The Ringer-Verse - Reactions to The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 1 | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

The Boys are back to discuss one of the most anticipated shows of the year: ‘The Last of Us.’ They dive into the Season 2 premiere and examine character relationships and Joel’s role as a father figure. Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Producers: Aleya Zenieris, Jonathan Kermah, and Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Welcome into the ringerverse. This is of course, the Ringer's Nexus podcast, fee for all things, and all the things.

We are Steve, the architect, Almond, the builder, and tigger of things. Jomi, the explainer our dinner on. You've got questions. He's got answers.

Oman Van, he of the resurgent, hairline, and code baby Chuck, aka the brunch haiti, aka the 24-carriced clothes and together. We are known as

I'm the midnight boys. Ah-hoo! Follow socials, Instit, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. Jomi? You've got some fun stuff coming,

you guys. If you're watching this on Sunday, that means tomorrow's Monday, which means Mission Impossible Monday is back. MI2. We're getting into it. Am I too? So stunts are going to go into the Academy Awards now.

Congrats. All the stunt performers out there. That means that that's it, Tom Cruise, six Oscars. Mission Impossible 9 is coming. I bet you Tom Cruise presents that Oscar and gives that way to, like, John Wayne crew or something. You don't think he's going to get nominated for the last Mission Possible. He does stunts?

Well, it comes out in the 100th. And I think that's like a year or two away. It won't. Oh, this cycle. It won't be in this cycle. But also, though, it's probably going to be for the stunt coordinator. Probably. Yeah.

Probably, too. It's probably going to be for the stunt coordinator. So the stunt coordinator, I also think, before we move on, I also think that, um, that casting. Oh. Yeah. Did you see what people were like, they're not like legacy, but like, you know, before you hand out the first stunt one, you give it to some people who probably deserved it in the past.

Oh, for sure. Who needed, like, an award. Who were very important to that particular industry. Yeah, and like, at this point, they won't get one because whatever, for whatever reason. But if the award had existed the last, like, 20, you know, 30 years, they definitely would have gotten. This is going to be televised thing?

Did they say... Yeah, they did. Brother, they give out the freaking short, short animated film or whatever year. Why not? Oscar categories that aren't televised? No, they televise all of them. Really, it's not like the Grammys where they give all the Black people.

No, no, no. They have the Governor Awards, but that's just like, oh, we didn't give Angela Bassel of the last year. Yeah, yeah, I think they televised all of the Oscars. Yeah, they do. It's not like the Emmys or the, or the, uh, the grimmies. Yeah, the niggas at the, uh, at the,

no race. Come on. No race. That's one to merit. That's one strike. They're going to do you like Luca, man. They're going to do you like Luca, man. They're going to do you like Luca, bro.

I was going to say the niggas. Oh. I was going to say the niggas are and white people are exactly the same in every way and it's class and not race. No demerer in a big picture. I caught myself. All right.

We're on YouTube, like, comment, subscribe, share, and you can watch every Midnight Boy's a House of Ard episode on YouTube.com backslash at Ringiverse and also on Spotify. Programmer! Tomorrow, House of Arr will be giving you their deep dive on the last of us season two.

They're going to deep dive. It's a lot of the deep dive right there. This week, The Midnight Boys will react to the finale, A Daredevil Born Again, a high-leverged finale, I'd say. Very alert. Later this week, But MASH breaks down The Last of Us as well.

Stay on this show, we will be getting into the premiere episode. Yep, let's go. Of the Last of Us season two. And before we do that, I have something to say. Oh.

Oh. I've heard you guys. I've heard your concerns I've heard your takes I was wrong about the Roershack thing so here's the deal look at the gross I have to lead by example

and a lot of times we don't like to admit when we're wrong I love that this is the first time I was obviously wrong about the Roershack thing I had people call me up about this what who called you who called you

I had some people in my DM's defending you No, no, no, there were plenty of people that defended me and said that Roershack just doesn't have enough lore that they understand where I'm coming from, but Warshack doesn't have enough lore to really defend it. And, like, Bullseye has so many more feats. Rob, from comics explained when it gives me, that one hurt. Yeah. But, but. Hey, when your idols become your rivals. I appreciate the fact that some people were able to do this without being dicks about it.

But there's always the people like, this nigga never read a comic book in his life. I really love the Watchman. Yeah. So, he was running for your guy. I was riding for my guy, Rorschach. I just loved the Shack.

But guys guys guys got on. Also, why were you riding for Worshack? He's kind of a little mega-coded. Oh, no, he's a fucking Reddit bro in a costume. Oh, he definitely is. But that's okay, though. No race. No race.

No race. No race. No race. No race with his bag. No race. No race. No race. No race.

No race. No race. No race. Ray's Roachak, it's completely okay. It was wrong, guys. So you can stop talking about it now. Great. It's over.

It's over. You apologize. It's over. I admit, I was wrong. We're going to break this out, too. I apologize to the comic community. Well, today's show, instant reactions to the last, to the season premiere of the last of us. Very, very highly anticipated season premiere.

Yes. And season two. Do you think that this show will be, this second season will be bigger than White Lotus, season three? Interesting question. I'll answer it as concise as I can. No. You don't think so? You don't think so?

I think that White Lotus season three, and I don't know this. Can you look up the viewership for the first season? Because the first season did last of us did really well. I know. I'm White Lotus to me at this point with season three, it's built up

on so many things. Yeah. Yeah. Like, when I was at the centers, the LA's premiere, brag about it. I'm not bragging about it. I haven't. What?

Okay. I think you might be wrong on this one bad. Oh, give it to me. Season one averaged about 32 million viewers per episode. 32 million viewers? Yes. For the last of us? Yes.

How much the White Lotus average? About 16. Nigger what? So then no. This is huge. How much of White Lotus season three average? Is it 16? Well, yeah, that is 16, yes.

God. Damn. Yeah. Last one of us is huge. But to your point, White Lotus feels bigger to me because every one of my friends is like, hey, yo, can we talk about this season three? And I'm like, have you watching? I think that this is us maybe underestimating the reach of video games.

Or maybe me. I mean, Minecraft is a hit show. Oh, man. They ain't that theater. Chicken jockers around, bro. I don't even understand Minecraft. Neither do we. I understand the movie.

I don't understand the memes and why people have. gravitated so hard toward this movie. Yes. It'd be one thing if they were like, yeah, man, you know, we just grew up watching Minecraft. We love it. We're going to go to support. Cool. I was in a theater every single time Jack Black opened his mouth.

He got a standing ovation. I'm not joking. Yeah. It was crazy. All right. Liza of a spoiler warning. That's 04 2 for Van. Steve, give it to us.

We're getting ready to talk about the Last of Us. You're listening to a. reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. All right, to get you caught up, put you in the nose so we don't have to backtrack on the story. Chuck is going to give you the midnight manifest. Chuck, give it.

