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

I think that they get back up eventually as the hosts are just getting deep into their 'new' hosts. The poster on the wall made reference to how long it takes to be consumed depending on where you are bitten. The 'dead' on the streets will get back up again (now being consumed by the fungi) - that's why they burn corpses in the DZ.

I agree, but again I think it comes down to lack of control and the biting to infect causing enough injury to the person that it kills them, rather than the infected trying to eat the person.

It would be hard for the infected to know exactly where to bite, for how long, how to miss arteries, when has the infection passed through etc. And especially if people only start to show signs of infection after a few hours, it's possible the infected people are trying to make sure the infection passes on by staying on top of them or continuing to bite them. It's just pure "bite hard and long enough to try pass the infection along" with no real control. The fungi is in control, but it's also not able to properly judge things like that. For every 10 it tries to infect it's likely it'd kill 9 and only 1 would pass it on.

Yeah I rewatched the John Hannah scene again to see if he mentioned anything like that. He also mentioned that the fungi doesn't pass to humans because it can't survive in a host with temperatures above 94degrees, but that if the world's climate got warmer, it may evolve to be able to do so (and the scene with John Hannah was set in the late 60's, so 30-40 years before the start of the show).

Agreed. They have nailed the soundtrack and Gustavo Santaolalla's arrangements remain perfect.

And the fluttering of the window curtain at the start of the episode. A nice little nod to the main menu of the game.

Means nothing to non-gamers but nice to see they included it for those familiar with the game.

Never played the game but have always intended to based on the rave reviews I've heard for it. The opener with John Hanna hooked me instantly. I love when sci-fi or fantasy stories have logical, well reasoned explanations for the extraordinary events of the story that are grounded in real-world world things (global warming affecting the carpenter ant parasite fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis).

The pilot progressed in a way that while you could tell it was almost directly lifted from a video game tutorial (the old lady neighbour being an obvious "easy mode" intro to battling the infected followed shortly, the chase through the restaurant being a tutorial to using the movement controls,. the jumps between different primary characters etc.) it was also a great introduction to the world the story is set in.

Hopefully this continues as well as it's started!

i don't think you were paying attention. all of that is pretty clear.

You DO realise it's a series and not a movie, right?

• The 1968 timing was a bit odd but set up the premise of fungal mutation/infestation
• The jump from 2003 to 2023 was to show how much the world, and the people changed in such a situation
• Tommy's status may or may not be answered but is mentioned as a driving force for Joel to try to leave the "Safe Zone"
• There was more than one bullet fired
• Save her?
• The other girl is named, explained why she was chained up (To stop her leaving) and what is so special about her is explained.

I tried to keep my answers as vague as possible to be spoiler-free but each of your concerns has a purpose and were already addressed or may be addressed in future episodes.

Edit: Typos

That is actually a good call. Quite possibly as, not a spoiler, it was an addition for the series. Yeah, I think you were right. As was said above, was great to see "bighead" from Silicon Valley again and John Hannah. It was a bit of a necessary exposition dump but yeah, that would explain the style.

The opening scene in 1968 was just to give background to how a fungal infection could potentially arise and what it would do. The scenes in 2003 was the outbreak of the infection and to show how quickly it spread and devastated the world, while also showing who Joel is as well as what happened his daughter. When the guard fired, Joel tried to shield her but she was still shot and killed, and a bullet grazed Joel on his side.

The rest of the episode (and show) is set 20 years after the outbreak. Joel works in a quarantine zone taking whatever work he can get, but also acts as a smuggler getting things in and out of the quarantine zone (along with his partner, Tess). He's lost contact with his brother Tommy and is trying to track him down (as per the scene with the radio control guy). The girl, Ellie, revealed at the end of the episode that she was bitten three weeks earlier but hasn't turned, so she appears to be immune. Hence why the other group were keeping her chained up, they were waiting to see if she'd turn. That group, led by Marlene, have now hired Joel and Tess to smuggle Ellie out of the quarantine zone to another of their groups.

No offence, but this was all pretty well explained in the episode. I can understand not knowing who Marlene's group is, what caused the infection or how the infected act, stuff like that. But in terms of time jumps, the 1968 scene was before the credits to give context to how an outbreak could happen one day, then we see from the time the outbreak happened, then we see 20 years later. If there were constant flashbacks back and forth between 2023 and 2003 then it might get confusing alright.

Always been an iffy prospect turning a video game into a movie/TV show. It rarely works to an entirely successful level, if at all. But I was pleasantly surprised by this. Although the game is very influenced by film and TV media in the first place, so it's probably a more natural revolution for it to pivot to the TV screen than it is for most computer entertainment.

Anyway, this was an extremely solid opener and reminiscent of the game in numerous places. It does well setting up the premise and doesn't labour its narrative, just in case there's people watching who never played the game. Exposition is kept to a minimum thankfully and the producers weren't going to hold the audience's hand.

Everyone's part is handled very well - I know we're only one episode in - without any showboating going on and the crucial part of Ellie was realised better that I thought it was going to be by Bella Ramsey. The standout so far though was Anna Torv as Tess, who stole the episode for me.

And for people wondering if you need to have played the game before watching, you need not worry. In fact, you're probably in a better position than someone who has played the game as you'll be coming to the story completely fresh.

Looking forward to how it all turns out.

The Witcher was also quite successful until they decided to stop adapting and create their own story. Pretty much any story driven game can be turned into a series with minimal rewriting.

And yeah Anna Torv can steal any show :)

The infected people in The Last of Us aren't dead. They're being taken over by a form of cordyceps, which controls their functions and slowly feeds off of them until the host dies. As far as I can recall, it's both airborne and transmitted directly. Although I think the airborne risk of infection is much lower.

However, they're not zombies, in the traditional George Romeo mould, pardon the pun. Just infected people driven to pass on the infection by the controlling fungus.

They've all but gotten rid of the airborne element of infection, saying it would be too unwieldy for the show and in reality if it was airborne it would just be everywhere in the air and there'd be no one alive or outside without full quarantine masks/hazmat etc. It was a big thing in the game where the characters would have to mask up in certain areas, but for the show they've decided to just nix that part of it and go with infection passing from tendrils from the infected or fungal growths.