The Last of Us – When You’re Lost in the Darkness

By starrymag | January 22, 2023

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

The long-awaited premiere of the video game turned HBO dystopian drama The Last of Us is finally here, and unlike the opening minutes, which many gamers are familiar with, the first episode largely retcons Joel’s story prior to his journey with Ellie. It’s a deviation from the original story but it’s one that serves as a tasty appetizer to the gut-punching main course. Adapting a TV series from a popular game comes with its own unique challenges; for one-the built-in fandom. Millions of people have spent hours, days, months, and years- even, reliving these characters’ lives; accuracy is important but so is expanding beyond it to build an emotional journey that grabs viewers from the opening minutes. “When You’re Lost in Darkness” starts in the light of the day with Joel and his daughter Sarah: the calm before the Outbreak storm.

 

1969-2003: B.O.D. (Before Outbreak Day)

 

We open on a talk show airing in 1969 where scientists are discussing viral pandemics infecting the planet via air travel. “Pan, meaning the whole world becomes sick all at once,” one scientist says, and cue your 3-year COVID anxiety! While viruses were, and still are, a concern-whether fictional or not, the other guest on the panel, Dr. Newman (John Hannah), seems more concerned about a fungal disease that acts as a parasite. This fungus eventually takes over the host’s brain and body like some sort of remote-controlled zombie. Dr. Newman’s concern is that if the earth were to experience a rapid change in climate leading to an increase in the earth’s temperature, those conditions could help such a fungus evolve into a deadly threat to all of mankind. It would be an unpredictable and incurable mass extinction of our species. And on that terrifying note, the talk show cuts to the opening credits where we watch arms of fungal growth-like roots spread across the screen.

Flashforward to 2003 the morning of “Outbreak Day” where we meet Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker). It’s Joel’s birthday and Sarah is plotting to swipe his favorite currently broken watch and have it fixed. It’s a normal day as any other with Joel and Sarah laughing over breakfast until Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) arrives in a whirlwind of personalities. As ordinary as the day begins we can vaguely hear a news bulletin whisper on the radio about some trouble in Jakarta. It sets the tone like a heartbeat building just beneath the surface of the skin, slowly picking up speed until the beats race toward an unimaginable climax. After a brief back and forth about where Jakarta is, Joel and Tommy head to work while Sarah gets to school. The day passes without incident-Sarah survives high school and then catches a bus downtown to get the watch fixed. In the background of her adventure, we see police and fire trucks whipping through the streets en route to some emergency that scared the repair shop owner enough to close early. Luckily she gets the watch and that night she and her father have a quiet time celebrating his big day. He is impressed with the fixed keepsake, even though his jokester says she got the money to fix it from selling drugs. Later that night Joel is woken up by a phone call from Tommy who is in jail and needs a bailout. He says the jail is overrun with people and the only reason why he is one of them is that he fended off a random attacker at the bar. Joel leaves to help his brother and later we see Sarah wake up to an empty house to the sounds of helicopters circling above her and the neighborhood dogs barking up a storm outside her door. It sounds like some sort of warzone beyond the safety of her four walls and even though the emergency broadcast is telling residents to stay indoors, Sarah can’t help but walk the neighbor’s dog back home. Only the dog senses something is off and breaks free from Sarah’s hold. Realizing something seems off, Sarah goes to check on her elderly and somewhat comatose neighbor, Mrs. Adler (Marcia Bennett) to see if she is ok. She definitely isn’t, as the woman convulses from her wheelchair as a fungal root-like arm reaches out of her mouth and sends her on a flesh-eating rampage. Sarah has just enough time to get outside when Joel and Tommy come barreling up the street in the truck and screaming for Sarah to get in. From the looks of things, Austin has been overrun with these infected zombies and Sarah wonders if this is the result of some terrorist attack. As the drive we see how quickly society is folding in on itself; homes are on fire, and people in the streets are begging for help, but Joel keeps on driving hoping to outrun whatever caused this. They don’t get far when they see the highway backed up with millions of people fleeing the capital. Joel thinks fast and cuts through the median just as we see a passenger jet fly over their heads and go crashing down to the ground. The force of the explosion sends Joel’s truck airborne and flips it upside down, breaking Sarah’s ankle and leaving the three of them vulnerable to the chaos unfolding in the streets. Having no other choice, Joel picks his daughter up, and he and Tommy sprint through town trying to outrun the infected, who seem to have superhero speed. They manage to make it to a field behind a diner just as a soldier (Ryan D. Clark) shoots one of the infected chasing them, but it’s a save that winds up being as deadly as the virus itself. The military has orders to shoot to kill, and seeing Joel carry an injured girl is reason enough to take all three out. The soldier ignores Joel’s pleading and takes the shot, killing the injured Sarah and arresting her devastated father and uncle.

