February 25, 2023 • 40 mins
Kin. When family members reunite, histories and traumas come to light, revelations are had and pivotal decisions are made.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this Sanny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane Never
Told You Protection of iHeartRadio. And here we are with
our part six of our special The Last of Us,
(00:25):
a mini series where we recap and react to the
HBO Max series The Last of Us, based on the
twenty thirteen game of which I am a huge fan.
We are not the official podcast, and in fact, somebody
texted me the other day and was like, I heard
this on the podcast and I was like, oh really,
I didn't know that. They're like, oh, it's not your podcast.
(00:47):
I was like, all right, well thanks, but yes, we
are not the official podcast, but we are one that
I think has some good points and some good thoughts
and some fun time. We have fun times, we do. Indeed,
this is a mini series. We are doing it but
(01:07):
one week after the most recent episode airs, so this
is one week after episode six, which is called Ken,
and there are nine episodes of this series. So the
final episode, probably unless we do a two parter, which
is possible, will be March nineteenth, because the finale of
(01:29):
the show is March twelfth, So after that we will
go back to our regularly scheduled programming Slash My Happy hours,
which have been moved all about for the Saturday episodes. Also,
there will be spoilers for the first six episodes of
the series. Samantha is my guardian and making sure I
(01:52):
don't spoil the whole thing. And it's this one's gonna
be tough, this one, I'm gonna say, but I think
we can do it. I think we can do it.
We got this, we got this. Yeah, all right, are
you ready for my wonderful recap? Samantha gifts the best recaps.
I am so ready. Right, so again, because this is
an HBO Max show. Just as a reminder content warning,
(02:15):
there's violence and sadness and trauma all throughout, which is
right up. Annie's Allie, that is what she loves. Um
And yes, so if you haven't watched the six episode
six pause, go watch come back. Yes, because my explanation
is so good, it's like you're watching it as I'm
(02:38):
speaking of this. I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay, So we
are went back with Ellie and Joel, who all of
a sudden we come into a picture of a cabin.
Dude someone someone is walking with rabbits. There was a
lot of conversations that happened by the way, at our
place about the rabbits. We're not gonna tell you why,
but they were conversations, just so you know. And then
(02:58):
we walk in and you see the character's name is Florence,
a Native woman who is just chilling in her chair
while Joel is sitting next to her, or does he
say no, he comes out. He comes out with a gun.
It is like a rut row, and we find now
that Joel's trying to get information, trying to figure out
(03:20):
where they are exactly because they need to find Tommy,
and then trying to figure out, you know, where's the
closest area to any headquarters. What's going on? Essentially, that's
what he says. And we have this great banter that
this low key banter that's happening between Florence and the
other character is Marlin, who, by the way, we just
discovered that they were together in an old nineties sitcom
(03:43):
called The Northern Exposure, which I remember. I did not watch,
but I remember because it was really big for five years.
Apparently this was like a mini reunion for the two
of them, And I really feel like this is for
those nineties adults who know, if you know, you know, yes,
And I also feel like there's a low key like,
if anybody's gonna survive an apocalypse, it's the indigenous people
(04:06):
of this area. I think they're right, but whatever. So
we have this fun banter that happens between the two
of them. All of a sudden, She's like, she's got
a gun. He's got a gun, and there's a girl,
and then Elie kinds like hey, and he and then
Joel's like stay up there, and she comes down and
everybody's like, what's it happening? But there they all have
to sit down. Turns out that Florence made them soup.
(04:28):
They were very hungry, they were very thankful, and the
dude Marlin's like, what why did you make them soup?
It's cold, they're here, Why wouldn't I He's like, why
didn't you get the gun? She goes because it's way
over there. It's fine. So wonderful moment um. And we
do discover through this conversation that this area is kind
(04:49):
of barren, not a lot of infected, because it's pretty
much just too far out, not enough civilization, not a
lot of supplies, all of these things. Um. They do
say that it is the River of death they call it,
and that the only think they know is when people
go out, they don't come back, and they're but dead
bodies everywhere, don't go. He does give them the area
(05:12):
they're at. He doesn't know a tommy. They don't even
know about fireflies. They think it's hilarious. So like there
are people that are fireflies hilarious. There's five, five people,
and so they go on together. Ellie steals a rabbit,
and as they're in a cave together trying to stay warm,
(05:33):
she's like, man, I should have taken two rabbits. All
these things. They have a whole conversation about. He's going
to be a sheep farmer, that's what he said, being joking.
He tries to get her to go to sleep. He
said he's gonna keep watch, but he of course falls
asleep and to only see that Ellie's awake and has
the gun. She had taken the second shift. He's like,
(05:54):
wake me up. She's like, you weren't awake. Of course
I'm gonna take the second shifts. And he's like, well,
next time, wake me up, because you can't be doing
this tide to take care of you. She's like, you
didn't stay awake in a story. So they move on.
They shoot it off into the water to see if,
like towards the water, if anybody's going to come towards them.
They think they're safe. They go to the second part.
She's like, wait, what if this is a river of death?
(06:14):
And then all of a sudden they are surrounded by
pretty much cowboys. I'm just going with that, and they
are like, oh no, what's happening. They've got a dog.
This dog stiffs up the infected so oh oh, scary moment.
Scary moment. And during these times, by the way, Joel
is having panic attacks. This is fairly new. I did
not see this in the video game. I guess you
can't really play that in the video game, but we
(06:35):
see this here. So he's having panic attacks. At this point,
he's thinking, oh no, Ellie's gonna get eaten. Oh no.
But then everything turns out okay. She's having a good
time with a dog. She loves dogs. Here anyway, moving on,
and so then we see him talking to them and
they're like, what do you want. We'll let you pass
if you do these things, or you need to move along.
(06:56):
And then he's like, I'm trying to find Tommy, and
then we see this woman come up more like oh,
and she's like, oh, how do you know Tommy? And
then they go into this wonderful town, very western looking
and has all electricity and supplies and children and happiness
is kind of odd, and we defined out that Tommy
(07:16):
is there, holy crap. And the person who lit led
them as a woman named Maria. We don't know the significance,
but she seems to know Joel. Here they take Ellie
to get cleaned up while Joel sits and talks to Tommy.
And Maria were here. We also discover them Maria's his wife.
And because Joel is Joel, he can't be happy for anybody.
(07:39):
And Joel Ellie is like, well, congratulations, and here she's
like telling them congratulations, and of course he does the
whole voice of congratulations. And that's how we move on.
And then we see that the children of this town
is finding Ellie odd because she's very loud, outspoken and
cursing and all these things, and they're like, what who
(08:00):
are you? They are very intrigued and they have to explain.
Maria explains that the Kaids aren't used to kids like you.
That's how we believe it. There might have been a
cameo by someone that I didn't realize was there, but
maybe we're moving on. Um there. We go on to
see that Tommy and Joel go to a bar to
(08:21):
have a conversation while Ellie is being cleaned up, takes
a shower, get some new clothes. There's a hoodie that
Annie's very fond of that she wore for the viewing
that looks exactly like it. It doesn't zip up. Sorry, yes,
in the game, it doesn't. Okay, I did. I got
(08:45):
very excited. We're sure it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But then we find out during the bar at the
bar scene, like he's like, we gotta go, why are
you here, Let's leave. I came to rescue you, you know,
being funny. And then it turns out Tommy is expecting
a kid. Maria's pregnant ro Ro, which is a deviation
(09:07):
from the game, just an fyi, and so that's like,
he doesn't say congratulations, nothing, and Tommy's like, I hope
I make a good father, and he was like, god,
I guess we'll find out. Not cool, bro, not cool.
