The Last Of Us - HBO ***No Game Spoilers***

[BobbyPhil1781]

1 hour ago, skywindO2 said:

 

Best reaction video. Period.

[Xenos]

4 hours ago, minutemancl said:

They kind of already told us everything that happened in that episode, and I didn't feel like it was some amazing cinematic piece. Easily the most disappointed I've been in an episode so far.

They pretty much showed us what would happen in the previous week’s preview, as well as all the implications about what happened to Riley and Ellie throughout the season. But I guess I liked it for all the character moments and backstory for Ellie. It’s not as great as Frank’s and Bill’s episode but it still hit me emotionally in a different way. On a sidenote, I don’t know why but that moment with her and the FEDRA officer was really interesting.
 

Episode 4 was still the weakest for me.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Xenos

[Ty21]

“The latest episode is woke filler”

 

I guess the DLC is too lol

[Deadpulse]

7 minutes ago, Ty21 said:

“The latest episode is woke filler”

was wondering when the "there are too many gays" comments would start flooding. 

[Broncofan]

FWIW I get why some ppl find it jarring to do a midseason flashback to Ellie's OG story and be almost all just about characters & very little action and almost no current-day progression - but just as much as we got everything we needed for Joel's background, this ep (and the DLC) really fleshed out Ellie's character and her fears / flaws in a massive way.    And the TV show did a much better job IMO to expand on the romance / conflict between Ellie & Riley, it explains Riley's departure, her initial decision in not staying in a deadbeat future and joining the Fireflies, and the conflict given the feelings they clearly had for each other.  

Again, having only 50 mins to do this instead of 3+ hours, after the setup scene (and IMO very nicely done with the fight & Col. Yeung scene, showing Ellie had a future in Boston with FEDRA before the bite), the ep decided to focus solely on the mall scenes with Riley and the events that went down - but the context was how Joel potentially dying would trigger all the Riley memories and fears for Ellie. 

Flashback-wise, the changes Druckmann & Mazin made IMO were terrific - while they kept all the key scenes in, the new scenes were great.    The music choices were home runs (A-Ha was going to be there, but the Cure was a great choice for the carousel), the escalator/lingerie scenes showed the goofy teen (plus the hidden crush angle with the side smiles / mussing over hair / etc.).   Storm Reid & Bella Ramsey were also terrific in playing teen best friends / lovers-in-waiting.    Ramsey in particular was amazing.   

 

For those that haven't played the game, don't read - but for those that have....

Spoiler

One key difference that I would highlight is that the DLC had Ellie go through an old mall to find the medical supplies for Joel - and so it allowed her to work through a mall and yet go through the separate flashback scenes.   In a lot of ways, the DLC had very little filler - it was all either flashback or action current-day scenes for 3-4 hours.     It was also a very dreary mall present-day, but the flashback mall scene was happier & brighter until the end.    So a flashback only TV ep kinda takes away all the fast-paced action in the DLC, so it feels very different TV-series wise.    I do understand why Mazin & Druckmann cut out the action scenes though, not necessary given the time constraints.   I actually think they made great calls by having the lingerie scene added, and had the VG's actually playable.    

The really nice piece of foreboding - Ellie's reaction to getting bit.  Just like in the game, her going ape**** was contrasted nicely to Ramsey, who's already experienced massive loss with her parents, just was already at acceptance.    It really shows how much like Joel, rather than processing emotions, Ellie lashes out with violence.   Big foreboding to future events.    Unlike in a VG sequel, though, the writers will not have time to go back and flash back to this in S2 - if you're going to set up Ellie's backstory, it's far more organic to do it when Joel's life is in danger - this is when all Ellie's fears from losing Ramsey will rear their ugly head.   It kinda has to be done now.   Doing it later in the series would just come off with "why wouldn't Ellie have had these fears when Joel nearly died" Q's - and they'd be entirely legit.