All right, I'm not even going to hold you, y'all. Which hands, grant, see, I do not prepare this, so it's up but to get off the dome. Great. Go for it. All right. Season premiere of Last Fuss, written and directed by Craig Mason. We start, Abby is pissed that, uh, Joel. Merked all the fireflies, and she's like, we got to get busy, we hunted my man down.

Back at the old fortress, Joel is spinning out because Ellie is very plucky in 19 and does not like her father quote not father anymore. And also Ellie's acting like Rambo in the middle of the apocalypse, just doing anything and everything. She's crushing on a new lady friend, Dina, and unfortunately, when they go outside to hunt some zombies, they find a new one called the stalker and our girl gets bit and has to hide it back at the old foundation we realized Joel's finally going to therapy with Catherine O'Hara she's like I hate you you killed my husband but you're hiding something from me and he's kind of just like I'm not hiding anything I saved her and wrap up the entire episode with Ellie Dina getting a little love also unfortunately a lot of

hate and that's your midnight manifest. I've been a great job. Give it up for Charles Pee Pee P. It's, it's, first of all, let's start there, Chuck. Here's the thing. I got to say I like this episode. I love this episode. Most of my critique is going to be positive.

We just have to address the elephant in the room. The pluck was out of control. Like it was out of control. We're going to go Pluck Corner at the end of the episode. So we're saving Pluck Corner. going to save Pluck Corner. I'm going to give a Pluck rating every single episode because I think we can't. We can't avoid Pluck.

Okay, we can't avoid it. Yeah. Now, different people, different people have different appreciations of Pluck. You guys don't mind Pluck. You know why? Because you guys are Plucky. As long as it's not cord. Y'all are the, y'all are honest with myself.

Plucky, Shucky, Plucky, Shucky, shucky motherfuckers, the two of you. Shucky Plucky, God damn. I don't know. Okay. All right. I'll say this about the show. We, we, they show Jackson whole Wyoming. They show Jackson a whole while. Yep.

They show it. And right away, the show did something I thought it was very important for the show to do. To both put us directly back into the world that we left from the first season. But also show how that world has either disintegrated, devolved or evolved. And this was a very successful demonstration of a new

world set in the same world that we left. We know from the outset that Abby's out to kill Joe, right? Joel. Joe. Who knows what his name is. Joel, Joe, that motherfucker. We know that she's out to kill him. That sets the framework

for this looming danger that we're going to have, but then we get right back into it and we see that their community is kind of bustling. Yeah. It's growing. It's grown. And the problems that they're having are almost contemporary problems. Problems of population growth.

Refugees. Refugees. Things that we can kind of relate to. And that kind of recontextualizes the series. I thought that was very effective. I thought for me, why I love the premiere so much is that Pedro Pascal is just such a great actor and seeing kind of the growth of Joel as a character, I feel like in the first season, just so life and death, so everything is so high stakes. And to see Joel now

like broken a little bit. Like he's the man. Everybody loves him. Like he's so popular. He has everything that you could kind of want in the apocalypse, except the one thing that he really wants, which is like, hey, Ellie, she's my daughter. And it's kind of when Kathaun O'Harris is like, she's not. I was Like, but you know, it's funny is that all of that's true, but his problems are sort of normal now, which is tough for him. Like, he says it when he's talking to his therapist, he says or he's talking to someone, like, Ellie is 19. She's at a point that I never got with my daughter. So this is uncharted territory. Yeah.

So this is uncharted territory for me. And he's even jealous because he's even jealous of, of Dina because he's like, it's this weird thing where he can kind of see the vision of maybe the daughter that he had and the daughter that he does actually in Ellie where it's like, oh, she's not listening to me. What does his brother Tommy say? Y'all are the same exact person. And to see that tension of like, I honestly think both of them are having a hard time almost going back to civilization. They both almost have this like feral energy where people look up to them because they can protect

them. But there's almost like we're not built for this world anymore. We saw too much. Remember when Tommy was just like, you guys are the. the same exact person. Yeah. That's the energy you're describing. I think this episode in particular strikes a chord with me because it's basically what

makes this show special and what makes it different than what a Last of Us adaptation, like most of them, like, would have been, which is very action-forward, very much. We're killing zombies every week. That's the plan. That's the job. This one, we're pretty much set with Joe and Joel. I'm calling him Joe now. Jesus.

With Joel. Why can't black people say Joel? Just that L, man. It's the L man. I can't say Joe. Yeah. My dad used to rest of the peace. Billy Joe, man.

Billy Joe now, Billy Joe beyond that goddamn piano. Shout on Joel Anderson. But, no, Ellie and Joel, their emotional struggles were highlighted so well in this episode. I thought, again, to your point, what Pedro Pascal was doing. And that's the scene with Dina and the scene with Gail. Just how broken he was over the fact that. his daughter not daughter does not respect him, does not

care about him in the way that he would like to. And then Ellie complete and utter dickhead, but you get it. I don't get it. And the way Ellie was moving, I don't get it. I don't get it. I do not. Well, you were 19, man. You know, your parents are you getting the whole thing.

Here's why I actually really love this dynamic because I'm a fan of both the game and this show. And the relationship that Ellie and Joel form at the end, and so much through like the beginning of that first season, it's forged out of desperation and like accomplishing something and getting her to somewhere and then realizing that when Joel opens up and is allowing himself to be vulnerable with somebody, he actually doesn't know how to do that in the context of someone that is around his daughter's

age because he will immediately glom onto, I must be a protector, I must be your father, I must be this thing. when Ellie may or may not even really want that. And then this season kicks off with Ellie pretty much knowing that she's been lied to. And five years go by. And what does that relationship look like when a person who kind of almost possessively acts like your father for his own kind of selfish reasons? And you kind of just got to go about the world and live along with the things that he works.

And while being a teenager, while being, like, this semi-responsible person that goes out on patrol and goes to dances and has crushes on people in the town, that gets complicated and that gets, like, wrought really quickly. I can kind of believe the fact that, like, she doesn't owe Joel, like, a father relationship. And I get what you guys are from? No, no, no, no. I hear what you guys are saying. I hear what you guys are saying. And I'm not throwing you some bail, but because Joe obviously, obviously wants to protect Ellie. That's his whole thing.

Don't sit down on patrol. Don't do this. Put her on the gate duty, whatever. How. And we know she's capable. Yeah. She shows how capable she is. She kills the deal with the dinner.

No, she don't. Hold on. She's fucked up. She got bitch. She got, that's what I'm saying. Like, she's capable, but not as capable of what she thinks she is. So Joe's, Joe, Jesus Christ. But Joel still needs to step, like, still.

he's right is that he needs to be there. That's the tension. Yeah, but, no, I get it, but also, Chal's saved his, say to this little girl's life. Like, you know. To him. All right. To him, what?

