The Kristian Harloff Show - The Last Of Us Episode 9 SPOILER REVIEW | Season Finale |

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Become a Patron!: https://www.patreon.com/TheBigThingShow The final episode of Season 1 of The Last Of us just came out. It was full of emotion and the shocking journey continues. Ellie and joel fight their way through the world as it is now and new challenges arrive. Did the finale stick the landing? Kristian Harloff gives his full sPOILER review of the episode.  #Lastofus #thelastofus #joel #ellie  MANSCAPED: http://www.manscaped.com/bigthing. Use the code BIG THING FOR 20 percent off! OUR MERCH STORE IS LIVE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-big-thing-kh-channel?ref_id=27393 FOLLOW KRISTIAN + FIND HIM ON CAMEO https://cameo.com/kristianharloff https://twitter.com/kristianharloff https://facebook.com/harloff https://instagram.com/kristianharloff AMAZON WISHLIST: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1KPH42T0TP0PG?ref=cm_sw_em_r_un_un_djbxgIW5ZQMMg SCHMOEDOWN ARCHIVE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMovieTriviaSchmoedownArchives Ask Kristian questions for next time! https://facebook.com/harloff Become a Patreon of the Schmoedown: http://patreon.com/schmoedown OTHER GREAT CONTENT: REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT368qY7sfE0nKE4c04CqGvu TV REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT1LU-t2Z9AD5UJDiWW4pS_E STAR WARS SHOW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT0XmfpbblkF9PY7uO2qhbN6 THE BIG THING PODCAST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT3KAwbzDsv6mdR-gwUiydQg

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Season 1 finale of The Last of Us. We made it. We are here. We're going to do a full-on spoiler review of the episode. Now, this is a big thing episode, so thank you for joining me on the channel. I appreciate you if you're brand new to the channel. You've ever been here before.

You're just looking for spoiler reviews. Do me a fair we are. As of this taping, only 100 away from hitting that goal of 70,000 subscribers, start doing live shows around the country. So we hope that you join us. Thank you. Appreciate it. Man, we are ready to go in this episode, kicked my face in. You did more than that.

You got a, you got tomato sauce on your face. Look how clever I am. I got you. You clean your strawberry off your face. It's a cut, dickbag. How do you feel about that? You got a cut in your face? I hope you do, and you go to work.

And we're like, hey, you can clean your face. And assholes. Go ahead, have a blast. Anyway, let's get into this thing, man. You got a lot going on. And it was really an emotional rollercoaster. And for people who don't know, I have been playing this video, the game, I've been playing the game. And I have, and again, I'm just reiterated to people who are tuning in for the first time.

I had the game on my shelf for a very long time, the remastered version of it, and I didn't play it. And I say, you know, now that this show's coming out, I'm going to play it, but I want to wait. I'm going to watch the episode and then I'll play up to that point so I don't get spoiled. And I did that for the majority of the season, except for last week. Last week I had played the game first and then watched it and did that to compare. And really was very happy that I did it because I wanted to get the insight from the video game players who had seen it before, said, okay, that is interesting. I wonder why they didn't keep data. Why didn't they change it and all those types of things.

And I'm glad that I did that. I did not do that for this episode. And I'm glad I did not because I didn't want to give myself, I didn't want to know that. reveal yet. I didn't want to know the big ending and I'm really glad that I didn't. And I know some stuff was added and this is where I'm going to ask the game players because I haven't gone back and played the game yet up into

this point. So I'll do all the comparisons. And I might get some things wrong from my memory of the stuff that I played so far. So again, please correct me if I'm wrong inside of doing so. But here we go. Let's get what they did add and they use

the voice of the game, Ashley Johnson, who was, by the way, was played and not only played the voice of Ellie. She was in growing pains, man. She was in growing pains. She's a little girl, growing pain. She never ages. She's fantastic in this role.

Really, really good. We see a woman running second. And the second I saw her with the baby bump. I saw this guy be Ellie's mom. And I did not know that she, I mean, I didn't know who she was because I was growing pains fan and seen another stuff. But I didn't know that she was the voice of Ellie

until the very end of, of the reveal of the after show. But she runs into this place. Now, the only thing that, does she know that, and this is a question, I guess, for all of us, because this isn't in the game from what I understand,

does she know that there's only one infected person coming after her? Or was it like a slew of them? And she just thought she got away? Or was she running away from that one particular infected person? Because if so, she handles that thing fairly easy while she's laying, down on, I mean, not easy.