We go back to Ellie who was all clean and refreshed,
and we see this layout of clothes for her again,
that hoodie we just talked about, and a diva cup
(09:29):
very important. I really like that detail BT dubs. But
she comes downstairs and this is Tommy and Maria's place,
and we see a little shrine with the name Sarah
and Kevin, and if you know, you know that Sarah
is Joel's kid, and so they Tommy obviously put that there,
and which I find out that Kevin is Maria's kid
who had died. At this point, she kind of has
(09:52):
a banter moment with Ellie, which Ellie's like, thanks for
the weird gift, the diva cup, and She's like, he'll
lout you'll want it someday. Is a good gift because
our nice purple thick jacket. Apparently Ellie doesn't like purple.
I don't know, she just this very purple. And then
she talks about Kevin being Maria's son, and then morning
(10:14):
and then Maria kind of link does does talk about
Sarah to her to Ellie because Ellie had no idea,
she didn't even know who she was, that he even
had a kid. So she gets that information. She gets
a haircut as well. Find out that Maria was an
attorney once upon at a time, but she really liked
cutting hair. All of these things, and then it was
you know, made a conversation about alluding to Joel's past
(10:37):
not being great, but Ellie's like, I know, don't worry
about it. I can take care of myself, and then
she takes her to the movie. So we're guessing at
this point in time, the Quzi probably didn't have all
of those types of things, so this was neat to see.
Whatever movie was playing, those sounded really awful. I don't know.
By the way, if you watch on in this theater
(10:59):
scene there as a girl that she says next to
was the one that was giving her weird looks or
was watching her closely and was weirded out by at
the beginning, And when she first comes in you need
to note her. I'm gonna say that, okay. And so
at this point in time, Tommy's trying to find Joel
because Joel of course disappears because Joel is Joel being
(11:20):
sad murder Dad and Joel is and I guess what's
a shoe player plays trying to repair his boots, but
Tommy comes and gives them a new pair and he's like,
I got you this, and they have a real upfront conversation.
And here we find Joel freaking out, thinking that he's
pretty much getting too old, afraid that he's going to
get her killed, and afraid that he's going to see
(11:41):
another person, another child die who he regards and loves dearly.
So he's trying to get Tommy to go and take Ellie.
After Joel reveals that she is immune, tells him everything
that happened through in the past and all these things
and how important it is, and it finally admits that
Test died. But by the way at the baby getting
Tommy's like house tests and of course Job is like,
(12:03):
oh she's fine, what the hell and moving on, And
so it is decided that Tommy will take her to
the hospital to the fireflies and benownst to them. Ellie
had been listening. So when he goes to the house
where they are staying currently, Ellie says, you know, why
didn't you just ditch me? In this scene plays out
(12:25):
which we do see this line line by line I
believe in the game, in which he's just like, you know,
I didn't trust anyone. You're the only one. I've lost
some money people, And he's like, you don't know. Laws
stopped talking about Sarah. And he's wrong, by the way,
he's wrong that just because you have lost a daughter
doesn't negate anybody else's loss. Just go ahead and put
(12:47):
that out there. So he's like, I don't want to do,
you know, put you in danger. This is for you.
And then when he gets mad, he pushes her away
and walks out, and she's sad. And by the way,
that diary scene doesn't happen also in the game, because
she's like, oh, that's all they worried about is boys
and matching clothes. That's so odd. And so we come
into the morning, she's sitting waiting. Tommy comes to get her.
(13:09):
They go to the horses. Joel was sitting there with
a horse. He's like, well, I was trying to steal
a horse, and which Tommy's like, we would have given
you a horse, but you know, Joel's Joel, and so
he's like, you know, I've been sitting here for thirty minutes,
and she's like, what does that mean. He's like, you know,
I'm gonna give you a choice, and She's like, yeah,
let's go, Me and you, Me and you. So they
hop on. They ride off the horse together, and I
(13:29):
believe they talked about a baby horse that's shimmer shimmer.
Shimmer sticks around y'all, just because you need to know,
all these animals are not really important, but they are
like they used well, I mean like it could have
been anything like if they had diverted from those, it
wouldn't have been a big deal. But they holding close
to the game but putting these even like animal as
(13:51):
the actual ones though. Anyway, and we move on and
they're riding and they get to the hospital. But in
between this they're having a lot of like interactions that
he tried teacher how to use the gun, talks about
how he what he really wants in the feature and
not being sheep herding farmer. So it was really sweet.
You see them really getting close at this point. Um.
(14:11):
And then we come to the hospital. Oh there's no guards.
They go in and we him see him pick up
a note, which finally that's in the game. He picks
up the note to show that they had all last
beat abandoned very quickly because something had happened. And so
also she sees animals like monkeys, which is like that's
the thing which we've all had the debate about, like, well,
(14:33):
can the monkeys being then the animals be infected I
guess not Moving on, and they hear noises more monkeys,
and then they look outside and realize, oh, raiders. So
they try to sneak away, even though I think their
horse has already been spotted. But as they do, someone
comes running to attack Joel. They get into a fight.
Joel brakes his neck real gruesome, turns around and oh
(14:57):
my god, he's been stabbed. We see the knife aparently
he didn't feel it, and then the rest of the
crew come out running. All they get in the horse
to run away. She fired some shots, they think they
got away, and the last thing we see is Joel
falling off the horse, in which she's begging him that
she doesn't know what she's gonna do alone, she can't
(15:17):
survive alone, and for him to open his eyes in
the story, yeah, and Annie's crying a lot of spite.
It was funny because again we watched these together and
I got the question beforehand, like what is the cry scale?
And I was like, well, I feel like it was
(15:38):
gonna count. It was going to depend on how much
they leaned into their what I called the comb to
Jesus moment, which, by the way, Samantha nose I was
very annoying about it, but I called what was gonna happen?
So I've gotten a few techs since then telling me
she called it, I define, yeah, So excellent recampus always, Samantha,
(16:16):
there is a lot to cover in this one. And
just to reiterate this is there's only seven eight three
episodes left, so we're moving very quickly. We're moving very
very quickly. A lot of the things that I want
to talk about overarching I'm going to do in the
final part whatever episodes we do of the last episode,
(16:37):
but just because I don't want to spoil it, but
so keep that in mind, I did want to say
the game, the first game is split into seasons. Summer,
it starts in summer. It's the longest season, Winters. The
third season, which is where we are now. It's the
scariest season in my opinion, but we'll see if people
feel like that. But the seasons do get progressively shorters,
(17:00):
a longus and then fall, and so it's moving quickly.
I did want to call out the grumpy couple Florence
and Marlin. They were excellent, amazing, Yes, And I saw
so many headlines. So the next day I woke up
really early and I was just like reading headlines about
about that episode, and so many were like I would
(17:21):
just watch a whole show that was just agreed, agreed.
They were so good. This is this is definitely a
turning point with Joel and Ellie's relationship in terms of
like coming to coming two terms with what they're going
to be moving forward and throughout is kind of this
(17:46):
theme of like Ellie asking Joel to teach her things
and then eventually Joel finally teaching her those things, like
teaching her at a hunt, teaching her how to shoot,
all of that stuff. Certainly, Jackson was cool to see
(18:06):
a place that works, as Ellie says, a place that works.
And Maria. Maria is one of my very favorites. She's
played by Routina Wilson in this from True Blood. Yes,
we were very excited to see her because it's been
I mean, she's been in several successful shows since then,
but we always love an icon coming back, so having
(18:26):
her being a part of the show which I did
not expect. I knew about Nick Offerman and Melanie from Yellowjacket,
but I did not know that Routina was gonna be
on this. I am very excited to see her and
I will fight anyone who does not like her as Maria,
She's amazing and yeah, and this show she's like kind
(18:48):
of like Sarah, a very white, blonde, blue eye. So
this was a nice change of pace and like, she
did an excellent, excellent job. And Maria is one of
my very favorites. And she is another example of women
in this game series in the show being a leader,
like continuing to be these leaders even though she says, like,
(19:08):
you know, we're democratically elected, which they are. And Jackson,
she is like a very driving force and she's very
very respected in Jackson, and you do get a lot
more of her backstory than you do in the game,
like being the the lawyer, the attorney, having a kid,
all of those things. It's kind of interesting because in
(19:31):
the game she the game kind of plays out differently
with how the whole like I'm giving you Ellie, Tommy,
please take her wherein like he convinces Tommy like, oh,
you have to take care you care about this stuff.