To him, no, she's right. He did. He robs Ellie of the, of the, like, the agency. The agency of the choice that she would have made in Seattle had she known that she was going to die. Guys. The lead up into that moment when she talks about,

okay, to relitigate the choice. It's the first thing that happens in the episode where he's like, she's like, Tell me everything that you did was truthful. And then he lies blatantly and she knows that he's lying. Yeah. And sometimes parents got a lot. I'm like, I'm like, but why does he lie?

For him, not for her, for him. It, he, okay. So I understand what you guys are saying. I get it, but I get it. But in a real way, fuck all that. And that's why Joel needs therapy. So, so in a real way, fuck all that. First of all, this is why the show worked.

This is why this episode worked because Ellie is proving in every scene that Joe's right that he's right and she's putting all kinds of people in danger. She's a thrill-seeking

19-year-old doofus. When she jumped on the zombie and started like hacking out, I'm like this can't be the most efficient way to be doing this. I mean, yeah, but if you know you're immune to zombies, you kind of will act, right? What is your mind? Maybe she knows that, but at the same time, their protocol, they're in the apocalypse.

Yes. This is not call me at 1130 to make sure you made it to Bennett's house. Y'all over there watching MTV Spring Break. They're in the apocalypse. It's monsters roaming around. I know that kids are going to be kids no matter what. Yeah, but you also got to be built a little different in the apocalypse. And like that's the possibility of you, like, having a gun by the time you're 16.

I had a gun when I was seven years old. I understand that. So what I'm saying is I get it. I'm not disagreeing with you, but what I'm saying is that while we're having the conversation about what Joel owes Ellie, I just think it's important to have the conversation about what Ellie owes the entire community. She's been given some responsibility. She has to do patrol. She has to do, and she out here fucking around, not listening to nobody.

Like literally, I was so mad when they see, they see it a blood, trail. And instead of like stopping, listening to the commander, the person in charge, she's like, all right, guess I'm going straight to danger. I'm like, hey, yo, what is wrong with you? When Jesse was like, we were at the beginning before the patrol, he's like, can you guys at least try to take this seriously? They laugh at his face. I was like, yo, you got to stand up. So this is, I get it. So this is my thing. This is why it worked, because what we're seeing is a set of problems that exist outside of the will we survive. structure, which is what the first season was about.

The first season was about, will we survive? Will we survive this? That's pretty much out. They have some things going. Now, obviously, there's always going to be threats to the town or threats to the thing, and you see that there could be a horde coming and things like that. That's why I used to love The Walking Dead, because the Walking Dead, Rick and the Crew, I remember there was one episode where it starts,

but they're all fucked up and they're scavenging through houses eating dog food and shit and they all fucked up and they come upon a community and it's like oh my God Rick and them have come on the community

and I'm dead and the people in community like y'all are fucked in three weeks this will be burnt to the ground my favorite thing about the walking dead by the end of it

I'm like hey y'all if y'all see Rick Michelle kill Rick you know like right

if you see Rick and Michelle and the rest of them kill him or say y'all take on me. That's why Joel's like build that wall. That's what I'm saying. And so it's so.

Joe. Joe did it, Steve. Yeah, it was crazy. That was crazy. Joel said it. And I'm though so bad because this, once again, this is why the episode worked for me. Because it's Steve's point. When Joe was just like,

hey, yo. Let us. He was just like, he kind of spitting. And I was like, you are a refugee too. You're a refugee too. that was, hey, we're a nation of immigrants. Yeah, we're all on the same side. We're a nation of immigrants.

Joel, remember, you're a refugee too. But even that, the tension in that scene, that scene is we can't build faster. There's a limit. It's the dead of winter. We don't have time to make a school. You got to turn up the build dial. Also, because she was asking, it's so funny where it's like, to your point, versiline is surviving.

Now they're trying to thrive. and everything that they're asking for in that scene is stuff where I'm just like, this isn't really about surviving. Like, he's like, okay, so the window is a little cold. Okay, so you don't have root. Like, it's... Well, the window's cold because they're out of cock because they're using it in other places and their resources are strained.

That's the kind of shit that I get into. Yeah, I get into... Because it doesn't seem like they have electricity. Do they have electricity? No, they do. They do. They have electricity. They have electricity.

Also, because I was into, like, when he goes to Gail his therapist and he's paying in weed. And she's like, I think it was her husband who, the husband that died that was like. Joel killed. That Joel killed. That was the weed farm. She's like, his shit used to be sticky. I'm like, hey, yo, sis, it's the apocalypse. Like, we're really like, man.

She said, that was the best thing in the show. That was the best thing in the show. Yes. Yeah. I can talk about that scene in all that. That was amazing. The best scene in the show, first of all, she goes, look, the buzz used to be huge and it used to be sticky like a motherfucker. Sticky like glue.

The reason why that was the best scene in the show, in my opinion, is because that's the scene to me that most exemplifies the choices that you would have to make in a situation like that. Yeah. Right. Everything becomes scarce in the apocalypse, but also people become scarce. So right now, you can meet somebody. and go, I'm not fucking with that person for whatever they did to me, and then you can decide to turn the page on them

because it seems like we have an endless resource of people. The older you get, you start to realize that you don't. That makes you kind of hold closer to people. But in the apocalypse, you don't. You don't have an endless resource of people. You don't know if you want to see more people. So the choices that you have to make about how you connect

and really reconcile with the people that are there because not only do you have to live with them, you have to build with them. There's probably not that many therapists. You can't just go to another therapist. I mean, there was even a good scene where it was like when Dina and,

Dina and what's her face? I'm forgetting her name. And Ellie. And Ellie are writing. And it's like, oh, she's just like, that's your girl. She's kind of the only lesbian here. And I was just like, she didn't say lesbian,

but I was like, oh, this is the apocalypse. Even the worst thing, the only other one. Like she said in a way Well, I was like, damn, girl. That's crazy. If you still homophobic in the apocalypse, that was crazy.

That's what I would become the governor. Because I would just hang you. I would have been like, it's like, of all the things to worry about. We all have fucking time for it. Like, if I was the fucking, if I ran the Apocalypse town,

there would be a thing. It would be like, hey, I'm just letting y'all know, y'all can all have. We're going to all eat some bore later. It's all gravy. If you racist or sexes, or homophobic is death penalty.

We don't have time for. I shoot you on the spot. I'm like, we don't have time. Zero tolerance. We don't have time for it. Like I get it back when like when we had lays and Doritos and stuff.

And the world was a bit more complicated. We had extra time. But we don't have time for the bullshit now. Right. You're dead. I'd argue. We don't have a time first right now. That's how militant you are about Doritos.

