THE LAST OF US (S1E1) “When You’re Lost In The Darkness”: Wow

Well, the first episode of The Last of Us has come and it’s… beautiful. It’s haunting. It’s terrifying and it stays with you. A lot of the discussion I have seen so far has focused on how faithful of an adaptation it is or isn’t, and I respect that, but I want to focus on what we got cinematically. Don’t get me wrong, it is faithful to the games, very much so, but what the filmmakers have been able to do with this source material is (so far) something special.

Bringing this adaptation to the screen has been an uphill battle for many years, and it turned out the right people to do it were Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the creator of the game himself, Neil Druckmann. They wrote the season together with the first episode being directed by Mazin.

1968

The show opens in the past, in 1968 on the set of a talk show, with John Hannah (The Mummy trilogy) calmly laying out exactly what will cause the end of the world as we know it. Fungi are the enemy, and possibly the most frightening part is that cordyceps are real! The story he tells about the ants, how cordyceps take over their mind and slowly change them into something different, is absolutely true. Placing the cause of this zombie apocalypse in the hands of something that could in theory really happen, no matter how far-fetched, is absolutely terrifying.

2003

The story jumps to 2003 when we find Sarah, beautifully played by Nico Parker, waking her father and making him breakfast for his birthday. Joel (Pedro Pascal) does an amazing job playing a single father, hard-working, caring, and driven. Their relationship on the screen pops, and we could see the amazing chemistry there — which makes what happens later that much more devastating. Gabriel Luna is Joel’s brother, Tommy, and he does an equally amazing job bringing that character to life.

We follow Sarah through her day, going to school and then heading into the city to a clock shop to get her father’s service watch fixed as a birthday present. When the end comes, it starts with uncertainty and quickly devolves over the course of that evening. There are subtle hints that something is off throughout this entire section of the episode, making things slightly less than comfortable, even during the sweet moments shared between father and daughter. Sarah falls asleep watching a movie with Joel, and he carries her to bed; when she wakes up a few hours later, everything is different. The world has literally ended.

Sarah tries and fails to take the neighbor’s dog back to them, not yet knowing exactly what is going on. She investigates inside the house after hearing a noise and noticing the door standing wide open. She finds a man bleeding and scared in a corner, trying to warn her of the old lady who is infected and feeding on the man’s wife on the kitchen floor. From the moment the feeding infected lady screams at Sarah until the end of this act, everything happens so fast. Joel and Tommy show up just in time to save Sarah from being eaten herself and explain that they have to go. The visuals of the fall of civilization all around them is too real. When they get into a small town just outside the city, they find it overrun by people either fleeing or infected causing as much destruction as possible. Then a plane crashes. Everything about this scene had my heart racing; they put us right in the action, and it all felt like it was happening to us too.

Joel has to carry Sarah because of a busted ankle, and for a second it seems like they are saved when they run into a military man. This scene completely broke my heart — following orders, the man opens fire on Joel and Sarah, and she’s hit in the stomach. Tommy arrives in time to save Joel from being finished off, but Sarah dies in Joel’s arms. This event will inform everything he does the rest of the episode.

2023

Twenty years later, most of the planet has been reclaimed by mother nature. We find Joel in Boston, taking any old dirty job that pays, including selling pills to members of the military who are occupying the city. He is trying to find a way out of the quarantine zone with his partner, Tess (Anna Torv). The military has set up a pseudo dictatorship, enforcing curfews and handing out menial jobs for people to earn their right to stay. Merle Dandridge is Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, and they have a plan of their own. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was bitten three weeks ago but never succumbed to the fungus. Marlene wants to get her out of the QZ and out west, where she can hopefully be used to make a cure.

Joel and Tess were stiffed on a deal for a battery — everything is traded for or bought or stolen in this future, and their quest for revenge leads them right to Marlene and her plot to get Ellie out of town. Joel and Tess are part-time smugglers, and their reputation has reached far and wide in the right circles. It is this chance meeting that places Ellie in their hands. It becomes the task of Joel and Tess to deliver her to the group in the west. By the end of the episode, they learn how special Ellie is, and the three of them escape the quarantine zone.

Conclusion

HBO’s The Last of Us is masterful storytelling. For those worried about it being faithful to the games, this episode should definitely put all those concerns to bed. It is beautifully shot, and at times the camera work can make you feel almost claustrophobic being put right in the middle of the action.

Everyone understood the assignment and every bit of this story is taken seriously, it’s terrifying and heartbreaking. It’s funny and sweet. Above all, it is a frightening look into what could be if something like this happened for real. It’s a mirror into the selfish way of the world and the people around us. It’s a touching story of loss and finding purpose when everything that matters to you is gone. This episode wasn’t enough; I’m hungry for so much more. I’m glad it’s only the start of the season.

The Last Of Us is currently streaming HBO Max.

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