The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 4 Recap

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Charles and Van share their instant reactions to the fourth episode of ‘The Last of Us.’ They briefly address the internet discourse surrounding “Long, Long Time” before discussing how Joel’s traumatic past experiences are the backbone of his protective nature. Next, the guys discuss Ellie’s violent streak and how she’s evolved from the beginning of the season. Finally, they talk about Kathleen’s ruthlessness and her band of hostile raiders, the Hunters. Hosts: Charles Holmes and Van Lathan Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide Pasha Higigi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure those time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league. And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast, a show where we really, really hate post-apocalyptic puns. I'm Charles Holmes. He's Van Lathen.

Together, we're known as the Midnight Boys, Pugh, Pugh! And we're here to discuss the critically acclaimed new HBO show, The Last of Us. Van, after a roller coaster of emotions last week, how are you feeling, man? I'm good. I'm ready to get back on the road and shoot some people, protect my stuff. I wanted to know, before we jump in, how are you feeling about the episode three discourse? I thought the episode is,

I've seen a lot of people celebrating the episode. You have trolls who are very upset for obvious reasons. And then you know some contrarians. How are you feeling about the reception to episode three? I don't understand what you're talking about. I haven't seen any of this discourse. Tell me about it now. Oh, it's just, I mean, I think there was always,

the crowd that is, you know, the Reddit crowd, the how dare you make my video game shell woke? And then there's the guys, relax. It's not the greatest TV episode of all time. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You know how people like to argue. I just thought, I was just like, oh, I watched this episode. I was like, oh, yeah, it's a win.

It's a win. And it's just see people be like, fuck this episode. I was surprised. Vocal minority. Well, here's the deal. for everybody that's mad because beautiful love story between two men was on the screen.

All I can tell them is fuck you. Very eloquent. I agree. That's all I can tell to them. For people who didn't think that it was as good as the rest of us thought it was, or some of us thought it was, hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I watched it several times.

I thought it was really great. But, you know, that's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to be, it's supposed to be great television. or great art or even great art, like we argue over everything now. So the fact that there's an argument just means that something exists. It just feels like everything everywhere

all at once all over again where it's just like every single time I log out to the internet, somebody's arguing about it. And I'm like, guys, we just have to chill. Like hate it, love it. I don't care, but we just have to chill. Hey, if you didn't dig it, cool.

I thought it was fantastical. I watched it again. Meeklyke and Jomey watch it on Sunday. after we got in trouble for, you know, after we got Tony Romo in trouble inadvertently. But maybe we could Jomey watched it. Watch it again. And we loved it once again.

And Jomey was beside himself with emotion. Jomey was beside himself. Jomey? Really? Yep. It's crazy. That is a very weird cocktail on a Sunday to go from football to just one of the most devastating hours of TV.

Jomey demanded it. Everybody else left. Jomi, everybody else left. Steve left first. He said he had a quote-unquote migraine. I'm not sure what he was really going to do. Steve left, Rachel left, everybody left. Nick left. Jomey was like, turn on the last. We wouldn't leave.

So we all watched it together by little brother. And we all loved it. So look, I can understand. People have a difference of opinion. It's fine. I liked it. You didn't like it as much. We move on episode four, baby.

Well, episode four is titled, Please, hold my hand directed by Jeremy Webb, written by Craig Mason. We are back with Joel and Ellie. Joel is siphoning gas from abandoned cars at a gas station. Ellie secretly practices with her new gun in the bathroom. As Joel and Ellie starts a bond on the road, Joel opens up about his brother in their past. Joel and Ellie are eventually ambushed by a group of revolutionaries who have overthrown Fedra at their QZ and are hunting a duo named Sam and Henry. Ellie saves Joel, but in the process condemns a young man to die at his hands. The leader of the revolutionaries, Kathleen,

tells her hunters to track down the intruders who happen to be Joel and Ellie. As they hide, Joel tries to comfort Ellie about the murder, but Ellie reveals this isn't the first time she's killed someone. During their search, Kathleen and her lieutenant witnessed a big hole in a basement that portends something major is afoot. And then, while sleeping in a high rise, Joel and Ellie are ambushed by two young men who are presumably Sam and Henry and Van.

we kind of talked about it briefly last episode how not difficult, but how much of a jump it would be going basically back to the main storyline after having something so hefty in the third episode. So what were your first thoughts when you watch?

