Needless to say, spoilers for the first episode of The Last of Us follow.
ONE
1968. A talk show with a live studio audience has two guests discussing pandemics. One is worried about viruses, the other — the one delivering the information we need — is concerned about fungi and its ability to infect and control minds.
Roll credits.
2003. A teen girl’s bedroom. Morning. She makes her father eggs for breakfast. No pancake mix. Their relationship is light, easy. Uncle Tommy arrives. Again, a mention of no pancakes. The brothers are business partners in construction. On the radio, something about disturbances in Jakarta.
As they prepare to head out for the day, Sarah sneaks into her dad’s room for money and a watch from his bureau drawer. She takes a moment to admire a beautifully carved pocket knife. Neighbors in the front yard tending to an elderly woman in a wheelchair call hello. They’re eating biscuits, including feeding one to the old lady. Austin, TX, September 26th. Joel’s birthday. The world is green and shiny.
TWO
Sarah in English class. The bell rings and she dashes for the Metro bus. In a more run-down part of the city, she gets off at a clock shop. The jeweler repairs her watch. While Sarah waits, emergency vehicles drive by out the window. A woman comes from the back to close the shop early. She hands Sarah her repaired watch and pushes her out the door.
As promised earlier, Sarah visits the neighbors. The mother bakes raisin cookies (Sarah makes a polite face) and spoon feeds the wheelchair grandma. While Sarah peruses the DVD collection, we see grandma convulse behind her out of focus. (Sarah doesn’t notice, and it’s very unsettling.) Leaving, Sarah sees the dog staring at grandma, who is now quiet.
Military jets fly past as she walks home. Waiting for her dad, Sarah has the TV on in the background. News speaks of unrest in the city. Joel comes home late without the promised birthday cake.
THREE
Regardless, she still gives him the repaired watch as his present and pulls out the borrowed DVD.
FOUR
Later, Sarah sleeps on his lap when Joel’s mobile rings. It’s Tommy; he’s in jail. Bar fight. He needs bailing out. Unhappy, Joel agrees to come. He carries Sarah up to bed. Fade to black.
At two a.m. Sarah wakes to the sound of choppers. Joel isn’t home. On the TV is a national alert banner. Stay indoors. Startling her, the neighbor’s dog scratches frantically at her front window. Sarah lets him in and steps outside. When she tries to take the dog home, he digs in, then runs off.
The neighbors’ door is open. Sarah, becoming more uneasy, goes inside. Suspense and darkness. Blood on the kitchen floor. Horror. Grandma’s been busy.
Sarah races outside as Joel drives up and grabs her. Grandma comes for them. Joel smashes her with a wrench while Tommy’s ready with a rifle. Explosions as the three get in the truck, ready to flee. Mayhem. Details of what’s happening are scant. Traffic on the freeway is at a standstill. Military blockades. Joel, more ruthless than Tommy, keeps them moving, even running over humans if necessary. Behind them a passenger jet crashes, pieces flying toward the truck cab. Fade to black.
The truck is flipped in the street. Sarah’s injured. Joel holds her tight, hiding her face, before she can get a good look out the window. He carries her toward the river while Tommy makes his own way there. Humans feed on other humans. Police stop Joel at the riverbank. The officer radios them in: two civilians, one with an ankle injury. Pause. “Yes, sir.” Coming closer, the officer opens fire on them, Joel dodging them both out of the way, rolling. As the officer approaches, aiming and apologizing, Tommy shoots him. But he gets off a shot first. Joel’s been grazed at the hip. Sarah, behind her father, is mortally wounded.
Heartbreak. Fade to black.
SWITCH
Twenty Years Later. Autumn leaves. A ragged child in duct-taped shoes limps forward. Boston, 2023. Vines trail over the non-functioning street light. The city is walled with guard towers like a prison. Quarantine Zone. The child collapses within sight of the gate. It’s wheeled inside by guards, its wrists cuffed with tape. On the hospital wall, a placard: signs of cordyceps infection. A kind officer kneels to talk to the child while another officer pinpricks its neck. The test meter flashes red. The kind one talks, reassuring the child of medicine with food and toys to come. The other officer injects the child in the arm.
FIVE
Cut to fire. Bodies are loaded into an open pit crematorium. The child is one of the bodies, and Joel is one of the workers. Stoic, he tosses the child in. Workers are paid at the end of the day. Joel, dead inside, is ready to sign up for tomorrow’s detail.
The QZ. Curfews, despair, military rule. Public execution for unauthorized entry or exit from the QZ. A soldier, standing guard, eyes Joel in the crowd. They both step into an alleyway. Chits and cigarettes are traded for pharmaceutical oxy. Joel is a smuggler. He also arranges a vehicle with the soldier. They negotiate prices, emphasizing that the truck has no battery. Also, the soldier mentions a crackdown coming on the rebel Fireflies. He recommends Joel stay off the streets at night. Graffiti says: When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light.
Shift to a man being questioned. Reveal Tess, one side of her face beat up. She paid him for a truck battery and he sold it to someone else, keeping her money. She’s angry, but she’ll let it slide. He worries that “her man” will hurt him when he sees Tess’ face.
