 Oh my god, it's episode seven. Oh, we're here. Oh my goodness. Oh my god, you fucked up. It's episode eight. I can just do it again. All right, well, okay, everyone, let's do it again. This won't be in, this won't be in. You can cut it out. Okay, let's start over. Should I just say eight and then cut it into the seven that I said so that now that you should do that so that it will be as seamless as possible more so. I'll make it so I'll record it now. So eight. Oh my god, it's episode eight. No one will know. Episode eight. No one will know. Know what? Hello. Yeah, what are you talking about? Hey everybody. It's the episode with the thing is going to happen that I've been wanting to see for so long. How exciting. I guess, you know, it wouldn't be right to go into the episode without first doing a little bit of a check-in with the audience. A comment showcase, if you will. Oh, a bit of freestyle there. We got our first one here. All right. Even when the game came out, I thought it was hilariously unfortunate that the only person known to be immune to the fungus is gay and won't have immune children. If people can still have children. You're going to have to harvest elements and potentially be able to do that. You don't need the old science team to sort that out, but I guess I mean just theoretically, yeah, unless you go in surrogacy, I guess, just standard. I'm talking way more than just one or two, you know, go labs, get Petri dishes, get that thing sorted fully, get loads of horde of children that are all immune. Then again, you don't even know if it necessarily passes. It'll be like apricots that have all the humans hooked up in the like the blood banks and it's just taking blood from them. Yeah, why not? Does it necessarily pass to her children? We don't even know if that's true, right? You don't know. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But it's a fair, it's a fair thing to ask, you know? It's not an, yeah, it's a reasonable thing to ask. I'm trying to remember. They keep it a secret even to all the people in Jackson, right, Fringy? I don't recall any conversation that happens in that game that wasn't because he tells me. She reveals it to Dina, which means that nobody knew, right? That that was a surprise. And maybe Maria knows as well. In fact, it's probably likely that she knows, but that's it. One thing to add about the dog. They established in the first episode that dogs are aware of the infection with the old lady. So it makes sense the posse would use one. And that's true. Dogs can sense evil. We've got to mention there is that in an episode one. But I don't even know why people are hung up on this one. I can just believe that the dog can smell these things. I don't know. I completely agree. I didn't realize. I was just trying to see a conversation. But like it's just funny that the show even has more set up for the weave and needed to defend that aspect where a lot of people. That's true, but now you have an in-text reference. The dog looks sus about the granny. And then later the dog is like, don't go in there, human. Don't. And then she's like, I'm going to go in there. And the dog's like, yeah, it's your funeral. Interesting how so many electronic devices work so well after 20 years of inactivity and without maintenance. Reminding me of Army of the Dead where they got a whole forsaken casino building running fine with a few gallons of gas. I don't know enough about it to know just how much of it would have degraded and fall apart. Like even an arcane machine is, well, especially if things end up getting rusty, you know, well, I'm familiar as I'm assuming you guys are like leave batteries into it in a thing. They like bleed and rust like a. Well, it's something that a lot of people don't really think about. Is it the or maybe maybe I'm just protecting, but like the electronic computer, like that's that's a physical thing that exists. And the way that it works is in the physical world, like that these things don't just automatically work like perfectly all the time. And in the case of this, right? Like 20 years of not being used, not being maintained. Who knows about like condensation or just like water that leaks through. Like how much damage it could cause. As well as like the broad building itself, you know, like having a functional electricity, you know, system. And maybe it could have been made more impactful that the arcade is all down except for that one cabinet. And she says I've been working on it. Like I managed to get a. Yeah, that could be. Yeah. And hey, maybe that's why she's in the fireflies. She's got some skills. Yeah, boy. That zombie sure was stealthy until seconds before he loudly revealed himself. I'm just not a fan of the whole sequence. How much like, could you imagine how much cooler and creeper could have been? This reminds me of it follows. They like dancing and singing and whatever and just looking away. And the camera's facing so that we can just see the zombie getting closer and closer and closer. And they just don't realize until it gets the easy freebie bite, which frees up, you know, get maybe hit Riley. And then Ali's efforts to get it off. He gets bitten too simple. But instead we got what we got. And it's like, what you'd say is probably the hardest variable to have controlled for in that episode was that sequence. They didn't do it very well. Yeah, it was. And I didn't do, yeah. Not showing what happens after they get bitten is a huge mistake for me. The scene would be too interesting to leave to the imagination with too many variables. Does Ali kill Riley just before she turns? Does she kill her after? Does Riley kill herself so Ali doesn't have to? Does Ali keep her locked up and hopes for a cure? Do the fireflies find them before they turn? Does Ali lock Riley in a shed to play video games like Shaun of the Dead? Good reference. I think what happened, that is a, that's a good reference. I think what happened is they look at like the ending for the episode of almost presenting it as in a sense kind of poetic like they said it would be by cutting it off of just them sitting there and then Ali making the choice to stay and help Joel. I get that as like a thing that they would want to do, but I agree with this comment. There's like, there's a lot that you could pull from like, well, what actually happens though? What choices did Ali make when she realized that she was okay? Yeah, those are different traumas. And then Riley was deteriorating. And to know which one of these things happened does kind of change what we know she's been through? Yeah, exactly. And I, yeah, I think they're different enough. It's what is super, super consequential like what choices she could have made and how they inform who she is and to not provide an answer is like, it's not really that you're preserving a mystery. You've kind of just foregone like a really good opportunity to build character. Especially, yeah, with how that episode was paced and I feel like we could have skipped over or sped up a whole lot of it and we missed, yeah, what could have been a really super awesome thing to see how they deal with it. You could have expanded on what was in the game, you know. Yeah, exactly. Because the game doesn't provide like an answer either as to like what actually happened. I feel like they've pretty heavily implied what happened with Riley after this. This episode establishes that she has never seen a dead body before. Then, later in the timeline, she tells Joel that she has already had to hurt people after shooting that guy. She could be talking about the infected she killed under the gas station, but that particular kill didn't appear to be emotionally devastating to the point where she wouldn't talk about it later. She has also asked Joel if he ever feels bad killing an infected when he knew it was a person before. Seems pretty clear to me that Riley turned and Ellie shot or stabbed her. Well, while the show hasn't been the strongest in every situation, it has had a pretty constant peppering of significant character motivations in world building through questions, actions, or details in prior episodes. Refreshing to have at least some level of detail in the writing compared to a lot of other garbage lately. That is fair that it's more than likely she would have killed Riley, but I still would say that that's well worth seeing. But I don't know. I think it'd be really interesting that just adds to, yeah, it adds to that line that she tells to Joel later. Yeah, I don't disagree with the comments of that that's more than likely what happened and that you could infer that from references before. I just think it's worthwhile to see that. It's a really potent character moment. Seeing that one zombie in this episode really reminded me how they are barely a factor in this world. We've had so few extended encounters with them overall. Off the top of my head, it's one, the two in the museum. Two, the kiss of death. Three, the bloater in its hoard. And four, this episode. Then there are smaller encounters like one, Bill's trap killing that one, and two, Ellie killing the trapped one. In the game, the zombies are a constant threat in almost every section, and there are always large groups of them, even in some supposedly safe sections, like quarantine zones. There are always a few in some unprotected place, and it really felt like an infestation everywhere. I just don't think that the show is doing enough to show the importance of saving the world by getting a cure. At this point, it seems very rare for people to get bitten. It seems very easy to avoid most of the zombies as long as you don't go to large cities or just stay in designated safe areas. So this is an interesting point of view, because at first, I thought they were heading to the position of just like, where's my zombies and my zombie show? But then they turn around and they say, well, no, it's making me wonder about the importance of even getting a cure in this world. You know, like why, why, blah, blah. And I was just sitting there thinking like, oh, I thought that was kind of part of the point in the game, was that like, how viable is a cure anyway? Yeah, the last of us two struggles on this because if you're already infected, it's over. You're done. It's safe to assume that the infected have so much brain damage that they're done. So they can't be saved. And so it's like, oh, well, if we give you the cure, you can't be infected. But like, you see what clickers do to people and bloaters. They just kill people. So like, even if you can't be infected, it's like, well, they're still gonna kill you anyway. The reality is that like, I'm sure it has some utility, sure, but like it ain't that helpful in this world. Yeah, you have to be bitten, but not killed by the infected that bite you. Yeah, which I imagine is probably rather small amount of people. All you need to do is look at the deaths that happened in the last of us, like the obvious non-canonical Joel deaths. It's like, dude, he's dead. Like, he's getting killed. Yeah, he's not getting infected with the hopes of being cured or anything. He's just dead. The funny thing is though, where I thought this comment was going, I was partially inclined to agree, depending on how these last two go, it does feel like we didn't get much, even though there's several examples to speak to. I think this is only gonna go as far as a preference. I would have liked some more zombie interactions, and I'm starting to- I would agree with you. So far, I kind of feel like I want to see more zombies. I do feel like they're not enough of a... When they're here, they're a big threat, but they seem to be not here a lot. My feeling has changed over the course of the season because that first encounter that they had with the two in the museum, I was like, that was really cool, the show that just two of them is really scary, but we haven't had any encounters like that. The game has loads of them, and I was just thinking to myself, like, imagine, yeah, just in the middle of an episode where they're traveling, Joel and Ellie, you have just like a subway, or an area that's like a corridor type, but it's quite big, and there's just, you know, seven infected, just a clicker specifically. And then, yeah, and they need to be silent, and the stress of the, you know, like, don't touch anything, don't step on anything, and then, you know, you get your standard, like, oh, one of them's walking right by you, oh, and then you're fine, and then you step on a twig, and you're like, oh, and then they both like start sprinting, is it, just scenes like that? It's like, we've had like none of them really. No, we haven't, except for that first scene in the museum. Yeah. Because the next time that we saw it, it was massive hordes, which is, it's a bit different from the game, and the game, there's not often massive hordes. I like the things we've had, except probably the Riley one, I just, I don't know, I've got to be for that. Yeah, that one was lame. But I would have liked more. It seems like it's a, because it's kind of the same with Raider Encounters, because the game, so much of it is encounters with Raiders and encounters with Infected, and they were definitely not going to be doing as many as the game does, because there's no need to facilitate, like, combat or anything. But yeah, I guess the longer that it goes on, the more it's like, oh, there haven't been that many encounters, and we don't need like big blowouts, like the one that we got in episode five, like all the time, that can totally be reserved for, you know, big mid-season or like-season finales. Yeah, and we probably could do with some more Infected. My more substantive argument for why we should have these is probably because it's another dynamic and layer for binding the two of them together, watching how they survive together, and then, you know, the two of them helping each other out. And Ellie's increasing competence would be good as well to see, because, you know, she never had to deal with these encounters. Joel's dealt with them all the time. And we could even do what we have in the games, right, where Ellie will help by like throwing, like an object to distract enemies, or like throw a brick at, you know, somebody that they've encountered. Yeah, I'm really surprised we haven't seen a brick or a bottle being thrown, like to distract a clicker. That is a tricky reference. Yeah, that happens so much in the game. