I feel weird. Ultimately, I am conflicted. You see, I always heard about the game 'The Last of Us', a PlayStation game, revered for its gameplay and fantastic story. I want to say I even watched the cinematic on YouTube at some point, but it was so long ago, once I got to the game, I only remembered a fight between two people, but could not remember the other story beats. I started 'The Last of Us' series without playing 'The Last of Us Part 1' game, so everything was new to me. Joel, Ellie, the Fireflies, the world, it was all new to me when watching the show. I had no idea who Tess was or the guy and his brother or the two lovers, Bill and Frank, but it was all captivating. It was a great story being told and laid out to us, but to a brain that did not know what was happening. But last night and since I have now played the two games, part 1 and part and completed them, I honestly do not know how to feel about the execution of THE SCENE, if I already know how it went cinematically via the game. I just do not think it hit me the way Ned Stark did in season 1 of Game of Thrones.
We pick up with Abby and her gang caught out in a storm, held up at a Lodge. They see the town in the distance they believe Joel to be in. In trying to devise a plan to get Joel, Ellie, and Jesse go out on a morning patrol, only to be caught in the storm and having to seek shelter. Whilst works are being carried out on the pipes, authorised by Joel, the underground network of fungus attract the horde and the people of the town are forced to defend the town from the infected and as Joel is reported missing, Ellie goes after Joel to try and help him only to find him with Abby. This episode was great. It started slowly, but the tension gradually built up until it was chaos. When Abby was caught by herself and the workers disturbed the fungus, is when it all kicked off. The episode was VERY reminiscent of the episode 'Hardhome' in Game of Thrones (look it up - it is so good, well, in my opinion). All the different infected running and attacking, and then we have the rescue, and then the scene at the Lodge. Everything in this episode was executed exceptionally well, although I do feel I should have waited for the show to conclude to be hit with that emotional gut punch, or maybe I am dead inside. Either way, maybe I should not have listened to my friend and played the game first. Going forward, there is going to be some great storytelling.