Please hold my hand. My first thoughts, well, I think they did a good job of getting us back into the world. They did a good job of making us feel like, hey, this is the main story. There were a lot of people that I saw not so much online, but some of the other recap videos that I watch at me.

It's online, but I consider social media to be online and YouTube to be YouTube. So when I see something on YouTube, it's not that I saw it online. Makes perfect sense. I think so. I have to ask you this. Who do you think is more well-adjusted? YouTubers are people on Twitter? YouTubers by far.

I didn't see one. No way. No, I think it's YouTubers. I have to be honest with you. People on Twitter are that we're the worst versions of ourselves. YouTubers or at least like old school vaudevillian performers who are, who are, you know, wearing boas and giving us a version of society. It isn't quite real, but kind of real.

Twitter is literally, Twitter is like a different language that means just fuck you. Twitter is a worse space, but I would argue YouTube is a rare place where it's like, oh, I'm having fun on YouTube. Like, this is great. I'm watching my favorite, like, YouTubers. Then you click on the wrong video, and they're just like, guys, let me tell you, World War II was a fraud. And you're like, whoa, whoa.

No, no, no, that's true. But I'm just telling you that, like, the YouTubers themselves, I feel that they're a little bit more. Now, there's some out there that are a little different. But I feel that the YouTubers themselves are normally cool. Anyway, we're getting off. We're going off the rails already. So I watched a couple of YouTube's heavy spoilers recap.

Shout out to my friends over at New Rockstars Recap. Just watch a lot of different recaps. And there were people that were talking about, they felt like it was a risk for the show to veer away from the main storyline this soon. This is maybe an episode that was better suited for episode six, seven, or something like that. So I was wondering whether or not I would feel jolted by being brought out of that world with Bill and Frank. which seems like, you know, such a big deal to coming back to our main storyline. Maybe there would be a letdown, but there wasn't.

Right back. Right back. Right back. Because remember, we saw them at the end and we kind of got back in the last episode. So it worked for me. And I enjoyed this episode. It wasn't obviously on a level of long, long time, but it was, it was really good. I mean, I think that this episode would actually this coming after three does is that the stakes almost feel higher or the emotional stakes of what.

Joel doesn't know that he's fighting for yet is higher because we witness to men who could who created their own type of paradise in a post-apocalyptic world. They created their own type of family. And you slowly start seeing in this episode, Joel letting his defenses down and almost letting kind of Ellie fill a role that he's been very reticent to. He calls her cargo at one point in this episode, and then him slowly melting throughout and being worried about this young person. I thought it was very, very affecting. But before we jump to that,

we learned something about Joel through his brother Tommy. So Joel in the car basically explains to Ellie that Tommy went to Desert Storm. He says, quote, same mistake he made when he was 18. He wants to save the world, pipe dream. And he's saying that in reference to Tommy becoming a firefight. It seems like his brother kind of has this in need to join causes that are supposed to be saving the world. And we learn kind of about Joel that he is not only pragmatic, but seems very, very distrustful of authority figures, authority regimes.

What did you kind of think about that conversation that he has with Ellie talking about Tommy and the way, has kind of let him down. So it was interesting because remember in the first episode that we did this, I made the mistake of thinking that it was Joel who had been a soldier. Yeah. Come to find out that it's Tommy.

That means that Joel was made Joel almost completely by the world that we see and by the law. of whomever Sarah's mother was.

Yeah. So that makes Joel, in my opinion, a 100% trauma bot. You know, if you had gone through basic training or definitely if you had seen combat in a place like Iraq, then that would explain some of the reactions that you might have to different situations. hey, it just might be reflex from having to, you know, put your own life and the lives of your fellow soldiers in your hands and in their hands. There might be some things that just might have been, you know, reflexive.