I shouldn't say she gets bit, but you know what I mean? She's able to take her out laying down about to give birth. My question would be if she did know it was only that one, why not just hide behind the door, wait to the stupid thing comes in and stab it in the head, you know, if you're going to, if that's, or hide behind the damn door in that room. But again, maybe she thought it was a whole bunch of them. Nonetheless, here she is inside of the room. And we know, all right, well, Ellie's really born into this shit.

Like, legit, born right into this garbage and the way that she's done it. And this knife, the way this knife plays into it from the start to finish. You understand so much about everything. The writing in this show is just tremendous. So here she's sitting there. She's waiting. Doors round. And this is pretty terrifying in general.

We haven't seen it infected in a little bit. We see it in the flashback now. and this thing comes flying through. Every time those spores come out, man, it's just so creepy. She takes it out and the baby's born. Ellie's born. You know, we're just waiting for her to say Ellie.

She does. She cuts the cord. Lies. Tells Marlene, by the way, that she cut it afterwards. I mean, cut it beforehand. She cut it afterwards. And I get why she lied. I totally understand why she lied.

But there you go. She's, Ellie's born into the world. Now, what they did that I thought was interesting also. So it was this whole setup and listening to the creators afterwards talk about it, that they wanted to make sure that Ellie gave birth to Ellie, the voice of the game gave birth to the one that the new Ellie that we know from the show. And I thought it was a really nice kind of poetic way to do it. It was a tremendous job by Johnson in that role.

She was so good. And you hear her how she was talking about that role and how it, you know, loving the character so much and finding a way. to be able to do it this way. And it was really good. It was really, really good. And what they did as they go to the credit scene, obviously, and when they come back from it,

when we see this face-to-face between old Ellie and New Ellie, and, you know, there's the mom and a daughter and a great relationship here and knowing kind of the transfer passing of the torch, if you will. And us really getting to know that this is, this is this hero that we've been following the whole entire time in Ellie,

and that she's, you know, this is the birth of the potential savior of the world. So then they cut through the credits and we get, we don't know what's happening. We see Marlene, and I guess if you go back, you realize they obviously made her a little younger, so you realize kind of right away if you're paying attention to that type of thing, that this is her finding Ellie's mom. And I love this scene. She's got, she had the knife up to her throw ready to take herself out. She didn't want to feed her.

I love the, again, the detail. There's certain things, something I'm going to get into a little later in this. The detail in this show and little things that are said and brought up, she's like, I didn't, she's hungry, I didn't want to feed her, but I cut the cord. And she looks at her, she's like, I cut it afterwards because she knows, she, realistically, she had to cut the cord and she cut it quick. That's really what happened. She cut it quick because she didn't want the infection to spread and everything about you.

You could see how she's, this is Ellie's mom and the way that she's thinking and everything about and she tells Marlene, she's like, look, and we learn a little bit more now that Marlene has known Ellie's mom for a long time. And she shows her the infection. She's like, I'm, I'm in trouble here. Take my kid, razor. I can't do that. You got to. You got to do it. And give her this. Give her the knife. Tell her how about me, that's it. And, or take care of her, and that's it. And Marlene, she's like, and she's like, please. And she's like, no, I won't. I can't do that. I'm not going to do that. She's like, please, runs off and realizes that she's got to do. it. And when Marlene comes stomping back in, you know that she's going to do it. And that's that

bit of loss and you know right away, the kind of world that we're living in the sacrifice that she needs to make. And ultimately what Marlene is all about. And this great shot of Ellie now that, you know, years later, here she is. But even this shot, which is so good when they start out, is such a different version of Ellie now. After everything that she just went through with David, like she is just transformed she is in a different mindset she's not there she's not that lovable kind of Ellie that that we know she's not this and and she shouldn't be she shouldn't be and I love that a lot of times in a lot of movies and shows it just go oh yeah this kind of tragic thing happened to this person yeah even though they came out of the bed around they're okay they killed somebody that's

she's a wreck she's a wreck and she's mentally trying to figure out how to this trauma that she went through she's trying to figure out how to deal with it And I loved this. Loved all about it, but the best part about it, to me, I think that out of all the stuff that Pedro Pascall has done, and obviously the different emotions that come in through at the end, but like it's this stuff that I think he really shines in because he has now accepted that he is going to take on this girl as his daughter.