 

Boston QZ. 2023: A.O.D. (After Outbreak Day)

 

Twenty years have gone by and we quickly realize the survivors managed to find a way of existing without a cure. We see a young boy (Logan Pierce) collapse outside of Boston’s FEDRA quarantine zone and be wheeled inside so trained staff can determine if he is infected or not. Inside the QZ we see posters on the walls explaining how the infection manifests from a bite and how long it takes for the full transition to take hold. A kind female officer (Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah) places a device near the boy’s neck and we see the screen light up red. An officer tries to keep the boy calm as she injects him with “some medicine.” We soon find out that it wasn’t medication but euthanization and the next time we see the boy he is being loaded into a group crematorium by an emotionless Joel. The light of that birthday morning with Sarah 20 years ago has long been snuffed out and all that’s left is darkness-evident by the brutality of this new world. A world that looks more like a military dictatorship; with a ruling class that enforces public executions for pandemic breakers. A future of poverty and oppression is what humanity built after the outbreak so it isn’t surprising there is an underbelly of resistance clawing its way to freedom. The Fireflies, they’re called and they are anti-FEDRA factions fighting to restore democracy one street fight at a time. Joel first learns of this group when trading drugs for ration cards with a FEDRA officer (Taylor St. Pierre) who warns him of the dangers of coming in contact with them. The two men have a friendly arrangement as we start to realize Joel survives on smuggling goods from one QZ to another-whether that’s drugs, trucks, or very soon, people.

Important Cargo

 

Next up, we meet Tess (Anna Torv), Joel’s partner in crime who is currently being held hostage by a man named Robert (Brendan Fletcher). Apparently, Joel has a reputation for being violent and since Robert sold a battery meant for him and then roughed up Tess over it, he is worried the payback will be deadly. Just then, an explosion outside blasts a hole through the wall and Tess manages to escape one deadly scene while landing in the middle of another. FEDRA is in a shootout with the Fireflies and she almost gets taken out on the crossfire.

Speaking of the insurgents, we meet their leader, Marlene (Merle Dandridge), and her teen prisoner- a very feisty bird-flipping teenager going by the name Veronica (Bella Ramsey). It isn’t too long before we find out Veronica isn’t her real name, it’s Ellie-an orphan who was raised by the FEDRA to become a soldier. She was infected and Marlene saved her life before the police could execute her. Since then she has been chained to a bedroom wall for roughly three weeks and shockingly shows no signs of infection! This immunity is an anomaly that could be the link to a cure.

Meanwhile, across the QZ, Joel is still wearing the broken watch his daughter regifted to him when he pops in on Abe (Jerry Wasserman), a man who radios to other survivors beyond the wall. Tommy hasn’t been heard from since he sent a message back to Boston from Wyoming a few weeks ago and Joel is worried. He tells the man he is ready to go search for him but the man warns against it. The infected are the least of his worries now, it’s the survivors he needs to be careful of. The problem is, to find Tommy, Joel needs that truck battery Robert sold and when he meets back up with Tes-s who both seem like his partner in crime, and in the bedroom, he finds out the backstabber double-crossed him. Joel sees red and is ready to tear Robert to shreds but Tess calms him and the two plan to hunt him and the battery down that night. Later, Tess bribes a man for Robert’s location while Joel avoids a Firefly recruiter by threatening to break their jaw if they even think about asking him to “look for the light.”