But this means that Joel, as a character in ways, is a complete creation of the traumas that have befallen him. and that makes it even harder for him to go against them because it's his trauma responses to this point that have kept them alive. When you're trying to break through to a kid who's been in a bad situation, like there's an episode of The Wire where they're trying to figure out what's the right spot to get in and try to get through to the kids, right? And they figure it's like 12, 13, you saw this. And like 15, 16 is too seasoned, right?

when you're trying to get through to them, you're trying to make them feel safe enough to find out who they really are. And there's just a point where you can't do that because the world has told them, if you do a certain thing, you'll get beat up, you'll die,

you'll be in a situation where someone will take advantage of you. So that to me, learning that about him, who's like, hey, it really is a Herculean task to get through to this guy because everything that's gone wrong

has made him into who he, is. And I think the interesting thing, though, is that when Ellie says, if you don't think there's hope for the world, why bother going on? You've got to try, right? It's very, very interesting because even in the apocalypse, that kind of dichotomy, that relationship between older people and younger people is playing out with Joel and Ellie. I think Joel has been beaten down by the world. He was beaten down by the world before the apocalypse happened, before the infected. came and now it's only worse. And it's interesting seeing somebody like

Ellie be how teenagers are, even when there's not a bunch of zombies running around, which is like having this idealism, thinking you can change the world, thinking that you can try. And it's so interesting seeing something that plays out in our own world,

still being central to their relationship. Because I'm probably in the middle of it right now where, you know, I watch younger kids and I'm amazed at them. I'm just like, man, they still have the fighting spirit. They still are just like, yeah. They still have the fighting

spirit. And I'm just like give it five, ten, four years. They'll beat it out of you. That was interesting to watch between the two of them. So that to me is the interesting thing. Because you know, as adults,

what we're trying to really protect in children is what's died in ourselves. And so to watch him actually have to protect her life and then also protect her kiddiness. It's very interesting. And this is one of the first ones to where it's just Joel, Ellie, and the third character in their journey, which is danger. Before this, they've had tests with them.

But now it's just them. And we're figuring out their trust relationship. It's a very interesting scene when she actually pills the guy that's about to kill Joel. Let's be honest, bro. Let's talk about Joe for a second. Joel was about to get saving Private Ryan. Okay. Do you guys remember the toughest scene in saving Private Ryan?

Appam. Appam is up there. They're in the little tower. My man, Adam Goldberg, is up there. You know, he's fighting against the big German guy. Big German guy gets him down, driving the knife into him. Adam Goldberg starts politicking at the end. Wait, wait, wait, no, wait, wait, wait.

The whole time I'm in the theater, I'm like, Opel, what the fuck? Are you going to help him? Like, he doesn't. He dies. Ellie didn't go out like Opom did. It comes on, boom, puts the bill in him. All right? but that's a that's a

a conundrum for Joel you're happy that she was able to save your life because you were getting saved in Private Ryan you were about to get a goddamn pump shotgun to the throat but also you guys have to have trust when you're out there on the road so the fact that she would have the gun

and not tell you that she has the gun has to be dealt with and he dealt with it in the right way He's like, look, she proved that she was handy dandy, handy with the steel, not any geek off the street, regulators mount up. So he taught her how to use it a little bit and let her keep it. Well, this is a beautiful segue to Plucky Kid Corner. This might be the death of Plucky Kid Corner because this episode very much felt like, all right, this is the moment where being the Scrappy Do is not going to cut it. I want to know how are we feeling about Ellie's evolution? Because even in this episode, we start with her in the mirror practicing with a gun,

almost like it's a toy, wanting to feel like a badass. And immediately she goes outside and starts telling bad pun jokes and, you know, he's like ogling at the porno mag. You're just like, this is a kid. And the minute it comes time to like, oh, no, I have to take a person's life. You realize that there's something that happens. and like even Joel's heart starts breaking a little bit. And it was like interesting being like,

are we kind of seeing a new version of Ellie in this episode, one that can no longer be as like wide eye? Like, wow, we planes. I'm in a future truckmobile. Are we about to see a more steely, wizened Ellie? Ellie's got like a Dexter percentage. You know how Dexter was like a fucked up kid that like had a, had a weirdness

to where he liked to hurt things and do crazy shit. Ellie, when she sees the gun, I don't know about Ellie, man. I don't know how it goes in the game because I never played it. But Ellie is evolving from pluck into...

Little sociopath vibes. She plays it a little Dahmer-esque sometimes. She plays it sometimes like, oh, gun. Like, she plays it. Sometimes she plays, I'm like, Yo, does Ellie want to to hurt people?

Like, you know? I mean, when she killed, this was, I think this was last episode when she killed the infected, I was like, all right, like, uh, where you plucking feathers off little baby birds as a child. Well, you know, killing ants in the sun.

