I Genuinely Can’t Watch This Week’s “The Last Of Us” Episode The Same Way After Noticing These Easter Eggs And Details
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey perfectly recreated the beloved space scene from “The Last of Us” video game.
1. First, the opening flashback with a young Joel and his dad is new for the TV show and doesn’t exist in The Last of Us Part II. Tony Dalton, who stars as Joel’s dad, is set to have a role in Naughty Dog’s upcoming game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which also stars Tati Gabrielle, who plays Nora.
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2. When Joel’s dad puts his hand on Joel’s shoulder, you can see he’s wearing the watch that Joel has worn since the beginning of the series and in the games.
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3. Since this episode is centered on flashbacks with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Joel was re-added to the end of the opening credits when a silhouette of him and Ellie grows out of the cordyceps. Joel’s silhouette was previously removed from the credits after Episode 2.
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4. The moth on the neck of Ellie’s guitar that Joel builds for her matches the one that is also on her guitar in the game. It’s shown in the opening scene of The Last of Us Part II.
5. After intentionally burning her arm, Ellie tells Joel that she just wanted to be able to wear short sleeves again, which is the same thing Ellie tells Dina in Episode 4.
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6. In Ellie’s room, you can see she has a cassette tape for A-ha’s album, Hunting High and Low, which is where “Take on Me” is from, which, of course, she sang to Dina in Episode 4 in the music shop.
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7. Joel sings “Future Days” by Pearl Jam to Ellie after gifting her the guitar, which is the song Ellie began to sing inside the theater in Episode 5. It’s an important song from The Last of Us Part II game, where Joel also sings it.
8. Ellie trying to guess what Joel’s about to show her is something directly from the game. In the game, Ellie also guesses if it’s a convertible, a dinosaur, and more. She also thinks it’s “a lotta kittens” instead of “litter.”
9. Joel showing Ellie the Tyrannosaurus rex statue outside the museum is also directly from The Last of Us Part II.
10. Also, Ellie climbing up on the head of the dinosaur is something players can do in the game.
11. The layout of the space museum also matches almost exactly what is shown in the game, right down to “A walk through the stars” being painted on the wall, and the helmets and space suits being around, with Ellie taking a helmet.
12. Everything that happens in the space capsule — Joel giving Ellie the recording and Ellie imagining being in space — is a shot-for-shot and line-for-line recreation of the scene from the game. The recording is from the Apollo 11 launch, which was the first mission to land humans on the moon in 1969.
13. Also, Ellie’s love of space in both the games and the show comes from Ashley Johnson’s love of space and astronauts. Creator Neil Druckmann revealed, “And Ashley loves space, and astronauts, and knows everything about it. And I’m like, ‘I want to make Ellie even more like Ashley.'” Ashley did the motion capture and voice for Ellie in The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, and The Last of Us: Part II.
14. At the diner, Gail is reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. The book is from 1949 and tells the story of the fall of civilization from a deadly disease, which is similar to what happens in the TLOU universe. The main character in the book is also named Ish, who is a character that is mentioned in The Last of Us in notes that are found in the first game.
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15. Before dying, Eugene tells Joel that he needs to see her face before he dies. In Episode 2, Ellie’s face is the last thing Joel sees before dying.
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16. Joel also tells Eugene that if you love someone, you’ll always see their face. In Season 1, after arriving in Jackson and having a panic attack, Joel swears he sees Sarah in the crowd.
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17. Of course, Joel and Ellie dragging Eugene’s body back to Jackson mirrors when Jesse (Young Mazino), Dina (Isabella Merced), and Ellie dragged Joel back to Jackson following his death.
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18. Since Joel went on patrol with Dina before he died — in the game, Joel and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) are on patrol together when they find Abby — the last words that Tommy spoke to Joel were at the dance.
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19. The porch scene between Joel and Ellie is almost a shot-for-shot and line-for-line recreation of the same scene in The Last of Us Part II, right down to Joel drinking out of his owl mug. However, in the show, the scenes come much earlier. In the game, it’s the second-to-last scene in the entire game.
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Also, Ellie giving Joel a second chance adds more context to when she wanted to go on patrol with Joel and said they were going to have a movie night in Episode 2.
20. Joel telling Ellie he loves her is something new to the TV show. While it’s obviously understood that Joel loves Ellie, he never utters the exact phrase to her in the game.
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21. And finally, Joel telling Ellie that if she ever has children someday, she’ll understand what he did to protect her also puts a whole new meaning on Ellie’s “I’m gonna be a dad” line in Episode 4.
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Also players will realize how much this scene HURTS based on what happens further in the game.