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, again, so like I said, it's just funny to have that thought from the first portion, but then the second portion being like, you know, I'm not even sure Cure's going to make that much of a difference. Like, I'm pretty sure that's what we said in Defense of Joel when the last of us two shot on him. Like- I think it's one of big defenses is the notion that they will save the world as a pipe dream, and that's putting to one side the logistics of even disseminating the Cure, and whether the Fireflies would want to do that, considering that they're at war with the government. And then you go- Yeah, they certainly wouldn't give it to Federer. Just right, said, right. Like Joel is responsible for all the deaths moving forward after what he did with Ali. It's just like, you'd have to be incredibly naive to think that a Cure would have solved the Earth's problems. No, well, so when somebody gets killed by a bloater or the Rat King, it's like, well, or a Raider, it's like, well, yeah, that the Cure, and like that would have saved- The Cure would have done it. Like it's like, no. Obviously, like, you know, the debate, it's kind of like a thing that happens a lot. Like children and men, you know, like is the world even, is it beyond saving at this point? And that film's answer is no, it's not. The Last of Us is more complicated in terms of like, is the world- The Last of Us is saving. It's like, logistically, it's like, damn, man, how are you going to do it? You know? I think The Last of Us is one of the best ways to explain in a quick format the circumstances required for a person to pick one over everyone. Exactly. A person can easily be brought to that. And the thing is, the audience doesn't really disagree with him. Yeah, pretty much like the general perception of Joel at the end of The Last of Us was like, yeah, cool, bro. Like, you know, you go save Ali, like go get her as opposed to like, whoa, what Joel, you've doomed the world. I don't think that that was a common perspective about that game at all. And people are worried, right, that they'll recontextualize it in this show and make him like, obviously the villain. But it's funny because even in the scenario that it's absolutely certain that she'll, like the whole world will be a utopia if she simply gives up her life and she agrees to it, I can still understand her father preventing that from happening. Though, I would say if the show actually wanted to present like, yeah, the world will be good. I'd be like, I think that's a bad right in there. Oh, yeah, that's a recognition of reality. Well, we're almost there. We have to be so close to that episode. And there won't be any comment showcase for what the reaction is to episode nine, will there? Nope. We'll make a special, we'll sneak in a cheeky comment showcase extravaganza bonanza loser. No guarantees. No one is safe. I think my big problem is that this is just yet another episode that we don't have Ellie and Joel. If this show was 13 to 15 episodes, I am totally on board with this kind of episode. But the problem is we only have nine. With episode three not focusing on their relationship, and episode one being primarily flashbacks and setups, we only have six episodes to have their relationship. Episode two has tests and Joel is very cold to Ellie. So that's even less. The next episode will most likely be the David episode, so they won't talk too much. Which leaves a whopping four episodes where we can really focus on Joel and Ellie. The pacing of the show wants to be Breaking Bad or Daredevil, where we can spend time doing multiple stories. But it just isn't. We simply don't have the time. I don't know. It's just when Joel says that she isn't his daughter in the game, your heart shatters. Because you saw their bond grow for hours. When he says it in the show, I was more confused as to why he would really consider her a daughter. I guess they were together for three months, but unfortunately we don't get to see any of that potential development. I think it's being undersold a little bit here in this comment, but I still understand this perspective. And I would actually agree that 13 to 15 episodes would probably be... Like if we knew that we had hit episode eight out of 15, and everything had spread further and chunkier and we got more time with them, I do think that would be an improvement, yes. I wouldn't scoff at more time. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't scoff at more time. Yeah, it's nice to have... You know, like episode three, it's nice to have that. If I could choose with the last episode between having more Joel and Ellie or Ellie and Riley, I'd rather have Joel and Ellie, you know? Take them the full episode being Joel and Ellie with her talking about what happened with Riley. Yeah, it just... I feel like we kind of... Like it feels kind of like a waste of an episode. It's not, but I feel like it... I just wouldn't have gone that route. I feel like not enough happened for what they committed to. I wouldn't say it was like a waste of an episode. It's more that with the amount of time that you have, you didn't use that time very effectively. Yeah, you spent a whole episode on those concepts. We didn't get our chance to have it. You could have achieved more with that concept or you could have shaved down the amount of time that was spent on that to have other material because we are getting close to the end. Like we've got two episodes left and there is something to be said about the game being longer in total than the show is. Though in terms of cutscenes to show time, it might be different. But I mean, that is part of the story, right, is the encounters that you have. Like it's not a clear segmenting between that gameplay and the story. Well, I'm going to keep in mind that the Frank portion is developing Ellie and Joel at the same time. That's right, because... Not in the show, though. Them sort of as a parallel. Yeah, the show is developing a thematic element, but in terms of advancing Joel and Ellie, obviously Ellie's not in that episode much at all. It's very clear that a lot of people understandably want to see more of Joel and Ellie together talking, doing stuff. What's the best part of the game? Yeah, I mean, arguably the best part of the show, too. I would definitely go down the road of having just more of them together. The favorite for me is still episode five because I think that was just a really solid full package. That episode is very strong. Yeah, that was really... The bouncing of all four of those characters, having a villain that was pretty well understood and just a polar opposite to a lot of what those characters are trying to run with, but also a cautionary tale. The action scene was just really fun. Of course, there was still problems in the episode, but I like less so compared to how bad it could have gotten. And none of them ruined characters or anything. And yeah, a lot of Joel and Ellie back and forth thing and stuff and a lot of characters. Like, if we had that every episode in the season, I think it would be ready to be a hell of a lot more praise. But yes, I understand this, and it'll be interesting to think of the show in as a whole once we get the last two episodes done. These two episodes are kind of critical. I think these two episodes will make or break the show. You know, this will determine whether it's going to be like, yes, that was a great season of television, or damn, you like tripped up at the finish line and that like changes a lot of the material that came before, like in recontextualizing what it all led up to. If these next two are like the last one, we could have some issues. Yeah, we're gonna have some problems. If they are of the same quality as episode five, however, it'd be like, oh, that'd be a really strong finale. And I suppose the other thing that is looming over this is, how are you going to change that final episode in particular? What choices are you going to be back in in terms of the ending that we're leading to and the next season of television that we know is happening? And they had to have known that we're going to get, like that we're going to be entering into next. The disappointment I have in EFAP's analysis is that they have missed a rare opportunity with this show. Going after Quantumania, Doctor Strange, M.O.M., basically anything Ryan Johnson writes is elementary. There are obvious issues at every turn. The Last of Us challenges us to dig much deeper. It's a perfect case study and opportunity to better understand the differences between what makes something good and what makes something great and perhaps walk away with a greater insight on film and story in general. It is a show that mimics a game that's widely considered to be a masterpiece, by most, often shot for shot in line for line, yet people are quite divided. Many saying the show is only good, it's competent, but it is not great like the game. This can't be dismissed by it not matching preconceived expectations because the same opinion is held by a number of people who never played the game. Why is the consensus so unified for the quality of the story in the game, yet not for the show? It's uncommon we get an adaptation that follows an original masterpiece so closely. It offers the same kind of opportunity as the psycho remake, which, despite being nearly shot for shot, line for line, still fell far short of the original masterpiece. It suggests there's more to the difference between a film that's good and a film that's great than just the story, script, cinematography, editing, and so on. There are subtle things that answers easily picked up on that can make all the difference between something that is good, but forgotten and something that lives on eternally as a classic. We have no shortage of bad films and shows in which to point out the flaws. We have many great films and shows in which to praise. But The Last of Us gives us something much more rare. It offers an uncommon chance at comparison and insight into what makes something good and what makes something great that we may not find elsewhere. And simply defending and praising this show completely squanders the real value that can be drawn from it. I appreciate that you're being, I think you're trying to be like pretty good faith here, but like that's not a great comment, my dude. This is like reducing all of our analysis down to like simply defending and praising this show when we'd be more than willing throughout our coverage to offer. And let me show some... Do you have any response? This feels like a comment that belongs on like a different video, like as, or a different series of videos, because not only do we, I don't know, if anyone else in their reactions are doing like extensive comparisons to the game and then talking about whether or not we thought different parts are better or worse, even down to particular line deliveries and being like, oh, the choice to, like for example, we've talked at certain points about really tiny changes. I know I have done on Open Bar as well. Obviously the comparison of how they did Frank, we did, we did a lot on that one. It's what's quite baffling, as I feel like the coverage that we've been providing is much more about digging into the parts rather than the sum of its parts of like, oh, well, you know, it has this, which the game had, it has this with the game had. Like it's been very much, like a lot of times point by point attempts at comparison, what we thought was better or what we thought was worse and why. It's been thorough, like I don't know what to say. So, and then I was going to highlight, like, this is, we watch it and then talk about it. This isn't a more of video, or bringing to you like on end game, or any kind of deep dive. This isn't like an EFAP what we've got, like from beginning to end, everything that we want to talk about in the story, going point by point chronologically for hours. Every piece of media is a huge opportunity to do all kinds of things. We're going to cover it as it's our preference. Yeah, I don't like the idea of it's like multiverse and madness is elementary. It's like, is it really elementary to like have to delve into like all of those intricate like mechanics of like the fucking, what was it? The incursions, like the Illuminati and their role in that world to like lay out in a manner that is as coherent as you can like do with that. It's not easy to catch that, like when you say America Shavas is assassinated by the end of the film, I don't think anybody knew what I was talking about when I like decided, finally caught that from several digs. She has the power to save her parents whenever she wants. Like that's something that's insane, but most people don't catch that. Like, do you feel like the majority of people who watch that film would be like, yeah, I mean, obviously, like that's elementary, my dude. Like, yeah, of course that's a problem with that film. And then Ryan Johnson films, they're actually difficult to untangle. Well, hits to people love