Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve at this point heard of The Last of Us. Maybe you missed the fact that it’s one of the best games ever made, but now you’ve surely heard that it’s also one of the best TV shows ever made. Which isn’t too surprising: the tv show pretty much frame-for-frame copies the cinematic moments of the videogame, making them almost carbon copies of one another. The second episode of the show saw some minor deviations from what happens in the video game though, and let’s take a look at what those were (and if they worked).
The Tendrils
While the infected are pretty much spot-on copied from the game, the biggest difference in the show is the tendrils. In the game the infection is airborne and spread through spores, requiring the characters to wear gas masks. In the show, they scrapped this concept entirely and replaced it with the much more visual tendrils. It also matches the reality of fungi habitats better.
Tess’ Bite
The whole sequence leading up to and ending in Tess’ bite plays out a lot differently in the game. In the game, Joel gets separated from Ellie and Tess for an extended period in the museum, leading to Tess getting bitten by a Runner. In the show, Joel is only separated for minutes as he’s fighting Clickers, one of which ends up having bitten Tess.
