Spoilers beneath for the Season 2 premiere of The Final of Us, so anybody who hasn’t but watched on HBO or with a Max subscription ought to be warned!
To be anticipated, The Final of Us’ Season 2 premiere set the stage for heart-shattering and brain-melting outcomes, lots of which I coated as they occurred in my dwell Final of Us watchalong protection on Sunday night time. Within the days which have since handed, I haven’t stopped excited about a few of my favourite moments. As a Kaitlyn Dever fanatic, her debut as avenger-in-mourning Abby comes near the highest spot, however the sheer abundance of online game references actually took the cake. (The cake just isn’t a lie.)
Because it went with the primary season, The Final of Us’ numerous groups of set designers, propmasters and extra have once more excelled at bringing live-action magic to beforehand digitized areas, outfits and even horses like Ellie’s go-to steed Shimmer. It might in all probability take various obsessive viewings of “Future Days” to determine even the vast majority of recreation references, a lot much less all of them. However I don’t suppose anything would make me giddier than the 2 gamer-friendly scenes mentioned beneath.
Ellie Utilizing The Outdated “Throw A Beer Bottle To Distract The Clicker” Tactic
For anybody who didn’t watch, I’m in fact referring to the scene the place Ellie and Dina’s patrol run takes then into Greenplace Market, which is the precise location they visited within the recreation. All of the studio heads behind any upcoming online game diversifications ought to use this scene as a leader for a way trustworthy motion pictures and TV exhibits ought to be.
As a result of most of the time, live-action diversifications are crafted with the concept of addressing the most important and most memorable sequences, however with out being attentive to so most of the smaller particulars that avid gamers are essentially immersed in for hours on finish. And whereas the primary season of The Final of Us didn’t put its characters although many conditions the place stealthy parts had been key, Mazin and Druckmann fortunately added this nod to one of many recreation’s go-to pick-up weapons and noisemakers: the glass bottle.
As an enormous fan of the video games, I do know I’ve used bottles as weapons extra instances than I’d used sure weapons, since they’re meant to be utilized as each noisemaking distractions and as neck-stabbing weapons. It’s a standard sufficient trope in video games the place traversing areas silently is an effective approach to save each ammunition and one’s life.
But that is precisely the type of game-specific element that will get ignored of quite a lot of high-profile diversifications, even perhaps as a result of it’s such a acknowledged chestnut of the style. However I legitimately cheered as quickly as Ellie caught sight of the glass bottle on the bottom, realizing that we might lastly see that easter egg utilized. Granted, all she did was throw it to attract the Clicker’s consideration, however I’m hoping we get to see Ellie (or one other character) jam a damaged bottle into one of many monsters’ outsized heads.
After all, now we completely HAVE to see an identical scene in Episode 202 involving a brick, since that’s The Final of Us’ non-stabby counterpart to glass bottles.
Oh, and this sequence additionally encompasses a direct reference to the four-legged worker of the month whose online game placement is essential to opening a secure available in the market.
This present guidelines.
Ellie And Dina’s Adorably Flirty Dance
Whereas the bottle bit was positively extra of a smaller-scale reference to The Final of Us video video games, the premiere’s whole closing sequence was almost a 1:1 copy of the identical scene from the sport. Not simply by way of visuals and dialogue, but additionally with its emotional impression.
However let’s not take all of the mirrored visuals and dialogue with no consideration. The second we bought the shot seen above of Ellie wanting across the celebration crowd together with her again to the digital camera, my abdomen flipped over how shut it was, and my arms nearly instinctly reached for a phantom PS5 controller.
For probably the most half, Ellie and Dina’s flirty dance and kiss had been spot-on iterations of the moments within the supply materials, albeit with further thrives from the 2 actors. Despite the fact that we might spent lower than an hour with these two characters by that point, it nonetheless so efficiently connects their dots that the kiss feels totally pure, regardless of Dina solely hours prior hinting that she would possibly leap again into relationship Jesse. And all with out including a bunch of additional chemistry-building moments between Ramsey and Merced.
After all, the aftermath of their kiss can be largely the identical, albeit with Pedro Pascal’s Joel getting extra bodily with Seth than it went down within the recreation. Suffice to say, the episode ended by giving Ellie another excuse to be mad at Joel, however that particular reference to the video games just isn’t one I will be celebrating. I simply need them to be joyful and funky with one another once more. Sigh.
Listed below are another glorious moments that got here straight out of the pair of Final of Us video video games.
- Ellie and Tommy sniping Clickers (even when the timeframe was modified for the TV present)
- The Savage Starlight poster on Ellie’s wall is identical because the one from Half II
- Dina mentioning the film Curtis and Viper, which is a sequence that Joel loves
- Eugene’s weed connection (which is able to in all probability be explored within the subsequent episode)
- Ellie detail-cleaning her gun, which occurs every time the participant upgrades a personality weapon
- Ellie writing in her journal
- The banjo participant on the celebration is musician Gustavo Santaolalla, who has crafted music for each the present and video games, and was additionally in Half II himself, additionally enjoying a banjo
The Final of Us will proceed giving followers epic moments from the video video games within the weeks to return, in addition to moments that had been crafted particularly for the TV present. (Such because the second episode introducing Joe Pantaliano as Gail’s husband Eugene, who solely existed through {photograph} within the recreation.)