those movies and think that they're brilliant. And then saying like, you know, simply defending and praising the show. It's like, we don't. This is like a live reaction, essentially, that's just recorded here. You know, it's just been recorded and cut down. We are not just defending and praising the show. That's not true. That's just false. No, that's not what's happening. And especially if this was the comment on last week's episode, how could you possibly say that? That's our most like, disliked episode. We went into why we thought it was flawed. And we explain what our defenses are, why we think what we think and how we got there. That was the episode where I laid out exactly why I think the game is better than the show. And I did like visuals to try to help support the points about pacing, characters, relationships and like choice of, I don't know, whatever dramas happen, events happen. I don't understand. This comment just feels like it belongs somewhere else. It's because it's their new favorite shiny toy. They wouldn't be getting flamed in their comments if they were upfront and honest about their bias towards the show. It's honestly entertaining, watching their audience pushing back against them. Well, I'd say that our new favorite shiny toy was Dead Space. Oh, yeah. More so than The Luck. Yeah, I was in Ragnarok before that. Oh, yeah. That's Ragnarok. Well, yeah. That was the first thing I kind of wanted to say. It's like, we like this show. But I don't think any of us love it. I don't love it. No, no, I'm not there yet. I don't love it yet, no. I like it. I think it's good. I think it's better than it's getting credit for in certain circles. Secondly, I find it amusing about this. I wonder if this comment to, I don't know if they know the history of eFap. This is like our 150th time we fight our audience. We do it all the time. Look at it. This is a common occurrence. Their audience, the way that this is framed is, he's not a part of the audience. He's not a part of the audience. There's an audience pushing back. It's like, man, I can't think of a single other time that might have happened. You know what else is kind of funny? I'm just thinking about the comment above, right? All this evidence. They use the fact that people are quite divided on this show saying it's good and bad. And that with, you know, understanding why people don't like it, right? It goes beyond editing. Cinematography is so close. It's like, this applies to everything. And we've always taken a stance pretty much. This is rare. We come across a film or a TV show or a game where we just go, no opinions on that whatsoever. And whenever we do, that means we've pretty much gone in opposition to anyone else who thinks the opposite, which happens a lot. Seriously, a large amount of time. Like, I knew people would disappoint to find out. Like, I didn't think much of Banshee's of Inner Sherrod. They were like, oh, it's like, I was like, well, yeah, yeah. There's probably going to be an unpopular take because that's McDonald's films are always really, really well received. And the reason I bring that up is just that's the most recent controversial take I've had, I think. Right. And how many is that this year already, you know? Well, and the best part is, I've got like 20, 30 of them cooking that you guys don't even know about yet. They don't know. They ain't ready for some of them. And also, I just see they wouldn't be getting flamed in their comments if they were up front and honest about their bias towards the show. Well, I mean, we were pretty upfront about our bias against the show. Yeah. Oh, yeah. For ages before the show came out, from the moment it was announced, we went, uh-oh. Brace yourself. It's always been. I didn't, I don't understand. I did the same thing with, if you watch me in Ned Roddick's House of the Dragon coverage, in the first few episodes, I just admit I'm biased against the show. I kind of hate it. And it's like, yeah, it's really mean that you hate it because it's good. It's just like, yeah, well, I was just like, that's just reality. But it completely won me over. I can't say that this isn't the same thing where I went from being like, yeah, this show's probably going to be very good to be like, okay, this is, this is good. I find it interesting, right, that they said like, this was the chance for you guys to talk about the difference between like, good and great. And then I was thinking about all the discussions we've had across these episodes. And I feel like that's what that is. When we talk about like these smaller failings. And also, we've done that before. Like, I'm not really sure why we're just talking about Marvel movies. Like, you know that we've covered more than Marvel movies, right? Well, yeah. Oh, it was just the last thing we did. What was our coverage of Underwater, if not like, this is an interesting example of an okay to good movie. Yeah. And then we talked about what could have made it great. And then of course, the many examples of films where it's like, so this is like, you know, mediocre or it's sliding into bad territory, but it's not like anywhere near, you know, like the absolute drags of like what you can, you know, get with stories. We talked when discussing MOM what could have made that great, because you can with every single movie that comes out, they still can be great. I don't know, man. Like, I feel like you missed a lot of the coverage that we've done, like in general. It's kind of the implication of us saying, we think this show is good. Here are the ways we think it, you know, messes up or makes mistakes. That's kind of the distinction between good and great. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The implications is if they didn't have those mistakes or they made the improvements that we suggested that it might elevate it to great. Yeah, I do not understand the basis for people like this guy saying that, because when he says favorite shiny toy, I think he's saying like, you're playing favorites. And I don't see what the basis is for saying that you're playing favorites. I mean, after the last of us, part two, I'd say you're probably all expecting it to be not be very good, like you said. But I don't know, do they think that you're tied to one of the actors like Pedro or something? Because you praised him in Mandalorian or something? Whatever this last episode, the best they could do is you like it. That's your bias. It's like, man. I mean, I do like it, but I don't know that that's like, what are we trying to ascribe here in terms of like, a bias stemming from liking something? Am I biased because I like Ratchet and Clank? And then I also say that the games are great. It's like, well, you would, you're biased. You like it. It's like, which comes first, that it's great, and therefore I like it or what? You know, like it's... Yeah. Makes me think they forgot our Last of Us 2 coverage. I appreciate the corrections on a couple of the earlier comments we've looked at and some highlights of other realities, things that we could agree, disagree. This was just one of the examples of a greater criticism. I don't really know what to do with this, because like most of what it's asking for, I feel like we've been doing. So, you know, I guess we'll carry on. I'm pretty sure we mentioned it last episode, just an example. We love it. Just one. Just one. At least one person who brought up the Ragnarok dog was like, oh, that's a terrible example, but like at least you tried. But it is, at least they tried, yeah. We can grapple with it. We can at least explain it. Well, you know, Wolverine, last comment, we do have an example. It's kind of funny how Moeller says, you can easily make a headcanon about this plot problem. So, I guess now it's fine. If you have to do the writer's work for them, wasn't that supposed to be a sign of how the show isn't that competent if you have to come up with your own headcanon? I need to cue that scene from Infinity War. What, the face that he makes? Or he's just, he just can't believe it. So, I almost want to like reflexively be like, oh, God, no, guys, no, no, no, no. We don't want everything explicit. That's where my mind's gone too straight away. You know, like, what is that? A lot of our favorite scenes of all time will be characters just looking at something or expressing something or even taking an action. And we all get to discuss why they did it, right? Because like, this is just one of them teachable opportunities, I suppose. If you can see this 21 replies, plenty of people know exactly what the difference is, but some people don't, so we can go over it. First and foremost, one can headcanon literally anything ever whenever they want. They can if they want to. To go to an extreme, if someone said like, I love that, you know, Homer Simpson is actually an alien. If you watch the whole show, it just makes way more sense. You'll be like, okay. I don't think much of anything really supports that, and most people aren't going to accept it. It's like, that kind of headcanon? It's like, yeah, you can do that, but headcanon refers to way more than just that. And not all headcanon is created equally. To be excessive about this, all right? Why did Vader attack the emperor at the moment that he did in Return of the Jedi? It's like, if we're all discussing this just after I've watched it, we go, well, because Luke is about to die. He's literally about to die, or maybe because Luke says, I think he says father, please, among many other quotes. And that reminds him of a duty as a father to protect his son. And we're like, what else? He's like, well, he loves Luke, and you just can't stand to see him in pain. That's, you know, just like that. What about finally seeing the emperor as the monster he truly is, and he has to stop him? Like what about, he just, he's decided this is it. I've had enough, I have to stop the galaxy from suffering. And this is how I can do it. It's like, you could pick all of them or any of them, really. I don't really, like if someone said, no, he's not thinking about the galaxy when he does that. And you're like, oh, you know, maybe not. Maybe though, it's kind of hard to say. And if I said, yeah, you can kind of headcanon whatever you want there. What I'm referring to is out of those options. If someone said, well, no, Veda did it because he really likes fireworks and he wanted to throw the emperor down there and see him explode because it'd be funny. Like that's why he did it. It's like, and then he's like, no, no, no. He's immediately repressed. He thought lifting the emperor up would power him up. He didn't realize he would die from that. He was hoping he'd live. And it's like, okay. And someone else was like, oh, well, you know, this is where they play fight. And this time it went too far. And the thing about the first set that I went through is that all of them are supported and none of them contradict anything in the text, I would say. Meanwhile, the later ones I just mentioned, all of them contradict what comes after. So they can't fit. They cannot be, you could headcanon it for yourself, but you can't like headcanon it in a way that it can match the world. It can slip right in and actually work. Maybe you could call it soft headcanon and hard headcanon, something like that. But this would apply to multiple sort of things. Like, why does any character do anything? Well, we watched it recently. Why did Elsa try to grab the holy grail at the end of last crusade? It's like, she wanted youth forever. She wanted the power. She just considered it so fucking precious. She just wanted to have it for herself, like a greed or whatever. You're like, okay, yeah, it could be any of them. It could be all of them. And then someone said, well, because obviously she wanted to lick it and then she could fly away. That's just how that works. It's the power you get from it. Like, no, I don't think that's true at all. And I don't think anything supports that. And I think that's insane. I don't think you, if that were true. And then of course, in that example, the converse of a bad argument be, it's insane that she would even try to do that. She's gonna slip and die. So why would she ever try to do that? It's like, well, you need to think about who she is and what she values. So it works both ways in terms of going way too far. Yeah, she's killing herself by doing that. And you go, yeah, but that's how much she wants it. And then you're like, so that's just headcanon. When does she ever say, I really want this? Let's go with the counter example that they're probably referencing from my TLJ videos. Why didn't Holdo tell Poe the plan? Like, well, back when that was all happening, right? The first thing that people said was like, she doesn't like him. And he keeps like asking for information so brazenly, especially after causing such a fucking disaster. You remember, he got all the fleet destroyed. What an asshole. It's like, okay, fine. I accept that. That's the reason. Let's talk about it. Had he not done it, everyone would now be dead. And we can go through all the details on that, but that's just true. And most people are like, yeah, okay. When you explain how it all works. And it's like, also, Leia could have stopped him at any moment during that whole battle, but she doesn't. Like that's strange. She outranks him. And I'm pretty sure there's an admiral on board that outranks him too. So why are we all blaming him when we could easily have outranked and stopped him at any point? Especially because all the people in that, do you remember like they're all communicating and they're all very happy? They're all like, you know, I'm here, Poe. Let's do it. You know, and it was all planned. And Leia's like suggesting we cut it off. Yeah, their