I mean, from the second that baby girl thing is said in that last episode, this is what he's accepted now. This is his daughter. He knows it, and he's trying, he's telling her, he's trying to, he knows that she's in trouble, and he's laughing with her, he's trying to talk to, he's trying to, get her back, he tells her he found the can of, of the, the, the spaghettios that she liked, and we know she's just not there, and he knows, and he's just trying to talk to her, and he's trying to get it back, he's just trying to, just trying to do anything he can

to get to, to kind of get her back to, to where she was, and just helping her kind of, as a dad, kind of nursing through it, and that's what this show does, so well is it starts to teach you throughout these episodes the the trust that these two have for each other and how much they've relied on each other and how much like love now he's got now he's he says it as much right this is he didn't have a purpose he was when you see him in that first episode after you know 20 years have passed and his daughter's been gone for 20 years his purpose is gone he's he's ironically he's as dead in the eyes then as he is when he's walking through that hallway at the end of this episode

because his purpose is this little girl. And he, and everything about him, he's accepted that and he knows it and he's opened up. And he's, he's the most himself. He's the most himself and he's the most the version of himself in this pandemic that in,

when he needs to be, like the darkness and the evil and everything that came out of him. because there was some evil shit that he does in this episode. And there's some evil shit that he had done in the past and admitted it as much. But the difference is in where the evil, I think, was there to get himself to survive. This is to protect this new love and his purpose. So you have this whole entire scene here where he's just talking. And like, this is why Pedro was called this such a great job.

Like it's the light in his eyes right now. Like he looks, and we're going to compare it to what we see him later on. The light in his eyes right now, he just seems like a guy with his daughter walking, having a conversation, you know, he's, and he almost, he lets his guard down at one point too, because, and that's maybe one of the reasons that we see what we see. Sorry, I mean, just get this. It's bothering me. There you go.

And Ellie's just kind of like, yeah, I'm sorry, you know, she's, no, no, no, it's cool, it's cool. And she's just, again, Bella Ramsey, and the way that she's able to articulate this, but this is going back to their relationship and who are, as they're walking through this, and he's like, all right, here's what we're going to have to do. And she's still there.

Ellie's still there. She's like, okay, yeah, I know what we got to do. We got to, you're going to make me, we're going to go to the building and we're going to scout it. And then he stops and he plays with her. He's like, well, no, I have some dynamite. I'm going to blow up the thing. And she's like, really?

He's like, no, but I got you going. Didn't I was good. And like little things like that, that adds so much to the characters and so much to the relationship. and so much to the purpose of both of them of what they want to do and how Joel is accepting this now. Joel has, Joe's all in. He's all in. And we know it. And here's something that I loved that's coming up here that I was so curious about if they were, if they were going to do it or not, they go through and they get into this building and the set design. It's so straight out of the game.

I love it. This part here, as they walked through, I said, I'm so surprised. They might have done it once or twice in and this is where there's a couple of things i'm going to ask you guys for people who play the game there's a couple times that they might have done it but i don't remember it and i said to myself what you know it'll be great wait they haven't done one like boost they even said let me give you because in in the game you you boost ellie up like 75 times and she throws down the ladder to you and you know and you got to set up the ladder and do all that stuff and it was like it never happened once. I was like, that's kind of a bummer.

I get that they don't want to take all the gameplay, but it'll be nice to have happened once. And right as I thought that, he goes, hey, let me give you a boost. And gives him a boost. And they get the ladder. And she's kind of still kind of off dazen into her own world still. Boost her up.

She throws down the ladder and then she sees something. Now, this is another question I have for the game players because I can't remember where I am in the show. I mean, excuse me, in the game. I have to go back and watch. but I thought that I had stopped right as they were on the highway, but maybe I didn't. I thought that this happened, the stuff with the giraffe,

I thought that this happened right before Joel in the game. He falls in the show he gets stabbed. And I thought that that's where that happened at the university. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's what happened. But I think it worked perfectly here. I think it worked really, really well here. And it does. It kind of snaps Ellie back into it a little bit,

and it shows you the kind of the wonders of the world still, and Joel sees it, and Joel's happy to see her happy again, and that's what it is, and they see, and they're able to kind of look at the world, is it kind of, there's still innocence in the world.