I don't. We're going to talk more about what the
changes that made. But Joel scared her in a second way,
(19:52):
like and then Maria yelling at Joel like if he
dies and it's on you again, there's no Chiles. That
was a introduction, like Maria being pregnant was new for
the show. I also thought it was really interesting that
they included like, be careful who you put your faith in.
That was Maria's advice right to Ellie after they sort
(20:14):
of had this contentious earlier a conversation about Joel, and
she doesn't trust Joel with Tommy that like in the game,
she doesn't in the show she doesn't. She knows about
the past that they had, and it's not that she's
in any way like cruel, she just doesn't trust him.
If she doesn't trust, well, if you've made up this
(20:37):
town which is flowing lovely and like nobody's out for themselves,
which and then you have someone who comes in who
still kind of has that mentality of being out, you
don't know because it only takes one bad faith move,
and if he's takes something from somebody, if he destroys something,
or if he less you know, those things can really disrupt.
(21:00):
So you bring in someone who has a reputation for
doing whatever he needs to do to survive versus helping
a community survive. I would be wary too. Yeah, And
it's not easy to make a place like this and
this apocalypse. And we'll also talk about this more in
the second, but like we get kind of a glimpse
(21:20):
of Joel and Tommy's past and it's not pretty. And
I think that she's, you know, heard these conversations with
her husband about what went down, and it's just kind
of being cautious with Ellie, like, hey, maybe you know,
just just have questions, just be a little be a
(21:42):
little wary about this. Also, yeah, the diva cup. I
cannot tell you how many articles I was reading giggling
in my room, your room and about what is a
diva cup? Because like CNN wrote a whole article like
(22:02):
are you confused about what that item was? Here's what
it is. Yeah, And I love that because you know
our listeners that y'all know exactly what it is. We've
talked about it for years. It's been around for years,
and yeah, and I was like, oh, that's that. It
would be the smart way to go for that type
of emergency, and I'm really glad for the first time
(22:22):
we see it being addressed instead of just being like
everything's fine, women's bodies don't work like that, stop it.
M m well. I love that they did it. They
didn't know, like even with the tampons in episode three,
they did it in a way where Elliet has like
no shame about it, right, um, you know, she's in
front of this kind of like manly man dude Joel
and she's like, I found this treasure of tampons, like
(22:44):
she doesn't care. And Craig Mazin, who's like the showrunner
creator for television, he said when the pandemic first started,
he called his wife and was like, what do I
get Tampa bombs passed diva cup? Like what I do?
Because he's got daughters as well, and he thought like
(23:06):
that should be more represented and more normalized in something
like this where it is something she would need, Like
it's right, we heart normalizing periods. Come on. I love
how she like picks it up and it's like gross,
but she's not like really grossed out by She's kind
of like, oh, I mean, I think we all did
(23:26):
that in the first reaction to a Diva cup was like,
what is this? Oh, I don't like Oh wait, you
know its god like right about you? Oh okay, that's
the reaction you have with the diva cup at part
because you don't realize how really well functioning it is. Right. Well,
it's true. It's just such a like fun kind of
(23:48):
interaction of you know, because it's not like it's the
most fun process at all. But but it's nice to
see a character be like, oh, gross, but nice, that's good. Yeah.
And I also read that they put they made the
fonts that said menstrual solution on the front of it
(24:08):
larger so that people could read it. I love it.
And yeah, Kuig Meisen said, we do this all the
time and shows with things like guns where we never
explain how to load them or we never explain and
do that. Why do we have to explain what a
deep cup is to people? Right? Which I love? Yeah, okay,
Then I'm just going to run through some quick things
(24:29):
and if you've played the games, are looked up spoilers
and you'll know what I'm talking about. But if you
have it, then just keep it in the back of
your head or forget it. Yeah, you can forget it
because it doesn't come around. It's not important, it's just ms.
Because there were a lot of Easter eggs in this one.
This was a like easter egg packed episode, DNA. Oh
(24:52):
my goodness. I was so excited. The next day I
was like, this first thing I've said to you, I
think the next true shimmer the Horror, the Jackets of
the Hoodie, and then the branch was sheep. And also
Joel saying like, I actually I'd like to be a musician. Yes,
because in the first episode we did, I was like,
the got the guitar. Yes, we don't. I guess we
(25:16):
don't have too many flashbacks of happy times. We just
have the one of like how it began, right huh yeah? Yeah.
Well this brings us to kind of the changes they've
made with Joel's character in the show, which I get
why they made them, and I'll have my thoughts in
the final episode maybe or maybe the next one, who knows.
(25:37):
But they've made him softer. He's a he is not
narrowly as soft are as open with his emotions, which
some of you listening you've never played the game, might
be like, what ye him cry no, and that scene
where he's like in front of Tommy and crying no.
(26:00):
Never in a million years that have happened. And we
see him have regrets yeah, but never crying yes. And
even that when which we'll talk about in a second
because it's like famous, but they're big blowout with Ellie
and Joel that he's even he's much harsher than that
in the game, but he doesn't that we see. He
doesn't have panic attacks in the game. I will say
(26:24):
they do have a really good which if you don't
care about spoilers we've talked about in past episodes about
The Last of Us. They do have a really good
depiction of trauma in these games. But like this whole
fear of failure, he's kind of freezing up his like
fear that his heart will stop. They don't really explore
(26:46):
that and his character he is, I mean, like the
trauma is always apparent. It's just he deals with it
in the very cut off way of ill not befriend you,
child's all right, Like I think a very sad murdered dad, right,
(27:07):
sad murder dad. I feel like too. As the relationship
developed in the game, you don't really see that flip
as easily. It just like you see the flip in
the show. We saw the flip. Of course, it always
happens at the most end up or two times you
were getting too comfortable, audience, This is not going to
end well, and we just saw that with our ending
(27:29):
on this episode, which is what made you cry. But
like all of those things like that, we don't see that.
I don't feel like I built that up in the game.
Maybe I was just because it was I was watching
it as a game, but it didn't feel like that
that was a huge, like big moment. It just kind
of gradually happens and we don't notice it until like
(27:49):
when he gets protective right right, so in the game,
which if you care about spoilers in the game, this
isn't much different. But if you care about them, now's
the time go. In the game, he kind of like
Ellie and Joel have their big fight. She runs away,
which she didn't do in the show. She runs away,
(28:10):
Tommy and Joel have to go find her. They have
their whole fight and it's not resolved, and then Joel's
just kind of decides like he's just is kind of like, okay,
I'll take her. You know what, your wife scares me,
I'll take her, That's what he says. But there's not Yeah,
(28:33):
there's not that big like moment or confession from him
at all. It just sort of happens something else that
I noticed. And we've talked about this in previous episodes too.
They've definitely made it more realistic in terms of like
the affects your body would feel living in this world
(28:54):
and especially as you get older. And Joel certainly has
some internalized ableism because he was talking about like, you know,
if I had just been able to hurt this person here,
this person but I'm deaf, if I could have just
moved faster, but I'm old, I'm weak. He says, all
I've ever done is fail kind of this, like really
(29:15):
this thing hanging over him that he's not good enough
to protect this, to protect this person, and he does.
