Search for the sunshine — a recap of The Final of Us’ premiere episode

HBO’s adaptation of the beloved narrative sport The Final of Us has been extremely anticipated for months and even years — both by followers of the sequence or in any other case. Now that it’s lastly out, the takes have began rolling in, and the primary episode has been a bit extra divisive amongst followers than the early, glowing critic critiques urged. This primary installment coated the opening few hours of the sport, from its emotional opening to the crew’s first steps out of the quarantine zone. In fact, there are fairly just a few methods through which the present deviates from its supply materials, which we are going to cowl within the recap under.

Let’s recap, lets?

Episode One: “When You’re Misplaced within the Darkness” — run time 81 minutes

The present opens with two scientists on the set of a chat present in 1968 the place they reply questions on a newly-discovered fungal virus that might probably unfold to people. After a little bit of exposition dumping about how the fungus controls the thoughts of its host, we’re met with a really HBO-looking opening credit sequence with fungus spreading and rising throughout the display screen.

Joel and Sarah are having a pleasant dialog over breakfast once we meet Joel’s brother Tommy. We study that Joel and Sarah have some aged neighbors, the Adlers, who Sarah will typically go over and begrudgingly spend time with. As Sarah goes to highschool and into city to get Joel’s watch mounted for his birthday, we hear ominous automotive horns and sirens within the distance.

Right here comes the apocalypse

Sarah goes over to the Adlers’ for a bit, after which later presents Joel along with his birthday current — an previous watch of his that she had mounted. Joel goes to bail Tommy out of jail, and Sarah wakes as much as an empty home. She goes again to the Adlers, the place the beforehand senile, and now Contaminated, Mrs. Adler has killed the inhabitants of the home. Joel and Tommy present up and take Sarah of their truck, heading in the direction of the navy checkpoint on the freeway. Joel and Sarah get separated from Tommy whereas working away from Contaminated, and after they attain the checkpoint, a soldier fires on the pair following orders from a superior. Sarah is fatally wounded, and simply as Tommy exhibits as much as save Joel, Sarah dies in his arms.

We skip forward 20 years (which is now 2023 — the present moved the sport’s opening again from 2013 to 2003), and a baby stumbles again right into a quarantine zone. Troopers uncover he’s Contaminated, and euthanize him whereas promising he’s protected now. We then get a glance into the bleakness contained in the quarantine zone, from burning lifeless our bodies to dwindling meals provides to public executions. We study that Joel is a smuggler, working as fellow smuggler Tess’ muscle and right-hand man. There’s a “terrorist” group that’s additionally inflicting hassle round city generally known as the Fireflies.

Ellie’s introduction

In the meantime, there’s a lady chained up in a constructing, the place she is examined for indicators of psychological alertness and consciousness. Joel speaks to the person answerable for the zone’s radio, who confirms he nonetheless hasn’t heard from Tommy. Joel says that his brother often responds inside a day, nevertheless it’s been three weeks since they final communicated. Joel mixes some capsules and alcohol and goes to sleep, and Tess joins him in mattress in the midst of the night time. Within the morning, Joel tells Tess he wants a automotive battery to go and discover Tommy, however Tess tells him {that a} man named Robert offered their battery to another person.

Marlene, the top of the Fireflies, tells fellow Firefly Kim that they’re all going to go away the quarantine zone quickly to move “that random lady locked in that room” west. Marlene goes to speak to the lady and tells her that’s the one who put her in navy faculty, and that the lady’s actual identify is Ellie. We get a namedrop for Riley right here — a aspect character who’s necessary to Ellie, who we all know will make an look in a future episode.

Joel and Tess go to confront Robert and are available throughout a Clicker that’s grown into the wall within the sewers (it’s the primary we’ve seen of the sequence’ most iconic enemy, and it truly seems actually good!). After they attain Robert’s hideout, he’s already lifeless on account of a deal gone mistaken with the Fireflies as a result of the automotive battery is corroded. Joel and Tess encounter Marlene, Kim, and Ellie, and after a little bit of forwards and backwards, Joel and Tess comply with take Ellie to the Capital Constructing to fulfill up with the remainder of the Fireflies.

The journey begins

The trio cease by Joel and Tess’ hideout to plan out their journey, and Ellie figures out a code that Invoice and Frank (some smugglers/suppliers exterior of town) use to share their standing by enjoying songs from totally different a long time. Joel wakes up from a nap and he and Ellie have a dialog — she tells him that his watch is damaged. They head exterior the partitions of the quarantine zone, the place they encounter a soldier who scans them for An infection. When Ellie is scanned, she assaults the soldier, who shines his flashlight in Joel’s face. This triggers a flashback that takes Joel again to the night time that Sarah died, and he beats the soldier to dying along with his naked palms.