Speaking of the Fireflies, at their headquarters, a member questions Marlene’s leadership when it is mentioned how many members they’ve lost to the war against FEDRA. Marlene comes clean and admits the street-fighting is a diversion so they can sneak out with Ellie and head west. Once Marlene signals to the woman why Ellie is so important, the woman agrees to help in any way she can. Cue the mouthy prisoner chained to the wall and Marlene has seen all she needs to see. She frees Ellie from her chains and returns her switchblade as the two have a heart-to-heart. Marlene admits it was she who put Ellie in FEDRA school, and no, she isn’t the girl’s mother, just someone who wanted to protect both back then and now. This leads us to how Joel and Ellie meet for the adventure the entire series is based on. After following their lead to Robert, Joel and Tess find him in a house with his body covered in the fungus that has attached itself to him and the walls. On the floor nearby Robert is the battery, but before they can be on their way they run into Marlene, or as Tess calls her, “the Che Guevara of Boston,” who has a proposition for them. The rebel leader is visibly injured from what she claims was a shootout with Robert’s men over that battery. She offers to let them leave- alive for a price. When Joel doesn’t like that ultimatum he charges at Marlene, but her new friend, Ellie, jumps into action to defend her by driving her knife through the man’s boot. To say these two got off on the wrong foot would be an understatement, but the encounter at least gets Joel’s attention. Marlene promises that there is a fueled and ready truck, plenty of guns, and any supplies he would need to find Tommy at a  rendezvous point If he delivers Ellie to her people. He doesn’t smuggle humans, but this time he will make an exception for Tommy.

 

“I’m Taking A Ride with My Best Friend” -Depeche Mode

 

With the deal made the two smugglers head out with Ellie in tow under the cover of night. They stop by Joel’s apartment where the teen overhears Tess and Joel mention visiting “Bill and Frank’s. Later, Ellie finds a paper slipped inside a book about hit songs that contain the initials B/F, accompanied by a code ranking eras in music that she can’t quite decipher. If ‘60s tunes mean “nothing in,” and ’70s songs mean “new stock,” then what does the red “X” next to ‘80s music mean? Joel refuses to tell her the secret and instead kills time with a nap. When he wakes, Ellie tricks him into revealing the code’s meaning when she casually mentions the song that was playing while he was asleep. “Wake me up before you go-go” sends Joel into a panic and not because he is the biggest George Michael fanboy. WHAM! was an ‘80s band and that’s the era code for trouble.

Soon enough Tess returns with a plan for their escape. During the nightly pandemic curfews, the only people allowed out on the streets are the FEDRA officers rounding up the rule breakers. So, they decide to travel underground and manage to sneak out beyond the QZ wall by way of a tunnel. When they are almost past the final barrier they run right into Joel’s druggie officer pal from earlier, only this time he is playing by the rule book. He orders the three onto their knees and pulls out that same testing device that was used on the survivor boy in the opening minutes. Ellie looks terrified as the device clears Joel and Tess but she knows she won’t pass the test. Before he can place the device on her skin, Ellie pulls out her knife and plunges it into the officer’s leg-who, in turn, raises his rifle and aims it at all of them. The scene is all too familiar for Joel- as he flashes back to the moment he lost Sarah. In what feels like a PTSD-induced rage, he attacks the officer, beating him to death with his bare hands. Joel is distraught but Tess is the one freaking out when she notices the device screen detected Ellie’s infection. Ellie tries to explain by showing them both her scar from the healed bite wound and says she has immunity. They don’t have time to question her though, because FEDRA officers are heading their way. They have no other choice but to take off through the fence beyond the safety of the QZ and directly into the dangerous Contamination Zone. Meanwhile, back at Joel’s apartment, the radio hums the 1987 Depeche Mode hit “Never Let Me Down Again,” signaling trouble lies ahead.