He doesn't do this in the game either, but he
kind of has a moment where he's like, if I've
fail Ellie, like this is it. She's like the possible
cure for humankind. So this is a huge deal, and
I need someone else who is better than me to
(29:38):
take it on. Like he's like feeling that weight. You
also see a lot of kind of the ghost of Sarah,
the specter of Sarah, his daughter hanging over this whole thing,
Like there's a flashback where he thinks Sarmah the flashback
but he thinks he sees Sarah as an adult with
a child of her own, and it's like, Oh, that's
(30:01):
what I could have had. Yeah. You see him kind
of lying about tests when him and Tommy have their
confrontation about like what what Joel did to protect Tommy.
Tommy says, life stopped for you, it doesn't have to
(30:23):
stop for me, and kind of referencing the watch which
stopped and he still wears when Sarah got shot and died.
You do have Ellie learning about Sarah for the first
time in the game. It's a photograph she finds, and
him just being totally unwilling to talk to her about it,
(30:43):
not wanting to deal with it. I did think it
was interesting in the kind of you know, behind the
scenes interview at the end where they were talking about
the differences between how Maria handled the loss of her
child Kevin and how Joel handled the loss of Sarah,
and also the similarities of Alien Joel and how they
(31:06):
handle a loss because Ellie is kind of like, hey,
I'm sorry for your loss, but I've lost people too,
so that's interesting. But yeah, you also did. We did
get to this big Tommy reunion, and one of the
things about that is Joel's been so concerned about, you know, Tommy,
and he's like, I gotta go save him, and it
turns out Tommy's doing well, He's doing like quite well.
(31:31):
You do get some hints that they're very very dark past,
and there are a couple of like in like more
Easter eggs, like the stealth kill as you were talking
about when he breaks that guy's neck. Why not Joel
breaks that guy's neck. That's how you stealth kill on
the game. And then also the map trick that they
do at the beginning. Oh oh, that's right, I forgot
(31:55):
that that scene. I do remember them being like at
the very beginning of like she told me is different
you're dead. Yeah, it does happened in the game. It does, indeed. Uh.
(32:19):
And then yes, the come to Jesus moment. Like throughout
this episode, as I said, like you see kind of
Ellie being like, hey, if she says, if you're dead,
I'm to joel Um and then they have this huge fight,
which it kind of cracked me up. But in the
post interview thing, they were saying, it's the most famous
(32:41):
scene in the game. I guess, so, I mean it
stuck with me. Yeah, but it is exactly almost exactly
like you can watch a side by side like the game,
but where Ellie's like essentially like, admit you wanted to
leave me this whole time. You wanted to ditch me
this whole time. I'm not say era like if you
(33:02):
can say anything you want, but you're the only one
who hasn't left me, and if you do, I'm just
going to be more afraid. Like, don't say it's better
for me. I will say, if you get a chance,
you should look at the posters and stuff in the
room she's in, because it's the room of like a
teenage girl before the pandemic, and there's like a like
list of hottest boys, like at least posters from things.
(33:24):
But in the game you see Ellie constantly confused about
things like that where she finds this like modeling poster
and she's like, why did women feel like they had
to be so thin? That doesn't make sense. I would
give anything to have like food and not be worried
about this the vampire romance movie she doesn't get. So
(33:46):
that was kind of a fun little nod to that. Well, no,
and that after the show thing they craigmis and said, like,
you know, Joel makes Ellie feel less afraid, but she
makes him feel more afraid because it's something you can
lose that he's experienced before. And we also get to
(34:07):
see Ellie's fear of ending up alone, which is her
greatest fear, kind of planning out. I did think it
was interesting because when Joel's like, you deserve a choice,
like I think you'd be better off with Tommy, but
if you want to go with me, and she's to
me like, yes, let's go, And that wasn't in the
game either. He just kind of was like, get all
the worse right, We're going together. And then yeah, you
(34:30):
do get to see kind of this montage of them bonding,
of him teaching her things, of him opening up finally
about like, actually, I'd rather than be a singer if
I can be anything. He even smiled at one point. WHOA.
And we're going to talk about this more in the
next episode. But the inspiration of the entire game is
kind of we're almost at that, and it kind of
(34:52):
happens in this mysterious I won't say more, but we'll
talk about that in the next one. And then we
do get to see them starting, yeah, starting to think
of like the future, what could it be like post infection,
where Joel says, you know, yeah, I want this ranch
with Sheep and then actually, no, I want to be
a musician, and Ellie says, I want to be an astronaut,
(35:13):
and she she brings up Sally Ride, which was great,
and she is super into into space in the in
the game, and Sarah was also really into that stuff,
so there's that. Also, the sad song that's playing at
the end was the Depeche Mode song I'm taking a
(35:37):
Ride with my best Friend. I don't think it's called that,
but you know what I'm talking about from the first episode,
but they did it again and it was Kraig Meisen's
daughter and he was like, I felt like it would
be appropriate word because the lyrics are kind of like
I hope he never lets me down again, and it's
the daughter singing it this time. And also there was
(35:59):
definitely a not to Linda run stats a long long
time when Tommy Angel, were you n tough? I watched
this episode like eight times. Yes, I h I don't
want to say. I don't think I'm going to go
into this too much in this one, but I do
want to come back to this because I feel like
I was very interested in what would happen in terms
(36:20):
of the fandoms between the gamers and people who hadn't
played the game, who were just watching the show, and
I'm starting to see it play out. So I do
want to revisit that it was going to be a
movie by Sam Raby. I don't know if I ever
said that. That's disturbing. Yeah, well in Neil Juckman, the
(36:43):
creative the game, was like no, no, no, no. But
I just think that's interesting given some of the conversations
that are playing out right now. Also, I've seen a
lot of articles written about Paris social relationships about this.
We are going to come back and talk about that.
It is interesting, but that's for a later time in
(37:05):
the meantime up next. If you don't want any spoilers,
I'm not gonna spoil it, but if you don't want
to even watch the trailer, if you're that kind of person.
Then hop on out, we're gonna see Riley. If you
remember from the first episode, Riley was mentioned mentioned again
in the second episode, gonna see kind of Ellie's past.
(37:26):
We're gonna get more puns. I believe that to be true.
And we are arriving at what I think is the
scariest point in the game. I don't think it'll be
the next episode, but we're getting there, so that's exciting.
And of course we're just gonna hold our breaths and
hope that everything turns out. Okay, Yeah, well it is
(37:49):
an apocalypse game, so yes, I'm sure more death. There's
definitely more death. What do you think on the crying
scale would be for the next episode from one ten?
Oh boy? Uh? I think it depends. I think if
(38:09):
you're I feel like I need to have two scales
because I feel like, if you're a crier like me
who loves the game, I put it at a five
to six. If you're not, I'd given a four. Um same,
But it also depends on what they do, because honestly,
like what they did with Bill and Frank wasn't in
the game like that. Yeah, and it made me stop
(38:30):
so there's some flis happening. There's some flips. There are
there are some flips. I know we're coming to an end,
but before we do any I would you like to
share your favorite pun Will Livingston's pun book. This isn't
my favorite one. I'll get I'll bring the pun book
in next time. But one of my favorite ones is, um,
(38:50):
what did the green grapes say to the purple grape?
Breathe you idiot? Perfect, that's all top of my head.
Oh my um. Well, thank you as always to everyone
going on on this journey, whether you've played the game,
seeing the show, none of the above. We are having
(39:13):
I'm having a great time, so we have very time.
I'm very very excited for the next episode. I'm getting
more and more, like just so excited every time. So
this has been so fun. Um. If you have any thoughts,
any favorite puns, you can send them to us. Our
(39:34):
email is a stuff at your mom stuff at iHeartMedia
dot com. You can find us on Twitter at Mom's
to podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok, where you can
see me cry about the last of us that steff
Man never told you. We're also on YouTube now if
that's your thing. Thanks as always to our super producer
Gristy Now, thank you and thanks to you for listening
Stuff I Never told you sproduction of iHeartRadio. Former podcast
(39:56):
from my Heart Radio. You can check out the heart Radio,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to favorite sh
Hey, this Sanny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane Never
Told You Protection of iHeartRadio. And here we are with
our part six of our special The Last of Us,
(00:25):
a mini series where we recap and react to the
HBO Max series The Last of Us, based on the
twenty thirteen game of which I am a huge fan.