There's still this kind of thing in the world, and it gives her that bit of hope, right? As they're both having this conversation, he's like, let's get the hell out of here. Let's just go. And again, And what I think is so great about this episode, again, is as we get to, you know, we're building up the relationship as we have for the previous eight episodes and everything

that they just went through in that last episode, that by the time you get here and you start to see that it's Joel once again going, they've been there for each other. They've consistently been there for each other. And Joel is now trying to be there for again, nurse her back into mentally, because he's, He knows, he understands, and he says it, even you watch the preview stuff where she had to take that guy out. And he goes, you're a kid, you shouldn't have to go through this. And after what she just went through with David, and she had to do that. And he's like, you know, hey, it's, that's what he's feeling.

And you can see it. And it's just a great way to kind of spin it all. And it's also why I think there have been some criticism. I haven't seen a lot of it, but there's been some criticism that there wasn't enough infected. I love the use of the infected in this. for. I love it. And even though I said in the last episode where David kind of in the game, you get into this whole fight with the infected with Ellie. So that's where the trust comes from. And would it have been great? Yeah. With the arguments that some of you guys made or saying a lot of

the infected probably couldn't survive in that climate. I said, I agree. It's not a not a big concern. It would have been cool to see, but not a big concern. It hasn't hurt the show. It doesn't hurt the show at all. Even when they show the infected, they show the infected in this one by the infected going after her mom and showing almost like this is what she was meant to do. She was born to fight the infected. This is what she was born to fight the infected. This is what she was born to fight the infected. So they had this whole conversation right here about it. And it's this is this is about this conversation right. This conversation right. here is the epitome of what the show is, and this is purpose. Both of them. Joel is looking at her, realizing that she is his purpose and not anymore about just getting her to where she needs to go.

It's about protecting her. She's keeping him alive now. She's keeping him alive. She even says, look, I know, because he says, let's get the hell out of here. Let's go stay with Tommy. You know, I'll protect you. I'll do that. And she's like, I know what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it.

but I got to do this. And it just, it just signifies who these two people are. And I, and he's like, she's like, we got to do this. And he's like,

he nods her and he's like, I'm going to do this. And he's doing it again for her more so for the love of her. As we see later, he don't give a shit about saving anybody. He, he's doing this for her. He is all in.

He loves this girl. And he wants to make sure he is, because it is, he had such, a loss for his, with his, with his daughter, and he never thought that void could be filled ever. And she says as much in the episode. She was the one who kind of started to heal him, 20 years it took. And this girl comes in the heel. So he's going to do whatever the hell she wants to do. And she's like, I want to do this. I want to get there. I want to finish what we started,

and then I'll follow you anywhere. And that's kind of why he's like, all right, let's do it. So they start to walk through and this is and I think again correct me up from wrong game players like I remember when they they walk through this camp and they have these conversations but um I remember it completely different I think they're walking somewhere else before this happens I don't unless because I remember they go into like this this is when a lot of the infected happen in the game like you're fighting in this little abandoned tunnel in the highway and and I think that it's way before this I think it's as they were going to the anniversary anniversary anniversary sure university.

But maybe I'm wrong. But I do remember the camp. Maybe this is where I stopped playing. I don't know. I got to go back and look. But whatever. They have these great, they have this great conversation where he tells her,

because he told her, he told her previously, she asked him about the scar, and he says, yeah, some guy shot at me, and he missed, and I shot back, and I missed him. And he tells her the stories. I almost took myself out. I just twitched.

I don't know what happened. And I told myself, and he's again he opens up and he's honest with her and this is where we find out like where she says like yeah you know it's time heals and he's like time in them and they can do with it and basically lets her know that they have this great moment where

she understands she knows now from this from where there were those moments throughout the show the episodes where she was just kind of like trying to crack the heart exterior of Joel she's cracked it and she knows it and she and she is listening now

and she appreciates the trust and again when you're watching it and you're really looking at it. I mean, for anybody who wants to write and write television or write movies, I mean, this is the show to do it because it's like the little things that they write and the little way, like what they do and how that they set these things up through these conversations, the way that they make us really care about these characters, it's due time throughout the conversations like this, and more moments that you have and you understand the motivation in general,

especially for what goes down at the end of this show. So they have this great conversation, but what it leads to also is it leads to yet another funny moment because she's like, all right, let's get going now. Let's move it. And he's like, you know what I'm in the mood for? She's like, what? He's like, silly puns.