Tess seems on the scanner and learns that Ellie is Contaminated, however she counters by exhibiting Tess and Joel her arm and insisting that the chunk is three weeks previous. We in the reduction of to Joel and Tess’ hideout, the place the radio is enjoying an 80’s track, which signifies hassle at Invoice and Frank’s. The ultimate shot of Joel, Tess, and Ellie sweeps out to disclose the ruined, overgrown cityscape as lightning strikes and we hear the screams of Contaminated within the distance.

And now, some ideas

Okay, that was rather a lot, and I’m nonetheless working by way of my ideas about it after a second watch-through. Let’s begin with the stuff I favored. I assumed the units appeared nice, and I particularly cherished to see what I assume had been sensible results with the aforementioned Clicker that had grown into the wall. I’m excited to see some extra of the Contaminated in motion. I favored the actress who performed Sarah rather a lot, and I favored that they added a bit extra to her character that we get to see earlier than she will get killed off. Additionally, big props to the actors who performed the Contaminated within the crowd scenes — they nailed the physicality and captured the quick, flailing actions we see from the Runners within the sport.

Pedro Pascal’s casting as Joel was part of the present I used to be actually wanting ahead to, and to date he didn’t disappoint. There’s nonetheless rather a lot to see from him, however to date he’s nailed the appear and feel of Joel for me.

Then there’s the stuff I really feel skeptical about. It’s humorous, I really feel like most of my critiques fall on both finish of a spectrum — both it’s an excessive amount of like the sport, or it’s too totally different. Beginning with the previous, I’ve additionally seen different reviewers discussing the truth that the present takes an excessive amount of from the sport, and I’ve to agree. A ton of the dialogue, performing selections, and digicam angles are ripped proper from the sport. Don’t get me mistaken, I nonetheless need it to really feel like a Final of Us present, however when the unique is already so cinematic, what are we gaining from doing a 1:1 remake of a bunch of the scenes?

As a megafan of the sequence, I’ve many of the dialogue within the sport memorized all the way down to the vocal inflections, and I used to be shocked to seek out essentially the most iconic scenes from the sport had been mainly copied and pasted all the way down to the blocking and line reads. The entire level of an adaptation is to place a brand new spin on the supply materials, however to me, this primary episode solely muddied the waters when it comes to what the story is attempting to say.

This brings me to my subsequent level: the variations. As I mentioned, I’m completely high-quality with them making adjustments to the sport’s narrative — in reality, I encourage it. However for essentially the most half, I felt just like the adjustments they made detracted from the efficiency of the story. Much like its gameplay, The Final of Us‘ story is tight and compact, solely together with what’s essential to get throughout its thesis or survival and sacrifice for these you’re keen on. To me, it felt like every little thing in that first sport all the time pointed again to Joel and Ellie’s arcs and gave us additional perception into their relationship.

Within the present, nonetheless, including all these new characters and further threads solely serves to bathroom every little thing down in my thoughts. We’ve been there, carried out that with apocalypse fiction — what makes Joel and Ellie’s relationship so poignant and transferring is the love and hope they discover within the darkest attainable circumstances.

I hate to say it, however as of now, I’m additionally a bit skeptical of this model of Ellie. A sentiment I’ve heard echoed on-line, and even from a pal I watched this primary episode with who was not accustomed to the sport, is that some individuals aren’t taking a lot of a liking to Ellie. I do know not everybody goes to like her, however a lot of Ellie’s character is her sweetness which regularly shines by way of regardless of her snarky, sarcastic aspect. Thus far she’s been principally abrasive, which isn’t helped by the change that she’s not with Marlene and the Fireflies of her personal accord.

Remaining ideas

I’m getting forward of myself right here a bit as a result of we’ve obtained a protracted option to go. There’s an opportunity that each one of my qualms will likely be remedied by the point the season wraps up, and I’m actually anticipating Nick Offerman as Invoice to be an upcoming spotlight, for certain. Total, I didn’t overly dislike Episode 1, however I additionally didn’t love it. And I wished, greater than something, to like it.

In case you’re fascinated about listening to extra of my ideas on the present, ensure to examine again, as a result of I’ll be doing one among these recap posts after every episode each week!

Take a look at the remainder of Destructoid’s protection of HBO’s adaptation of The Final of Us right here.

[Disclosure: It’s important to disclose that I worked at Naughty Dog for a period of time during the development of The Last of Us Part II. My work did not involve or touch upon any of the content that is covered in the first season of HBO’s The Last of Us, but we believe it necessary and prudent to emphasize my time at the studio nonetheless. — Noelle Warner]