We are not the official podcast, and in fact, somebody
texted me the other day and was like, I heard
this on the podcast and I was like, oh really,
I didn't know that. They're like, oh, it's not your podcast.
(00:47):
I was like, all right, well thanks, but yes, we
are not the official podcast, but we are one that
I think has some good points and some good thoughts
and some fun time. We have fun times, we do. Indeed,
this is a mini series. We are doing it but
(01:07):
one week after the most recent episode airs, so this
is one week after episode six, which is called Ken,
and there are nine episodes of this series. So the
final episode, probably unless we do a two parter, which
is possible, will be March nineteenth, because the finale of
(01:29):
the show is March twelfth, So after that we will
go back to our regularly scheduled programming Slash My Happy hours,
which have been moved all about for the Saturday episodes. Also,
there will be spoilers for the first six episodes of
the series. Samantha is my guardian and making sure I
(01:52):
don't spoil the whole thing. And it's this one's gonna
be tough, this one, I'm gonna say, but I think
we can do it. I think we can do it.
We got this, we got this. Yeah, all right, are
you ready for my wonderful recap? Samantha gifts the best recaps.
I am so ready. Right, so again, because this is
an HBO Max show. Just as a reminder content warning,
(02:15):
there's violence and sadness and trauma all throughout, which is
right up. Annie's Allie, that is what she loves. Um
And yes, so if you haven't watched the six episode
six pause, go watch come back. Yes, because my explanation
is so good, it's like you're watching it as I'm
(02:38):
speaking of this. I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay, So we
are went back with Ellie and Joel, who all of
a sudden we come into a picture of a cabin.
Dude someone someone is walking with rabbits. There was a
lot of conversations that happened by the way, at our
place about the rabbits. We're not gonna tell you why,
but they were conversations, just so you know. And then
(02:58):
we walk in and you see the character's name is Florence,
a Native woman who is just chilling in her chair
while Joel is sitting next to her, or does he
say no, he comes out. He comes out with a gun.
It is like a rut row, and we find now
that Joel's trying to get information, trying to figure out
(03:20):
where they are exactly because they need to find Tommy,
and then trying to figure out, you know, where's the
closest area to any headquarters. What's going on? Essentially, that's
what he says. And we have this great banter that
this low key banter that's happening between Florence and the
other character is Marlin, who, by the way, we just
discovered that they were together in an old nineties sitcom
(03:43):
called The Northern Exposure, which I remember. I did not watch,
but I remember because it was really big for five years.
Apparently this was like a mini reunion for the two
of them, And I really feel like this is for
those nineties adults who know, if you know, you know, yes,
And I also feel like there's a low key like,
if anybody's gonna survive an apocalypse, it's the indigenous people
(04:06):
of this area. I think they're right, but whatever. So
we have this fun banter that happens between the two
of them. All of a sudden, She's like, she's got
a gun. He's got a gun, and there's a girl,
and then Elie kinds like hey, and he and then
Joel's like stay up there, and she comes down and
everybody's like, what's it happening? But there they all have
to sit down. Turns out that Florence made them soup.
(04:28):
They were very hungry, they were very thankful, and the
dude Marlin's like, what why did you make them soup?
It's cold, they're here, Why wouldn't I He's like, why
didn't you get the gun? She goes because it's way
over there. It's fine. So wonderful moment um. And we
do discover through this conversation that this area is kind
(04:49):
of barren, not a lot of infected, because it's pretty
much just too far out, not enough civilization, not a
lot of supplies, all of these things. Um. They do
say that it is the River of death they call it,
and that the only think they know is when people
go out, they don't come back, and they're but dead
bodies everywhere, don't go. He does give them the area
(05:12):
they're at. He doesn't know a tommy. They don't even
know about fireflies. They think it's hilarious. So like there
are people that are fireflies hilarious. There's five, five people,
and so they go on together. Ellie steals a rabbit,
and as they're in a cave together trying to stay warm,
(05:33):
she's like, man, I should have taken two rabbits. All
these things. They have a whole conversation about. He's going
to be a sheep farmer, that's what he said, being joking.
He tries to get her to go to sleep. He
said he's gonna keep watch, but he of course falls
asleep and to only see that Ellie's awake and has
the gun. She had taken the second shift. He's like,
(05:54):
wake me up. She's like, you weren't awake. Of course
I'm gonna take the second shifts. And he's like, well,
next time, wake me up, because you can't be doing
this tide to take care of you. She's like, you
didn't stay awake in a story. So they move on.
They shoot it off into the water to see if,
like towards the water, if anybody's going to come towards them.
They think they're safe. They go to the second part.
She's like, wait, what if this is a river of death?
(06:14):
And then all of a sudden they are surrounded by
pretty much cowboys. I'm just going with that, and they
are like, oh no, what's happening. They've got a dog.
This dog stiffs up the infected so oh oh, scary moment.
Scary moment. And during these times, by the way, Joel
is having panic attacks. This is fairly new. I did
not see this in the video game. I guess you
can't really play that in the video game, but we
(06:35):
see this here. So he's having panic attacks. At this point,
he's thinking, oh no, Ellie's gonna get eaten. Oh no.
But then everything turns out okay. She's having a good
time with a dog. She loves dogs. Here anyway, moving on,
and so then we see him talking to them and
they're like, what do you want. We'll let you pass
if you do these things, or you need to move along.
(06:56):
And then he's like, I'm trying to find Tommy, and
then we see this woman come up more like oh,
and she's like, oh, how do you know Tommy? And
then they go into this wonderful town, very western looking
and has all electricity and supplies and children and happiness
is kind of odd, and we defined out that Tommy
(07:16):
is there, holy crap. And the person who lit led
them as a woman named Maria. We don't know the significance,
but she seems to know Joel. Here they take Ellie
to get cleaned up while Joel sits and talks to Tommy.
And Maria were here. We also discover them Maria's his wife.
And because Joel is Joel, he can't be happy for anybody.
(07:39):
And Joel Ellie is like, well, congratulations, and here she's
like telling them congratulations, and of course he does the
whole voice of congratulations. And that's how we move on.
And then we see that the children of this town
is finding Ellie odd because she's very loud, outspoken and
cursing and all these things, and they're like, what who
(08:00):
are you? They are very intrigued and they have to explain.
Maria explains that the Kaids aren't used to kids like you.
That's how we believe it. There might have been a
cameo by someone that I didn't realize was there, but
maybe we're moving on. Um there. We go on to
see that Tommy and Joel go to a bar to
(08:21):
have a conversation while Ellie is being cleaned up, takes
a shower, get some new clothes. There's a hoodie that
Annie's very fond of that she wore for the viewing
that looks exactly like it. It doesn't zip up. Sorry, yes,
in the game, it doesn't. Okay, I did. I got
(08:45):
very excited. We're sure it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But then we find out during the bar at the
bar scene, like he's like, we gotta go, why are
you here, Let's leave. I came to rescue you, you know,
being funny. And then it turns out Tommy is expecting
a kid. Maria's pregnant ro Ro, which is a deviation
(09:07):
from the game, just an fyi, and so that's like,
he doesn't say congratulations, nothing, and Tommy's like, I hope
I make a good father, and he was like, god,
I guess we'll find out. Not cool, bro, not cool.
