[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 1.]
On the floor, The Last of Us appears to have arrived a number of years late. Zombie fever has already swept by means of the media panorama; The Walking Dead got here and went, as did varied spin-offs and knock-offs. Pandemic-adjacent tales light due to the, nicely, pandemic. With all that in thoughts, did we actually want HBO’s newest post-apocalyptic drama?
Yes, we did. The Last of Us’ 80-minute premiere treads a number of acquainted paths (particularly if you happen to’re a fan of Fear The Walking Dead’s first season), however it additionally affords a novel post-apocalyptic panorama, memorable characters, and even some groovy tunes. Sure, we’ve seen zombie apocalypse tales earlier than, however we haven’t seen them like this—and for a present concerning the lifeless claiming the world, The Last of Us has loads of soul. Here’s what occurs within the premiere.
The Last Day
We’re first launched to Joel (Pedro Pascal), his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and his teenage daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), on the very begin of the outbreak in 2003. They’re all comparatively blissful collectively—Joel’s not probably the most up to the mark as a single father, however the love between him and his daughter is actual. Unfortunately, as a result of this can be a post-apocalyptic story, that love can’t final. Over the span of a single fateful day, an outbreak spreads throughout Austin that turns individuals into sprinting, twitchy, flesh-consuming monsters known as “Runners.”
Joel, Sarah, and Tommy handle to flee the pandemonium unfolding of their neighborhood, however they run into hassle on the freeway when—as in any apocalyptic story—everybody’s making an attempt to get out of the town. To say these scenes are intense can be placing it mildly. When Sarah discovers one in all their neighbors gobbling on a supply man, it’s grotesque and chilling; Sarah, Tommy, and Joel wind up within the metropolis whereas making an attempt to flee, which leads to a pulse-pounding, neon-lit, claustrophobic sequence with individuals and Runners swarming round their automobile.
A Horrifying Heartbreak
A airplane crashes on the road, and a bit of particles smashes by means of the window. Sarah’s knocked unconscious. When she involves, Joel’s pulling her from the ruined automobile; with an ankle damage, working’s out of the query for her. Joel carries her. He and Tommy cut up up, promising to satisfy on the river. “You keep your eyes on me,” Joel tells his petrified daughter, “and you don’t look anywhere else.” Unfortunately for them each, as they transfer by means of the burning metropolis, they draw the eye of a hungry Runner. The pulse-pounding chase sends them crashing by means of an deserted restaurant. They make it out onto the patio, and simply when it seems to be just like the Runner may take a bit out of Joel… somebody fires a gun, dropping the monster. A soldier!
As ordinary in a lot of these tales, the army is lower than competent. (It’s not like they had been significantly better on Fear The Walking Dead.) In this, nevertheless, they’re actively dangerous, and so they deal Joel an unfathomable loss. The soldier orders the daddy and daughter to remain put whereas he confers along with his supervisor over the radio. Suddenly, the soldier opens fireplace, hitting Joel within the leg…and Sarah within the abdomen. Tommy makes it to them, however there’s nothing to be finished. Sarah dies in Joel’s arms, and Joel won’t ever be the identical.
HBO
Joel’s Plan
Twenty years later, we open on a sequence of a kid wandering by means of the woods. They make it to a spot known as the “Fedra Quarantine Zone,” the place they’re introduced safely inside… however when it’s found that the kid is Infected, the officer administers them a deadly injection whereas telling them they’ll have the ability to go play with all their favourite toys. (Heavy, heavy stuff.) Later, Joel—who lives within the quarantine zone—is doing soiled work: burning our bodies. When the girl he’s working with sees the kid’s corpse, she recoils and tells him she will be able to’t do it. He picks up the physique and tosses it on the hearth and not using a phrase. And that’s the way you present character growth, all in lower than 5 seconds.
Joel and his girlfriend, Tess (Fringe alum Anna Torv), have been illegally bartering with Fedra guards in hopes of securing a automobile and a automobile battery to allow them to go after Tommy (he left three weeks earlier, and he hasn’t come again). Joel’s capable of get a lead on the truck, however the man who’d stated he’d promote them a battery scammed them and offered it to another person. Tess and Joel resolve to trace him down.
The Start of an Epic Journey
While all of that is occurring, we meet spunky, rebellious Ellie (Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey). She’s been captured by the Fireflies, a bunch that opposes Fedra. Their plan, their chief Marlene (Merle Dandridge) explains to the captive teenager, is to take away all of the Fireflies from the quarantine zone so as to take Ellie out west. As with all of the best-laid plans, that goes sideways. Joel and Tess, of their seek for the battery, wander right into a constructing after which right into a hall plagued by our bodies. That constructing is the exact same the place the Fireflies are maintaining Ellie. With their forces crippled from the firefight, Joel and Marlene make a deal: he’s to take Ellie to the Fireflies’ checkpoint, and so they’ll give him what he wants.
The deal is struck, and that night time, he, Ellie, and Tess begin sneaking out of the quarantine zone. As destiny would have it, they run immediately into one of many guards Joel was bartering with earlier. He forces them to their knees and scans all of them for an infection, however earlier than Ellie’s outcomes come by means of, she stabs him within the leg. “Move,” the soldier orders them by means of gritted tooth, and Joel, remembering the person who shot Sarah, springs ahead and beats him to dying.
Tess then notices Ellie’s scan got here again crimson: she’s Infected! Or is she? Ellie reveals her a three-week-old chew mark on her arm and insists she’s superb—the Fireflies needed to make use of her as a remedy. In the tip, they don’t have any alternative however to run lest the Fedra troopers discover them, and so they all take off into the waterlogged ruins of a metropolis to the tune of “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode.
The Last of Us Season 1, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO