With a disease-ravaged world as sprawling and detailed as The Final of Us, the workforce behind HBO‘s dazzling tackle the PlayStation phenomenon had a variety of floor to cowl. And whereas some variations of different beloved video games have performed quick and unfastened with what made them so addictive within the first place, this one has struck gold by sticking fairly near the supply materials. Nonetheless, there have been some fascinating modifications made within the transition from recreation to display, largely to verify the present had as a lot further life as potential.
1. Invoice and Frank have an alternate ending that differs vastly from the sport
The beautiful third episode, “Lengthy, Lengthy Time,” stands out as the greatest and most lovely change to the Final of Us canon. Taking supporting characters from the sport, the hour showcased the 20-year romance between Invoice and Frank (Emmy winner Nick Offerman and fellow nominee Murray Bartlett), two survivors turned companions dwelling within the fortified city of Lincoln, Massachusetts. Their idyllic life collectively, visited briefly by Joel and Ellie, who’re looking for assets, is upended not by the contaminated, however by a degenerative illness slowly leaving Frank incapacitated. Within the recreation (which solely hints at their loving relationship), a much more hateful Frank cruelly leaves Invoice after which hangs himself after being bitten by an contaminated, whereas the present noticed him in the end ask Invoice to help along with his suicide as a remaining act of affection. Cocreator Craig Mazin instructed The Washington Submit the change was made to indicate there “was an opportunity for issues to be OK, and for like to flourish” even within the apocalypse.”
2. The 1968 prologue was created for the sequence
The sequence premiere flashed again to a fictional 1968 speak present that includes John Hannah as an epidemiologist warning the viewers of a possible fungus-based pandemic triggered by international warming. “There are some fungi who search to not kill, however to regulate,” he tells the host (Josh Brener) earlier than explaining how the parasitic Cordyceps can infect an ant’s thoughts and direct the bug’s conduct, “like a puppeteer.” As unsettling and vital as this information is to trumpet what’s to come back, the prologue was not a part of the sport. As an alternative, gamers obtained intel on the outbreak and international catastrophe throughout a set of fake information clips all through the sport’s opening credit.
3. A extra harmless Henry and a youthful model of Sam
Whereas the 2 brothers do exist within the recreation, the present made just a few fascinating alterations to their arc earlier than delivering the devastating flip of occasions in Episode 6, “Endure and Survive.” The sport model of Sam is 13 as a substitute of 8, as he’s on the present, and he isn’t deaf. That change, Druckmann later recalled, was Mazin’s thought: “‘What if he have been deaf?’ It’s a approach that Sam has to depend on Henry much more. And I mentioned, ‘That’s so good, it makes me upset that I didn’t give it some thought.’” Neither is Henry a FEDRA informant. They’re on no account linked to Kathleen’s vendetta, apart from crossing the Hunters by wandering into their camp seeking to pilfer provides. And gamers meet them in Pittsburgh, not Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, as we do within the present. Additionally, a enjoyable little Easter egg on this episode is the looks of the identify Ish — a beloved character from the sport alluded to right here.
4. Unfold of the cordyceps virus
Within the recreation (as in nature!), the illness is unfold by spores launched into the air by the already contaminated, whether or not they’re useless or alive. And whereas each suggest that tainted crops might have escalated the outbreak, HBO’s hit tweaked the sport’s unfold technique by making Cordyceps contagious through bodily contact, which allowed the showrunners to introduce the brand new thought of a shared hive thoughts among the many runners, clickers and bloaters as touched upon in that 1968 speak present sequence. It additionally makes the act of an infection horrifyingly intimate at occasions, as we see with the close to “kiss” between Tess and her face-tentacled attacker.
5. Tess’ dying occurs with a lot much less of a bang within the recreation
Talking of our late, nice smuggler! After being bitten by a clicker, Anna Torv‘s badass character went out in a literal (and fan-infuriating!) blaze of glory. Cornered by a horde and clearly about to show, she demanded that Joel and Ellie flee earlier than she used her less-than-reliable lighter to ignite the gasoline drums laying about, blowing all of them to kingdom come. Tess additionally perishes within the recreation, however moderately than a hero’s dying of self-sacrifice, she is gunned down throughout a run-in with FEDRA troopers.
6. Kathleen and her brother, Michael, are nowhere within the recreation
Don’t go searching for the ruthless resistance chief performed by Melanie Lynskey within the recreation. The pinnacle of Missouri’s Hunters militia group, alongside together with her useless brother Michael, have been made for the present, a composite of a number of recreation characters, and boy, did she create a stir! Not solely was Kathleen hell-bent on making Henry Burrell pay for betraying Michael to FEDRA — a newly invented plot as nicely — however it was her single-minded mission to seize outsiders Joel and Ellie that put all of them in the best way of the marauding contaminated that escaped the underground within the nightmarish fifth-episode showdown.
7. The Bond Between Ellie and Riley
As an alternative of enjoying out Ellie’s doomed romance with FEDRA classmate and aspiring Firefly Riley (Storm Reid) overthe course of a number of years, the present condensed the plot from the sport’s “Left Behind” enlargement into a stunning flashback hour of the identical identify that offers us extra scenes on the FEDRA camp and served as an origin story for a way each ladies have been bitten by a lone contaminated (moderately than the sport’s horde) throughout a date night time at an deserted mall.
8. Ellie’s mother… and Her Beginning
The present’s ninth episode, “Search for the Gentle,” fills in a significant clean with a gap flashback that offers us extra backstory on Ellie’s mother than the sport has to this point. Seems a pregnant Anna (performed by Blindspot‘s Ashley Johnson, the unique voice of Ellie within the video games) — who was dwelling in a cabin with Marlene and the Fireflies on the time — had gone into labor simply after being sensed by an contaminated who broke into the cabin and attacked her. Anna offed the mutated killer with a switchblade and delivered her daughter however made the grim realization that she’d been bitten earlier than the child arrived…which appears to suggest that Ellie might have developed her immunity to Cordyceps in utero. Sadly, Anna’s personal an infection led her to beg bestie Marlene to mercifully kill her shortly after Ellie’s arrival.
The Final of Us, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, April 13, 9/8c, HBO and Max
That is an excerpt from TV Information Journal’s The Final of Us: The Final Survival Story particular concern. For an in-depth take a look at the critically-acclaimed HBO sequence, that includes behind-the-scenes secrets and techniques and a preview of the extremely anticipated second season, decide up a replica of the difficulty accessible on newsstands on April 11, or order on-line right here.