We go back to Ellie who was all clean and refreshed,
and we see this layout of clothes for her again,
that hoodie we just talked about, and a diva cup
(09:29):
very important. I really like that detail BT dubs. But
she comes downstairs and this is Tommy and Maria's place,
and we see a little shrine with the name Sarah
and Kevin, and if you know, you know that Sarah
is Joel's kid, and so they Tommy obviously put that there,
and which I find out that Kevin is Maria's kid
who had died. At this point, she kind of has
(09:52):
a banter moment with Ellie, which Ellie's like, thanks for
the weird gift, the diva cup, and She's like, he'll
lout you'll want it someday. Is a good gift because
our nice purple thick jacket. Apparently Ellie doesn't like purple.
I don't know, she just this very purple. And then
she talks about Kevin being Maria's son, and then morning
(10:14):
and then Maria kind of link does does talk about
Sarah to her to Ellie because Ellie had no idea,
she didn't even know who she was, that he even
had a kid. So she gets that information. She gets
a haircut as well. Find out that Maria was an
attorney once upon at a time, but she really liked
cutting hair. All of these things, and then it was
you know, made a conversation about alluding to Joel's past
(10:37):
not being great, but Ellie's like, I know, don't worry
about it. I can take care of myself, and then
she takes her to the movie. So we're guessing at
this point in time, the Quzi probably didn't have all
of those types of things, so this was neat to see.
Whatever movie was playing, those sounded really awful. I don't know.
By the way, if you watch on in this theater
(10:59):
scene there as a girl that she says next to
was the one that was giving her weird looks or
was watching her closely and was weirded out by at
the beginning, And when she first comes in you need
to note her. I'm gonna say that, okay. And so
at this point in time, Tommy's trying to find Joel
because Joel of course disappears because Joel is Joel being
(11:20):
sad murder Dad and Joel is and I guess what's
a shoe player plays trying to repair his boots, but
Tommy comes and gives them a new pair and he's like,
I got you this, and they have a real upfront conversation.
And here we find Joel freaking out, thinking that he's
pretty much getting too old, afraid that he's going to
get her killed, and afraid that he's going to see
(11:41):
another person, another child die who he regards and loves dearly.
So he's trying to get Tommy to go and take Ellie.
After Joel reveals that she is immune, tells him everything
that happened through in the past and all these things
and how important it is, and it finally admits that
Test died. But by the way at the baby getting
Tommy's like house tests and of course Job is like,
(12:03):
oh she's fine, what the hell and moving on, And
so it is decided that Tommy will take her to
the hospital to the fireflies and benownst to them. Ellie
had been listening. So when he goes to the house
where they are staying currently, Ellie says, you know, why
didn't you just ditch me? In this scene plays out
(12:25):
which we do see this line line by line I
believe in the game, in which he's just like, you know,
I didn't trust anyone. You're the only one. I've lost
some money people, And he's like, you don't know. Laws
stopped talking about Sarah. And he's wrong, by the way,
he's wrong that just because you have lost a daughter
doesn't negate anybody else's loss. Just go ahead and put
(12:47):
that out there. So he's like, I don't want to do,
you know, put you in danger. This is for you.
And then when he gets mad, he pushes her away
and walks out, and she's sad. And by the way,
that diary scene doesn't happen also in the game, because
she's like, oh, that's all they worried about is boys
and matching clothes. That's so odd. And so we come
into the morning, she's sitting waiting. Tommy comes to get her.
(13:09):
They go to the horses. Joel was sitting there with
a horse. He's like, well, I was trying to steal
a horse, and which Tommy's like, we would have given
you a horse, but you know, Joel's Joel, and so
he's like, you know, I've been sitting here for thirty minutes,
and she's like, what does that mean. He's like, you know,
I'm gonna give you a choice, and She's like, yeah,
let's go, Me and you, Me and you. So they
hop on. They ride off the horse together, and I
(13:29):
believe they talked about a baby horse that's shimmer shimmer.
Shimmer sticks around y'all, just because you need to know,
all these animals are not really important, but they are
like they used well, I mean like it could have
been anything like if they had diverted from those, it
wouldn't have been a big deal. But they holding close
to the game but putting these even like animal as
(13:51):
the actual ones though. Anyway, and we move on and
they're riding and they get to the hospital. But in
between this they're having a lot of like interactions that
he tried teacher how to use the gun, talks about
how he what he really wants in the feature and
not being sheep herding farmer. So it was really sweet.
You see them really getting close at this point. Um.
(14:11):
And then we come to the hospital. Oh there's no guards.
They go in and we him see him pick up
a note, which finally that's in the game. He picks
up the note to show that they had all last
beat abandoned very quickly because something had happened. And so
also she sees animals like monkeys, which is like that's
the thing which we've all had the debate about, like, well,
(14:33):
can the monkeys being then the animals be infected I
guess not Moving on, and they hear noises more monkeys,
and then they look outside and realize, oh, raiders. So
they try to sneak away, even though I think their
horse has already been spotted. But as they do, someone
comes running to attack Joel. They get into a fight.
Joel brakes his neck real gruesome, turns around and oh
(14:57):
my god, he's been stabbed. We see the knife aparently
he didn't feel it, and then the rest of the
crew come out running. All they get in the horse
to run away. She fired some shots, they think they
got away, and the last thing we see is Joel
falling off the horse, in which she's begging him that
she doesn't know what she's gonna do alone, she can't
(15:17):
survive alone, and for him to open his eyes in
the story, yeah, and Annie's crying a lot of spite.
It was funny because again we watched these together and
I got the question beforehand, like what is the cry scale?
And I was like, well, I feel like it was
(15:38):
gonna count. It was going to depend on how much
they leaned into their what I called the comb to
Jesus moment, which, by the way, Samantha nose I was
very annoying about it, but I called what was gonna happen?
So I've gotten a few techs since then telling me
she called it, I define, yeah, So excellent recampus always, Samantha,
(16:16):
there is a lot to cover in this one. And
just to reiterate this is there's only seven eight three
episodes left, so we're moving very quickly. We're moving very
very quickly. A lot of the things that I want
to talk about overarching I'm going to do in the
final part whatever episodes we do of the last episode,
(16:37):
but just because I don't want to spoil it, but
so keep that in mind, I did want to say
the game, the first game is split into seasons. Summer,
it starts in summer. It's the longest season, Winters. The
third season, which is where we are now. It's the
scariest season in my opinion, but we'll see if people
feel like that. But the seasons do get progressively shorters,
(17:00):
a longus and then fall, and so it's moving quickly.
I did want to call out the grumpy couple Florence
and Marlin. They were excellent, amazing, Yes, And I saw
so many headlines. So the next day I woke up
really early and I was just like reading headlines about
about that episode, and so many were like I would
(17:21):
just watch a whole show that was just agreed, agreed.
They were so good. This is this is definitely a
turning point with Joel and Ellie's relationship in terms of
like coming to coming two terms with what they're going
to be moving forward and throughout is kind of this
(17:46):
theme of like Ellie asking Joel to teach her things
and then eventually Joel finally teaching her those things, like
teaching her at a hunt, teaching her how to shoot,
all of that stuff. Certainly, Jackson was cool to see
(18:06):
a place that works, as Ellie says, a place that works.
And Maria. Maria is one of my very favorites. She's
played by Routina Wilson in this from True Blood. Yes,
we were very excited to see her because it's been
I mean, she's been in several successful shows since then,
but we always love an icon coming back, so having
(18:26):
her being a part of the show which I did
not expect. I knew about Nick Offerman and Melanie from Yellowjacket,
but I did not know that Routina was gonna be
on this. I am very excited to see her and
I will fight anyone who does not like her as Maria,
She's amazing and yeah, and this show she's like kind
(18:48):
of like Sarah, a very white, blonde, blue eye. So
this was a nice change of pace and like, she
did an excellent, excellent job. And Maria is one of
my very favorites. And she is another example of women
in this game series in the show being a leader,
like continuing to be these leaders even though she says, like,
(19:08):
you know, we're democratically elected, which they are. And Jackson,
she is like a very driving force and she's very
very respected in Jackson, and you do get a lot
more of her backstory than you do in the game,
like being the the lawyer, the attorney, having a kid,
all of those things. It's kind of interesting because in
(19:31):
the game she the game kind of plays out differently
with how the whole like I'm giving you Ellie, Tommy,
please take her wherein like he convinces Tommy like, oh,
you have to take care you care about this stuff.