It's crazy though because I'm like, hey, yo, this is apocalypse. Y'all drinking on some nice whiskey. There's some. music, why you're going to ruin the dance being homophobic? I'm like, well, like, what? Like what? Because he started off as a family event. You're like, all right, maybe it's...

Too much kissing on the dance floor. They might be chosen around. When he's calling slurs, it was like, nah. You're dead. Yeah. But even when he was like, oh, this is a church. Like, I didn't even understand when they was making out in the middle of a dance where. I'm like, these kids don't seem muff up. Like, come on. They don't see mushroom people rise out of it.

Like, I think, though, some kissing is fine. I would have, had I been Joe, I would have domed them in front of it. everybody. Boom. Then maybe I was like, what is your problem? Then I would have given a speech. You guys don't get it. And then you're there.

It's a new day. Meanwhile, your therapist is in the corner drinking like, like, oh, boy. I see that one before. Like, uh, what did, uh, like, remember when Timmy went bad in Dune, I'll take your daughter's hand.

Remember what he was taught? No, not that part. Before, right? Part where he was screaming at it. I went back and watched it and it is worse than I remember. No, it's so bad. He's insane.

That's what I would have done. That's what I would have done. Gathered O'Hare's face when she was just like, not my problem. It's crazy, man. But that's the particular, and again, it exemplifies the, like, just the distance between Joel and Ellie because he does.

Because, you know, what she's supposed to do when somebody's messing with your daughter, you're like, hey, hey, back up. She's like, yo, hey, I could have handled that, bro. Mind your business. It's like, what am I not supposed to do something? We're careening towards Pluck Corner. Like, we're, we're, we're. Let's divert. Let's divert.

I don't want to skip over. And what you were saying about Catherine O'Hara and Pedro Pascal. Because A, the acting in that. was insane. She's a vet. When. I mean, between that in the studio.

Between the bed and the studio. She's doing her thing right now. She's also having a moment. She's got in a moment. When Pedro was like, I'm a good man, I'm like, dog,

that's how you know you cook. Because any single time, my man's like, I'm a good man. I'm like, this is my favorite thing about the show because it's that interesting thing

because in the last season, Ellie was like going through somebody's house and she was like looking at somebody's diary and she was like, was this what girls were worried?

about back then, like worrying about boys and what to wear on a Saturday night and some shit. And when you look at a scene like that, when you have two people that were clearly around before the world went bad, and not only are they carrying the things that they have to worry about in a community that relies on them, but having to kind of like make sense of themselves in a world that completely flipped over overnight, Joel doesn't understand that like the work that you have to do in that room with a therapist is like, tell on yourself. and be the level of honest that makes you scared enough to change

and he still won't do it. And even when his therapist, whose husband he murdered, and it confesses that she hates him for that and she's still willing to move forward with that, he won't budge. I think that he played that. So the reason why I love that scene

is because I'm not so sure what more he could have done. He actually, he could have been honest, but at the same time, he gave her as that scene is a brilliant to the point, and that's why it's meant to be interpreted differently.

That scene is a brilliant, give or take, right? Uh-huh. He probably, maybe he's not ready to be honest, but from the beginning, anybody that's been in therapy, for the beginning, she subverts what a typical interaction in that, in that context is.

She's drinking, she's curt, they're almost never curt. Yeah, and they're way too personal. Like, she's drinking, She's curt. She criticizes his payment. At the beginning of it, she does not have time for his shit. There's something she has got to tell him and he has got to listen.

I actually do not in the moment blame him for not knowing what to say to her because he's there for help. And she says, look, not only do I not want to help you, I've tried to help myself by changing. my orientation towards you, and I can't do it. Right. So I don't know anyone who would be, man, one time I was in therapy with my therapist, and she had had a fight with her husband. Oh. And she was trying to get through it and trying to do the whole thing.

Through the session, yeah, she was trying to get through, trying to do the whole thing. And I actually felt played. I was actually like, yo, can you do this? And then I was like, whoa. Oh. I was like, hey, I really, in a real way, I can make time to reschedule. She goes, thank you. Thank you.

And then the next session, she told me what it was that she had been going through. But I was so in crisis at that point that my first reaction was to be like, hey, man. Right. You know what I mean? Like, snap to it. This is your job. So that scene to me wasn't just about them. it was also about so many of the interactions

that people in those towns probably have to have. And this, can I, can I ask something here for like how we go about the show? This insight is like kind of something that like, at this point in The Last of Us Part 2, the game, there's a interaction that Tommy, or that Joel has with somebody else where he opens up a bit more in a context like this.

And it kind of changes and unburdens him from a couple of the things that he did with Ellie that kind of acted as his therapy session, but it moves on a bit quickly. And I'm curious as to, like, the contrast between Joel having not really told anybody in the subsequent five years what happened with Ellie and him in that hospital.

And to kind of be carrying that for so long and still not want to be it shame, be it guilt or, you know, guilt or, you know, being the guy that possibly prolonged the apocalypse and prevented a cure, like I'm curious as to know what that guilt like looks like I mean it looks like what he's doing right now that's why when you guys are like

oh man your team your team Joel like I can't believe Ellie would act like this she knows he lied to him about something well also to be to be fair I've interpreted the last season as when Joe gets to the fire like gets to the fireflies and all that shit he's kind of like

or gets to the hospital he's a little freaked out because he's like she might die for nothing. There's no, like, multiple people have died during this process. Is this a cure really real? I'm not making that. So he made a selfish decision, though. He did.

At the end of the day, he made a selfish decision. Yeah, the decision was made for him. So, but let's talk it out. Do you think, you think maybe not? You think maybe he was, you think he thinks he was, so he saved her life either way. Do you think he saved her life for her, or did he save her life? or did he save her life for him? I think he made the choice

that a parent would make. Which makes it so, which makes it kind of like, you understand it where you're just like, hey, I understand that like, my daughter might want to sacrifice herself for the greater good.

But Ellie was how old? She was, what, 14? Like, and I do get it. Like, it's like, that's why it's such a good show where you're just like, you're taking the choice out of this, this girl or maybe one.

women's hands. But like, also, that's what parents do all the time when it's just like, hey, yo, you're too young for me. Doesn't make it right though. But it doesn't make it it wrong. And that's why it's complicated. That's why it's complicated. That's why it's complicated. And that's what it is. That's why it's tough for Joel to change because he's in that room and she asks him dead in the face, you are lying about something. What are you lying about? He's like, I'm a good man. And we, every single person who watch the show knows, that's, not that you're not a good man, but you are absolutely hiding something. That's And you don't think you're a good man.

Sometimes you got a lie, bro. But he's clearly, but he's also lying to himself. Like, he does feel bad about this. It's, yeah, he feels bad about it. I'm not saying what Joe did was right. It wasn't right, but it's not, I don't think it was wrong. Sometimes you got a lie. Yeah, but that's, that's the magic.