formation and everything. They were already there. They launched prior. They launched prior. They were already on their way. You saw how slow those fucking things are. And so this starts to fall apart. You're like, is that why? Because that doesn't really make sense. And she likes Poe. She like smiles at him and says, he's a good dude. Yeah. She literally tells Leia, you know, I really like him. And so then you have people being like, fine. No, she thought he's a mole. She thought he was a mole. There you go. And a lot of people started parroting that. So it's like, yeah, that makes sense. There you go. And it's like, there's nothing that supports that. And there's only something small that contradicts it. So where are you getting that from? And it's sad because like, it kind of would be an interesting plot point, right? If either Holder was the mole or Hux had like, you know, sent over false information about how Poe was a mole and that there was just a question of his loyalty and that it caused severe friction on the ship. You know, something like that. None of it's in the film. None of it. There's no reference to moles. There's no reference to anything to do with like a distrust of Poe in that direction. There's just nothing. And it's like, yeah, but it, you know, if it were that way, if Hux maybe did fuck around with them or if maybe she is, maybe she is a mole, whatever works for you. And it's like, no, none of it's working. You can't, there is no head cannon that makes all of that work, unfortunately. Other than maybe if you say, well, Holder was, she was hit with like a mind scanner from an alien that happened to be in the area that shot her through like the walls to make her unreasonable. That's my head cannon. It's like, what? We hadn't, we hadn't talked about it in a while because it hasn't really popped up as an issue. But it used to a while back, this element of us trying to be objective and how that was often misconstrued or misunderstood as us saying that we're searching for some element of absolute truth or that we can't possibly be wrong in our search or in the process of being objective. And the head cannon talk, it's similar in a way where your head cannon can be wild and nonsensical and completely made up and have no references or not be based on anything that's actually in the material or it could be supported by a vast amount of lines and scenes and what we understand about characters and the plot and the mechanics of the world. And so when your head cannon is really, really, really in line with what's actually in the material, I think it has its most merit. This was an issue with one of the last videos that I did regarding Obi-Wan Kenobi's death in A New Hope. I think that Obi-Wan Kenobi, when he notices that Luke is watching him fight Vader, that's when he decides to let Vader kill him partially, I believe, to a great deal so that it helps to motivate Luke to do what he couldn't do and kill Vader and stop the Emperor and the Empire. It's not explicitly said in the film but based off the timing and the expression and the stated goals that Obi-Wan has for Luke and speaking to him as a force ghost, I think that even if this is head cannon, I guess maybe it is, I don't know. I think it's really, really strongly supported by the events in the film. So that's just a recent example for me with a different other part of the media. It might just be the sticking point of using the term head cannon because it's explicit and on explicit information and how you control the use of it. With all of that being said, it's like, why does the dog look like inquisitive or kind of tilted at a person and then he's chill with them a little bit later? Well, dogs are animals that have all kinds of emotional states for all kinds of reasons. We've never met this dog before and all we know is that it's a sniffer for the cordyceps stuff. He could change his approach based on really anything, any smells coming from any location could make him change expressions briefly or behaviors. He could change it based on the height of the person he's walking up to, the weight of them, sex, clothing, smells that come from them directly that don't even relate to cordyceps. Could be he's tired in that moment and he's like waking back up. Could be there's something in the distance he saw. Could be he doesn't like the feel of the cold out of his paws on the floor. Maybe he needs to pee. Could be hungry. Maybe the sun is in his eyes in a bit of an awkward angle. He doesn't like the cut of everyone's jib perhaps. I could go on. But the point is, in Return of the Jedi and The Last Crusade's instances, you could infer a lot of reasons for Vader or Elsa's decisions, but you can't go much further than what has support. You can't go so far outside of it that it starts causing contradictions, right? In The Last Jedi, you can't actually pick a motive that can fit with the story unless you start to build up other story elements that literally aren't there. But even then, those will like eventually contradict and so they can fuck it up too. For The Last of Us, you can pick one of a hundred reasons the dog can give an expression. I can't even believe I have to explain that. Like it could be any fucking reason is my point. You're welcome to pick. It literally changes nothing about anything. It could be any of them. Until we get more information about this dog, see more examples of how he sniffs people or whatever. We can't even base a consistent attitude. We saw what we saw. There could be any countless reasons for this to happen. Hence why I said, headcanon whatever you want. And I find it really bizarre that we call this a plot problem. It's not a problem. The dog can look a different way and then a different way. That is totally possible. Dogs can do this. Rags, can you please confirm? Definitely. 100% every time. What you can't do is say that the dog was apprehensive at first because he's actually a dog mech that's being driven by Joel from the future and that he's come back in time in the dog to protect because he killed the real dog that would have bitten and torn apart Ellie and instead he's driving that dog to protect her in that moment. Because then we'd be like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If that's Joel and the dog, sorry, time travel is possible. Like of all the things he could be doing, he chose to do that. That's completely a coherent, it can't work at all. Meanwhile, the one that's incredibly simple and has a thousand options, you can go nuts. It should have been a whole episode setting up the dog. Raised from a pup. And then it sets up like, this is why it can smell these things. And then... Yeah, how did he get trained? We didn't even get to see any of his training. It was as well like as I was like to the first reaction I had was like, yeah, we don't want to lose this, by the way, guys, because it takes away subtleties from performances or even events. It's fun to dig into why characters feel a certain way or they take whatever actions they take. We don't need everything to be explicit, but at the same time, you need to be able to draw something. That was the big problem with Holdo. No one could figure out why she did it. Yeah, because it just didn't make sense. You look to the material and you're like, why? Why though? I'm trying to figure it out. What am I supposed to do? An example I was thinking of if I'm thinking of headcanon correctly. Is in Breaking Bad Season 4. You know, when Brock gets poisoned in some way, there's a number of things that could have happened and we don't need to know exactly which one of them it was. And it's not exactly laziness on the writer's part. And then they deliberately omitted it because you could have the big reveal and sinister implication at the end of that finale where it's like, oh, Walt did it somehow, you know. The hyposimplistic example of this whole headcanon thing is a character is in one location and then they're in another one. It's like, well, how did they get there? It's like, they drive probably. Well, these are teleportation machines. I'm very glad. Yeah, exactly right. We need to see them drive. I'm very glad you used that example because this has come up several times over time. I was about to say annually and you know what, I might commit to like more than annually where people in our audience will ask us. And we actually answered this question on Super Chatcatcher semi-recently that we recorded. What is the difference between a reasonable inference and just making shit up for the story? And this goes all the way back to EFAP episode. I want to say two or three. Can't remember where we talked about. Shut up about plot holes where Patrick Willems said it is perfectly reasonable to infer exactly what Batman did to get from the hole to Gotham. When that would be an example of where is the line between we need more information and we have enough information. That's probably the best example ever where it just crosses it as far as I'm concerned. Yes, he is Batman. Yes, he's Bruce Wayne. But we've been told he's bankrupt. He has basically like no contacts at this point. He's an incredibly broken man. He's in the middle of nowhere and Gotham's on lockdown and he has a time limit. Yeah, I guess there may be a one in a million way he could probably do this, I guess. But like, good God, you owe us. There are a lot of variables for which saying nothing is like, I don't know if that's good enough as opposed to a character who's in their house and then they got like, I don't need to see Homer drive to work. Like, I know how he got there. He used his car. But if Homer's in space, you might be like, well, we... Yeah, or like if it were in a medieval world and it's like you teleported from one kingdom to another. It's like, well, damn, man, like, how long has it been? You know, like, how long did it take you to get from one location to another? It's all, it's a blurry line, but there is a line and it's all about reasonable inferences versus, you know, writing the story for the writer. I didn't expect this to come up with the dog's expressions, though. No, I can't believe that the dog is this one that is causing these problems. Like, why is it so hard to believe that a dog can smell like an infection? It's not that. It's that the dog looked kind of shifty and then he was okay with Ellie. That was what we brought as an inconsistency. Yeah, it's microanalyzed the expressions that animals make all the time. That's what I mean. How cool! The dog! Hence, that's what I said. I was like, head cat of whatever the hell you want. He's thinking about whatever the hell you want. And then it's just like, wow. So we're just going to head cat of the plot problem. You're writing the story for them. Head catting the dog's clear fluctuations and inconsistencies. It's a dog! You can think whatever you want as long as it doesn't contradict any information you've been given before. That's kind of where we sit on this. Was Vader partially informed by his rush to kill the emperor because he needed to pee? It's like, I guess that doesn't contradict anything. And it's possible. This is taking too long, Emperor. I'm going to throw you off so I can do it. Oh, no, I'm dying now. Oh, I guess I'll just pee in my suit. This is no breathe. Now, what I will say is this will come up again. And we'll talk about it again some other day. Could be half a year, could be months from whenever. I don't know. It's just that there will be times where people feel like we are owed more information and we will feel the opposite or vice versa. It is possible. So hopefully that helps you understand. And so takes us to the episode. There's that pensive music. Is this pensive? I think so. There's a bit of that. Yeah. What do you think is the dominant emotion of this theme? Melancholy. I'd be inclined to agree on that, I think. It's very sort of neutrally. Like you could put it on many kinds of different things. Like it could be on a montage where someone's like working on a project, maybe, but they're a little bit frustrated. Like someone's died. And so they're trying to finish up a project that was personal to the person who died, perhaps. Or someone's discovering, making a bit of a sinister discovery. Like a detective at a crime scene looking for clues. Like Batman. Yeah. Right. Snow. We predicted there would be snow because we saw snow last time. Look at that wide shot. That's a nice shot. That's real water they got there. And I saw a mile and a new earth. Actual snow. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Uh-oh. The Tabernacle of God. Tabernacle's a funny word. He's with men. Tabernacle of God is with me. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. They could do this in an actual church if they wanted to, right? Maybe they don't have one. How exactly they would scout out all the different places they want? Or how much they'd want to keep it close to the game or not? Like I was in El Camino. You're right. He was one of the cops, right? Or the fake cops. The other guy in the shootout. The other guy. And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Ah, and you're crying. It's so funny. There'll be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying. Neither will there be any more pain. What a great deal. Yeah. Is he going to eat her in this scene? Hey. This could be... They might have adapted the non-cannibal vision. The ground is too cold to dig. Oh, we don't bury people here, bud. That was Troy. That was Troy. That's the ground. Braggs, that is Joel. Wow. I hope he does his Joel voice in the show. For now, he's going to be frozen. We may as well acknowledge the elephant in the room that there is a bit of a twist in the game. You discover this group eat human meat. Oh, my goodness gracious. And I imagine that that's already what they're implying with those looks after, you know, burying a body. It's like, I'm assuming maybe the community itself doesn't know. Do we have left? That's because in the game they're all happy to eat humans. Oh, I guess they're dealing more with the logistics they have a supply of food. But then occasionally they do this. Could be, yeah. And they mix it in. Josiah and Martin think they spotted some deer the other night a couple miles east. He is not doing the Joel voice. Disappointing, zero out of 10. Well, so it makes me wonder, could you guys have bought him as Joel in this? Not quite old enough, I think. You can age him up a bit. I think the build isn't quite right. Yeah, I agree. Maybe he could do something about that. I don't know, is it active? I feel like this is indicative of the strengths of video games. Like, you can have somebody who's got the right voice and they can match, you know, the physicality in terms of movement and everything. But even if they don't quite look like what you want them to, it's like, well, it's a video game. You can create an original person. It's getting intense with that now, especially with the risk of a judge in Kratos, right? Kratos, yeah. So much physical acting at this point. It's like voice actor doesn't really cover it. Voice actor is kind of downplaying how much they have to do with that role over how much time and physically embodying the character. Yeah. No slight against Troy on my part. I think that guy does a fucking amazing job doing the voice in the game. Oh, he does. Yeah, he's very, very good. And it looked like what we were establishing there is that Dave has got control through the Bible, at least somewhat, and he doesn't want to be able. I wonder if what they're going to try and set up here is that because Joel is near to death, they'd rather actually kill him and use him for me rather than the person who was part of that group. Maybe that'll be the dynamic, like who are you with because they're not part of our group. So this would be a better trade for us. Could go any direction. You never exactly know. Yeah. Here's a cracker for when you wake up. It's a little reward for... He'd be so unfortunate if he rolls slightly and it falls onto the floor and he's like, can't hear now, it's on the floor. She gets a straw from upstairs and she says, you need to suck up those crackers. Oh, she's going to go or is she... I wonder if she's going to find a bow. I think the idea there is she's going to go hunt something, right? Yes, but I wonder if they're going to ride. So no bow though. I mean, yeah. I mean, especially considering if you have never... If you have not shot a bow before it... Well, I mean, of course, in the game she uses a bow. Yeah, I was half expecting for the episode to open on the shot with the rabbit where the arrow goes through. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The bow implies like the fact that she's super proficient with that sort of implies a massive amount of time that she's been taking care of him. Like it's been a while. Exactly, yeah. Whereas here, it's seemingly more condensed because we haven't had the autumn section. We went straight to winter. Right. Yeah, actually, if I was to guess, I don't actually... I wouldn't even know where to begin in terms of if it's been... Could even have been just a week, maybe, or even last. It was like, yeah, hasn't necessarily been long, which... I wonder. Ah. Fuck that rabbit. Look at that rabbit. You could tell it's cold too by her face. Be very, very quiet. Yeah, stick Lily out in the... That's a good reference. Yes, you can tell that they're actually shooting out in the cold area. Come on, Ellie. Get it together. Yeah. Also, don't get lost. Like seriously, don't get lost. Getting lost is bad. I will actually... I'll give you that. Getting lost is real bad, yeah. Well, there's the footprints. She can use that to get back. Clicking continues in brackets. Excuse me. Clicking. It's a durr. Where are my durr? A durr. It might not be real, but if you kill it, it turns into actual meat. Oh, like in Age of Empires. Shoot that deer. That's an easy shot. You got this. That's cute deer, though. It's... Nice shot. Decent-ish. Don't worry, it'll bleed. You follow it. Just shot it in the brain. You shot right through the fucking face. Idiot hunter doesn't aim to kill, instead aims to make sure they hit it. Environment shots. I love that they've actually gone out to shoot in these really beautiful locations. Oh, schnitzel. Doe! Who's there? Hello? We just want to talk. Turn and face me. Slow. Any sudden moves I put one right between your eyes. Ditto for Buddy Boy. Any sudden moves I put one right between your eyes. Ditto for Buddy Boy over there. What do you want? You're quite a hunter. We didn't even hear you coming. Turn around and walk away. Okay. Just go. Name's David. And here's my friend James. Better. From a larger group, women, children. I won't say it twice. Please, just 10 seconds. My name's David. This is my friend James. We're all very, very hungry. So am I. We're from a larger group, women, children, and we're all very, very hungry. So am I. Women and children. All very hungry too. Well... I'm from a large group too. All so hungry. Maybe we could trade you for some of that meat there. What do you need? We're not asking for charity. We can trade you for some of the deer. We have... What do you need? We have... Weapons. Ammo. Clothes. Medicine. Medicine? Like for infections. We do. You have any antibiotics? We do. Back at the camp. Welcome to follow us back... I'm not following you anywhere. Back in our village, you're welcome to follow us. I'm not following you anywhere. Buddy boy can go get it. Buddy boy can go get it. He comes back with what I need. The deer is all yours. Anyone else shows up? You put one right between my eyes. That's right. He comes back, you get half the deer. Anyone else shows up? You put one right between my eyes. That's right. Two bottles of the penicillin in a syringe. Make it fast. Go on. Bring back two bottles in a syringe. It's not code, James. Do as I said. He's trying to pitch a voice down to seem more intimidating. We didn't even hear you coming. Turn around and walk away. It's not quite Batman, but it's a little bit deeper. Put the weapons down. Don't say it twice. Please, just ten seconds. Yeah, she's overcompensating like crazy. This is my friend James. Medicine? Like for infections. We do. No, no, not that infection. You're welcome to follow it. He comes back, you get half the deer. Anyone else shows up? I put one right between my eyes. I don't know, Troy doesn't seem convinced, does he? He's got a case with some penicillin. He's, uh... Yeah, this is kind of like they've done it throughout the season. It's close. It's not quite one-to-one, but it's close. Yeah. That number of parallels. Ten steps back. The blocking is pretty much one-to-one. Five, six... These slips. Like, oh, oh, oh, that was 11. Damn it. That's why you're out here on your own. Hey, not bad. Yeah, looks good. It's a four-mile round trip back to our settlement. It's going to be a while before James gets back. I have some oil and matches in my pack. We could take shelter, start a fire. I wonder if they're going to do the encounter. Go. I do not know if they want to spend that kind of time on it. I'd like to see it. Well, I think that would be the one opportunity to introduce some infected in this episode. I don't expect them to do it at any other point. Well, because even if it gives you a small, it gives you more of a reason to push back in the direction of the settlement, gives David more of a reason to, you know... Well, if they do it, I hope they give more of a reason. It's kind of random in the game. Well, then it's a sudden infected. Yeah. So what's your name? Well, in the game, it establishes some sense of trust between the two characters, right? They're strangers, I know. Yes. Yeah, a little bit. There's room for you and our group, if you want. You're inviting me to your hunger club? Thanks. Ah. It's true. We're hungry. We're still here. I'm a decent man. That's what decent men say. That's also what people lying say. If they're not actually decent, they're just pretending to be decent. That's true. That's the conundrum. Yes. Is this some weird cult thing? Or I am a preacher, but just pretty standard Bible stuff. What? The whole world ended and you still believed that shit. I actually started believing after the world ended. I was about to say that might have bolstered their beliefs, to be honest. Mac. Yeah. Well, I found God after the apocalypse, which is either the best time or the worst time to find him, hard to say. But when the Pittsburgh QZ fell in 17, I left with a few others and that's how I ended up with our flock. A long way from Pittsburgh. That's a nod to the game, for sure. It settled somewhere and then Raiders would come as though we'd move again. Just like referencing that. Those fucking Raiders, they're like ants and they're just everywhere. Oh, such thing. Derion Providence. I believe everything happens for a reason. It's not four of our people to a nearby town to scavenge what they could. Oh, those are the guys at the university. Well, I was about to say you should be able to know it's the numbers there. Turns out he was murdered by this crazy man. And get that crazy man traveling with a little girl. That crazy man was traveling with a little girl. Everything happens for a reason. You see? Everything happens for a reason. James, lower the gun. I do question both in the game and here why he said this to her. Everything happens for a reason. It's so like... James, lower the gun. Yeah, but look, his eyes are a little bit unhinged. See? Yeah. She doesn't even kill Alec, can she? She didn't kill anybody. Lower the gun. Is he saying it so we have context for that political day? Did you bring the message? Well, I like that he's trying to gain her trust by taking the opportunity to tell the guy to lower his gun before Alec sees him. He's explaining how much he has reason to kill her, but he won't. He's like, I'm chill. I'm being nice. Yeah. And now you're not with a group. He won't survive for long out there. I can protect you. Free deer. Woohoo. Actually, we're free. On paper? He seems like a nice man. But there's just those little tells. Yeah, he's just got evil looking. He's got an evil, you know, look in his eye there. No offense to the actor. Oh, well, actually, yeah. I even would respect the actor for that. The end of that delivery was like, was good in terms of just being unsettling. Almost has been good so far, yeah. Yeah, I think the acting's great so far. You get that in him. Steven. Judging from that, how long do you think it's been? I do not know. Not long. Doesn't look like it's been long. Where the fuck do I put it? You've got to get in the eye. I wish I knew what the nature of doing that is. Yeah, I don't know. I genuinely have no idea medically. I have no idea if this is, I don't know if all the doctors out there are nodding or cringing. Yeah, I guess we'll find out in the next comment showcase. In that situation, wouldn't be best to find a vein in the forearm? I don't know. I don't know. I genuinely don't know. And this actually does a way you would apply it. Anti-embiotics, right? Apply directly to the forehead. Or like in the thigh or something. I don't know. Well, I presume it's because the wing might be infected. Right, yeah. Yeah, I just don't know if that, I assume it's viable because, holy fuck, what a mistake if it's not. You know? Well, it makes sense for Ellie to decide, well, just stick it in where it hurts. Rageole, I guess, where the wound is. Well, yeah, specifically the combat infection from that wound. So that's why she's done it, but I just want to know, you know, medically speaking, what would happen if you do that. Right, yeah. If they're by the water, could they like fish and stuff? Is that a thing that they could do? All the fish got infected, Rags. Oh, there's zombie fish. Zombie fish. There's a bloater fish out there. Is this going to be gross? You ever seen Piranha Double D? It's like that. Piranha Double D? Which one is that? Is that like the third or fourth? I can't remember. It's a three Double D, I think, because it's 3D, as well as having lots of tits. That ain't venison. It's not venison. Imagine she like takes it, just bite out of it, just goes, this is human, dude. What the fuck? Oh, this is, yeah. I know human. This is going to be a chunky ass meaty stew. Geez. You don't want to cut that up a little smaller? Especially to make it last, too, right? Yeah. They're going to come in dragging the deer. See, when we're in need, he shall provide, and Jebus provided them a deer. Thanks, Jebus. I call the antlers. Why, though? It's okay to celebrate. If you've heard a rumor. Oh. Yes, when the sun rises, I'll lead a group out to pick up our trail. Oh, okay. So I just realized something. It's pretty dumb. They sent four raiders with no fucking guns when they all have guns here. Right. They all had clubs and stuff. Yeah. Whoops. Yeah, that's just stupid, isn't it? And if they had, they probably would have gotten Joel. So. How did they find out that they met the two? Uh, well, I'm guessing Troy Baker said something maybe when he came back. Oh. Oh, geez. That's not nice. Is this a God thing? God wouldn't want us to do that. As I got a slap, you're out of line. I was going to say, like, before David slapped a child, why did they all seem to dislike David is because they all suspect that he's lying to them about where the food's coming from. I thought it might be that, but I think it's just. I thought it was that, too, but it seems to be David's whole