joel who celebrates her birthday that day. The young woman is keen to give him a nice gift and decides to have him repair his watch. During the day, several strange signs alert us: the increased presence of the emergency services and the police almost everywhere in Austin, the hardware store which must close shop in the middle of the afternoon, a student whose hand seems to be full of tics and, finally, an old lady who seems to be convulsing in the background… Something is wrong.
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And it is Sarah who first discovers the disaster: humans seem to be taken by a strange disease which makes them extremely aggressive and cannibalistic. She is saved by her father and her uncle Tommy who decide to leave immediately as far as possible. They are then witnesses of the disaster: the city is stormed by the infected who pursue them. Just when they think they are saved, a soldier is ordered to execute them to prevent the spread of contamination. Joel escapes with a scratch but Sarah dies in his arms soon after.
The rest of the episode takes place twenty years later, in 2023. We discover the quarantine zone of Boston, where we do not hesitate to euthanize a young boy positive for cordyceps infection. The quarantine area is walled in and protected by the military and FEDRA, the Federal Disaster Response Agency. On the spot, the group of Lucioles, rebels, oppose the tyrannical yoke of the army. The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, has found a very special girl. Ellie is held prisoner for a reason that we will learn at the end of the episode: she is immune to infection. Bitten three weeks ago, she still hasn’t transformed.
In the course of the episode, we find a Joel who seems naturally broken by the death of his daughter. He is also involved in rather dark dealings with a FEDRA soldier. He is also seen abusing alcohol and unidentified pills. With Tess, he leaves to retrieve a car battery he needs to search for his brother Tommy outside the quarantine zone. They come face to face with Marlene in the HQ of the Fireflies who have been decimated in a shootout. Reluctantly, Joel and Tess agree to lead Ellie out of the quarantine zone in hopes of getting everything they need to join Tommy. They are surprised by a soldier who holds them in check. Carried by the memories of the death of his daughter, Joel throws himself on him and kills him with his fists. Tess and Joel then discover that Ellie is cordyceps positive but hasn’t transformed yet. They then decide to continue their journey in the contaminated zone.
What does the ending of episode 1 of The Last of Us mean?
Episode 1 of The Last of Us ends with a shot of the radio station in Joel’s apartment. This airs Depeche Mode’s 80s track “Never Let Me Down Again”. The song was released in 1987, which has narrative significance as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) pointed out during the episode. Indeed, the young woman discovers in Joel a list of the greatest pieces of music as well as a code relating the decades of publication and the message that it represents. We therefore understand that it is a musical code used by Joel and his brother Tommy to communicate non-verbally. In this code, songs from the 1980s – as learned through Ellie – represent danger. This is therefore promising for the continuation of the adventures of Joel, Tess and Ellie.
Among the revelations of this episode 1, we will also mention the fact that Joel and Tess learn that Ellie is contaminated. Indeed, during their arrest, the soldier had time to test them and the red monitor tends to prove that Ellie is a carrier of the cordyceps infection. Of course, this greatly surprises Joel and Tess, but Ellie tries to reassure them: she was bitten three weeks ago and she has absolutely no symptoms where, traditionally, infected people take a few hours or even a few days to show early symptoms. This revelation coincides with the secrets evoked by the Fireflies, including Marlene who considers that Ellie is more important than anything. We understand that Marlene imagines Ellie as the key to a possible cure for the infection, hence the need to transfer her at all costs outside the quarantine zone to a laboratory held by the Fireflies.
Can we watch The Last of Us without having played the games?
The event series The Last of Us is broadcast in France on Prime Video in streaming from this Monday, January 16, 2023. The first season, consisting of nine episodes of approximately one hour each, is written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann ( The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II). Season 1 must adapt the entire first game released in 2013 exclusively on Playstation 3 at the time before being ported to PS4 and then to PS5. For many viewers who have not played the games, this series will undoubtedly be their first contact with the universe of The Last of Us. But then should you have played The Last of Us before watching the series? The answer is no.
Like any adaptation, The Last of Us series is aimed at fans of the original work as well as potential new audiences. Because it is indeed a question of attracting an even wider audience than fans of The Last of Us game. episode 1. Neophytes should therefore not be lost at all. Connoisseurs, meanwhile, will have the pleasure of detecting the similarities between the game and the series but also the differences, because the series The Last of Us from HBO also allows itself liberties with respect to the original work, always in the respect for the history of the game. In other words, we will benefit from many references when we played the game but it is not at all necessary to understand the history of the series, fortunately.
Is The Last of Us series faithful to the games?
Co-written by the screenwriter of The Last of Us, the HBO series scrupulously respects – at least in its episode 1 – the narrative structure of the first game. In fact, quite a few surprises are to be found in this first episode for those who have already played the original work although the series allows itself liberties and deepenings at many points. The series The Last of Us sometimes even uses word-for-word dialogues or even plans directly taken from the game. Proof, if any, that this adaptation is particularly faithful to the game The Last of Us.