HBO has finally unleashed The Last of Us, based on the acclaimed Playstation video game and the super sized pilot, “When You’re Lost in the Darkness,” does not disappoint. The brutal, powerful and masterfully executed pilot isn’t pretty to watch, but is worth watching, even after a global pandemic, which makes the story all the more relevant today.
How It Began | In 1968, during a televised panel on viral threats, epidemiologists discuss the threats of fungi taking over the human mind and that if a fungal infection takes over the planet, game over for mankind. Fast forward to 2003 in Austin, Texas, and a man named Joel (Pedro Pascal) is awoken by his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), who cooks him a birthday breakfast as he and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) drive Sarah to school. After school, Sarah brings Joel’s watch to a shop to fix it, but the owner of the shop ushers her out as soon as the watch gets fixed.
After picking up some cookies from her neighbor, Sarah goes home and gives the fixed watch to Joel. Soon after, Joel gets a call from Tommy asking him to bail him out of jail for stopping a fight. Joel puts Sarah to bed and drives off, but later that night, explosions are heard outside, waking Sarah up. She goes to the neighbors’ house and finds a trial of blood leading to an old woman with strands emerging from her mouth who runs at her until Joel and Tommy arrive and Joel smashes the woman’s head with a wrench. They grab Sarah and drive off into town, but a plane falls out of the sky and wrecks their truck.
They crawl out of the truck and get separated from Tommy as Joel and Sarah make a run for it and see people spreading the virus to others. One of them comes alive and runs after Joel and Sarah, but gets killed by a soldier, who gets orders over a walkie from his superior- and then opens fire on them. Tommy kills the soldier, but Sarah was shot in the stomach and dies in Joel’s arms. And we’re not even halfway through.
How It Is Now | Twenty years later, Boston is in ruins and a little girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) arrives at a quarantined camp. Joel is in a different camp burning bodies for a living and sells drugs to a soldier in exchange for a truck. Elsewhere, a woman named Tess (Anna Torv) is negotiating with a guy who ripped her off, when a bomb goes off and kills him. Tess escapes, but gets arrested by armed soldiers, while Ellie yells profanity at the guards who are keeping her locked up.
Joel asks around about Tommy’s location and gets it from a guy who warns him that there are raiders near where Tommy could be. The next morning, he wakes up and Tess is in his apartment explaining that the guy who ripped her off had the battery for their truck. A woman named Marlene (Merle Dandridge) goes to talk to Ellie and reveals herself to be the leader of a gang called the Fireflies. She seems to know who Ellie is and tells her something that she says cannot be repeated to anyone.
The Mission | Joel and Tess sneak into the subway tunnels to jump the guy who stole their battery, but find a rotted corpse in the tunnel. They continue to find a bunch of bodies in the building and see Marlene and Ellie in the hall. Marlene offers Joel and Tess a deal: Take Ellie out of the city to a safe house and they’ll give them everything they need to go to find Tommy. They agree and Joel and Tess take Ellie back to Joel’s apartment, where Ellie finds a code key hidden in a book. Before Joel can answer her questions about it, Tess tells them that it’s time to go.
They sneak outside the camp through an underground tunnel, but get caught by the same soldier Joel was selling drugs to, who scans them for signs of the virus. After he scans Ellie, Joel snaps and beats the soldier to death, getting flashbacks of the soldier that killed Sarah. Tess then sees the virus scanner popping up positive for Ellie, but Ellie tells them that she was infected three weeks ago and isn’t sick. Left with no options, Tess and Joel take Ellie past a quarantine warning fence into a ruined city.
The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO.