The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 3 Discussion

[Herbert Playz]

This episode took me by complete surprise.

There were things I loved and things I didn't love. But there is no mistake about it that in terms of storytelling, this was a masterpiece. 

What I loved

I enjoyed seeing the survivalist. The idea of someone being so prepared and being so self-sufficient when some worldwide catastrophe happens was absolutely amazing.

What I didn't love

This is going to be a hot take because their are a ton of people claiming emmy after episode 3. But I actually feel pretty objective in this take.

My major problem with episode three is that the series just forgets about Joel and Ellie. As masterful as the storytelling was, this is not the Bill and Frank show. 

In the game if the devs had just had you spend 2 and a half hours with Joel and Ellie and then sent you on your journey, then stopped the journey and made you spend an hour and ten minutes with people you've never met, just to have them die at the end, there would still be some fans who liked it but the vast majority would be scratching their heads.

I understand that technically they tied Joel into things by revealing that they had already met and they were the ones sending signals via radio but the truth of the matter is this episode was not about Joel and his past trauma, it was not about Ellie and her incredible resistance to the infection.

It was simply about Bill and Frank. I honestly feel like this episode while masterful was more suited to an anthology series set in the Last of Us world like something similar to what the wachowskis did with the Animatrix. 

Putting emphasis on the note that Bill left Frank was a nice touch but Joel is on his own journey I think its more powerful to have him come to the decision to protect Ellie himself he doesn't need a push or a sign, its just something that he does of his own accord. Just like Bill. 

The journey now feels delayed a bit and it makes me wonder if we'll actually end in the same place that the first game ended. There is a lot of material that they can adapt. And there are a lot of ways they could choose to adapt the game.

They've chosen the slow burn approach instead of a more action oriented fast moving journey. I'm sure there are going to be a few intense infected scenes but if we get another diversionary episode before episode 6, than I'm thinking we may not get that wild game ending in season 1 unless they rush things a bit.