It's a calculated risk - but if the series is going to go the full 3 VG eps (I'm assuming VG3 will be out by 2026, and allow for the show to go S4-S5 on that), then having this ep and how it establishes Ellie's background to a much deeper level has great setup for Ellie's character payoffs down the line.   The only time it makes sense in a TV series to do the Lost Behind (Ramsey) is now - because it's the potential loss of Joel that makes sense to go back to Ellie's losing Ramsey, and how much that experience drives her now.     

Now I'm also a sucker for character development - one of the reasons why I love the JRPG's from days gone by, MCU movies that are more character-driven than simple action-fests, and why I loved LOU from the onset.   So I get I'm biased in preferring that we get eps like Ep3, Ep6 & now Ep7.    Yes, there's less action and plot progression.   But to me, great character development is what makes ppl care so much when the action does go down.   So once Joel got stabbed, if you're going to go into Ellie's character deeper - you pretty much have to go with Left Behind chapter now.    So I really don't have any problem with it.      

Judging by the trailers for ep8, we're about to get the action ramp up in a massive way - but the background work for Joel & Ellie for the 1st game (and thus the 1st season) are complete.    Expecting to see this deliver in spades - and much like GOT often had the biggest action eps on the penultimate eps, I very much think we could see something similar at least this season.   

Edited February 28, 2023 by Broncofan

[Ty21]

31 minutes ago, Deadpulse said:

was wondering when the "there are too many gays" comments would start flooding. 

Face it, maybe the future is just gay 

[Deadpulse]

1 hour ago, Ty21 said:

Face it, maybe the future is just gay 

if prisons have taught us anything its when the pickings get slim....

[Leader]

2 hours ago, Ty21 said:

Face it, maybe the future is just gay 

Ha! Too funny

[Jakuvious]

Episode was well-done, but ultimately does feel like a less interesting side story given where we left off. I knew it would be, but it still felt a little bit like a waste of time.

Granted, I don't know that there's a better place for them to have thrown this story in.

[Malfatron]

Ive been letting em stack up a bit

Just watched episode 5 and my god, it felt like a season ender for some shows

 

[D82]

15 hours ago, Ty21 said:

Face it, maybe the future is just gay 

Not just the future, but history in general always has been. Just, not as widely accepted for various reasons. 

[minutemancl]

This episode had the feeling of a bottle episode, although I have no idea if it actually was or not. Those are always hard to pull off. This one didn't work for me because it came off a bit insulting; they gave us, the audience, more than enough information to infer and come to the conclusion of what happened to Ellie and Riley. There was no big twist in the backstory, so it was exactly what we all thought. Sure, the acting was very good, but it didn't really hit home for me.

It was no Fly, that's for sure.

[minutemancl]

12 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

Episode was well-done, but ultimately does feel like a less interesting side story given where we left off. I knew it would be, but it still felt a little bit like a waste of time.

Granted, I don't know that there's a better place for them to have thrown this story in.

The Bill and Frank episode was so well done, and I love the way they placed their story in the narrative. Instead of Joel and Ellie showing up at the house, finding them dead, then going into their story, they started from the beginning and had their story meet up with the current story and the main protagonists.

Could you do that with this episode, and have it be closer to the start of the series to give Ellie some backstory before the audience really meets her? I think maybe you could, but it might feel weird if it was too close to the Bill and Frank story, which has to be early as well.

I think this was a bottle episode in that they needed one episode that was lower budget. Joel doesn't even speak. It is 6 actors total, including the bully, the FEDRA officer, and the infected. It is all of 2 locations, really- a mall and a school/dorm room. This had to be a whole lot cheaper than, let's say, episode 5, which had pyrotechnics, tons of actors, multiple locations, and lots of CGI and makeup/prosthetics for the infected. If that is the case, those are almost always going to be underwhelming, and traditionally, they are placed right at about this point of a season (beginning of the last 3rd).

[JonStark]

Surprised the hate for this episode. I would've liked 10-15 min at the end to progress the story a little, but I thought it was really well done. All flashbacks are somewhat predictable so I think that's a pretty weak critique. 

