The Last of Us Episode 2 Breakdown is here! In this episode of the Last of Us, Tess makes out with the fungus and Joel gets his new quest: to get Ellie to the Fireflies and save all of humanity.
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Written and Hosted by Ryan Arey (http://twitter.com/ryanarey)
Edited by Harriet Lengel-Enright and Randolf Nombrado
Special thanks to Pavel Terehovsky (https://pavel8866.wixsite.com/pavelt) [email protected]
#TheLastOfUs #EasterEggs #Breakdown
Iām going to run through all the connections to the game, but more importantly, weāll talk about what they changed from the game, and why those changes made the sorry work for TV. And I want to talk about those opening scenes from the first two episodes, and how they include some hidden details that everyone has missed.
So letās talk about the two opening scenes. In the first episode, it seemed like this Dick Cavett-esque talk show was just there to inform us about how the virus could spread [clip]. But what we didnāt realize is that this is actually setting up a theme for the episodeāthat all through the prologue, the outbreak is only seen through reflections and panes of glass. We first hear about the outbreak on a TV show. Then the infected twitching reflected off of a bracelet.
Then the ambulances through the watchmaker windowāwhich has the added detail of looking like the face of a clock, showing time is running out. The cookies rising in the oven symbolize the global warming that allowed cordyceps to mutate, the old womanās reflection is first seen on TV, and of course, the outbreak itself is first seen on television. The prologue of episode 1 begins light hearted and ends very seriouslyājust like the events on outbreak data.
Which, by the way, also ended and began with a radio warning the, of danger [clips, play jakarta second].
And Jakarta is the prologue to this episode, set two days before outbreak day. Now in the games, the origin of the fungus is fro mold found on crops from South America. But in the show, it is spread through flour in INdonesia. In 2003 there were over 200 million people in Indonesia, and Jakarta is the largest city in the country.
But the most important thing to note is that baking flour is the real cause of a virus spreading.
Well dougāour manager douf=g everyoneāthe outbreak begins at a flour factory. Dr Rabata even says [clip]. Now a substrate is basically an environment where an organismālike a fungusā can thrive. Yeast is a single-celled organism that thrives in flour. When it feeds on the sugars in flour, this makes bread.
Yup. and in hindsight, there were clues about this in the first episode. Ol lady Adler was eating biscuits. Joel said [Iām in adkins] which is a diet where you stay away from breads and grains, so Joel remains unaffected. The channel heavy spoilers did a great video theorizing about that, which I suggest you check out. Even if he is an. I ithe talks about how Tommy dindāt get pancakes and Joel didnāt geta briothday cake, and sarah doens;t eat the cookies. So no flour for Joelās family.
The channel new rockstars even pointed out that series co-creator Craig Mazin even said that there were ābreadcrumbsā ā that hint about the virusās origins. So now, those rising cookies in the oven take on a whole new, creepy meaning. So does the oven timer, which indicated that time was running out.
And all of this symbolism is represented in this episodeāwhen Ellie eats a sandwich. She doesnāt have to fear bread, because she is immune to the fungus.
Now, take this symbolism and use it to look at this prologue. We open on people having lunchāmuch like the infected will soon be eating one another. And the very first words spoken in the episode are [sorry about your lunch]. Very, very sneaky. Because the lunch was spreading the virus to begin with.
The protagonist of this prologue, Dr Rabata, is a mycologist, and that is the study of Fungi. These prologues have to be very efficient and self-contained with their story. So, they show that Dr Rabata is an expert right away, because she notices that the slide is prepared in a different way [clip]. This was such a clever piece of writing, because it accelerated the audience learning that the cordyceps virus was in humans.
At first, she is dubious, like the scientist from episode 1 [clips]. But then she examines the body. And I gotta tell you, her incision on the leg is so simple, but seeing that fungus break out is terrifying. And it foreshadows the full on body horror we see later onāespecially the cordyceps in the mouth, setting up Tessās last kiss.
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What did you think of the episode?
Random butterfly flies over
Director: Your Hired!
Finally a zombie series that zombies are a bigger threat than some few douchebags ex. the walking dead
Great vid Steve Buscemi….?
Yay shoutout New Rockstars
Disappointed you didnāt mention the homage to the over the shoulder camera shot like the game
First time on your channel… thoroughly enjoyed the intelligence and passion you put into this.
I LOVE THAT DOG!!!
honestly, I dont like him calling the dead infected "zombies" I get why and I dont know what else I would call them but calling them Zombies makes them sound super basic. I do not give a shit about zombie shows anymore. 38 seasons of TWD ruined it for me. the infected are way more bad ass and are refreshing when compared to zombie shows/movies that we have seen a 1000 times
Gluten Free . . .
I want to go back and watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers (all versions). Feel like there are parallels there
It's not a vĆrus… š
Just a minor mistake, the Bostonian Museum isn't a real museum. Rather, it is based on several museums.
āNo no, no, we will talk about this NOW.ā š I love Doug!
The Tess zombie kiss doesn't make sense. The zombie was so gentle! I'm 100% sure that this zombie attack strategy will never happen again throughout the show.
Who else is totally distracted by the fact that the ScreenCrush channel just called the Heavy Spoilers guy an 'asshole'. That's weird….
The whole flour/bread/biscuit/cookie thing is very clever — especially when you consider that Joel/Sarah dodged the fungus four times in Episode 1. But, in practical terms, it's a pretty big plot hole. Fungus cannot survive cooking/baking. So, in reality, eating baked goods wouldn't spread the fungus at all. But, again, it's probably a preferable scenario since having actors hide their faces behind gas masks off-and-on all season wouldn't be very good. The baked goods thing just doesn't make any sense if you think about it for more than a few seconds.
I mean America is already a police state
Lol, after saying you would spoil ellieās backstory you said the main stuff from the DLCā¦
one other thing they changed in the show from the game is the incubation period of the fungus, in the show it's within minutes to a hour. In the game the infection is slow and gruesome as the infected slowly lose their humanity as the infection worsens. Till they become runners the next day and are running on pure rage and instinct. But still part of them are still inside as an observer, rather than being fully lost. Till they become a stalker or clicker.
I don't think I've seen anyone talk about the possibility of the kid at the beginning of episode 1 also being immune to the fungus and the FEDRA agents just euthanize them like there's not even a possibility of people changing to live with the infection.
I don't understand why people call the enemies in the games and show "zombies"… Are they even undead? I don't think so.
Neither!
Need to focus on Ellie because people will stop watching when the second game Bullshit happens.
it's a great show, but baking the grains/flour would have killed any fungal spores or mycelium (clusters of hyphae, like in the infected mouths š) but contaminated cooked food after the fact (not just grains) would be an issue as with bacteria – in reality we are always surrounded by fungal spores, pollen, and other bio particulates š
only an insane rapid evolution of how Cordyceps works and it's chemistry would make any of this possible, but it's fun to speculate
the show has to add a fair amount of "fi" to the "sci" to make it exciting and variable – for example, the spreading of any fungi would never be that quick, but it makes for compelling content and a big creepy factor
Global warming was still a factor, as alluded to in episode 1. A fungus adapting to warming temperatures enters a good substrate and is transported around the world: global warming, industrial food production, and globalisation.
Actually they didn't include spores because it's unrealistic that they would be localised rather than spread everywhere. I mean they said that themselves
Weāve seen bloaters in the trailers and bill in a gas mask so I reckon itās a double bluff and weāll get spores this season.
Also, hidden Easter eggs, when Joel moved the cabinet at the beginning the sound is ripped from the game and when the door opens straight after the creak of the door is the sound of a clicker
Heavy spoiler show an ass…
In the game itās ingested too
9:27 actually thats foreshadowing the Bloaters who throw spore bombs at their prey jut like in the video games.
1:40 vrius? what virus?
The kiss feltā¦. Out of place? Like it seems weird for an infected to act that gentle? Only really there for the gross out factor, I guess. Other than that, I really appreciate what they got going so far.
Isn't it odd, that this show about mankind's annihilation /zombie apocalypse, centers around the protagonist daughter having a thing for Butterflies?
I'm loving the beginning of the episodes and hope they keep it going. The game never went deep into the world before the outbreak, so these are becoming the highlight of the episodes for me. When that scientist just plain out said bomb the city, I got chills.
Why dump grenades on the floor and then rely on a sketchy lighter, plus the other two probably could have borrowed a couple, just in case
What seems illogical in this story is that if we consider that global warming causes mutations in the species of these fungi, they can only infect higher-level organisms (At best, surviving at temperatures close to the human body). They have no chance of surviving in the oven.š
They're absolutely nailing it for me. They've refrained from going down the constant zombie attack route and are actually concentrating on telling a story and character building.. A rare thing these days with companies concentrating mainly on CGI and action. Drama's lose out so much from doing this and it's a mistake TLOU is side stepping nicely.
The game story was already excellent but with this being a TV drama they've needed to add to the story in order to give it more depth to the watching viewer whose not as involved as a game playing the game and they're doing a superb job. Long may it continue.
As a fan, I love your videos. As a microbiologist, Iām pulling my hair every time you interchange fungi and viruses. VERY different organisms!
I liked how they subtly showed how Tess struggled with the lighter because she was dealing with the muscle spasms
Bella Ramsey looks like a young James May from BBCās āTop Gear.ā Look him up. You canāt unsee it š¬
why was ā¦ she able to even eat a sandwich? assuming nobody else is immune, why continue to use flour products? does humanity not know how it spread 20 years later?
I've never played the game so I really appreciate these breakdowns. There's so much symbolism that I've missed.
Video guy: I think there will be a whole episode on the Left Behind DLC/comic so i wont spoil that for you
Also video guy: She replies that way to the boyfriend question because shes gay
Enjoyed the analysis, but the dog bits add nothing but bloat to the video.
It's not easter eggs, it's just good writing
Thanks Ryan for your analysis! Between you and newrockstars Iām slowly turning into the smartest man alive!!! Lol jk but I have learned a lot and look forward to these breakdowns after every episode! Youāre awesome!
Where the Jakarta scenes shot in Calgary as well?