thing. And also, yeah. But you can still get fucking slapped. So watch yourself. Oh, no. Is he about to say it's me or is it about you? I respect when he's speaking. Oh, he means him. Listen, the problem with this guy is that he doesn't just eat other people. He's got the other thing. Well, it's just the whole, this whole group is unsettling. That's just like a sort of cloud. A vibe. Over them. Yeah. Especially when you get to Jackson where everything seems pretty chill. Yeah, I want to live in Jackson. I don't want to live here. That's one thing I quite like about the encounters throughout the story of The Last of Us, which they've done in the show as well, is that there's always different kinds of people. Yeah. It's not even a happy cult. It's one of those sad miserable cults. So you get like the worst of both worlds. I don't know if we're meant to get the sense that they're all off kilter or they're just all kind of mad at David. I for some reason. My sense right now is just that they kind of fear him a bit. Right. Because he's just creepy. He hasn't actually done anything. He's just really creepy. He has a kind of taste. It might be that he has control over it, but he does provide, go to speak. And no one's like talking. No, they're not like being social or they're not even like happy or anything. Yeah, everyone's very... His meal is much bigger than everybody else. I was about to say. Yeah, he's got a way more. Yeah, he gets a lot. Which would be like an interesting rule, you know, in the sense of if you're the one who brings back the deer, you get an extra portion, you know, to motivate him to, you know, really go out there and get it. But that's... The impression I get is that he just gets the big meal. He's just the leader. Yeah. Because he has some charge. Even though he kind of looks a little frail or at least a little gaunt. And I think that was on purpose to make him look a bit more, you know... Scaly. Oh, well, appears to be getting better. They should do a doctor react to the last of us. That probably already exists. I hope it'd be better than, like, a deer reacts to the last of us. A deer. That would be very good. Live deer reaction. It's just the deer sitting in front of his computer just looking around. He's not even watching whatever he's meant to be reacting to. But she shoots it. It's just like, no, I'll fuck this. Tid's it off. Yeah. I do not approve of this. No, that's the point. That's the point when he becomes fully yes, sentient and just like, you know what? Very easy and true once again. Very, very offensive. The car. We always get killed and eaten. That's really fucked up, Hollywood. Rose. I assume they're going to do the same thing here of... It's the spirit of Jacob. Oh, my God. I miss him. You should find out what he's in these days. He's probably another TV show. A better TV show. This man's not already dead. He's dangerous. We bring that girl back with us. She's just another mouth to feed. If we leave her out here, she'll die. Maybe that's God's will. Don't do that shit. I decide what God's will is. Yeah. No one gets to decide what God's will is, but me. Careful. I am God. It's just hard to make his character seems persistently sad. That's really sad. That's the vibe he has all the time. Is he pretending to be asleep? No, no. He's just waking up. Oh, no. Okay. Right. If anybody makes it down here, you fucking kill them. You got it? Joe. It's a craft of med kit. Yeah, a craft of med kit. You need cloth, alcohol, and that's in real about 10 seconds of your time. Do they have the pistol? What does she have it? Yeah, they should have a, she should have a pistol. He should have a revolver. And a rifle as well. I think she has a rifle. Where's her rifle? Or is she ditching her guns? Because yeah, I don't know if it was, she's going to try and draw them off, right? Like because she foolishly being a child as she does in the game goes back to Joe without realizing, of course, they will follow her there. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's all for us. Yeah, this is all solid in terms of just, it's better they chase her than find Joel. Yeah. Well, I totally believe she'd do this. Why don't you percent? Yeah. No, other universe, Joel. Don't do it. I'm going to shoot that horse. Man, that, I guess they'll leave the horse. Absolutely. Yeah. So how did he get, I guess he cut through the fence or something? Yeah, he took like a shortcut. I was just thinking like the potential of trying to not have the horse die for use of travel. But then I was like, actually, these people would probably want to eat it, they said. Yeah, where are they going to travel to? Exactly. Damn, he's about to execute it. Was he? They clearly said, so that means that they're all in cahoots to just obey him. Yeah, they all said do it. Yeah, they all liked him on. What do you think that is in terms of, do you think? They don't like him, but they follow him anyway. Well, no, are they trying to spare her? Yeah, that's what I was thinking, like a mercy kill for Ellie because they don't want to subject her to David. I have a feeling that's what it is. It was all those looks that each of those guys had that they focused in on that makes me think that, yeah. My guess is he wasn't always crazy. But he's become that way, you think? Something's happened, yeah. They said he was a teacher and he turned into preacher, which would have kept people together in really hard times, right? And then as time goes on, especially with that bigger portion of meal and he's doing, we're going to find out what, but he's doing some extra things that clearly they're vaguely aware of. Esthering growing discontent. Yeah. Jimmy's a bad shot. He doesn't even get to have a scope on his rifle. I hope we're heading toward a particular scene. I think we are. Get up, buddy. Attention to detail with the blood there on the mattress. Things. That's kind of what I was trying to say. Oh, well, he's dead. We're right, yeah. That's knowledge, geez. Yeah, because he's low energy, right? I was just going to just wait there at him. Damn. That does help it, at least. Like, we still get a sense that he's very sluggish and like still. He's wheezing as well. Yeah. Now, we've split the two up. Joel's got to defend himself here and go like, where are they going to meet? Are they going to meet this episode? Curiosity Rags, is anything in your head playing out in terms of what you're expecting to happen? Not really. I think a whole bunch of stuff could happen. So I don't know the limitations. It's a fascinating sort of dynamic because three of us know exactly what's coming. And it's a relatively famous part of the game. You're a dangerous person. You're certainly proving that. Did you not play the first game, Rags, or not finish it? Not this far, no. Oh, okay. Did you hear me say the others want to kill you? Yeah. But I stopped them. Look, Hill. Why don't we just start with your name? He changed. French. Interesting name. This is a person who desperately wants to manipulate people but just has no job. I think it's not happening, or at least not for Ellie, anyway. That part of your life, it's ending. And what I'm offering you is a beginning. But if you can't find a way to trust me, then yes, you are alone. It's funny. You mean I can be alone without you? Awesome. He's got a different face and voice to the David from the game, but they have captured the important part, so to speak. David in the game was played by Nolan North. So, yes, definitely a different voice. Nolan North has pretty crazy accent. Howdy-ho, there, neighbor. Timothy, okay. Nolan does Nathan Drake, not charted for people who don't know. And Desmond in Assassin's Creed. And Penguin in... Oh! So that's... Oh! Yeah. I hate to say it, but that's an improvement. We're getting punished, Joel here. Joel gets jumped by two people and then wins the fight in the game. Here he is, have a trap. Which I prefer. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Leave him alone. You next. Please. I don't know any girl. He can't help you. You focus right here. Or I'll pop your fucking kneecap off. I like that Pedro's playing this still a bit delirious. Like he was more put together in the game a bit more at this point. Where? Oh, that sound. What the fuck? Oh, Jesus. You want your kneecaps. That's a thing. It's not a real town, damn. It's a resort. A resort? You're going to point to where we are and where your resort is. It'll be the exact same spot your buddy points to. I'm going to mark it with the blood. Hopefully wipes the blood off for the next guy. I feel like you should remember how this goes. Well, not you rags, John will tell you. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're right. You wouldn't need to worry about that if he was going to check. Oh, right. Yeah, you're right. Oh, I forgot about that. I told you what you wanted. You motherfucker, fuck you. I ain't telling you shit. It's okay. I believe him. No. Well, that's why I was just one one. It's really good to say like it's a clever thing. Like, you know, he's already laid the threat. So as far as he's concerned, he'll probably get the truth out of him first try. And then, of course, it just shows like this is Joel. This Joel is scary. Yeah, Joel gets results when he wants him. When you were opposed to him, when you're threatening people he cares about, he is terrifying. He's bringing back his old smuggler mentality. Oh my god, I just realized too, like I'm so tired of torture scenes in TV shows being like, we're going to shave off a bit of your fingernail. We might just pull it out. He was like, I'm going to take off your kneecap. Yeah. Like, yes, get to the fucking point. Take something they want. Ew. Right. There's an ear on the floor. For what it's worth, this is just dear me, I swear. Oh, gee. I trust you. Yeah, bend a little pieces. I'd rather not. Well, these are just one-to-one lines from the game. What is it? It's dear. Is some human helping on the side? No. No, I promise it's just the dear meat. So now what? You're going to chop me up into tiny pieces? I'd rather not. I taste terrible if I'm all stringy. They're right. Now I got to go clean it up by the ear and everything. It's getting in the ear, ew. Specifically by the ear. But I would have told you. I would have told you. You were so yummy. I love he says that like a point of trust. I would have told you. Sorry, we, sorry, sorry, we shouldn't have left that ear behind. Wait, if you're eating people, why would you take the ear off? But what was I supposed to do? Let them starve these people who put their lives in my hands, who expect me to keep them safe, who love me. It's a weird thing to say, that lost bit. I don't think your friend would either. Didn't he take another man's life to save yours? He was defending himself. He was defending you. No, he was defending himself. Both of those could be true simultaneously. You see a lot, so do I. And you know what I see when I look at you? That's the ears, lady. I see two ears. Me. Those delicious ears. You're mine, me. You're a natural leader, you're smart, loyal, violent. He's trying to butter her up. Not like that, but I mean like, you know. Put that knife in your hand. You'd stick me in a second. I think everybody would, man. You're a violent heart. And I should wear violent hands. Violent ears. You feel like these lines are specifically set up for two? Oh, it's very violent. It could be. I mean, we're doing them. We're not so different in anything right now, so. Well, they are, but it's specifically the you're a violent person. Because we haven't seen much of that, obviously, at this point in the, like, in Ellie's story. What does cordyceps do? Is it evil? No. It feeds and protects its children. And it secures its future with violence, if it must. It loves. It loves. Cordyceps loves. Okay, you're losing me here. They need God. They need heaven. They need. Ah, he doesn't believe in these things. They need a father. You'll be on that. I'm a shepherd surrounded by sheep. And all I want is an equal. I can tell the others to stop looking for him. He can't tell them anymore. They'll spare him. I'd be more talking at them than to them at this point, but. Yes. If he leaves us in peace, they will just let him go. Is that the offer here, like, to let him go? And, you know, I'll join you if you let him go or something like that. It does seem like that. It's like, join me and I will spare your friend. But they would kill him anyway. Joe wasn't. He's like, legit, trying to offer her, like, queen status, huh? Essentially. Yeah. Think of what we could do to kill him. I slapped the other prospect, so she doesn't like me anymore. We'd make this place perfect. Well, the game did do this as well, I think. No, it did. But this, they've been alluding to something, and they're going to get more of it with it before this ends, I'd imagine. Right. Imagine the life we could give them. Imagine the life we could build. You little cunt, to keep you alive. Let's see what I go tell the others now. Where am I supposed to tell the others now? Ellie. What? Ellie. What? Tell them that Ellie is the little girl. I broke her fucking finger. Tell them that Ellie is the little girl who broke her fucking finger. How did you put it? Tiny pieces. How did you put it? Tiny little pieces. You little cunt. Hey, language. That's a bad word. Very close to the game this long. Pretty close, but at the end of the game, I was wondering if she'd like go along with it for longer. Ellie is a fine one. Man, he is really struggling, isn't he? Yeah. Oh, look, it's blueed. Blueed in the snoo. That'd be from the deer, I suppose. I like that in the show, he's playing this in an impaired way. Like in the game, as soon as you play as Joel, you as a player get the sense