The Last of Us’ second episode sees the show’s first substantial departures from the game. Environments are faithful in terms of how they compare to settings from The Last of Us’ source material, but these locations are depicted at different times from when they appear in the game.
Episode two sees Joel, Tess, and Ellie continue outward from the Boston Quarantine Zone, and fans of the game may have already guessed where it might end. Unlike The Last of Us’ debut episode, though, there are some fairly large changes made regarding story beats from the game.
HBO’s The Last of Us Skips Past Most of the Game’s Early Enemy Encounters
Joel, Tess, and Ellie have already made their way through swathes of FEDRA guards, runners, and clickers in the game by the time that episode two begins. The show omits these enemy encounters, cutting through the entire nighttime sequence where the trio make their way through ruinous skyscrapers and eventually the museum at sunrise, but the show portrays the museum sequence during the day.
The show only sees the trio encounter two clickers, but those two clickers do a serious number on them. Unfortunately, this demonstrates that fans may not see Joel or Ellie lob a brick to distract an enemy in HBO’s The Last of Us.
HBO’s The Last of Us Makes the Infected a Hive Mind Colony
The Last of Us’ HBO show rewrites spores and the infected by depicting the fungal infection as a hive mind. This essentially means that the show’s infection is connected across all Cordyceps fungi, where stepping on a fungal plate or killing a runner in one area could trigger hundreds of other infected to come running to that location.
It is strange that colonies of runners are seen laying dormant on the ground and apparently wince when sunlight passes along them, and it is also interesting that the infected register when Tess is infected in the state house because of this connection. Still, it is starkly different from how the infection is portrayed in The Last of Us’ source material.
Ellie Gets Bitten a Second Time in the Same Spot
The two clickers that Joel, Tess, and Ellie encounter in the show’s second episode would hardly be considered a threat compared to how many clickers and runners players encounter in the game. Surprisingly, though, these two clickers are responsible for both Tess and Ellie being bitten.
Tess is bitten at some point in the game and therefore that decision makes sense, but Ellie being bitten a second time does not happen in the game. This decision seems like an attempt to further validate Ellie’s immunit in The Last of Us, but the fact that she gets bitten in the same spot on the same arm as her previous bite is a little on-the-nose and redundant.
Tess’ Death and the Controversial Infected ‘Kiss’
In the game, Tess reveals that she had been bitten recently, and it has already gotten worse. Deciding not to let herself turn, she chooses to defiantly remain in the state house’s lobby to buy Joel and Ellie time as FEDRA guards arrive. Tess goes out on her own accord this way and dies in an exchange of gunfire between herself and FEDRA.
Evidence of this is laid out when players then see Tess lying in her own blood as FEDRA guards move into the capitol building. However, HBO’s The Last of Us has a hive mind swarm of infected flood the state house instead of FEDRA guards. Tess’ decision to kick over oil drums and line the floor with grenades is noble at first, but her failure to flick a lighter turns into the inability to do so once she is in shock.
Infected run past her, seemingly in response to her already being infected, but one runner stops from the pack and notices Tess. The runner slowly approaches Tess and plants its oral tendrils inside her mouth, leading to the unmistakable imagery of a forced and violating kiss. Tess finally gets the lighter to work and blows up the state house, but this death is on different terms than in the game and has a much different tone as a result.
The Last of Us debuts new episodes every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.