That's what it's good. Like, everything in this episode did, it clearly illustrates that neither him nor Ellie have ever talked about that ever again. Well, I think they, they've, they've never actually. come to terms with the fact like, yeah, I lied to you. Well, she's acting like a fucking brat. And so I don't know that he feels like there's an open line of communication. By the way, her acting like a brat, 19 is a little old, but she's her developed, 19 is a little old.

Like her development is arrested. Man, bro, by the time I was, by the time I got to be 19 or 20, there was kind of like an understanding. At this point, you're a sophomore in, like you're a sophomore, a freshman song, there was kind of an understanding. 17, 16, but remember Ellie's development is arrested because probably moving a little bit slower. Generations in apocalypse. Right, right. So probably, so this is probably

she's probably experiencing her teenage teenage years like right about now. The angst and all of it. She's falling in love for the first time. She was in a Nirvana. She had a girlfriend before that had died because of this and like that was kind of the whole

impetus of being like if I ever sacrifice my life like it has to be for something. It can't be for right. Well, I think the genius of the show, too, is that not only did Joel and Ellie not talk about it, but kind of like the metaphor, the underlying thing is like, she's trying to scream like, hey, I'm immune. I'm immune. And Tommy's like, we don't talk about it. And it's like, I'm just like, oh, this is a metaphor for her sexuality as well, where it's just like, oh, she's like, she's lived five years in this closet of like, I can't be my full self. She just wants to scream. And she just wants to scream out loud. And like these two men in her,

in Joel and Tommy are like, her family's like, tamping that down. Tamping that down. So I do get why she's like so like, I just want to kill something. I just want to get out there. I don't want to be trapped here with you. I like the Tommy seen a lot.

And I think it's very interesting that Tommy lied about it to Joel. Yeah. It's like, yo, who are you shooting with? I just me, man. It's like, we know that's not true. Oh, but that's that's that uncle's shit. That's uncle's shit. That's like, that's that uncle's shit.

It's like, hey, dad, can you teach me how to, you know, teach me to whip it? I don't want to like get a drive the lessons. And I don't feel like I can't do it. I can't do it. Stay in the house. And then rest in peace, Uncle Mark would be like,

got you. Got you. So he'd take, he go out in the back. Teach me, teach me how to drive. And then come back and be like, well, y'all was at? Oh, we was about there playing basketball.

What were we being? I was like, yeah, but he really took me back there and was teaching me how to drive. I'm the worst uncle because, like, what about little niece and nephew are acting up? I do do the mental calculation. I'm just like, y'all were some assholes today, but I know your pants gonna whip your ass.

So I'm like, I'm like, sometimes I'm like, do I tell them? Do I really give them the whole thing? It was an all right day. It just can't be me. It can't be me that's going to lead to it. I'll say, I'll tell your parents, but I'm not going to tell them. And you can pretty much have whatever you want. Just leave me to fuck alone.

But you got to be like, hey, listen, they was out there. That glass vase style was there. But at the same day, like, look, I got you. Like, don't worry about that. Take it easy. You know what I mean? like, chill out on my little honey, you feel me?

Yeah, no scars, no bars. If you don't do nothing. Whoa. No scars, I'm saying. If you don't do nothing where they could tell, like, if you don't do nothing where they could, like, where it's a scar where you got, like, a big scar on your face, and I got to be like, yeah, he fell.

And I won't rat on you. No scars, no bars. I won't write on you. If you don't do nothing that where it's obvious, like, if you break your leg, I'm not going to be like, oh, shit, that nigga just laying down. I'm not going to do that.

Fine. Okay, that's what you mean by that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nika, don't do this. That's my family. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. Don't play with me and my fucking family. I'm not trying to play. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business.

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So, Dino, how we feel about Dina? She's awesome. Dina is awesome, but she's also messy as hell. She's the worst person to put with Ellie, man. You're so drunk. No, I'm not. I'm high. Ellie don't need nobody to egg her on, bro.

Ellie do not need a player too. When they're on the patrol, they see the blood. And Ellie's like, let's go. And Dina's like, let's go. And then they get to the place. They're like, well, Kat's a terrible manager. And there, I mean, Kat had no control over the situation at all. We got to talk about her.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. When they're at the, they're like, they have the guns. They're like, what was that one? No, it's two. Then they go knives only like it's a lasso mission. Yeah.

Like, y'all are not serious, man. When they took the Knives out, I'm like, they're a great team. They're a great team, but like. They're a horrible team. You guys, because Dino was great. She's like, I know you're going to move, but please stay fucking put while I get down there. It's thing one and thing two. Just like two people with, it's bringing back arcane.

It's like a street, book street. Yeah. With, you got, y'all are not locked in. I know you're not locked in. This is funny. It's the fucking shit that you're saying. And I don't look it up after. He's like on urban dictionary and beautiful.

It's like, okay, what was that? It's like you put up to those two characters who separately probably have like some brain cells working, but I see these to put them together. There's nothing going on up there. They just out there wild. And that's Dina and Ellie. Who's Dina's boyfriend? I like to.

Jesse. Jesse was just like. Jesse's going to get so tired of this bullshit. I'm no bad for Jesse because, you know, Dina must have said like, hey, yo. you're not the one. Hey, if my ex starts dancing with somebody and then steals my drink, I'm like, hey, the game is a gameplay.

What are they going to do with Steve Parkin? Dana is a little, Dana adds a flare to the show that the show. Oh, no, no, she's great. She does it because, like, even, like, her devil-may-care attitude, the fact that she moves throughout the town with this, like, fierce, uncompromising beauty and fearlessness. Like, with everyone,

even when she's like talking to Joel at the beginning, brilliantly written scene. Yeah. And he asked her, how do you, like, how do you tell whether or not the wire isn't here alive? And she goes,

I licked them. I was like, and then you make the same face Joel makes. Sorry, you're not being serious. That's interesting. That she said that. And it's interesting writing.

It's cheeky when you really think about it. Like, how do you, How does Dina figure out whether there's not something that's alive? She licks it. I'm just being for, I'm telling you guys, these writers be in these rooms. I'm telling you, I brought these writers being in these rooms. Say what you're trying to say.

These writers be in these rooms and they be putting a little subtext in there like that. Like, and so when I first, when I first saw that scene, I was like, oh. Uh-huh. So she likes to incite something, and she incites people in different ways. The way she will incite Ellie is to awaken something in Ellie sexually. She likes to incite people. She's a fire star. Which was crazy.

You know what I mean? On the dance for The Whisperin? Come on. She's faded, though. If you guys don't want, like, spoilers, fast forward 30 seconds. But to your point, are the writers getting a little too cheeky? Because, like, Joel's nephew was like, pow, pow, bow, and Joel's like, oh. Or, like, Dina was like, yeah, everybody should know you're a threat.