like, okay, he's 100% now. You know what I mean? Like I can move around. He's pretty normal. Yeah. He's definitely having to, yeah. He's a little haggard here. What's... Oh, do you find this in the game? Shut up. This isn't real. I'm immune. Oh, you killed the one that was maybe... Oh, interesting. Hey, you got one, though. Yes, this once won the game as well. And it's just as lucky as the game. Like there's a bit of plot armor there, you could say. Oh, well. And also, yeah, we're already in the restaurant. Goodbye, Joel. Endaid. Yeah. You'd think that there'd be some cutlery in that kitchen. Yeah, interesting choice of weapon, Ellie. Oh, yeah. Well, here's a stick. Oh, we're already in the restaurant, wow. Well, because they're not going to do like, some crazy encounters with like... Oh no, what an incredibly inconvenient thing to have just occurred. I feel like he... Maybe pulled the kid down before it got to that level, but I guess too late now. I would have pulled it down fast. He's, he's sort of... No way out, Ellie. He's like keeping an eye on it like, it's just fire. He's just off-legged in between. Do I deal with this or do I... Oh, well, that's why it's getting awfully big. Wow, that fire is burning quick. Yeah, yeah. He's even doing the evil man thing where he's like, I'mma get you. There's no way out. He's monologuing. What does start the fire in the game? Because I don't think it's that. Like a stick. I can't remember. No, you're not infected. No one that's infected fights this hard to stay alive. No one infected fights this hard to stay alive? That's an interesting line. I think there's... How did you do it? Things to be drawn from that line. No one likes being human... Geez, man. Like, that's some copium right there. You see, I changed my mind. I don't believe you. Jesus. Oh, don't yell as you're going towards him. Don't do that. I have no idea what I'm talking about. There's no fear in love. It's okay, baby girl. It seems like it would be between this and five for best. I think that was really, really solid. That's what comes to mind for me. Either this one or five, I think is the best. Well, it's just that these two episodes are the ones that deliver them, like, thus far the most important payoffs in the narrative. I think so. I mean, obviously for Ellie in particular, that's a really critical moment. And hopefully, at this point, people have sort of abandoned the Bella Ramsey Can't Act like angle. I don't get it anymore. That part was particularly... I would say it's as far as haunting, the chopping someone up to stop, not only your own murder, but rape as well. And the look in her eyes as she leaves the place as well, it's that 1,000-yard stare. And then, of course, the panic. And then it's just sort of calming down when she realizes that it's Joel. At this point, Bella Ramsey's had several, you could say, tests, essentially, of how in terms of performance and every single time, like with these major moments. Yeah, it's just another great bit of acting, as well as all of the good acting throughout the whole episode. We said a bit further back, well, at least I said about this episode, they've got their blueprint. They used it. And the thing to nail was obviously correcting up all of the ways that everything comes together because the timing is just... Everything's slightly different. Different things are faster, different things are slower, and you've got to get the performances ready. It's a lot of the same bits. This episode in particular felt to me like the most clear and apparent parallels between the game and the show. There are obviously some deviations between like kind of how David comes across is a little bit different, but it's still like a lot of it's the same. And the structure of the group and some of the dynamics that were seemingly coming through. Yeah, they gave us a lot more overtly evil. The pieces of this community, I think... David is reprehensible in both instances. Yeah, he's a son of a bitch. Like the community here seem to have been... I like thinking about all these different groups that we've come across. This one seems like there were good people here, but they've become so complacent that it's just like anyone they come across enters the meat grinder, essentially. Yeah, they've been destroyed by this world. David's made them rely on him. He's like they've all become like weak-skinned, and you can tell he's probably chanting to them again and again like you need me. I get you the stuff. You need like, you know, that kind of person. Yeah, how much autonomy do any of these people even seemingly have? They all seem to be completely under his heel. Yeah, which I wonder how long it would have lasted necessarily. I wonder if the more he did what he wanted to with little girls, the more that they chopped people up to feed. I wonder if they would have overthrown him eventually. I mean, with how they were after they shot the horse. I mean, it looks like they were really getting kind of a mutinous. You know, you can imagine it might not have taken long. Yeah, that's probably nearly over for him anyway. Well, yeah, and I'm just, I'm really interested by that whole like, they were almost about to execute it, but he stops them like, and I just assume it's because they know what's just going to happen to her. Yeah, it all, it all lines up, doesn't it? Like, and then the daughter or the person who got killed as well, like it's kind of an implication there too. Well, yeah, the fact that he said like, you know, terrified of him. She's scared of him. Wasn't he saying something like, you know, you think you've lost your father, but you know, essentially like I can, I can be him for you, which you know what that means, considering all the context we've gotten. Yeah. Yeah, he's, he's another pretty strong villain and just a showcase because we're so far into the story now of what's left of humanity. That's what I see this story being, you know, about in a lot of ways with a lot of things, like Ellie's getting a full sort of taste of all these different kinds of people getting to the point that it might make her believe that a lot of these horrible sides of humanity can be saved if only they can be taken out of this environment with like a cure or something like that when perhaps in reality this is more so just a realization of the kinds of people that survive in this environment. A whole cavalcade of different personalities and all of them brought to their wits end thanks to this scenario and what does humanity look like at that point and her own humanity getting hardcore stripped away. I've always found it just as meaningful as a concept back when it was presented in the game but here as well just that Joel knows how much this is going to have affected her sort of thing. He'd know himself what it would have been like and the fact that especially in this show they focused a bit on how Tommy wanted to abandon him because of the things that he had to do and all the people they've lost just there's a lot of stuff feeding into I think this moment is one of the biggest obviously for the season that rely on everything else we've known the fact that he calls her baby girl obviously the last time we heard him say that was with Sarah as she was dying this is like a crystallization of everything that Ellie means to him and what their relationship is and how important that is considering everything else that's happened right like all these different people that have come in and out of Joel's life and all the actions he's had to take all the humanity that's been stripped away from him she's a big reason he can have access to things that he thought were lost he thought like a lot of this was over and of course it's bringing him back to a very very vulnerable place that's what he talks about with Tommy in both the game and the show it's what we saw playing out with Henry and Sam even though of course how this story ended you know Frank and Bill having gone the whole way in terms of taking care of each other relying on each other and this story is ending together Tess was another failed sort of thread in Joel's life and this this we were inches away from Joel losing her all over again right after she had you know put everything on the line to save him and so he catches her in this turmoil where she's had to shred someone who's been that much of a threat to her something that he would have wanted to protect her from so yeah it's honestly it's hard to summarize everything that's happening in these moments on the subtext as we were talking about earlier like uh if we'd had everything longer in this show up to this point I think this probably would have hit harder but to be honest with you I think they've they they did everything they needed to do in this episode I can't really fault them that hard outside of a couple of tweaks I may have made like in terms of just some stretches here and there this episode by comparison if episode seven was thin this episode is very dense yeah we did a lot every scene feels dense with information about the characters there's like no scene that is superfluous in this episode like every single scene is essential it was one episode to set up an entire enemy faction and an enemy leader and then yeah and then to have that all come to a conclusion that feeds into the story of these of these characters about main duo yeah it was all very tight and then when we got to the part with the restaurant I felt like we're moving really quickly here but then I checked the runtime and I'm like oh no where about like 45 minutes in here I guess this is this pacing works for this episode I think there would be more time at the end but yeah they skipped like combat to just go straight to the like David conclusion essentially because in the game there's a like a decently large stretch of Ellie gameplay but I mean yeah that's that's what's hard to it's hard to justify that you know really like in terms of her killing like 15 people before encountering David what's clearly been cut and replaced is a lot of gameplay for both Joel and Ellie of killing people and it's just like definitely get the point Joel is still forced to be reckoned with even when he's in a bit of an incapacitated state yeah I was very happy with how they adapted that scene as well yeah perfect the game does a thing where it makes it feel a lot longer where you like it kind of shows you Ellie side of it and it plays it all the way up to like the restaurant bit and then it plays you as it puts you as Joel but then it kind of rewinds time a bit yeah and it shows you like it's quite an elongated sequence of him going into the town and then maneuvering through the town to eventually get to the restaurant and then it catches up with where you saw Ellie in the restaurant felt quick to me this episode but I can't like you were saying well I can't fault it for like it accomplished everything that it needed to and it was quite tightly bound the whole thing I mean from Joel's POV right like he was sure he was dead he knows that she took care of him and then he finds out that she's been taken and what does he see when he like first gets there is a bunch of bodies hanging there yeah like and then he finds who a burning building she's covered in blood it's just yeah it's really solid stuff for the characters not a word I mean obviously they do speak to each other but they don't you know like they're both it's just they're both there for each other and so they're together again and they can leave this place and move forward yeah and the comments that we talked about earlier was in regards to the presence of the infected and there were no yeah in this episode how interesting is that like I don't need them but I like them like they're a unique element that's not in anything else and it would be really nice to see that element in this show because as much as like the Joel and Ellie stuff is really good it would be nice to have the unique parts of the last of us kind of being more present so what happens in the game when she meets up with David at first is that they sit and they're talking and then they hear an infected practically just runs into the room it's just like wow and then David shoots it with his pistol and she's like what the fuck you got a gun the whole time he's like yeah I did like because you know and then they defend the area together for about 10 minutes or so from a horde of just a horde of infected just arrive you know what's funny is this show has the opportunity to you know she shoots the deer and then it you know pans off to the side and it shows an infected there it's been alerted and then through the the network it's attached to it brings several and that David and Ellie have to defend themselves from let's say six something like that we could have that scene but at the same time you know I just want to be honest it's like we didn't lose anything in terms of character by not having that it was just something that may have been fun because like uh she just never trusts David from the get go she seems to and it's similar in the game I think Ellie just just something something doesn't feel right and I guess the audience would have a similar experience with this man he's just and uh you know I think we can do without it it's not a big deal I mean definitely the the game was trying to do a thing where it's like oh maybe David isn't such a bad guy oh maybe David can help me and Joel like from Ellie's perspective and then it's like oh David followed us back followed my footprints now I know he's a bad dude whereas in this it's just like Ellie always suspects the worst of him and I don't think anything is lost there that little beat missing I quite like the character Troy Baker was playing to be honest with you