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Of course, a straightforward outcome was never in the cards.
Separated from Ellie, Joel is informed that the cost of extracting a vaccine will be her life.
Haunted by losing a daughter once before, Joel rejects the situation and slaughters his way through the hospital.
Confronted with thetrolley problem, Joel bets against the world and against Ellies own autonomy.
Inthe HBO series, Joels shoot-out through the hospital is depicted as a haze.
The gaze detaches from his perspective, pulling back to evoke a dreamlike quality.
Gustavo Santaolallas score swells.
Any sense of danger evaporates as we follow Joel reaping carnage through the building almost mechanically.
That decision streamlines what, in the source material, feels simultaneously fascinating and tedious.
Theres a tedium to the interaction being demanded of you coming at some meaningful cost to the narrative momentum.
The three-minute sequence doesnt just remain faithful to the original.
In some sense, it improves on the experience, actualizing what the game was trying to approximate.
However, as season one progressed, I couldnt help wishing for, well, a little less faith.
In terms of adaptational ambition, the HBO series carried a peculiar shape.
Its just that one had a partner whom he viewed as a true equal to balance him out.
However, as the series passed its halfway point, much of that adaptive ambition seemed to fade away.
Given the innate quality of the source material, theres little argument to break away from whats already there.
Its not a coincidence that Long, Long Time remains the standout episode of the season.
The attentionnow shifts toadaptingThe Last of Us Part II.
The prospect of watching Bella Ramsey tackle where Ellie goes next is particularly exciting.
I wouldnt necessarily mind if all we got was a purely faithful adaptation.