And I'm like, all right, we get it. Like, we, there was a lot of foreshadowing happening in this episode. I mean, so now, you have to remember, I haven't, I don't know anything that's happened. So we should say this real quick. Who knows where this story goes in here right now? I don't. I generally know. Like, I had the opportunity in, I watched a little bit of it, enough to know the major sticking point that people had with the show.

With the game and then, and the show now. But move it, but I made the conscious decision because I really never played the game. I made the conscious decision to at some point stop learning. Sure. So, like, what you just said, I know the central tension that people are having with it, I won't talk about it right here. So it's not to spoil it. as it relates to, you know, but there are parts of it that I don't know what's going to have. Oh, so like for you guys, like, did you see some of that as like heavy foreshadowing?

No, like they're being a little cheeky. The whole thing is heavy. Yeah, the whole thing is. Yeah, but you could read a lot into that, but there's also like a lot of, a number of new things that the show introduces. Not only is there, like, characters that we know that we have not seen even lightly referenced in the game that we'll seemingly get a whole story with. Like, you know, Joey Pants is. in this show as a character that was even like minutely referenced

in the game so that might have like a lot more to do with a lot of things. There's a lot of new places that the show can go with zagging that the games didn't have like a possible like infection and Jackson a la those rusty pipes with the yearning of the tentals that was not in the game at all.

Are we in the head of our sales right now? I think so. There's a lot of places that I think that the show can go that the game hasn't and I think it has already proven that in episode one. So one thing I wanted to ask y'all, I don't, I'm not getting into the toxicity of this conversation, but what this first episode, I was wondering, Ellie. Ellie's 19, right? And I was kind of wondering, I'm like, is she too kid like? Is it, is it, how do I put this? there was a lot of pluck

and I was wondering how do you get the character of Ellie and that performance to be a little bit more centered and a little bit something that I can take her a little bit more seriously as the thrust of the story if that makes any sense. So I think this is purposefully done.

So I'm going to be doing a pluck rating every week and I'm going to start it right now. Okay. The rating is out of 10. This is a 10 level pluck. It was 12 to be. It's a 10 level plug. The plug starts early,

when she didn't want the big-ass nigger to knock her out the fuck you want. Like, they're not going to knock you out. They're not going to knock you out. Raiders won't pull a punch. They're not going to knock you out. Get your fucking ass up and go over there. They already bust your shit.

And then he was trying to tap. He didn't let him. Everything about it is wrong. She's plucking. She's screaming. Like, these things can hear. She's like, like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, I'm telling her they, all they, she's screaming.

She's screaming about being immune. No, controller. Side control. I mean, even when she falls through the fucking ceiling, and Dina's like, hey, yo, just stay put. Just stay put. I hate pluck. We just, y'all fucking around.

Y'all doing unnecessary shit. All right. We barely got enough grain to last us through the winter. Please don't make it harder. Okay, she's plucky. However, I thought about this. I think that's intentional. Because I think her arc

is going to be from plucky devil-may-care teenager who doesn't take anything seriously to someone who understands their importance and the importance of structure in a time like this and I think that's going to be the central arc of the season. I think that you're likely right and I think what this first episode did as far as establishing who Ellie is at 19

it almost is kind of aware of the criticisms not only that has plagued the first season of Last of Us, but the first and second game, where a lot of, like, bad faith critics of, you know, Last of Us were, like, I can't take out at least seriously as, like, a physical threat or as a possible, like... I'm not saying that. I was more so good.

No, no, no, and that's not the thing, because, like, all of those things are, like, stupid and, frankly, like, not worth dignifying. But the show is where, like, Hey, yeah, she can kick somebody's ass. She does know where we're going to run a gun. I'm glad you brought that up. We're about to stop giving that oxygen.

I honestly. I don't see. I feel half bad even saying. No, no. It's gravy. It's gravy because we're going to get to it anyway. We're about to stop talking about, we're about to stop validating you guys

and your incessant need to be haters and dicks and assholes online with everything that you say. We're going to make y'all turn the channel by turning the channel on, y'all. Like every time we get a female lead, a black lead, a gay lead, a trans lead, I'm not about to have a conversation about these assholes every single time we do it. Yeah, it's annoying. We just, we're not, I mean, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have brought it up, see, just like you. No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm saying that I get it, we've heard it, we're going to talk about the last of us. We're going to talk about the acolyte. Actually, we won't be talking about it. We're going to talk about the shows, the thing, the deal. We're not about to talk about y'all. because this is a new way of those same people centering themselves in conversations we should be having about things that we love. So we're not doing that no more.

And the main crux of Ellie in this first episode is that she is a character that can get under people's skin sometimes. Especially Joel who's like desperately trying to crack the idea of a relationship with her again and it's just not happening because it's not the same. And then she seeks all of that in Dina and acting out and like with Tommy and all those other things. the things. And I think that that's something that

is even better illustrated than it was in the games when it is in this first episode. I'm very confident in the fact that, like, Ellie's got, like, a very good kind of, like, character structure in these first few moments. We're going to talk about Abby at any point? Because I have

thoughts. Uh, yeah. What do you got thoughts for Abby? Five years of hating is kind of crazy. I'm not going to lie to. I mean, you, you ain't never been a real hate it. I'm not going to lie to you. Any apocalypse? lips. That's all she got left.

That's the only thing keeping her going. That's all the only keeping her warming, and I was like, he killed the whole fucking crew. I feel like there are bigger things at stake to wear.

Oh, hell no. I've never disagreed with you more. You've got to get your lick back. He killed the whole crew. From, like, tracking them all the way first of all, it took you five years ago from Seattle to Jackson. I mean, you got to find the guy.

That's what I'm saying, right? How do you find somebody in the past? That's got to be fucking hard. And that's what I'm, It would take five years. And she was even like, yeah, we don't know if he's Joel or Joe. And she was just like, and yeah, he's like 5-11. A scar on his face.

I was like, shit, she locked in. And that's why I'm at, like, because that's why. Honestly, that's what it would have to be. In a regular time, in like normal times, like, yeah, all that kind of hate you, what do you got to really worry about? You just got to get your lick back. That's cool. It's the apocalypse, man. There's zombies.

Raiders, this whole thing. It's a mighty dangerous to sacrifice all that for a lick. Yeah, but yeah, maybe it's the guy that might have cost you the cure. Maybe, but that, and it's also the paupus. But it's also super duper hate. To them, that was the cure. We don't know if that was a cure. It might not have been, right?

But it might have been. But you still killed my pops. I can understand that. But again, there's so much other stuff going on in the world right now. Yeah. For that to keep, again, keep you warm, keep you a lot. alive for five years, we might have never, ever, ever seen hate on this level in fiction ever.