I was just like, this is, you gotta relax, Ellie. She's managing to use pluck as a weapon. I would say that the pun book and the adulterated pluck that it brings with it.

Starting to get to Joel. He laughed at the jeans joke. It was funny because I, when she said, did you know that diarrhea runs and like, diarrhea is inherited or whatever? And I was like, damn, I wonder if that's true.

And I was literally about to pause it to look that up. When she goes, it runs in your jeans. I was like, this motherfucker. I had to laugh. I was like, this motherfucker, bro. Come on, man. Ellie, relax.

Ellie seems to be melting your heart just like Joel. One to nine on the pluck meter. Where is she? Now, remind me about the pluck meter. Ten is terrible, worst pluck ever. Worst pluck ever. One is like endearing. One is like McCulley-Colkin home alone.

Very endearing. Oh, but he was super plucky, but very endearing. You know, it's good. She's probably now around a six in pluck. You know, she's round of six in pluck. She's safe. Joe. You can't give her like a.

Nah, because she went right back to pluck. You know, even when she shot Joel, that's another, a little bit of the serial killer vibes that were coming out. She's walking. She's like, she was like, Joe? Not when she shot Joe, but she shot whoever the kids. What was the guy's name? Brian?

Was his name Brian? He's like, oh, I'm Brian. Like, bro, see, this is where Opem failed. Because Joel could have been an op-um. Br, bro, I hate that scene as a safer private Ryan, bro. Eventually the Ringer is going to let me do a mini podcast, literally, a 10-minute to 15-minute podcast, just about scenes that I hate. Just vans, scenes that he hates.

Wait, what's the number one overall scene? That one. Really? No bullshit. That is the most egregious scene in the history of movies to me. I might be, if I thought about it, because I know that there are scenes out there that I hate, But if I thought about it, maybe that scene drives me every time, every time, sitting there with the gun, Opem just getting people killed.

No, telling how many people Opem got killed. All right. So don't get me started on that. Stop inciting me, Charles. But when she walks up and shoots the guy, that guy who tries to, like, get out of the situation, Joe's like, now we got to put some work in. And Joel stabs him, doesn't he? I don't think Joe shoots him.

I was surprised. Joel and you there are like a thunk? I was like, God damn. He didn't even waste a bullet. He's like, nah, bro. Joe's trying to get his lick back because he just got washed. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

He got sucker punched. There's a difference. That man was washing Joe. I saw a white dude on Twitter. Sucker punched this guy in the Walmart. And the dude turned around and ran the white dude. The guy's named White John. He's a rapper from Englewood.

No disrespect to white. White John, he was actually very good about it. If you look it up, he tried to sneak a dude in a Walmart and a dude turned around and put them a goddamn hands on White John. White John was real about it, though. White John was like, yeah, buddy beat my ass. That's the way it goes. So a sneak doesn't necessarily mean a win.

All right, fair enough. I want to ask you also, I think kind of the central moment of this episode is when Joel and Ellie are hiding and they have a conversation about death. And it was very interesting because it almost felt like an inverse. of, you know, the cliche first time speech that parents have with children, whether it's like

the sex conversation or period or whatever it may be between like a father, mother, daughter, son, whatever. The birds and the bee conversation. But instead of being about that, it was essentially Joel trying to walk

Ellie through the loss of innocence being her killing someone. And you can see how heartbroken, Pedro Pascal plays it of like, this kid is never going to be the same. But then we learn that this isn't the first time Ellie killed. And I want to ask you, man,

what do we think she's referencing? Is she referencing the infected? Is she referencing killing a human before Joel? Like, what is she referencing in terms of this isn't the first time I've killed him? You know, I couldn't make my mind up on it. I thought that maybe she was talking about it had gone down before.

I was trying to think maybe what kind of situation would she have been in. Also, if she had been through her before, would there have been that look in her eyes? I think she might be talking about the infected. But even still, that's probably different emotionally than killing a human being. So I wasn't quite sure about that. I wouldn't put it past her that maybe she was in a scrape before where she had to shoot someone. But it all seems so new to her that I kind of doubt that she's killed a human being before.

