You get me every Sunday to help summarize the summary latest episode of The Last of Us. Full of bad takes and not too sober wanderings. But if you missed something, this is your place. Please note that I am coming fresh to the series as I have NEVER played the games. I know. Here’s the recap of Episode 1 of The Last of Us.
We begin the episode in 1968 when a group of scientists discuss the dangers of a mold epidemic on a television show. The now-famous zombie insect fungus is popping up, and we’re getting a warning that global warming could make even scarier fungi. It is a serious warning that we will certainly take seriously.
HBO is definitely still killing the opening credits game.
Table of Contents
Act 1: 2002
After the credits, a title card announces the time jump to 2003. Sarah wakes up and soon after wakes up her father and starts making him birthday breakfast. They joke about her school and we meet a new guy. This man is a bit rude and it is clear that both men are working together. Later we learn that it is Uncle Tommy.
As she prepares to leave, she grabs a watch and some money. She lingers on an older pocket knife with an engraving. When they leave we meet their elderly neighbours.
In class, Sarah is distracted by a flash of light, but still seems eager to learn when she catches the city bus at the end of the school day. She gets out in front of a watch shop where she gets the watch she took from the drawer. Before completing her transaction, the owner abruptly closes and locks up the shop, but not before telling her to go home immediately. She goes home and waves past the old neighbors to visit. While she comes to visit, they bake cookies. The old woman begins to have a seizure. Sarah doesn’t notice and packs up to leave. The neighbour’s dog starts howling at the old lady who now seems normal.
As she leaves, she sees and hears two giant fighter jets flying close to the ground. Later that night, Joel returns home. It’s late, ten she tells him. He also didn’t bring home the cake he promised Sarah he would get. She gives him a fixed watch as a gift and they fall asleep watching a movie. Someone calls very late at night. The voice on the other end says he is in prison. He (Tommy) asks Joel to save him. He puts Sarah to bed and goes to jail. As he leaves, a number of helicopters fly overhead. The noise from the street is getting more and more frenetic. The emergency broadcast network is on. The neighbour’s dog bangs against the window and Sarah takes to the street to investigate. The dog refuses to go back to their owner’s house.
Sarah goes to investigate. The house is not great. Lots of blood and the old lady apparently attacked everyone and is spewing some kind of fungus on them. Sarah runs and the old lady runs after her. Joel pulls up in his truck with Tommy and hits the old lady with a wrench. They run.
In the truck we discover that it is a virus. Spread mainly in the city. She is afraid that they are already sick. They drive past a large house that is on fire. They also swing past a broken down car and the couple has a baby. Joel instructs Tommy to continue. The army controls one side of the highway and there is a traffic jam on the other side. They off-road until they reached a county highway. They head into the city along the provincial highway and things are even more chaotic in the city. Lots of people, lots of cars. Lots of chaos. A plane crashes near where the truck is.
Everyone wakes up in the truck that now appears to be on its side. Everyone is fine if they don’t get shaken up. Zombies are everywhere. Sarah’s ankle is broken. Tommy and Joel break up. Joel picks Sarah up and they head for the river, but not before encountering a giant zombie breeding ground. The zombies run after him into a restaurant. They are very fast, if not clumsy. It’s not good that they almost catch him, but not before someone shoots the closest one. The person who shot the zombie is a military soldier. The soldier radios for directions. The superiors tell him to kill them both. Tommy kills the soldier, but not before we see Sarah lying on the ground. Sarah was shot in the stomach. He tries to stop her bleeding, but there is a lot of blood. He tries to get her to her feet, but she’s already gone.
Act 2: 2022
Twenty years later, another child walks through the woods. The child is young. Not much older than nine or ten. As they climb the hill, we see a war zone of what Boston looks like. There are giant walls and policemen manning gates. The little child faints in front of them. She is taken to a room in a wheelchair. Not entirely different from another fungus favorite, The Girl With All the Gifts. They ask her what her name is. When she’s alone. She has a scratch on her leg. The police officer tells her that after she gets some medicine, she can eat whatever she wants. They give her a chance.
We go into the community and there is a funeral pyre with a mountain of bodies. I mean, if the mold really burns, good idea? Joel drives a truck and we see him toss the body of the boy we just met onto the pile of dead bodies. She must have been infected. Joel gets his pay and agrees to a new job the next day.