And this is the best part about The Last of Us, like, in all forms, you can empathize with almost every single character that's on screen. Pretty much. If you were in Abby's shoes, you might be doing the same thing. If you were in Joel's shoes, you might be doing the same thing. After a couple years, you've got to be like, Ellie, Ellie, I can't, I can't get on board with it. I mean, Ellie is a bit of a unique case. I can't go on board.

Ellie wasn't spinning at all. Ellie, Ellie, Ellie didn't have a very short. Strong episode. Do not let Ellie. Is that what you were saying? Like, even at the end when... Barbecue.

Like, that was fun. Baby Qaeda. Dina rules. That just showed Dina is just, she's... She's... She got to games. Dina Lina Rizzed up. W. Riz. Dina,

Dina's biggest Riz moments were when they were getting ready to go on patrol and she's looking at Ellie. I'm like, Ellie, man, she's throwing you the vibes. What's something? Ellie's scared. She rizzed her up with the barbecue. She rizzed her up with the barbecue. Rizder up in the, in the dance, right?

Yeah. This, Ellie's worst moment was the dude called you a D word. Joe pushed him down and said, get out. And you said, what are you doing to Joel? I'm like, I would have snapped. I'm like, Joe is so sad. You know, boom, boom. I'm going to crash out of all of Jackson.

Then I would have given the D-1 crash out. I would have given the D-Oon speech again. I am pointing the way. I am Joel. Oh, my days. None of you are free from my ride. They call this planet too. Honestly, I was mad at Ellie Tugel.

I was just like, hey, yo, you was just beating up the homie earlier in the episode. And I was like, I'm like, Joel pushed him down. You need to jump in. You got to get a couple stops in and then be like... But she was advancing towards him. Yeah. Like, she was about to do something. I mean, she might have, but even Dino's like,

you don't got to do all that. Here's the thing. I get why Ellie was upset. I'm just like, hey, yo, you could punch this motherfucker and get you. You robbed me of my righteous death. And then you like to Joe, that was fucked up. I got it handled. I don't need you.

You rob me my righteous death, and now you robbed me of a righteous ass woman. Yeah, I mean, maybe that, look, it wouldn't have been no kiss if it wasn't for Joe. All right. You'd have been kissing, you'd have been kissing Joan of Arc or somebody in the upper room. All right. Like, it wouldn't, like, it wouldn't, like,

And we all would have been cured. You know what I'm saying? It wouldn't have been no kids. I have a question about the cure. Will the cure kill the people who have already been mushroomed? I mean, well, we don't know that because that's never the case. I thought the cure was more like just a vaccine. So if you get a bit in, like, you're good.

Okay. But it wouldn't cure the zombies. So, okay, because that's different. No, yeah. It's not like you're checking. If the cure will kill the zombies, Ellie got to go Because then you could bring everybody back

They don't kill the zombie There would be no way They're decaying They're like fucking You would just Well here's the thing You would be like Elliot Okay say everybody's immune

Then Then once you just kill all the zombies Yeah Wait out with zombies You know what I have a question If Let's say

How are you gonna get the cure To France What's going on in France? Last of Us France What's going on in Nigeria? What about us? Like, that's the show name. Once again, strike two, man.

Last of us, season three, what about us? So I got to ask y'all, Fifth Midnight, Pree, last of us. Let's say Bozeman has the kid. Hey, Bozeman wants to be sacrificed. He's like, I want to go. You guys are dead. Exactly. Mint boys, are you killing?

Are y'all letting Bozeman die for the cause? Because I wouldn't. No, you guys are dead. Like, everyone, no. Exactly. No way. Exactly. Because if I kill Bose, then you're going to be happy to me.

And y'all's getting hungry. To the end of the earth. It won't take no five here. Liza al-Layth and Al-Gai. If I show up and I'm already dead, you get there, you're going to be like Minotty, see it, uh, see a stringer. So it's cool to save Bozeman, but Ellie can't, uh, Joe can't save Ellie? No, I'm, I'm team saver, man.

Exactly. You know what I mean? Like, you had to make a call. It, you kill Bozeman? I kill Ellie. All right. Well, you kill Bozeman. That's what you're saying.

You would kill Bozeman. That tracks, too. Steve is never like you the most, too. No, he likes you the most. You and Chuck. But the only reason that he's so fond of Jomey is because Jomey's going to be a good dad. Jomey has, Jomey doesn't get what I like to call pat fatigue. Oh, right.

He'll always. Jomey will sit there with Bozeman. and well he will out, Bozeman is the type of dog he doesn't get tired of being patted. Jomey will sit there with Bozeman. I've seen him Pat Bowman for an entire half of football.

And to a point where I'm like, Bozeman leave Jomey alone. And Jomey's like, nah, he's cool. But I've also seen Bozeman try to get some love from Steve and see him like, get off. Get off. Get it. Get away. But here's the thing, though.

When a certain lovely lady is around, with Steve. Steve puts on a show. Steve puts a very, very compassionate because she loves animals. Steve is a fake. I am a fraud.

When a certain lovely ladies around, they sit down and they play with Bose men together because she loves Bobbitt. That's all I'm saying. She's a beautiful soul. You're so fake. You're so fake. I can be like a real connection with you. No shame and fraud.

All right. So as we wrap up, the show is back, the world is back. I think we've pretty much discuss everything. Danger on the horizon. What do you see as being... I mean, I know that you guys have played the game. But what do you guys see as being

the most potent danger? Well, the pipes. Yeah, that was right. The mushrooms coming out of the pipes crazy. There's also new stalker. We didn't really talk about the new type of. Oh, we need... You know what?

Before I even do that, actually, let's just do it now. Just keep... So there's the mushroom. There's the mushrooms coming through the pipe. There's the new... new stalker and I guess the zombies are becoming smarter because even the bear it seems

like what they said that it was only like six who like destroyed a whole fucking bear which is fucking insane and it seems like what's Tommy's wife's to name? Oh, overia. Yeah, she was basically being like, yo there seems to be a horde or there seems to be

something coming towards them. So the stalker represents the biggest the biggest concern that I would have if I was in the apocalypse in the situation that they're in, which is the evolution of the actual zombies.

Yeah, that council could have been doing some more... Because that zombie sounded human. It wasn't doing the click-c-c-c-c-sound. It was like... It wasn't clicking, it didn't rush her. It hid... It had a good crown to...

And, like, the whole... It looked like the... What's the dude on Netflix that got the show? Oh, the Baby Randier or whatever? Nah, not him. That show was crazy. Well, he is a reindeer, but he's on Netflix. Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth. He looked that motherfucker that looked like the sweet tooth. I thought Sweet Tooth was in that bitch. And so that is a very present, like a very direct danger. The show is always going to be a tension between the danger of humanity and the danger of things that are subhuman or superhuman, which would be the zombies. And it gave us kind of both dynamics. the animus that exists inside the town the actual real

we don't have enough resources they're still hate inside the town Joel now has a new enemy because this guy called her the D word and at the same time what would be the most concerning thing to me is the zombies are evolving right yeah it's that and I'm curious to see

the like the implementation of this backstory between Joel and his therapist's husband because that that's an unexplored avenue in the game. And obviously, I think that we're going to have to see something in like either a flashback or added context there that probably adds to what's going on in his life. So I'm not tripping.

