The Last of Us - HBO *Spoilers* See warning in post #1

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272680#Comment_120272680

Yeah, like I said maybe Tommy had been radioing while out on a patrol or something. Think Joel said Tommy always used to radio back within a day, so maybe they had someone at least monitoring communications and Tommy would message back, and for whatever reason they stopped. Hard to know fully.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272925#Comment_120272925

Cross country radio like that isn't really something you can do from a portable unit. He either had it set up in the town or had another building nearby

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272948#Comment_120272948

Yeah they mentioned a radio tower. Think that's how the radio guy knew they were in Wyoming.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272966#Comment_120272966

Frequency and direction probably told him that.

Mormegil

What we've been told about the Radio transmissions.

The Radio Operator in Boston is in daily contact with the Cody Tower in Wyoming. The people in the Tower pass on Joel's messages to Tommy who responds within one day. Joel sent a message to Tommy three weeks before, the Tower people gave this message to Tommy but he never responded.

Unless Maria was lying then the Radio Tower has nothing to do with Jackson but it must be within half a days journey of Jackson and the Tower People can come and go to Jackson as they pass on messages to Tommy (or Tommy goes to the tower every/most days on the off chance that a message from Joel has come in).

If Tommy had only recently (less than three weeks before Ep1) joined Jackson (though this seems unlikely) then it's possible the Tower was half a days journey or less from the University and not Jackson, however Joel knew that Tommy had quit the Fireflies so Tommy was in contact with Joel at least once after leaving the University.

My guess is the tower is near Jackson and Tommy decided to stop sending messages when he found out Maria was pregnant.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120273469#Comment_120273469

Exactly. Joel tells the radio guy that it usually never takes Tommy more than a day to respond. That would imply there's some sort of communication chain set up between towers/people throughout the country where messages are sent back and forth using the radio operators as intermediaries. So either Tommy chose to stop responding three weeks earlier, or maybe Maria or others decreed that such external communications were no longer allowed in order to keep Jackson safe.

From when Tommy stops responding (three weeks before the first episode) to Joel & Ellie getting to Jackson, it's been about 4 months. Tommy says Maria is a couple of months along in her pregnancy. The two could be could definitely be aligned, though by the time Maria found out she was pregnant you could be looking closer to her being 5 months pregnant and she didn't really look that, so hard to know.

TheIrishGrover

Really liked that episode. Yeah, the couple were great. A great and fun addition. Laying down exposition: "Here be monsters" without it being clunky (I love those actors anyway).

On a side tangent, If I remember correctly it was mentioned in the World War Z book (Not the botched movie) that, yeah, extreme cold impacted zombies. As they had no circulating blood, they literally froze solid. So teams used to simply wait for them to freeze and go out and casually destroy them in winter. (I know these are not zombies but it just popped into my mind as I saw that episode).

Anyway, great episode. Great acting by all. @Zero-Cool 's post above showing how close the scene between Joel and Ellie was great. And the other scene with Ellie reading the diary: "This is all they had to worry about? Dresses and boys? Jesus!". There was earlier bits in the game that have now passed: Joel, Henry, Sam and Ellie are walking down a street and come across an ice-cream van. Joel and Henry explain it to them. The kids can't believe that this was possible: trucks drove around delivering ICE-CREAM!!!

Liked the juxtaposition between foul-mouthed, antisocial DMZ-raised Ellie and the kids from the idyllic commune. And of course the bond between Ellie and Joel even before the "Separation" scene. (Years ago, there was a couple at a comic-con cosplaying as Joel and Ellie. They were an adult couple but the size difference between them meant they could play the parts. Anyway, they looked the part. Very well done. The photos looked great. Then there was a shot of them kissing and everyone went "NOOOOOO!!!! That's not right!!! That's not what they are about!" 😀)

I also loved (vague spoilers from TLoU2. I will keep them vague but still...)

Spoiler Warning

The barn. IMMEDIATELY (intentionally) reminded me of this: Ellie and Dina Dancing Full Scene - The Last Of Us Part 2 - YouTube (Can't spoiler video). And Ellie barking at the kid. For viewers, it was just Ellie being angry and antisocial. For gamers it was a fun little "Hey, I wonder was that...". Probably not. Probably just a fun little wink. But still.

Kimbot

From what I remember Tommy did say he met with the new crew 7 months previous to Joel turning up.

MOR316

When Ellie took a drink from Joel's hip-flask, surely he would have been infected then?

*If we find out in Part 2 of the game, don't spoil it please. I never played it but, toying with the idea of buying it

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275226#Comment_120275226

The infection in Ellie is dead at this stage I assume. The dog couldn't sniff it on her although I think that was bull anyway and the dog was just to see if people would run.