the little we got of him seemed like a very conflicted man who's had to do a lot of horrible things he kept doing them and it led to his destruction with the burning building and everything sort of being their meeting place that people should have come to investigate and Joel wouldn't to be able to just kind of walk away slowly I think it's a close one that the fire would have alerted people right around the time they're probably leaving yeah I don't see any potential issue but I think you could outside as well it seems there's a bit of a a bit of a smoke screen not a literal smoke screen you know metaphorically speaking with the snow and the the cold that might take a little longer for people to notice the fire yeah I think I would have liked a little bit like a tiny bit at least of like Joel having to make his way through a few like hostile people in the village if I could be honest with you to the restaurant if this episode could have been two hours long and we just every conversations extended and we have a couple more interactions and and we have the infected I know for a fact that I'd enjoy it I'd be like yeah let's do it yeah I think so I wouldn't I wouldn't be against more episodes yeah if it meant I was just about to say yeah I think that's it that the biggest problem the show has is that it didn't have enough time to breathe you're adapting a pretty lengthy game the game is fairly long so adapting it into a season of television it's like yeah you might end up having to shave some stuff well I mean they have definitely had to shave things down like all of the core critical moments are there for sure and like the broad sections of the game are there but there's definitely you know things that are lost in the interim yeah the town did feel a bit empty in this episode contrasting with the beginning of the episode where it did establish a sense of community more so than we did yeah we had the two significant scenes of the community in that in that place but obviously they'd gathered there I guess they were in their respective houses or they're out looking for deer potentially I don't really know but I think I'm gonna it does feel like maybe it would have been neat to have had one or two sort of onlookers being like oh god what the fuck is going on oh jeez just to make it feel like it's more yeah community tighten it see it it came across to me that that's the point of this guy is that he's kept everyone very close and very dependent on him yeah but uh very solid I think yeah I really you know the season this is five I like I like five more I think I prefer five but I think this is number two five is such a complete package I wouldn't even criticize it pacing wise this one this could have yeah maybe used a bit more but uh but it still really are really critical and important character work for particularly Ali yes I would say that it it really goes to show how excellent it feels in a show to have people at real places proper snow everywhere they're out in the cold everything it's it's very real the show is extremely believable they really really ought to win some awards for production like if the production should be that should be getting some kind of award at the Emmys yeah they got great locations nothing feels like a set you know yeah you feel like they're really there doing the thing uh and you really buy into it 100% all the you know the prosthetics and everything look good if that's the thing we have to point out now because you know even the old Disney with Disney money still green screens the woods so it it makes you appreciate you know the right proper real deal I just love the fact the volume was supposed to be their uh their cheat but even people are still like no I can see it I can tell this fake ass shit that ain't no real woods that's from that's one of them they're fakey wood I'll to get a real tree these days okay yeah you can't just go out and you can't just go out into the woods and film for free I don't let you do that no more no I should do that that tree is not signed a waiver ain't it crazy though everything rides on the next episode one more episode nine the finale is kind of make or break one more and it's not going to be a two-parter it's going to be the episode so is it going to be the same link as the rest or as far as I know as your standards this has been like 40 to 50 minutes except for the premiere right of course yeah and it's possible to tell the rest of the story so to speak in that amount of time just um every line every action it will be scrutinized and uh will nightmares be brought to life who knows are you concerned that they might be pressed for time with this next episode you're quite familiar with the ending of the Last of Us One Rex it came up so much when we talked about Last of Us Two yeah yeah it's the concern of just how evil will they make Joel's decision because everyone thinks that they're gonna make him the bad guy well it's just the the differences the last of us originally there's no way that they were writing that with like clear ideas of what the sequel was going to be because the sequel was like seven years removed and of course the recontextualization of a lot of you know the changes that were made into to kind of like change it into the story that they needed it to be but they couldn't do it this time around to already exist and they're making it for this show and they probably knew they were getting the second season so it's it's like it's surely gonna be different from the game like surely well I think they didn't know they were gonna get a second season until after season one was in the can yeah but you can edit season one you know to end and also set up season two sure so that's and it's very rewriting it yeah even if they didn't get their second one it's like whoa you could plant the seeds in a way that the first game simply doesn't you know what what I don't want to see is that the fireflies follow through on their deal that they're really friendly that the science shows that it's an absolute guarantee that Ellie understands that and that she agrees and that she finds that it's gonna kill her and that she's on board with that in in exchange for something that the fireflies have already shown they can absolutely disseminate to the world which would be absurd you know I mean just knocking out all of the arguments and then being like alright bye Joel and then he goes you know what no I like it too much and just machine guns down every innocent doctor just like is just like oh please don't do that guns down hordes of zebras herds of them in order to get to all the doctors yeah well and that's the other thing right all eyes will be on the the main doctor hold that sir is like are they gonna be set up last was too are they gonna be you're like hello mr we're all very nice friendly people here you wouldn't kill us would you could you imagine if the uh if we actually had a a cold open and it was him Zebra could you rise this is what I mean like it'll depend on who writes it I mean our weakest episode was Neil alone well I'm hoping that it can go through a Craig Mazin filter and he can be like oh no no we wouldn't do it that way we wouldn't just we wouldn't just show him saving a zebra and then be like look how nice this man is ridiculous yeah it'll be like a whole it'll be like a herd of puppies not to say of course the right has been perfect it's just that yeah there's just so many mistakes that can be evaded don't know what's gonna happen all bets are off genuinely I don't know what they're gonna do exactly because remember Neil was a big part of this production and so he knows yes he he knew when making this when he was dealing with it he knew on set he was like all right here it comes the scene hopefully hopefully Greg was there rubbing his hands together like no Neil no they hated it they hated it so much what Craig's like you know what the it's like what do you think about the last of us too Neil asked to me he's like um you know like you know what a movie anyway man your ideas about the cycles of violence they're just so true violence begets violence you know and he's like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but what do you think of the game but I have some notes on that he's like we're gonna have to change it when we adapt to the TV you know that he's like yeah I'm just wondering because there was that line when Dave was like oh you're violent the impression I get is that is a line that they're specifically trying to set up like to that's what I get from that line is it trying to say you know Ellie is capable of of causing great harm potentially that that's they're trying to set that up as a seed so I feel like it's safe to assume that if we are getting the last of us too in season two which we are it's still gonna be like the core it's just it's gonna be the same broad story so it's a matter of what changes are you gonna make to that story or alternatively what changes are you gonna make here to make that more coherent because I think you know that it doesn't they got it they know they have to change a lot so that people do not turn the fuck on this show they still haven't paid off the fact that she can't swim and that's gonna result no they haven't they haven't so she's not gonna be able to swim and and it's gonna cause a problem in the next episode that'll lead to a getting knocked out on an island surely which means I think I think the the odds are a high that she'll be unconscious for the decision it's at least somewhat of course you can change it so that she's unconscious saved and then conscious is like you know you can just do it like that but why go to that effort you know like why put that in there and instead of just leaving it out so it makes me think like surely she'll be unconscious and then I was like surely the fireflies will welch on the deal and boot Joel out are they really gonna change that and if you have those two in there we're golden I think did they set up in the show the fact that she can't swim yes I can't remember that I will play the clip now I don't know how to swim seriously you think we have pools in the QC no smart ass yep there it is yep that's an important setup for one of my favorite beats and at the end of this story like in the game where Joel falls into the bus and it's like oh my god we're right at the end and it's like Joel is falling into this trap where it's like oh god it could all end here very grimly and it's really scary with all the like water flowing into the bus and he's like pinned at the end of it and he's like oh fuck I really like that part in the game well they got what like 50-ish minutes also to tell that that selection of the game so we'll have to see what they choose I imagine we'll see Ellie reacting to giraffes like we gotta do that right yeah I think they will do that for the giraffe for sure I hope they don't look bad I hope so too I hope they spring for real giraffes do it they could but if they get actual giraffes from Africa if they ship them over if they fly them through if they send them by train and they'll get their heads poking up it's like they did in like Madagascar when they're all stuck in the crates like it's shipped over yeah yeah and he's all bent up in the pretzel and everything it will be like Jurassic Park where it's what do you call it like an animatronic thing like a big robot giraffe they just have a sock puppet like a guy with the googly eyes on it they use force perspective to make it look like the sock puppet is just a giraffe really far away yeah I'm a giraffe I'm just here going on my adventure through the city Joel they talk it's like yeah we do they're evolving kill them they're evolving and he's like I'm watching you giraffe and the giraffe's like I'm watching you you piece of shit oh my goodness this is a foul mouthed giraffe it was like a day come down here and say that to my face and don't mess with that guy who's ain't my zebra friend over there and it's a zebra sock please let him be I swear to god dude imagine there's a scene in the next episode where it's like it's like everyone's shaking hands and introducing themselves and stuff and it's like just Firefly Mauline is there and it's like and then this girl walks up and shakes Joel's hand she's like I'm Abby we're like oh my god yeah you know the second man I wonder what they're going to do for season two because they know they know that people fucking hate Blastivist 2 story and characters just a little bit yeah oh man what are they gonna do I'm so curious what are they gonna do is the question well this is the if it was imagine it was adapted one to one John you'll finally have to have the conversation with us about Blastivist 2 in the first episode like everyone will turn on this show instantly yeah they'll literally repeat the apocalypse for this IP why would you do that I would imagine that there are some guys at HBO like look guys creative freedom yes yes what let me make a counter argument to creative freedom let's call this creative freedom asterisk like guys Spider-Man God of War they all saw better than it Ghost of Tsushima saw better than your game all right we saw the numbers and we just have some notes all right I'd like to show you some comments from fans see do you have the stats I'm sorry all this note says is no oh what am I going to do in the finale if that's I hope that's it everything rides on it I don't know I hope it's good but I don't know what it looks like I I legitimately don't know what to expect I have no clue until then folks I guess we'll find out next week yeah thanks for watching that was episode 8 of the Blastivist TV show one left to go goodbye everybody see you next time see everybody bye everyone see you next week what you bring me