the show of The Last of Us it earned praise for the great fidelity with which it is depicting the events, locations, and characters of the game. However, like any adaptation, it had to make some concessions and incorporate unpublished details for the saga to work on television. Although none of them is relevant enough to impact the direction of the series, little by little the production is making changes to the protagonists Ellie and Joel that could have weight in the story.
episode 4 of the show The Last of Us, Please hold my handis now available on HBO Max and is perhaps one of the most revealing for fans of the series.
Check out the reviews of past episodes of The Last of Us:
Thanks to him, we can see how the affection develops between Joel and Ellie, who, after getting Bill and Frank’s truck, set out from Massachusetts on their way to Wyoming, where Joel’s brother Tommy is supposedly.
Here comes the first change to the game, as the duo arrive in Kansas before being ambushed and losing the truck and all the supplies they took from Bill and Frank’s house. In-game, this takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, much further away from Wyoming. The reason for this change is simply that the production felt that Kansas was a better fit for what they wanted to present and what was in Calgary, Canada (where the series was filmed). As in the game, in the series Ellie and Joel explore different locations as they make their way West, but not the hotel, which appeared in the series in episode 1, in Boston.
What is resistance, Kathleen and Perry from the show The Last of Us?
In this episode, the enemy faction made up of humans is seen for the first time. In the game, this group is known as the Hunters, but in the series they are the Resistance; basically, revolutionaries who freed themselves from the yoke of Phaedra.
With this, 2 new relevant characters were introduced: Kathleen Coghlan (Melanie Lynskey) and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce). Kathleen stands out for being the leader of the resistance, a tough woman who lost her brother at the hands of Phaedra.
Around the same time, Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard) are introduced, who have a larger role. In the game, these 2 brothers are from Hartford, Connecticut, and are part of a group of survivors that enters the city (Pittsburgh in the game) to look for supplies, they are ambushed and depleted. The two first appear when they chanced upon Ellie and Joel while looking for a way out of town.
In the series, the brothers find Ellie and Joel sleeping in a Kansas apartment building. Interestingly, the brothers are on the run from the resistance because Henry was apparently involved in the capture and murder of Kathleen’s brother.
Neil Druckmann, creator of the game and executive producer of the HBO show, commented that the series does not need NPCs that interact with the protagonists to satisfy the gameplay. In the show these characters may have stories to tell.
“I love humanizing villains. And a lot of The Last of Us It’s about people having to make decisions, and whether they’re heroes or villains depends on your perspective,” Druckmann.
Clearly, the creative is taking this opportunity not to present the resistance members as flat characters that hinder the player, but rather to project them as people who also have goals and something to fight for. In this sense, it can be seen that the series is trying to explain why what is coming with Season 2, which will show the tragic events of The Last of Us: Part IIhated in part precisely for showing the repercussions of the original game.
the show of The Last of Us is changing ellie and joel
Up until episode 4, some might differ on the further leeway the series has taken on gameplay. The Cordyceps kiss, the almost non-existent gay romance of Bill and Frank, tweaking some places, the inclusion of relevant characters like Kathleen, and more deviations and expansions of the plot? None of these alterations is more important than what we are beginning to see in Joel and Ellie.
As expected, Ellie would use Bill’s weapon that she secretly took to shoot a human for the first time and save Joel who was intimidated by a resistance rebel. Initially, the young woman is surprised and even sheds a few tears, but she is also pleased to satisfy her appetite for violence, unlike the dismay shown by Ellie in the game.
It’s not that the development of the bond between Ellie and Joel is being done in a bad way; on the contrary, the job of showing how it narrows is very good, but the point is that the Ellie and Joel of the series are not the ones in the game.
I understand that there are going to be modifications and that they want Joel to be more empathetic. Until now, the character of Joel from the series was seen as a copy of the one from the game, but from episode 4 the divergence is evident when he apologizes to Ellie for letting him use a weapon without her permission. The game’s Joel scolds Ellie for disobeying him and Ellie responds in her way, berating him for why she can’t just thank him that he’s alive. Joel ignores him and reminds him to get going.
From the analysis of episode 1 we pointed out that they wanted to show Ellie’s violent side, anticipating her behavior in The Last of Us: Part II, but it stopped being subtle. I mean, the Ellie in the game didn’t constantly ask for a weapon, or fiddle with one after secretly obtaining it, or touch an infected person who didn’t pose any danger before killing him, or look at Joel sick when he beat them to death. to a military The Ellie in the game was exclaiming, “Fuck, I thought we were just going to target them or something.”
I think they are projecting an Ellie thirsty for violence and very sadistic, very different from the one in the game, who was characterized as silly, immature and playful… innocent, well. Those who don’t know the game have an image of Ellie as a young woman prone to violence and I don’t think it’s correct because the events of the game that she lives with Joel harden her, strengthen their relationship and because they are the ones that lead to and give meaning to the final decision Joel makes at the end of the game.
I fear that peak moments that take place later, such as in winter, will lose their impact. I say this because Ellie in the game, despite having several deaths on her, you can see the terror in her eyes when she faces David. I suppose that impression will be extremely diluted in the series or perhaps even contaminated by Ellie’s thirst for violence.
I think the same could happen with the events of The Last of Us: Part II. And it is that Ellie was not violent at the beginning, but she was transformed by those she lived in the games. She didn’t go on her violent journey in the second game just because she did, but because after a certain event she felt the need to get back at her. I’m afraid that the show’s Ellie’s predisposition to violence takes away from the game’s Ellie’s cause.
I want to make it clear that the development of the relationship of the protagonists in the series is well built, but the Ellie that the people who watch the series are meeting may not react as well as the Ellie in the game to the events that are coming. It is striking that the production has been faithful to the game in details such as the Hank Williams cassette and the joke book up to complete scenes, but it modifies the behavior of the protagonists, perhaps even more important components for the story.
Differences between the video game and the TV series The Last of Us — Episode 4: Please hold my hand
We’ll have to see what production does to address future events with the Ellie it’s developing. For now, Episode 4 began to develop the story of Henry and Sam, which will apparently reach its climax in Episode 5, which will air earlier and which we will analyze in detail.