But we're going to find out I think it's going to be a big deal. I mean, I don't know because when we were introduced to Ellie in the first episode, she stabbed a motherfucker like it was nothing. She's like, you know what I mean? So there was a, there's a little almost feral childness about Ellie. Uh-huh. Where at any point, I don't be honest, if I was Joel, I'd be keeping one eye open at night. I'm like, I never know.

Look, I don't trust her. I mean, I know that nothing's going to happen. But the way the character is being played, man, It's a lot, bro. You actually want to know what was even more disturbing. I love it. You're going to hate me for saying this, but... Say it.

Say it. Just say it. I don't even care if it's the... If it's post-apocalyptic times, I don't give a fuck. I'm never scarfing down Chef Boyardy like that. Chef Boyardy is disgusting. That's just terrible. You're an idiot. How am I an idiot?

What are you talking about? There are multiple Chef Boyer D's that are off the meat rack Chisane. Chef Boyardee is disgusting. You don't like Chef Boyardee Ravioli? No. It's like eating like milky ketchup.

You don't like SpaghettiOs? No. What kind of life did you lead, bro? What kind of life do you? What was Little Chucky? Little Chucky. He's 10. It's Little Chucky time.

It's Little Chucky time. What did Little Chucky? Little Plucky Chucky. What did, did he like to eat? What was his most fun thing to eat? What? What did you like to eat? What are you like a California roll when you were a kid? Sashimi? Like, what were you eating? What was a little Chuckie eating? You know, I like a nice BB&J. My grandfather was really just on the ham sandwiches. I think it was a product of being poor. The deli meats was his way of being like, we got money

now. So a lot of ham, a lot of turkey sandwiches. A lot of ham. Yeah. So what you're telling me is you're stuffing your face with pork, yet you have the audacity to talk to the rest of us kids from the ghetto that looked at Chef Winnie. I don't know, Doc.

I haven't eaten it in a long time, but I used to fuck it up. I'm not going to bullshit you. What would you rather have? See, I would rather have hamburger helper over Chef Woy. Oh, that's not even close. Hamburger helper is like a meal.

Essentially a good meal. Like, you take the hamburger, But see, here's the thing, like, my mom used to make this hamburger helper that would just, that was the shit, dog. Hamburger helper is like, you know, that's actually a, you have to be on it a little bit to have, because you had to have the hamburger. So you have to be on it a little bit to have the hamburger helper. Mom would make hamburger helper. I'll come home and do a little dance, a little fat-ass vans. Like, oh, shit.

I mean, because we never, we didn't really eat that a lot. Because, you know, we got out of abject poverty, like during my childhood. And, you know, we cooked, my mom was a great cook, so she cooked a lot of stuff. You know, we also ate a lot of wild game, deer, venison. Excuse me, venison is deer. Venison, rabbit, stuff like that, other things that you guys would never eat. Raccoon, stuff like that. But, I'm squirrel.

But I tell you that during those early days, I'm talking about the 83 to 80s. era. If I came home and I smelled the sweet smells of some hamburger helper come on now. You knew it was going to be a good day. Was there a meal where you're just like, yeah, mom's pissed.

She ain't happy. Like I mean? Just in general. It's just a meal where you're like, fuck. All right, well. Nah. Wasn't really like that. My mother didn't use food to punish me. I'm not sure what kind of fucking

pink Floyd the wall. But, you had. But, but, but, but no, look, I will say about this episode, we got introduced to some unhinged new characters, man. Oh, Kathleen? Her voice. Why she got, why does it, first of all, first of all, my name couldn't be Kathleen in a post-apocalyptic world.

You know what I'm saying? Like, she still had the whole Karen vibe. She's just, she's lost it, but she still talks like she's yelling at the manager at Applebee's, which kind of unsettled me a little bit. It's a great performance because she is, she's playing it as if there is, uh,

some sort of weakness to her as if she's unsure or if, or if you can't tell whether or not it's hurt or rage. Um, you can't tell whether or not it's, She's driven and motivated by a feeling of this void of incompleteness or if she's off. And you start to understand, you know, played by Melanie Linsky, you start to understand that she's just super intense and ruthless. She comes back and she executes the doctor and the way the people are following her lead, that she really is. is a badass, but there's this frailty about her even still.