And she lights up and she loves it. She can't wait. She starts telling them. And this is such a. a great, like the way that this show does this, the flip of emotions, right? It's like, okay, right now we want you to feel kind of settled and here are two heroes, they're good, but now we want the tension to go up a little bit. Now we want you to, wait, what's that? Oh, it's just a bunch of giraffes. Take it easy. Okay. Oh, wait, we want you to really see in the drama of what they're

talking about and the purpose, the purpose, the purpose. Okay, you're feeling that, you get that? Okay, now we want you to take you really into an emotional level here. Because here's Joel, Here's what he did. Here's the dark place he went to, but here's the hope. Here's the hope. She's the hope. Now we want you to laugh. Now we want you to laugh.

So in order to make you laugh and feel a little better, we're going to start to get into those jokes. Oh, we feel so good. We feel so good. Okay, you feel good. You feel really good now. You're nice and happy. Okay, good.

Because now we're going to turn it on your head because now there's going to be a guy in the back with a smoke bomb and he's going to toss it at them. And boom. And you're like, oh, man, right as he puts his guard down. Right as Joel puts his guard down. and you're like, if you're not playing the game, you don't know what's coming. Because I didn't.

And I was like, oh, now what's happening? They're so close. What's happening? And before we go into what's happening, I got to let you guys know. I'm excited. I mean, very excited because we're back and we're working with with Manscape, man.

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That beer trimmer is no joke. So use that code. Use the code. yourself that bear trimmer today you are going to love it thanks again to manscape all right so then as we saw smoke bomb goes off and you're like what is going on what's happening and they pop joel in the back in the back of the head he's knock him out and he's out wakes up in the hospital and this is when it all goes down this is when it all goes down and you're like because i'm going to tell you like i've said this before i said this and somebody commented

and I'm going to be kind of all over the place with the ending here. But someone commented a little while back because I had said the post-apocalyptic shows what always bothers me is like there's there's never, there's never a happy ending. It always stays the way it is and there's no cure and they can't do it and they can't, they can't fix themselves out. It's always this bleak ending. And someone said, oh man, and someone had spoiled it in a way and said, oh man, if you don't like bleak endings, you're not going to like this. Not the case because the difference is this. There is a solution. There is a cure.

And it is right there. It just happens to be that the guy we're rooting for fucks it all up. But it was there. It's not like, oh, well, never existed. Like I think, and again, and I loved what they did in Walking Dead. And now that's what fit that show. But I remember, like, Eugene kind of lied about it or something, too. I can't remember the full thing.

But there's a lot of those shows that a lot of times it's always like, there's just, it's always bleak and it's never, you're never going to, there's no cure. It's over. That's just the way the world is now. There is a possibility here. It's just love gets in the way. Purpose gets in the way. And I get it.

There's a lot of people who don't get it. I get it. Now, what I made the same choice with my actual daughter or someone that filled that void, you know, in a situation like this, I probably will. And I understand there's a lot of people that probably say, well, that's selfish. I think that's pretty clear. I think that's pretty clear that it's selfish. I think it's pretty clear in general.

But I also think it shows Joel doesn't give a shit about humanity. Joel cares about whatever he believes that this girl is the good part of humanity. And it's his purpose and his love and what he wants to do and the reason why he's alive. So it's all that combined. He's seen all the darkness and everything. everything else too, is why you want to save these people. So, but in the other side of it, it's too, it's like you could have, you could have helped and got more people like Ellie down the line.

So it's, I understand, I understand it, I get it. But we're not there yet. We're not there. He wakes up and when we see Marlene, we're like, okay. So, and I do have a beef with Marlene as well, too. I don't think she should have gotten taken out the way that she did. But I do, I do have a, I do have a. with Marlene because Marlene has has this conversation. She's like, okay, well, you know, we took,

we took her away. There's a lot here that Marlene does wrong because the fireflies, they are fighting for the right thing. They're trying to save the world. I get it. It's noble. It's what they should be doing. And she's like, listen, I owe you. I've never wanted to be in debt to you, but you did the right thing. And they say it in the posting. She knows this is a different Joel. This is a Joel that has an attachment to this kid now. And she never in a million years thought that what happened. But he does. And here's what Marlene did wrong, I think. First of all, Joel is 100% right that Ellie should have been given the choice. Ellie should have been said like, because the difference is here. If Joel and Ellie are all around having a conversation and Marlene