[Xenos]

18 hours ago, Broncofan said:

FWIW I get why some ppl find it jarring to do a midseason flashback to Ellie's OG story and be almost all just about characters & very little action and almost no current-day progression - but just as much as we got everything we needed for Joel's background, this ep (and the DLC) really fleshed out Ellie's character and her fears / flaws in a massive way.    And the TV show did a much better job IMO to expand on the romance / conflict between Ellie & Riley, it explains Riley's departure, her initial decision in not staying in a deadbeat future and joining the Fireflies, and the conflict given the feelings they clearly had for each other.  

Again, having only 50 mins to do this instead of 3+ hours, after the setup scene (and IMO very nicely done with the fight & Col. Yeung scene, showing Ellie had a future in Boston with FEDRA before the bite), the ep decided to focus solely on the mall scenes with Riley and the events that went down - but the context was how Joel potentially dying would trigger all the Riley memories and fears for Ellie. 

Flashback-wise, the changes Druckmann & Mazin made IMO were terrific - while they kept all the key scenes in, the new scenes were great.    The music choices were home runs (A-Ha was going to be there, but the Cure was a great choice for the carousel), the escalator/lingerie scenes showed the goofy teen (plus the hidden crush angle with the side smiles / mussing over hair / etc.).   Storm Reid & Bella Ramsey were also terrific in playing teen best friends / lovers-in-waiting.    Ramsey in particular was amazing.   

 

For those that haven't played the game, don't read - but for those that have....

  Reveal hidden contents

One key difference that I would highlight is that the DLC had Ellie go through an old mall to find the medical supplies for Joel - and so it allowed her to work through a mall and yet go through the separate flashback scenes.   In a lot of ways, the DLC had very little filler - it was all either flashback or action current-day scenes for 3-4 hours.     It was also a very dreary mall present-day, but the flashback mall scene was happier & brighter until the end.    So a flashback only TV ep kinda takes away all the fast-paced action in the DLC, so it feels very different TV-series wise.    I do understand why Mazin & Druckmann cut out the action scenes though, not necessary given the time constraints.   I actually think they made great calls by having the lingerie scene added, and had the VG's actually playable.    

The really nice piece of foreboding - Ellie's reaction to getting bit.  Just like in the game, her going ape**** was contrasted nicely to Ramsey, who's already experienced massive loss with her parents, just was already at acceptance.    It really shows how much like Joel, rather than processing emotions, Ellie lashes out with violence.   Big foreboding to future events.    Unlike in a VG sequel, though, the writers will not have time to go back and flash back to this in S2 - if you're going to set up Ellie's backstory, it's far more organic to do it when Joel's life is in danger - this is when all Ellie's fears from losing Ramsey will rear their ugly head.   It kinda has to be done now.   Doing it later in the series would just come off with "why wouldn't Ellie have had these fears when Joel nearly died" Q's - and they'd be entirely legit.

It's a calculated risk - but if the series is going to go the full 3 VG eps (I'm assuming VG3 will be out by 2026, and allow for the show to go S4-S5 on that), then having this ep and how it establishes Ellie's background to a much deeper level has great setup for Ellie's character payoffs down the line.   The only time it makes sense in a TV series to do the Lost Behind (Ramsey) is now - because it's the potential loss of Joel that makes sense to go back to Ellie's losing Ramsey, and how much that experience drives her now.     

Now I'm also a sucker for character development - one of the reasons why I love the JRPG's from days gone by, MCU movies that are more character-driven than simple action-fests, and why I loved LOU from the onset.   So I get I'm biased in preferring that we get eps like Ep3, Ep6 & now Ep7.    Yes, there's less action and plot progression.   But to me, great character development is what makes ppl care so much when the action does go down.   So once Joel got stabbed, if you're going to go into Ellie's character deeper - you pretty much have to go with Left Behind chapter now.    So I really don't have any problem with it.      

Judging by the trailers for ep8, we're about to get the action ramp up in a massive way - but the background work for Joel & Ellie for the 1st game (and thus the 1st season) are complete.    Expecting to see this deliver in spades - and much like GOT often had the biggest action eps on the penultimate eps, I very much think we could see something similar at least this season.   

Nice!

Have you been listening to the official episode podcasts?