She seems like a Karen. She seems like a woman who would have that exact same energy if her shit didn't come the way she wanted it to at Starbucks. The same energy she had with the doctor. The doctor's like, yo, I delivered you. You know, that same energy that she has there. And that's kind of scary when it's unhinged. Can you imagine like a Karen that had the power of an army behind?

her. You know what I mean? Like, that's kind of what it's like. Then, I work, do you know how many two for 20 nights I fucking worked at Applebee's, bro? That shit is my whole college experience. Okay? Two for 20. What's that? At Applebee. What's two for 20?

Two for 20, like, it would be like, so when I was in New Jersey trying to make money in college, I was a waiter. And essentially, you got the two for 20 meal where it's like for $20. you could get an appetizer and you could get two entrees and everybody would come to Applebee's. But when I was there, not only was I a bad waiter, but because I'm light skin,

all the white people thought it would be, like, great to play the game of like, who does, who do you look like? So every time I'm coming to the table, like, you know who you look like? And then they would list a light skin person that I do not look like. It was very racist. Who would it be?

Jay Cole, Kid Cuddy, Drake, the list goes on and on. They told you that? Yes. And you took that shit, huh? The fuck I was supposed to do in the middle of Central Jersey. I don't know. I don't know.

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It's built to help you find and own a home. With agents who close twice as many deals, when you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get started at Redfin.com. Own the dream. For people who are watching this, did this episode seem that there are a lot of questions here? because I never played the game. Are we going to Kai to Game Corner here to answer some questions? Oh, that is a great segue to Kai's video game corner.

I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Kai, that the revolutionaries are in the game. Kathleen was created specifically for the show. The two boys, Henry and Sam, are actual characters from the game. Can you kind of break down without spoiling differences between video game TV show? So, yeah, those revolutionaries are referred to as the hunters. in the game. And honestly, there's not that much about them. You know, there's some lore

and there's some throwaway lines of dialogue that kind of suggest that this group rose up from under the boot of Fedra. But outside of that, the details are pretty sparse. We know that they lure people in. We know that they kill them and steal their supplies, right, to keep living. But in the game,

there are essentially a bunch of nameless, like, faceless NPCs that you just got to go through to keep progressing through the story. So they added a ton of context in the show with Kathleen, who's not a part of it. And Perry, who's like her right-hand lieutenant

or whatever he is. And he was actually, fun fact, played by Jeffrey Pierce, who was the voice actor for Tommy in the games. So that was a cool little cameo. But yeah,

it's really different. It's kind of like they took the lore, the pre-existing lore, and then just, like, really built it out. Awesome game corner questions. Go for it. In the game,

is Ellie used to get through tight spots because they've been going into this. This episode, I'm starting to watch the show and try to figure out what's a video game S. She crawls into a crawl space. She pulls something for Joel so Joel can get in there.

And then another time, Joel puts her through this thing. She gets in the other side. She opens the door. Is that part of the gameplay in the game? It's exactly part of the gameplay in the game. There's so much of boosting Ellie up, of Ellie going into another room, moving something that was in front of a door to let Joel in. So yeah, I definitely like, when Joel couldn't get into that room and Ellie had to

move that stuff from front of the door, I definitely got a chuckle out of me. I was like, yeah, that's essentially what so much of the gameplay is. also this is a prediction because I haven't gotten here in the game yet but don't tell me if I'm wrong or not but when they go Kathleen they go into the

basement and there's that big thing and they're like all right we're going to fucking deal with that later those are the bloated infected right I feel like we we've seen other versions of the infected we've yet to see those big motherfuckers that are like hard to take down part of me is just like yo it seems

like I can neither confirm nor deny but that seems like it seems like it seems like it seems a good bet to me. Also, Van, you might have seen this because maybe I wasn't watching close enough. And, Kyle, you can chime in as well. Are Joe and Ellie in the same building

that Kathleen and the other guy were earlier? I have questions about this because I did have a little problem following how they were getting and where they were. Like, what was happening? Because at first it seemed like they were in one spot. They moved to another spot. and I don't know where they were like

how they were moving around and like where they were going because they were in the gas station at first and it seemed like they barricaded themselves in the gas station for a long time and I was just wondering since all of that stuff was going down in the gas station how come the people didn't just come there

how come they didn't know where they were was my only thing but I guess they had moved in the time that it took the people to understand where they were but it seemed like all the shooting and all the stuff they would have known exactly where they were and they could have gone right to them. But I guess it's an abandoned Kansas City,

so maybe it's a big area. I don't know. Can somebody help me? Yeah, I kind of read it the same way. I think they moved around and like at that point at the end they were an entirely different building is kind of how I saw it.