Things look pretty grim within the community. A number of indictments are read before a number of citizens are hanged on the public gallows. Did I mention things were grim? Joel trades Hydrocodones for various paraphernalia with a soldier. Joel also wants a truck. They’re negotiating the truck. The soldier tells Joel to stay off the street because things have not been going well lately.
If you’re “Loose in the Darkness Look for the Light” it’s written EVERYWHERE.
In the darkness of Boston, someone named Tess overhears some excuses from a con man who sold her a battery she never got. The dude seems to be a little bad guy. Tess wants to be done with the whole thing, but just as they are, a bomb blasts a hole in a wall and she stumbles off in the rubble. Just then, a group of soldiers arrest her and she tells them that she is not FireFly.
We finally meet Ellie, who is chained to a radiator. A woman walks in and goes through a checklist of tests. Ellie knows them all, passes them all and is very angry.
Meanwhile, Joel enters an apartment building where a giant line of people leads to an apartment with a man who has a lot of radio equipment. Tommy is missing. Tommy has been gone for three weeks. Has the last scene in Wyoming been in a tower. Our radio guy tells Joel not to go. That there are raiders and slave traders in the open county.
Joel stomps into his own apartment, where he pulls up a floorboard and unpacks a map and a bunch of tools. He is planning a trip. But he mixes his booze and pills first. After he passes out later that night, someone walks in and lays down next to him, obviously familiar and affectionate. It’s Tess. She explains why she looks so beat up. She explains to Joel that his battery is missing. She fears that Joel will go crazy and ruin the deal she made with Robert, the petty crook. They go to find him and get the battery and their money.
We get our first look at the fireflies. Marlene seems to be in charge and she gets shit from one of her subordinates. We also learn that the fireflies are fighting against the government currently called Fedra. Fedra is this military authoritarian regime. Ellie is being held by this group and they have information on Ellie and it’s all about getting her west.
Tess and Joel discover where the battery is and devise a strategy for revenge.
Marlene brings Ellie a bag full of things, including a stiletto. Marlene reminds Ellie that she was the one who saved her from being shot by the soldiers. We also learn that Ellie was previously placed in a military school run by Fedra. Marlene takes offense to the term terrorists and brings up someone named Riley. We also learn that Ellie has a greater purpose.
Tess and Joel go into the sewers. They find a room where someone has been eaten alive by a host of different fungi. It’s a scene very reminiscent of the excellent Annihilation. As they climb to another apartment building, they find the crook dead alongside all of his accomplices. They then hear some people struggling. It’s Marlene and Ellie. Ellie tries to attack Joel.
Marlene wanted the battery too. We also learn that Tommy is involved in their history. Marlene tells Joel and Tess to take Ellie to the Firefly base and will give him gas and a battery and everything else if they can get Ellie to the safe house. Ellie dislikes the plan, but reluctantly agrees with Joel and Tess.
They pass by Joel’s apartment and the adults have a conversation while Ellie explores the apartment. She finds a book and quickly deciphers the radio code. Joel lies down and takes a nap. He wakes up hours later in the twilight. Ellie looks out the window. She is worried about crossing the wall. He tells her that he has been a lot and that he will be fine. Tess returns. Says it’s time to go.
Fedra is out on patrol at full strength as the three of our main characters leave town. Our drug-dealing cop catches them and runs mold tests, but before Ellie can get hers, she stabs the soldier with her knife. Joel finishes him off. We also learn that Ellie is positive for the virus. She tells them that she has been testing positive for three weeks, but that she is fine. She’s not sick.
As they run away we get the needle of the eighties classic Never Let Me Down Again by Depeche Mode. It’s an eighties song that means trouble in radio parlance. The song takes place as the trio head into the foreboding Boston area.
Mold thoughts.
- If you haven’t read The Girl With All the Gifts yet, you should. I just wrote a chapter on it here. Email me if you want a copy.
- Pedro Pascal is really that great.
- Merle Dandridge plays Marlene in game and on screen. That’s very cool.
- Joel is an Iraqi war veteran. I have a feeling that will be important.
- So this show and game feels very ACAB.
- Bella Ramsey is coming in The Orphan 3. I’m calling it now.
- The strange thing super needle drop seems to be here to stay
Tyler has been Signal Horizon’s editor-in-chief since its conception. He is also the director of Monsters 101 at Truman State University, a class that combines horror film criticism with survival skills to help middle and high school students learn critical thinking. When he’s not watching, teaching, or thinking about horror, he’s the director of Debate and Forensics at a high school in Kansas City, Missouri.
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