An explosion blows the wall open. Tess, coughing, is okay. She climbs out the hole in the wall. A military jeep is on fire. Klaxons blare and a squad, weapons drawn, rushes to the scene. A sniper shouts, “Free Boston now!” Tess, mistaken for a Firefly, is roughed up and arrested.
Chained feet. Reveal Ellie. Someone enters the room and asks her to count from one to ten. Angry, Ellie passes the test and curses at them. They leave. Her wall also has “When you’re lost in the darkness” graffiti.
In a corridor Joel passes a line of people waiting for a man with a CB radio, sending everyone’s messages. Jumping to the front, Joel enters and passes him the cigarettes. No messages from Tommy have come in. It’s been three weeks. Joel pushes a map at him and tells him to mark Tommy’s location. Cody, Wyoming.
Boots on the stairs. Joel comes home. He moves a bureau and lifts the floorboards underneath it. A hatchet, a crowbar, and an atlas. An insert of his finger traces the route across country. He knocks back some pills and alcohol. Insert the watch he wears with its broken face. He crashes on the bed.
Later. Tess joins him. Morning, and he wakes. She serves him coffee and he finally gets a look at her face. Claiming some teens jumped her, she then admits she was in FEDRA lock up. And that Robert sold their battery to someone else. She talks him down from going “Clint Eastwood”. They’ll get the battery back. Tess is forceful, calm, and vengeful. Joel listens. He takes a handgun from the floorboard storage.
The camera tracks a woman striding down a hallway. She stops at the person who tested Ellie. It becomes clear that Marlene is the leader of the local Fireflies. Kim (her second in command, probably) wants answers. Who is the girl locked in the room? When will we beat FEDRA? Marlene lays down the law: Fireflies are leaving the QZ tonight to take that girl west. Something Marlene shares about Ellie (we’re not told the secret) convinces Kim. “Whatever it takes.”
An eatery. Joel at a distance watches Tess negotiate with a man at a table. She has the location for their battery: a red-tagged building.
Ellie pulls on her chains. Marlene enters and unlocks her. They don’t trust each other but they share a history. Marlene tells Ellie the Fireflies are leaving tonight, and she’s coming with them.
Tess and Joel, guns ready, move through the tunnel system. Suspense. We can only see by flashlight. A half-person spray of fungus on a wall makes Tess jump. (It’s a terrifying and beautifully constructed effect.) Coming into a hallway, they find Robert and his crew newly dead. An acid-stained battery sits next to him. Joel sidles further along. Marlene and Kim, wounded, see him. Bursting through a door, Ellie tries to stab him with a switchblade. Tess, coming around the corner, recognizes Marlene, the “Che Guevara of Boston”. Clutching a gut wound, Marlene promises that if Joel and Tess take Ellie to the old State House, Fireflies will give them a truck, fuel, everything to go after Tommy. They agree.
They take Ellie back to their apartment. While Joel and Tess talk routes and strategy in the hall, Ellie snoops around. She finds an anthology of music and a slip of paper inside with a code from Bill and Frank. When Joel comes in, she confronts him, immediately guessing that the code relates to eras of music. They’re aggressive with each other.
SIX
The camera holds on Joel, resting, when Ellie mentions that his watch is broken.
SEVEN
Later, Joel asks Ellie why she’s important. “Some kinda bigwig’s daughter?” She demurs, then says a song came over the radio while he slept. “Wake me up before you go-go.” Not really — she tricks him in order to learn the code. 80’s music means trouble. Tess comes in and they pack up to leave.
EIGHT
Night, and the curfew is being enforced. Security cameras, guns, search lights, razor wire. Outside of the QZ wall a piece of asphalt lifts up. Our threesome exits the hole. They sneak along the outside perimeter, Tess leading. A guard taking a leak surprises them — it’s the pill guy from earlier, and he’s now all business. Making them kneel, he pokes their necks with the test meter. Tess, negotiating a payoff to the guard, tests green. Same with Joel. At Ellie’s poke she attacks the guard and grabs the tester. Joel, with a flashback to Sarah in his arms, rushes the guard. Ellie watches him punch the guard like a maniac. Tess picks up the tester: red. Screaming, Ellie shows them a three-week old fungi wound on her arm. No one lasts more than a day with a wound, normally.
NINE
Sirens and guards coming. The threesome heads off through a cut in the perimeter fence. A sign: warning, biological contamination area. At Joel’s now-empty apartment, the radio clicks on. Eighties music plays, over, as our team walks into the wasteland of Boston. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Once we get past the infection set-up, which is boiler plate zombie hysteria, the episode quiets down into a contemplative character study. Actors are given time to work, information plants are laid down clearly, and the balance between mystery and brutality is careful.
The key to this episode, the moment when all action stops, is the Six. Ellie’s casual reference to the broken watch leads to a lingering shot of Joel. We know exactly what he’s thinking without any visual except his face. A beautiful Six, referencing a Three that means much more in hindsight, will break our hearts.
I have built the rest of my Enneagram choices around this Six. I could see arguments for different breakdowns, including a longer Four, but a Six this strong demands its Three.