The way I thought of it was like when they, the first ambush, it almost seemed like they went to like the downtown area of the city where everybody else was going to where all of the apartments were. So essentially they were hiding out where all the local shops were.

Because they say at one point in the episode, like check all the apartments first, essentially. And then I was thinking, like, the big building must be Kansas City business area. And that's where I assume, you know, the two boys that ambush them at the end have been hiding away from them. This is probably where they don't go.

And I'm assuming that's because there's, like, an infected horde around there somewhere. Let me ask you guys this. They opened up a door. and there's something inside the door that looks like a big, what the hell is sushi doing? Yo, oh, yo, sushi,

get out of there, bro. I anyway can see. Sushi's my cat for the listeners. He's been very bad. Sushi was getting into the cupboard. You just sprayed it. You just sprayed them with windex, bro. I see you.

I sprayed him with water. Oh, bro. Like, bro, didn't it look like you put up a windex and sprayed his sushi, bro? He got to be fucking. When they open up the door and the floor is heaving and it's all cracked up, it looks like a sinkhole of some sort. What is that?

What was that? That's what we were just talking about. We think that that, well, I think that that's infected. It's a different version than we've seen. It almost seems like something that's been bubbling up that either they need to run from or that it's basically going to fuck some shit up. I assumed it was like an infected whore. If you remember from the, I think this was the second episode, the Bostonian Museum, where it was like essentially all of the growth and the fungus had been there for a while.

I'm assuming like it's like some type of fungus type of hive. Kai, in the game, is there like an infected dance floor that just pulsates to the rhythms of diplo? Like that was, is that something you recognize? Does the infected take, do they take over whole walls? Do they cover whole buildings? Do like what's the limit of the fungal growth that you saw in the game? It's a good question. I think Charles is on to something thinking that there's a different type of infected,

maybe a bigger type of infected, something that you don't want to mess with. That seems like what we're getting to, what they're alluding to, because there is that at this point in the game. You've come across it, but it looks like that's going to be a big. reveal for next episode if I had to if I had to put money on it. Interesting. Interesting. Are we getting to the point with the show and this is the thing that all zombie shows have to deal with? It's how much zombie do they give you? Yes. The Walking Dead got to a point to where it just you know, I just didn't even give a

damn about the zombies. But it took years. Once they get to the prison, there's whole episodes around. They ain't no zombies as well for it. Yeah. It took it took like a while for it to, it seems like, Like the Last of Us is pretty light on zombie fare. We didn't see any fungal zombies really in this episode that I can remember seeing. Not that I can remember. We did see the big fungus thing. And last episode didn't really have very many of them either when we think about it. For people who are really fans of the genre, do you think they need a little bit more running and screaming?

Do you think they need more clickers? Do you think they need, they're going to need to see them? I don't know how Kai feels. I generally, people would be like, boo, Charles, but like, zombies are rarely my favorite part of zombie movies or zombie fair. I actually do like,

like I grew up reading The Walking Dead. I like the fucked up people in the zombie world. I love what, I just love the little ghouls and gremlins that pop up. Like, Kathleen, I'm like, that's what I want from a zombie movie. I'm like, how fucked up do you have to be to survive

in this world. I know that the infected are going to come, but generally when the infected are on screen, I'm like, all right, cool, cool. But it's not as interesting to me as how Joel and Ellie are going to get out of this scrape. Feel me? Yeah. Kyle, what do you think? In the game itself,

how much are you fighting against zombies? How much are you fighting against bad people in the apocalypse? I'd say it's pretty balanced. Definitely more so there's a lot more zombies. There's a lot more infected. There's a lot more things you have to deal with on that front. makes sense because you need it for the gameplay and it makes it more interesting, more dynamic.