I don't. We're going to talk more about what the
changes that made. But Joel scared her in a second way,
(19:52):
like and then Maria yelling at Joel like if he
dies and it's on you again, there's no Chiles. That
was a introduction, like Maria being pregnant was new for
the show. I also thought it was really interesting that
they included like, be careful who you put your faith in.
That was Maria's advice right to Ellie after they sort
(20:14):
of had this contentious earlier a conversation about Joel, and
she doesn't trust Joel with Tommy that like in the game,
she doesn't in the show she doesn't. She knows about
the past that they had, and it's not that she's
in any way like cruel, she just doesn't trust him.
If she doesn't trust, well, if you've made up this
(20:37):
town which is flowing lovely and like nobody's out for themselves,
which and then you have someone who comes in who
still kind of has that mentality of being out, you
don't know because it only takes one bad faith move,
and if he's takes something from somebody, if he destroys something,
or if he less you know, those things can really disrupt.
(21:00):
So you bring in someone who has a reputation for
doing whatever he needs to do to survive versus helping
a community survive. I would be wary too. Yeah, And
it's not easy to make a place like this and
this apocalypse. And we'll also talk about this more in
the second, but like we get kind of a glimpse
(21:20):
of Joel and Tommy's past and it's not pretty. And
I think that she's, you know, heard these conversations with
her husband about what went down, and it's just kind
of being cautious with Ellie, like, hey, maybe you know,
just just have questions, just be a little be a
(21:42):
little wary about this. Also, yeah, the diva cup. I
cannot tell you how many articles I was reading giggling
in my room, your room and about what is a
diva cup? Because like CNN wrote a whole article like
(22:02):
are you confused about what that item was? Here's what
it is. Yeah, And I love that because you know
our listeners that y'all know exactly what it is. We've
talked about it for years. It's been around for years,
and yeah, and I was like, oh, that's that. It
would be the smart way to go for that type
of emergency, and I'm really glad for the first time
(22:22):
we see it being addressed instead of just being like
everything's fine, women's bodies don't work like that, stop it.
M m well. I love that they did it. They
didn't know, like even with the tampons in episode three,
they did it in a way where Elliet has like
no shame about it, right, um, you know, she's in
front of this kind of like manly man dude Joel
and she's like, I found this treasure of tampons, like
(22:44):
she doesn't care. And Craig Mazin, who's like the showrunner
creator for television, he said when the pandemic first started,
he called his wife and was like, what do I
get Tampa bombs passed diva cup? Like what I do?
Because he's got daughters as well, and he thought like
(23:06):
that should be more represented and more normalized in something
like this where it is something she would need, Like
it's right, we heart normalizing periods. Come on. I love
how she like picks it up and it's like gross,
but she's not like really grossed out by She's kind
of like, oh, I mean, I think we all did
(23:26):
that in the first reaction to a Diva cup was like,
what is this? Oh, I don't like Oh wait, you
know its god like right about you? Oh okay, that's
the reaction you have with the diva cup at part
because you don't realize how really well functioning it is. Right. Well,
it's true. It's just such a like fun kind of
(23:48):
interaction of you know, because it's not like it's the
most fun process at all. But but it's nice to
see a character be like, oh, gross, but nice, that's good. Yeah.
And I also read that they put they made the
fonts that said menstrual solution on the front of it
(24:08):
larger so that people could read it. I love it.
And yeah, Kuig Meisen said, we do this all the
time and shows with things like guns where we never
explain how to load them or we never explain and
do that. Why do we have to explain what a
deep cup is to people? Right? Which I love? Yeah, okay,
Then I'm just going to run through some quick things
(24:29):
and if you've played the games, are looked up spoilers
and you'll know what I'm talking about. But if you
have it, then just keep it in the back of
your head or forget it. Yeah, you can forget it
because it doesn't come around. It's not important, it's just ms.
Because there were a lot of Easter eggs in this one.
This was a like easter egg packed episode, DNA. Oh
(24:52):
my goodness. I was so excited. The next day I
was like, this first thing I've said to you, I
think the next true shimmer the Horror, the Jackets of
the Hoodie, and then the branch was sheep. And also
Joel saying like, I actually I'd like to be a musician. Yes,
because in the first episode we did, I was like,
the got the guitar. Yes, we don't. I guess we
(25:16):
don't have too many flashbacks of happy times. We just
have the one of like how it began, right huh yeah? Yeah.
Well this brings us to kind of the changes they've
made with Joel's character in the show, which I get
why they made them, and I'll have my thoughts in
the final episode maybe or maybe the next one, who knows.
(25:37):
But they've made him softer. He's a he is not
narrowly as soft are as open with his emotions, which
some of you listening you've never played the game, might
be like, what ye him cry no, and that scene
where he's like in front of Tommy and crying no.
(26:00):
Never in a million years that have happened. And we
see him have regrets yeah, but never crying yes. And
even that when which we'll talk about in a second
because it's like famous, but they're big blowout with Ellie
and Joel that he's even he's much harsher than that
in the game, but he doesn't that we see. He
doesn't have panic attacks in the game. I will say
(26:24):
they do have a really good which if you don't
care about spoilers we've talked about in past episodes about
The Last of Us. They do have a really good
depiction of trauma in these games. But like this whole
fear of failure, he's kind of freezing up his like
fear that his heart will stop. They don't really explore
(26:46):
that and his character he is, I mean, like the
trauma is always apparent. It's just he deals with it
in the very cut off way of ill not befriend you,
child's all right, Like I think a very sad murdered dad, right,
(27:07):
sad murder dad. I feel like too. As the relationship
developed in the game, you don't really see that flip
as easily. It just like you see the flip in
the show. We saw the flip. Of course, it always
happens at the most end up or two times you
were getting too comfortable, audience, This is not going to
end well, and we just saw that with our ending
(27:29):
on this episode, which is what made you cry. But
like all of those things like that, we don't see that.
I don't feel like I built that up in the game.
Maybe I was just because it was I was watching
it as a game, but it didn't feel like that
that was a huge, like big moment. It just kind
of gradually happens and we don't notice it until like
(27:49):
when he gets protective right right, so in the game,
which if you care about spoilers in the game, this
isn't much different. But if you care about them, now's
the time go. In the game, he kind of like
Ellie and Joel have their big fight. She runs away,
which she didn't do in the show. She runs away,
(28:10):
Tommy and Joel have to go find her. They have
their whole fight and it's not resolved, and then Joel's
just kind of decides like he's just is kind of like, okay,
I'll take her. You know what, your wife scares me,
I'll take her, That's what he says. But there's not Yeah,
(28:33):
there's not that big like moment or confession from him
at all. It just sort of happens something else that
I noticed. And we've talked about this in previous episodes too.
They've definitely made it more realistic in terms of like
the affects your body would feel living in this world
(28:54):
and especially as you get older. And Joel certainly has
some internalized ableism because he was talking about like, you know,
if I had just been able to hurt this person here,
this person but I'm deaf, if I could have just
moved faster, but I'm old, I'm weak. He says, all
I've ever done is fail kind of this, like really
(29:15):
this thing hanging over him that he's not good enough
to protect this, to protect this person, and he does.