goes, well, here's the deal. You're going to, you're going to go under the knife, but you ain't coming out, but you're going to save the world. And Ellie says, then that's my choice. And I'm going out and I'm going to do that because she very well might have. She very well might have. And if she says that

and then Joel does what he does, well then, you know, a lot of people already think Joel was in the wrong. But it was Ellie's choice. And then there's no, there's no one that should be saying what Joel did was right. because Ellie, if she says, that's my choice, I decided to do that, that's my life, I want to make sure that I'm going to help these people out and I'm, that they've told me my circumstance,

I want to do that. But they never gave her that choice. So Joel has the argument to say, you never had that conversation with her. You just assumed because that's what you wanted to do that you're taking this away from me. Plus, you didn't even let me take a bye to her. You didn't even let me have that conversation. So there is that argument to be made to where I think Marlene made the wrong call there. And I don't think it was the right call at all to do it that way.

And I think it ultimately led to this. And the other side of it is what she did wrong is if you see this guy freaking out the way that he's doing, you just knocked him in the head to get him here. Knock him in the fucking head again and dump them, let him wake up in Boston. Why in the world would you walk him out? Why would you do that? Because she's a good. person. She's like, no, look, you just hit him in the stomach. I get it. But he's emotionally

attached. So we're going to be good here. Hit him in the head, knock him out, put him in a suitcase, and dump him somewhere. You know what he can do. You've been around him, but you decided not to. And you handled this the wrong way, Marlene. So he walks out and she said, hey, listen, walk this guy out and if he does anything, shoot him in the dick like Robocop. And he said, isn't that a little harsh? She didn't say that. But maybe she should have. Maybe he wouldn't have done what he did because he didn't want to get shot in the dick.

But anyway, he's walking through and he's thinking. He's thinking of how he's going to do because now he's making, he is making the choice now. It is now, as I mentioned, this is what I love about this. The light is gone. that the guy that we met in the beginning of the show is back. And I think the reason why he's back is because there is a real possibility if he doesn't get to Ellie in time that that is who is going to take over his personality forever. And it's there.

And it's like he's in the controls. And he's going to, and the guy we just saw goofing around asking for puns and cracking jokes and looking at the can of Chef Boyardee, looking at giraffes and whatever. that guy's gone. The controls are off for him. And this lunatic is back. And man, oh man.

This is like Terminator style. He does. He walks down and now he just takes this guy out. And the second, this is the first part of you know what is coming. Like, they could have set something up to where you know, okay, well, he shot the guy in the leg. Because that's what he does first. He shoots him in the leg. And that's what the writer's very, very.

cleverly again brilliant writing when he shoots him in the free shoots the first guy and you're like okay that's for survival thing now shoots his second guy in the leg you know maybe maybe it's he's just going to wound the fireflies because the fireflies are fighting the right fight and he says to where is she and he goes I'm not telling you nothing he goes I don't have time for this and shoots the guy in the head and you said that's the that okay well he's in cuckoo town right now and now it is rage and desperation and love all taken. And he's just picking people off. And it reminded me of that scene in Terminator when he's going through the police station.

He is just taking people out left and right and taking no prisoners. People are putting their hands up going, okay, you got me. Taking them out. Making sure that they're on the floor, taking them out. He's like, and what they really did. that is so powerful in this scene. You guys may or may not know, again, for first time watching, I'm a big music guy.

So the music in this scene, it like swells, and it almost overpowers, definitely a conscious choice by the director. It overpowers the sound. And the sound design in this entire episode is great. There's even in the beginning of when Marlene finds her mom, you could hear her kind of singing in the background. You put headphones on it. The sound design is amazing.

But this particular scene, when he's walking through and he's got it, and the music is overpowering the scene because they want that emotion of the music to hit you. It's like this desperation moment of like there is no coming back from this. This is all driven by love, whether you agree with it or not. Like I saw it and I got it. Like I understood why he was doing it. I still was going, no, dude, no. But I get it.