But in this, in my opinion, I really like that they're kind of moving toward, you know, less zombies just because, like, at the end of the day, this story is so much about people and it's so much about Joel and Ellie's relationship that it's like, the zombies are fun in the game, but like how much can that really add on screen, you know, when you're not the one controlling it and taking them down. And my last question for y'all, you know, before we get out of here, is that there's a very interesting thing that happens towards the end

when they're, when Joel and Ellie are walking up the stairs. First of all, Ellie asks, did you kill innocent people? And I'm like, it's just like Carlito's way. Don't fucking ask people,

have you ever killed, if you have to ask somebody if you've ever killed someone, like you know the fucking answer. Like, I hate what people do. No, I'm like, if you're asking you know. But I wanted to ask you guys,

Joel basically, Joel basically kind of says, like, yes. But my question is, Are there any innocent people really in this world? Like, the people who have had to survive in this world, at some point you've had to fuck someone over, take supplies from someone,

basically do whatever you need to do to make it. And it's kind of this interesting thing where you can tell that Joel, part of him feels bad, but part of him is just like, this is just, this is the New World Order. We do what we have to to get to the next day. It's very interesting. So there's this movie that came out a lot of,

long time ago, it's called the trigger effect. The film, it's like got Kyle McLaughlin in it. It's got Elizabeth Shoe. I think Dermit Milroni's in it. And... 1996, the trigger effect. That was before I was born. I don't give a fuck about that.

Okay? I don't kill. I saw it in theaters. There's a blackout that comes to the town. To Los Angeles, really. And shit starts going haywire. It starts going fucking crazy. You know what I mean? People all of their aeot secrecies get like, you know, whatever, whatever, it's like, whatever.

I remember there's a scene in the movie where when a guy goes, it's like, we have to drive to this specific place to get to where we're going. And these were like regular professional people. And he goes, we have almost enough gas to make it. But at some point, we need seven gallons of gasoline. And he's like, we're going to have to get that seven gallons of gasoline and some kind of way. Remember, they do not have money. There's no money happening here, but they have a shotgun. And he pumps the shotgun and goes at some point where, and this was the good guy. At some point,

we're going to have to get that seven gallons of gasoline to get to where we're going because everything's fucked up. That's how I look at it. I look at it is like a bunch of people that in this particular situation, innocence and gills are about intent in this world because at some point, you're going to have to get that seven gallons of gasoline. You know, you're going to have to do whatever it is that you have to do to be able to see it to the next day. So if you're asking me, the answer is a long, drawn-out podcast way of answering the question. Probably not.

If you've probably stuck around this long, you might have had to kill a Fedra agent. You might have had to steal something from someone. you might have had to have your face painted and draw down on somebody while they're sleeping even though you put out glass there that was supposed to alert you, but you're too goddamn old to hear

the glass and wake up or whatever. By the way, last thing, the glass. Is that something you have to do in the video game? That's not in it. Damn. That would be cool. There's a lot of the sound, though. There's a lot with sound. Like, you've got to be, you got to sneak around. So I'm saying, you got to get the, you probably got to get the gasoline.

Van, you're the type of person to steal some shit. Like, you would steal Kai's last chicken sandwich off of them. I know you would see Kai be like, that's not fair. By the way, just, you know, to look at me, an overweight black man, and I say, I'm still a chicken sandwich from somebody. You need to look closely at yourself. I said chicken sandwich because Ellie was eating chicken sandwiches.

Chicken sandwiches are plentiful year. Don't do that to me, man. I think you need to search deep into your soul as far as what you got going on. And also, everybody, watch the trigger effect. I'm telling you, you'll dig it. Honestly, I think that then, you've had a very busy week. And if anybody

should look inward, it should be you. Blaming for Tony Romo. That was actually pretty good. By the way, can I tell you guys something right now? Tony Romo is not a racist. We weren't saying that Tony Romo was racist. Jomey posted that video

and Jome went more viral did he ever thought that we were not saying that Tony Romo was, we were laughing, okay? I now know what Tony Romo was trying to say because someone put me in touch with people who know people. I know he was trying to say near defenders is what he was going to say.

Near defenders, but he thought it sounded stupid. Shout out to Tony Romo. Tony Romo. It's not a racist. It was a funny thing to happen. Shout out Tony Romo. Not a racist. And that is a great way to end this episode of the Prestige TV podcast.

Thank you to our video game expert, extraordinary. Kai, who does an amazing job editing this podcast. Thank you to my co-host, Van Lathan. Make sure you check us out on the Midnight Boys every Wednesday on the Ringer. First podcast beep. And we'll see y'all next week.