The Last of Us has proved itself a cold-blooded affair through its first season. It’s colder than ever in episode eight, “When We Are in Need,” which adapts the winter chapter of the Naughty Dog video game the HBO series is based on.
Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by show creator Craig Mazin, “When We Are in Need” takes some of the most iconic moments from the first Last of Us game and brings them to faithful life — and faithful death, in the case of the unlucky hunters who find themselves in Joel and Ellie’s crosshairs. Here are some of the most prominent Easter eggs from the episode, as well as the rest of the winks and nods to Last of Us gamers seen throughout season one.
Episode 8: When We Are In Need
The Original Joel
Before there was Pedro, there was Troy. In the video game, Joel’s voice and motion capture come courtesy of Troy Baker; he now becomes the latest Last of Us alum to make the leap to live-action for the HBO show, joining the cast as James, one of David’s disciples. It’s a great tribute to someone who was so essential to the Last of Us’s success, and only becomes more memorable when you consider the current Ellie is the one who killed the original Joel.
Oh My Deer
In the Last of Us video game, the winter chapter opens with Ellie hunting a deer, leading her directly to David and James. The show follows that same path, with very few changes.
The Pittsburgh QZ
David tells Ellie that he and his community originally hail from Pittsburgh, escaping the city after it came under the rule of raiders. It’s the show’s first overt shout-out to one of the more memorable locations from the video game, where Joel and Ellie dodge raiders while working together with Sam and Henry. That portion of the story was changed to Kansas City for the sake of the show.
Disinfectant
The Last of Us declinsd an opportunity to deliver a huge monster scene for episode eight. When Ellie and David first meet in the game, their shelter comes under attack from a small army of infected. It’s a harrowing scene as a gamer, but perhaps a bit too frenetic for the HBO show’s more mournful tone.
Needle Work
Ellie nurses Joel back to health using a medicine-filled syringe she receives from David and James. It’s a good callback to the first episode of The Last of Us, when a FEDRA officer gently promises an infected child a syringe filled with “medicine” to ease their suffering. This time, the needle actually does the trick, bringing Joel back onto his feet.
Bench Press
The episode contains a very quick shout-out to one of the game’s most essential mechanics: the work bench, which Joel sees quickly when he infiltrates Silver Lake. In the game, players upgrade their weapons and tools at work benches strewn throughout post-apocalyptic America. There’s another world where HBO devoted an entire episode to Joel and Ellie modifying all their guns in a veritable workshop, but alas. We’ll take what we can get.
The Power of Belief
Several of the scenes from this episode were pulled straight out of the game, from Ellie’s escape from David and James to her final fiery fight with David. But the most iconic game-to-television moment occurs when Joel is back on his feet, interrogating and killing two of David’s henchmen. “It’s okay, I believe him,” Joel tells the second hostage, right before bludgeoning him to death. The scene is a nearly one-to-one adaptation, though in the game, Joel says “alright” instead of “okay.”
Episode 7: Left Behind
A Left Turn
In 2014, Naughty Dog released “The Last of Us: Left Behind,” the first major downloadable content (or DLC) from “The Last of Us” video game. Just like the episode, the “Left Behind” DLC is a bonus chapter centering Ellie before she met Joel. While it changes some elements (settings, locations for certain scenes), the “Left Behind” episode of HBO’s Last of Us more or less follows the big beats of the “Left Behind” DLC. If you’re becoming a Last of Us super fan but you’re not normally into video games, the two-hour runtime on “Left Behind” could appeal to you. Then again, you could instead sit back, enjoy some nachos, and watch the entire thing with this very handy playthrough video.
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