The Last of Us (HBO Max)

[Older Beholder]

He did spend the last 20 years being a smuggler/raider/etc... Survived a number of ambushes on both sides. Nearly deaf from all shootin he be doin. Now he is greatly motivated too...

I think the deafness was a subtle hint at / foreshadowing the fact that

Spoiler: spoiler from episode 9

he attempted suicide by putting a gun to his head but flinched

as revealed in the last episode

 

[Older Beholder]

For the record, I had no issue with Joel saving Ellie's life like that.
IMO there was as much chance that they were going to take Joel outside and shoot him as there was of the cure actually working.
I thought it was done in a rather poignant way, movie and TV usually show violence and killing to be heroic, when it's not. Here it's shown for what it is: violence and killing. I think the moral ambiguity of the situation was done purposely and effectively.

 

[Flamestrike]

IMO there was as much chance that they were going to take Joel outside and shoot him as there was of the cure actually working.

Why would the Fireflies do that? Marlene (consistently depicted as a 'good aligned' person) directly told the guards to take him to the outskirts of the camp, but to only shoot him if he resisted.

The Fireflies are also depicted as Liberal freedom fighters, trying to overthrow fascism and find a cure for the Cordyceps infection.

It would be a bit of a strange turn from Marlenes depiction if she had instead secretly ordered her henchmen to murder Joel, or the henchmenn suddenly decided to blow him away despite those clear orders not to unless he tried something.

 

[Older Beholder]

Why would the Fireflies do that? Marlene (consistently depicted as a 'good aligned' person) directly told the guards to take him to the outskirts of the camp, but to only shoot him if he resisted.

The Fireflies are also depicted as Liberal freedom fighters, trying to overthrow fascism and find a cure for the Cordyceps infection.

It would be a bit of a strange turn from Marlenes depiction if she had instead secretly ordered her henchmen to murder Joel, or the henchmenn suddenly decided to blow him away despite those clear orders not to unless he tried something.

Just to clarify I meant, in Joel’s mind there as much chance of those things happening. But yeah, I don’t really think Joel was too worried about them trying to kill him.

 

[Bolares]

Why would the Fireflies do that? Marlene (consistently depicted as a 'good aligned' person) directly told the guards to take him to the outskirts of the camp, but to only shoot him if he resisted.

I wouldn't put it past the people who do guerrilla attacks in the middle of civilians, station teenagers in badly swept for infected malls to construct pipe bombs....

 

[Mannahnin]

I know its a show about humanity and human relationships, but it arguably needs a few more Zombie encounters.

The world feels all a little too safe.

Overall I mildly agree, but especially once they got out West, it felt much more realistic to me for them not to see any infected for long periods, except in towns or cities. In real life the US and the world are big, and people, despite our billions, occupy a tiny fraction of its total surface area, outside of urban areas. IME more zombie media errs in the other direction, putting zombies everywhere. There's an absurd bit in the World War Z book, the chapter about the submarine crew, where as I recall they talk about having zombies on the hull every time they surface. Which I couldn't help laughing aloud over.

1) None of the adults had the courage to just ask Ellie for themselves. While she should be furious with Joel, she should be furious with all of them. If Marlene was sure she was doing the right thing with Ellie and that Ellie would agree, why wouldn't she ask this child she's known since birth what she chose to do?

2) That said, what is the cure they're proposing? Take the fungus out of Ellie's brain and do what with it, exactly? Serve it as lunch? Grow it in a non-existent lab? Synthesize whatever chemical it might or might not be producing, assuming the "cure" isn't "well, you've got to have this happen to you as a baby?" OK, great, then what? Who has the infrastructure to even distribute it throughout the United States, to say nothing of the planet? It feels very much like interesting news, learned far too late to matter.

Yeah. Based on what we see in the show, the odds of them actually having a cure/vaccine at hand seem extremely remote. They've JUST gotten their hands on her, and they're going straight to lethal brain surgery? They're not starting with blood cultures? With her liver? With stem cells? They're going to jump straight to a procedure which will kill the only person known to be immune?

3) It is super cool that they are giving voice actors from the original game a chance to strut their stuff on screen, in what is likely their highest profile non-game roles ever. It wasn't something they were legally obligated to do (I don't think), it wasn't morally required and only a portion of the audience would have even noticed. A classy move to have them there.

And all the voice actors did great jobs. Very cool part of this show. The actress who plays Ellie in the game crushes her role as Ellie's mom. Marlene is perfect, IMO. Joel's game actor does a great job in his episode, too.

In the game you literally find an audio recording from the doctor where he states he's ready to synthesize a cure.

April 28th. Marlene was right. The girl's infection is like nothing I've ever seen. The cause of her immunity is uncertain. As we've seen in all past cases, the antigenic titers of the patient's Cordyceps remain high in both the serum and the cerebrospinal fluid. Blood cultures taken from the patient rapidly grow Cordyceps in fungal-media in the lab... however white blood cell lines, including percentages and absolute-counts, are completely normal. There is no elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and an MRI of the brain shows no evidence of fungal-growth in the limbic regions, which would normally accompany the prodrome of aggression in infected patients.​

​

We must find a way to replicate this state under laboratory conditions. We're about to hit a milestone in human history equal to the discovery of penicillin. After years of wandering in circles, we're about to come home, make a difference, and bring the human race back into control of its own destiny. All of our sacrifices and the hundreds of men and women who've bled for this cause, or worse, will not be in vain. ​

Surgeon's recorder

It's not a certainty she's the cure, but it's likely she at least advances the search for one drastically.

What is next to certain is that Ellies sacrifice would likely brings humanity a lot closer to a cure than does killing the very doctor (and likely only person on Earth) who has the above specialized knowledge.

Yup. Killing the doctor (doctors, because it happens multiple times in the show) is really extreme. And based on that recording in the game, Joel's actions are much more damning than they are based on what's presented in the show.

How long do they actually have Ellie for in the game? Have they already had weeks to run tests on her and try other things? It sounds like they have her longer, at least, with the blood cultures, MRI, etc.

 

[Bolares]

I disagree completelly that the show needed more infected. Everytime one or more infected appeared in scene someone got infected (or worse). That makes them a lot more dangerous than the normal cannon fodder zombie in walking dead or other shows. You don't need a lot of infected, you need infected that impact the story, and every time infected appeares, they moved the narrative. The more infected you show, less dangerous they become.

 

[Flamestrike]

In real life the US and the world are big,

I come from Australia. Pretty much the same size as the US minus Alaska, 1/13th the people.

 

[Mannahnin]

I come from Australia. Pretty much the same size as the US minus Alaska, 1/13th the people.

And similarly distributed in some ways, right? A lot of big mostly empty areas in the middle away from cities, ja?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I come from Australia. Pretty much the same size as the US minus Alaska, 1/13th the people.

It's because the flora and fauna there keep killing everyone.