Eugene wasn't in the- Eugene was mentioned in the game and he was a character that had seemingly passed away of natural causes from in the game. And now that's a completely different story here. Because I was tripping on that too. I was like, I don't know Eugene from season one. What's going on? I looked back.

I was like, ah, this is something that we're probably going to mention now. I mean, something happened in the past we're going to see in the future. I will say, killing someone's husband and then acting like they're going to just be the greatest therapist as well. I'm like, I'm like, and the town weed dealer of all people. Joel arrogant. Can't kill the weed man. Yeah, Joel killed the weed man and then went to his wife for help. You can't do that, bro.

Joe. Also, if we be real, if you killed a weed man, everybody in town. Exactly. They like, we have got, killing the cure or killing the weed man. I mean, we talked about it a little earlier. but that weed looked garbage. It looks. Because Joel ain't good at,

they killed the nigga who knew how to make the sticky, like, boo, inky, inky, dicky. Imagine it was like, yo, man, like, come bring, bring a dime, whatever, and come with, like, sticks, right. You're going to be hot. But also, the weed man didn't, didn't pass it down. He didn't have, like, some people where he's like,

some tutelage. Some tutelage. These are the skills that need to carry on in the apocalypse. You know what we have, you know what we never really discussed? What dispensary culture has really. done to people's weed diets. What do you mean about that?

This is what I mean. Like, in Baton Rouge, you had to smoke bad wheat. Yeah. You had to smoke bad weed. Like, it was in Baton Rouge, one person, two people had really good weed. And them guys was living like kings. All right? Right.

Everybody else, if you want smoke weed, you have to smoke some bad wheat. But when I came out to L.A., I remember walking in my roommate's room one time. And I was like, God damn. What the, whoa, shit. What y'all in this bitch smoking? And they weren't smoking it. They had just opened the thing.

You know what I'm saying? They weren't smoking it. It's a different cut. Smoking on a bad room where you were just like. Oregano. I'm not saying that we always had bad weed. I'm just saying you could get bad weed. And once you know good weed, then it's like, yeah.

And then there hasn't been bad weed since. It's like 2008 because I had niggins who was getting the bodega weed where I'm just like this thing. Well, see, that's New York. That's New York. That's New York. You come on to L.A. man. You come on Southern California.

I was different. I was like, I was like, it's nuts. Well, I was like, well, let's go. By the way, am I L.A. peeled? Are people in other areas still smoking bad wheat? Well, I mean, I know there's levels to. I will say New York, the New York wheat to me is a step. It's like a couple steps now.

Yeah, well, because I, bad weed. Bad weed. does not exist in Los Angeles. But here's the thing. Because the dispensary... Because the medmen of every, like, I mean, the earlier you legalize it, the more like people come in and innovate, whatever.

It's probably still illegal some places, right? Even though it's socially acceptable now, like, legally you can't grow it, can't make it. So you still have to, like, go under the table, whatever. And it's never going to be as good as when you can just, like, make it up and, like, you know, tweak the THC levels here and do all that stuff. Sometimes I used to game pace when I, like,

going to a dispensary and they try to like, hey, yo, this one, do this thing. And I'm like, all right. They're telling me a lot. Now I'm just like, you should. Put it in the back. Just put the wheat in the back. Just put the fries in the bag.

Put the feet in the bag. What you're not getting to tonight? Hey, listen. What year were you born? 1980. Listen, I got something that can send you back to 1980. Nigger, you smoke too much weed. Put the weed in the bag.

I don't want no pipes. I don't want nothing. I want to get out of here before somebody see me. All right. There's no shame. weed. No, that's cool. You know what we should do? You guys want to come over this, this, this, oh, I don't want to, Joe me's parents, listen.

I won't, first of all, I don't smoke. Like, I don't smoke at all. I remember in college, my roommates. I don't. You hear that, you know, I don't smoke? I don't smoke. I mean, y'all know, what do you mean? I've never got high before my life, I promise you. That's like, you know, can we please do a vlog when we get Jomi high for the first suggestion? Hey, guys, can we please? Guys, I'm telling you guys right now. We're going to overwhelm the people

Run the other side We're just getting joking We're just bringing in the We're just getting into a lot Muchis for real No, I have anxiety, bro I went to a dispensary First time during the pandemic, right?

Because my anxiety was so bad So I was like, they were like CBD, you know, that's the thing I was like I still get text from those guys Because I was so I was terrified I'm still on the mail list

I'm showing the mail list bro I was terrified dog I went in there bro Like I had my hoodie on my mask on And they're like, yeah, we got this stuff. I'm like, actually, nah, just take me to the gummies, bro. They're like, bet. We got this TAC.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just the regular one. C-B-D, man. Just give me the lowest one. I was scared out of my mind, bro. I know what to expect. This is my last week story? I got, I was not that high, but I was new to L.A.

All my lights were down and I take a shower. I'm getting ready for bed. All of a sudden, I just see, like, a light flashing through my window. I'm like, what's going on? I'm lifting up the window. I don't see any light. Shut it down again. Flashlight.

I'm like, goddamn. Next thing, all I hear, bang, babe, bang, bang, bang, bang,

on my door. I'm like, what? Like, I was acting like, I was like, yo, they're going to run in here.

I don't want, a dog, it's my fucking super being like, hey, you got some Amazon packages. Oh, oh, my God. I was like,

I was like, that's it. Hell no. I get to, I'd have done the Lizon, Agaiping in. Because,

because, because you don't fucking scare. me, nigga, I'm black. Listen, we can took them over. Y'all can get high. You know what I'm saying? I'm a supporter, man. My roommate's such a deal in college, man.

We're going to get you high. See how you just snitch? All right. That's look at that. That's a lot. That is a wrap. This week on the ring of verse feed, tomorrow the House of Arroy will give you their deep dive

on the last of us season two premier. There's a lot to talk about. We did it here, but they're going to go even deeper. This week, the midnight boys will react to the finale of Daredevil worn again and later this week. But match breaks down on The Last of Us as well. our producers are Alea Cinearis. Jonathan, Kerma, Jomi, a dinner on on social.

Hashtag Jackson Jomi. Jackson Jomey. Additional production from Arjuna, Ramigapam. Chuck, take us out. Don't kill the weed, man. Joel's therapist sucks. Next episode, Ellie really got to chill on the plug. Feels like every product claims real protein these days.

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