But no. you know like I'm going because you're like you could there was a better way there was a better way and I still think Marlene could have they could have all they got to talk about this they could have talked about it but as a parent I'm going I get it I get it but no

the way you're doing it it's like shoot somebody in the leg take their guns away it's like he's just but no he doesn't care he does not care about these people he does not care about humanity cares about Ellie and it was very clear. And he's going through and he's just picking people off and taking them out

left and right. Poor bastard. I shot him right in the eye. Poor guy. And then this is, this was, this was the tough one. This was the toughest one for me. Although I do have, I have a little bit of, I have some problems with this particular, the way that the fireflies set this up.

He walks in, The pediatric surgery, and he walks into the, and he sees it, there is nobody. There is nobody guarding outside. Now, people are going to go, well, yeah, they heard the gunshots and they ran down the hall. Dumb. There should be five to six people guarding that door all the way around. If it's that important, there should be five or six people guarding that door going, hey, there's a possibility that this lunatic is going to come in here or anybody's going to come in here.

Raiders, whoever, guard the door. Because he walks in and the guy goes, hey, how'd you get in here? I just walked in. I had to kill a bunch of people, you know, on the way up, but there's nobody by the door. It wasn't even locked. There wasn't a dog. It wasn't a cat. There was nothing.

Just walked right in. He's like, oh, but I'm not going to let you take her. He's like, well, you are because I have a gun and now I'm going to shoot you in that. And he pops this guy. And you're like, whoa, that's the guy that could have saved everything. He's gone now. That's the guy. Now, here is the biggest thing with the detail of the show that normally I would say,

I don't know if they're going to play on this, but this show plays on everything. And what I mean is this. He tells me, he goes, okay, now you saw I just took out your buddy, untie her now. And they do immediately. And I love this little detail. He's like, wrap her arm. She's bleeding. Wrap her arm.

And they do. And he says, turn around. He does, these are the only two people he does not kill. So if anybody's going to rat him out to Ellie, now again, people who have played the game for game two might already know the answer to this. Do not spoil it in the comments. But they could come back because they're the only two. They're the only two because that's the Ellie ass.

He goes, at the end, you swear that that story you told was true. These two can, are the only two people right now that can say, not true. Only two. But he picks her up, takes out. Yeah, brutal. And they took that doctor out. And the doctor was, this is what I loved about the show. They were trying to do the right thing.

They were trying to do the right thing. These were not like evil people just trying to do experiments on her. They were just, it was brain surgery. She wasn't coming back from it, but they could, but again, they didn't give her the choice. She probably would have taken it. You give her the choice. It's a very different outcome all the way around. Joel would probably try to talk her out of it.

Joel would probably try to talk her out of it. And then she has that conversation the same way that she did. Listen, you know, I need you to go. I'm going to do this thing. Thank you for everything. And then that's it. But they didn't tell her what it was. That wasn't right.

They didn't tell her what it was. So Joel carries her out, and this is the way that they shot this and this whole scene. Again, showing that Marlene is a good person overall and understanding what Joel is doing and the promises that she made her mother to keep her safe and all this stuff, she could shoot Joel right in the back, doesn't do it. Tries to talk him and talk some sense and going, I know where you're coming from. After all this, we can still figure it out. Just let her go.

You know, let's figure this out. We can still do it. And then it cuts, and this is what I love about this. It cuts to the scene of, like, you know that he didn't let her go. You know it. You'd pan over and you see him just kind of sitting there. He would have been a lot more upset. And then she's laying in the back.

She wakes up and he tells her, bowl-faced lie. And he does it convincingly. because so much so that I believed it. He's like, there's a lot of, there's a lot of other infected just like you, and it didn't work. Oh, yeah, by the way, and some Raiders conveniently, the Raiders came in on, have your clothes,

we'll get you some new clothes. We've got this car, though. Everybody's, but everybody's dead. I'm sorry. And she's like, I'm already leans, and yeah, didn't work out for her. And we see why he didn't work out for her. Because he's carrying her through,

and then he just, she, he pulls the gun, pops her in the stomach, And then this is the most devastating. Because again, it's that cold stare or where she's like, no, no, no, no, listen, let me go. She's like, no, you're just going to come after her. Doesn't it's not even another thing. The relationship they had or not, gone, takes her out. It has nothing to do with anything except Ellie.