He doesn't do this in the game either, but he
kind of has a moment where he's like, if I've
fail Ellie, like this is it. She's like the possible
cure for humankind. So this is a huge deal, and
I need someone else who is better than me to
(29:38):
take it on. Like he's like feeling that weight. You
also see a lot of kind of the ghost of Sarah,
the specter of Sarah, his daughter hanging over this whole thing,
Like there's a flashback where he thinks Sarmah the flashback
but he thinks he sees Sarah as an adult with
a child of her own, and it's like, Oh, that's
(30:01):
what I could have had. Yeah. You see him kind
of lying about tests when him and Tommy have their
confrontation about like what what Joel did to protect Tommy.
Tommy says, life stopped for you, it doesn't have to
(30:23):
stop for me, and kind of referencing the watch which
stopped and he still wears when Sarah got shot and died.
You do have Ellie learning about Sarah for the first
time in the game. It's a photograph she finds, and
him just being totally unwilling to talk to her about it,
(30:43):
not wanting to deal with it. I did think it
was interesting in the kind of you know, behind the
scenes interview at the end where they were talking about
the differences between how Maria handled the loss of her
child Kevin and how Joel handled the loss of Sarah,
and also the similarities of Alien Joel and how they
(31:06):
handle a loss because Ellie is kind of like, hey,
I'm sorry for your loss, but I've lost people too,
so that's interesting. But yeah, you also did. We did
get to this big Tommy reunion, and one of the
things about that is Joel's been so concerned about, you know, Tommy,
and he's like, I gotta go save him, and it
turns out Tommy's doing well, He's doing like quite well.
(31:31):
You do get some hints that they're very very dark past,
and there are a couple of like in like more
Easter eggs, like the stealth kill as you were talking
about when he breaks that guy's neck. Why not Joel
breaks that guy's neck. That's how you stealth kill on
the game. And then also the map trick that they
do at the beginning. Oh oh, that's right, I forgot
(31:55):
that that scene. I do remember them being like at
the very beginning of like she told me is different
you're dead. Yeah, it does happened in the game. It does, indeed. Uh.
(32:19):
And then yes, the come to Jesus moment. Like throughout
this episode, as I said, like you see kind of
Ellie being like, hey, if she says, if you're dead,
I'm to joel Um and then they have this huge fight,
which it kind of cracked me up. But in the
post interview thing, they were saying, it's the most famous
(32:41):
scene in the game. I guess, so, I mean it
stuck with me. Yeah, but it is exactly almost exactly
like you can watch a side by side like the game,
but where Ellie's like essentially like, admit you wanted to
leave me this whole time. You wanted to ditch me
this whole time. I'm not say era like if you
(33:02):
can say anything you want, but you're the only one
who hasn't left me, and if you do, I'm just
going to be more afraid. Like, don't say it's better
for me. I will say, if you get a chance,
you should look at the posters and stuff in the
room she's in, because it's the room of like a
teenage girl before the pandemic, and there's like a like
list of hottest boys, like at least posters from things.
(33:24):
But in the game you see Ellie constantly confused about
things like that where she finds this like modeling poster
and she's like, why did women feel like they had
to be so thin? That doesn't make sense. I would
give anything to have like food and not be worried
about this the vampire romance movie she doesn't get. So
(33:46):
that was kind of a fun little nod to that. Well, no,
and that after the show thing they craigmis and said, like,
you know, Joel makes Ellie feel less afraid, but she
makes him feel more afraid because it's something you can
lose that he's experienced before. And we also get to
(34:07):
see Ellie's fear of ending up alone, which is her
greatest fear, kind of planning out. I did think it
was interesting because when Joel's like, you deserve a choice,
like I think you'd be better off with Tommy, but
if you want to go with me, and she's to
me like, yes, let's go, And that wasn't in the
game either. He just kind of was like, get all
the worse right, We're going together. And then yeah, you
(34:30):
do get to see kind of this montage of them bonding,
of him teaching her things, of him opening up finally
about like, actually, I'd rather than be a singer if
I can be anything. He even smiled at one point. WHOA.
And we're going to talk about this more in the
next episode. But the inspiration of the entire game is
kind of we're almost at that, and it kind of
(34:52):
happens in this mysterious I won't say more, but we'll
talk about that in the next one. And then we
do get to see them starting, yeah, starting to think
of like the future, what could it be like post infection,
where Joel says, you know, yeah, I want this ranch
with Sheep and then actually, no, I want to be
a musician, and Ellie says, I want to be an astronaut,
(35:13):
and she she brings up Sally Ride, which was great,
and she is super into into space in the in
the game, and Sarah was also really into that stuff,
so there's that. Also, the sad song that's playing at
the end was the Depeche Mode song I'm taking a
(35:37):
Ride with my best Friend. I don't think it's called that,
but you know what I'm talking about from the first episode,
but they did it again and it was Kraig Meisen's
daughter and he was like, I felt like it would
be appropriate word because the lyrics are kind of like
I hope he never lets me down again, and it's
the daughter singing it this time. And also there was
(35:59):
definitely a not to Linda run stats a long long
time when Tommy Angel, were you n tough? I watched
this episode like eight times. Yes, I h I don't
want to say. I don't think I'm going to go
into this too much in this one, but I do
want to come back to this because I feel like
I was very interested in what would happen in terms
(36:20):
of the fandoms between the gamers and people who hadn't
played the game, who were just watching the show, and
I'm starting to see it play out. So I do
want to revisit that it was going to be a
movie by Sam Raby. I don't know if I ever
said that. That's disturbing. Yeah, well in Neil Juckman, the
(36:43):
creative the game, was like no, no, no, no. But
I just think that's interesting given some of the conversations
that are playing out right now. Also, I've seen a
lot of articles written about Paris social relationships about this.
We are going to come back and talk about that.
It is interesting, but that's for a later time in
(37:05):
the meantime up next. If you don't want any spoilers,
I'm not gonna spoil it, but if you don't want
to even watch the trailer, if you're that kind of person.
Then hop on out, we're gonna see Riley. If you
remember from the first episode, Riley was mentioned mentioned again
in the second episode, gonna see kind of Ellie's past.
(37:26):
We're gonna get more puns. I believe that to be true.
And we are arriving at what I think is the
scariest point in the game. I don't think it'll be
the next episode, but we're getting there, so that's exciting.
And of course we're just gonna hold our breaths and
hope that everything turns out. Okay, Yeah, well it is
(37:49):
an apocalypse game, so yes, I'm sure more death. There's
definitely more death. What do you think on the crying
scale would be for the next episode from one ten?
Oh boy? Uh? I think it depends. I think if
(38:09):
you're I feel like I need to have two scales
because I feel like, if you're a crier like me
who loves the game, I put it at a five
to six. If you're not, I'd given a four. Um same,
But it also depends on what they do, because honestly,
like what they did with Bill and Frank wasn't in
the game like that. Yeah, and it made me stop
(38:30):
so there's some flis happening. There's some flips. There are
there are some flips. I know we're coming to an end,
but before we do any I would you like to
share your favorite pun Will Livingston's pun book. This isn't
my favorite one. I'll get I'll bring the pun book
in next time. But one of my favorite ones is, um,
(38:50):
what did the green grapes say to the purple grape?
Breathe you idiot? Perfect, that's all top of my head.
Oh my um. Well, thank you as always to everyone
going on on this journey, whether you've played the game,
seeing the show, none of the above. We are having
(39:13):
I'm having a great time, so we have very time.
I'm very very excited for the next episode. I'm getting
more and more, like just so excited every time. So
this has been so fun. Um. If you have any thoughts,
any favorite puns, you can send them to us. Our
(39:34):
email is a stuff at your mom stuff at iHeartMedia
dot com. You can find us on Twitter at Mom's
to podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok, where you can
see me cry about the last of us that steff
Man never told you. We're also on YouTube now if
that's your thing. Thanks as always to our super producer
Gristy Now, thank you and thanks to you for listening
Stuff I Never told you sproduction of iHeartRadio. Former podcast
(39:56):
from my Heart Radio. You can check out the heart Radio,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to favorite sh
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