Penn

Ellie is immune. She still seems to have traces of the infection in her but it doesn't really mean she can pass it on. Similar to how Joel says in the third episode that people got infected from the flour if they ate enough of it. Some people might have eaten some but not enough to get infected.

I think the dog couldn't detect the infection in her because it hasn't been able to progress in her enough for the dog to smell, though FEDRA's detectors can still pick it up. Or the dog was just for show to get people to panic if they were infected.

Zero-Cool

Mazin mentioned the dog can definitely sense it as it's a throwback to the dog in ep 1 knowing something was wrong with the nana. Interesting why exactly it's not showing in Ellie.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275974#Comment_120275974

Didn't see the clip of Mazin but I'd imagine as the infection hasn't been able to progress as far in Ellie (whereas the old woman in Ep.1 was twitching like f*ck when Sarah was over), maybe dogs can't detect it until it gets to a certain stage of infection. Whereas the actual medical detectors could still pick it up.

Just my own opinion of course

She probably just had some bacon in her pocket. Dogs, while loyal as feck, will over-ride their commands when free bacon is in the offing.

(It doesn't matter!)

Liam O

Thought the episode was a bit rushed, they walk into the right room and immediately find the map that tells them to go to Salt Lake City. No backstory to the monkeys or why the fireflies have moved really and what was a very interesting part of the game just glossed over a bit in order to get to the next stage. A bit like the Henry arc it hits a lot of the beats but doesn't hit a home run like in the game. Still great TV though.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120277673#Comment_120277673

In my mind it makes a refreshing change from dragging eeeeevvvveeeerrryyyttthhhiiiinnnggg out like they did in TWD. Get it done in an episode, and move on.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120277673#Comment_120277673

I don't think you learn anything the show didn't say.

The only thing you learn is that the Fireflies are experimenting on monkeys which was very obvious watching the show.

Evade

It was very lucky for Joel and Ellie that those raiders didn't have any guns.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120279117#Comment_120279117

From memory, in the game, most of them had axes, iron bars and those petrol bomb thingys. A few of them had guns.

It's been 9 or 10 years since I played it but, I can't remember if we're told in the game why the Fireflies went to Salt Lake City

Slydice

Joel kinda laid the groundwork earlier with the whole guns ain't worth much without ammo line.

Evade

Almost every other group of survivors had guns. Ammo isn't that hard to make, especially in America.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281526#Comment_120281526

Is ammo easy to make ?

I assume you need a specialized machine and also need another specialist machine to make the sheets of metal to feed it and another one to create gunpowder.

I don't think your average person could do it.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281600#Comment_120281600

Easy, no but not that hard either. Some special tools required but they're not uncommon in the US. You reuse the brass casings, cast new bullets from lead, the chemicals for the powder and primer wouldn't be common but not rare either especially if you go with an older formulation (Kirk vs the Gorn) which could even create a bit of drama because it would be more prone to jamming modern guns.

It's not something one person is going to do from scratch but any decent sized group of survivors, like Jackson, should be able to do it.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281758#Comment_120281758

I didn't realize you could use the casings.

Making them is what I assumed would be the hardest bit.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281772#Comment_120281772

Eventually constant reuse will make them be more and more prone to jamming but the US isn't exactly short on ammo to begin with. Places like the QZs probably still have the industry to make new ones too or melt them down and press new ones. Modern ammunition is about 150 years old give or take a few refinements so it's not exactly state of the art technology needed to make it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281526#Comment_120281526

Ammo is easy to make, clean dry powder not so much

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120282099#Comment_120282099

But not overly difficult either, especially older powder. Yeah, it's dirtier and has less energy but it would still do the job.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120282104#Comment_120282104

Without internet, would most average people know the chemicals and their ratio?

Do you know a ready supply of sulphur or saltpeter? I know "how" to make it, sourcing the chemicals in a dangerous post apocalyptic wasteland? Not so much

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120282642#Comment_120282642

Despite it's limitations the first season of BBC's survivors (1975) was very good and explored these things better than any other show I have seen.

There is a great speech about "everyone knows how to build a chair but do you know how to make the wood, nails, hammer etc.

It also goes into how it's not just the shows "big virus" that will kill you but also all the various illness that will arise from cities full of dead bodies with nobody to clear them and no medicine.

Well worth a watch and it's on YouTube I think.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120282642#Comment_120282642

Offhand, no. But libraries exist. It's funny how ammo is the sticking point and not whiskey or any of the short shelf life items like batteries for those scanners which would be much harder to make.