And then he kind of, and then the controls of the lunatic go away. And he's back to who he was and you see Ellie as she's waking up. And this was that humor again, the conversation, he starts telling, she's bummed again because, like, to her, as we, this is a, as I keep complimenting the writing on it, it's so brilliant. Where, now you see the light in his eyes. Why? Because of the purpose. And you see her starting to, that, that light that was coming back before they get captured, gone. Why?

Because her purpose is gone. It's all about purpose for these two. And she doesn't know what the hell she's going to do now. She's so upset about this, and everything she thought that was supposed to be is now taken from her and it's gone. And Joel starts talking to her about his daughter and this was hilarious when he's just like, you know, you guys are really, you guys would like each other. You're similar, but different. Well, how different?

Well, she was pretty girly. Well, nothing you're not girly. She's like, I'm not. Yeah, you're, you know, you know. And the chemistry between them and the back and forth in these moments that they're having as they're looking out there and like the kind of beacon of hope, if you will. and they're having this conversation and she opens up and tells you about people, you know, how she had to kill her friend,

how she had to do all these things, and how it's, and he's like, this shit's not on you what you, what you did. Again, as a dad, protecting. And she goes, tell me. Exactly, tell me. What happened? Swear to me. She knows.

She said, and Bella Ramsey says as much in the after thing. She knows that Joel did it, but she wants to hear him say it just to at least convince her otherwise. and he goes, no, I swear. I didn't do, I didn't, I'm not lying. What I said happened, happen. And she goes, okay.

And that's the end of it. It's a perfect ending for this season. Now, season two is apparently going to be stretched into, or excuse me, game two is going to be stretched into season two and season three. That's the rumors anyway. And I don't know how many years afterwards it takes place, but this sets it up wonderfully. I'm still, I'm debating on whether or not to go play the game.

first because now I just I want to continue this story. That's how well that this show did that I want to actually be a game player for the whole season now of season two and three going into it and see because this to me is the best adaptation of a video game ever.

There's no doubt about it. Now don't start saying, oh no, Sonic did a good, Sonic was a good movie. Sonic 2 was a good movie. But based off the actual interpretation of the game itself, no, completely different. There's no James Morrison character running around There's no story beats that they kind of take and maneuver him and, you know, do different things with.

Pikachu, no, different. Mortal Kombat, different. This is the game that was as true with new things to add that has ever been done. Ever. Now, will God of War do the same thing? I don't know. We'll see. but this was this was such wonderful acting writing directing editing sound design all of it it's a near

perfect show it really is it was so so wonderfully done and i'm so glad that i got a chance to play the game definitely going to finish the game and then people do me a favor in the comment section of this episode let me know if you want me to review the game if enough people want me to review it i'll do it if not i'll just talk about it on an episode of Big Thing maybe for a couple minutes, but it's up to you guys. Anyway, so yeah, that was it. It was a fantastic, fantastic, fantastic episode, and I'm really, really happy that I had an opportunity to watch this show.

And I'm glad that you guys were enjoying me talking about it. What a year for Pedro Pascall already. We're not even, we're just barely into three months of the year so far. He's having a hell of a year with this and the Mandalorian. Bella Ramsey, everyone else, so good. And speaking of Petro Pascali, I've been doing straight reviews on Mandalorian, spoiler reviews, immediate reactions. We had an interview with Katie Sackoff.

We're giving away a signed Bocatan helmet. If you go and watch the interview, you can find out how. And she'll be actually announcing the winner when she comes back in the studio in April. And, yeah, and I'm going to be doing an out-of-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-reaction of Shazam. Fury of the Gods tomorrow. So that and more on this episode, a big thing. But thank you guys so much for joining me here on the episode. We're also available on Spotify.

So you can, we do video on Spotify. So you can check us out there. Once again, man, almost there. We should be at 70 by the end of the day, hopefully. And then we have this bad boy coming up. That's next. You guys are first to see it. You're the first to see that 100,000.

But we're not putting that up yet. That's going to replace that once we've hit 70,000. So thank you guys so much. for joining me again. I appreciate it. And sorry for the late spoiler review, but we got it done. And I'm going to be live streaming a little later on the Christian Harle from French Channel, so I hope you join me, probably around like 4 p.m. PST. Sounds about right. Thanks again, guys. I appreciate you on The Big Thing. This is me. You're you. And thank you to our friends over our Manscape. See you soon.