Ah, The Last of Us has broken my heart again and again, but today’s heartbreak is even more surprising. As The Last of Us Season 2 looms closer as the weeks pass us by, I decided to revisit as an emotional prime.
Upon rewatching, I’ve had time to really look into the moments of this series that have sat with me the most as a video game fan. From the things they are doing right to comparing Joel to other apocalypse survivors in different shows, this series has sat with me for a bit.
And now, another death of Season 1 ended up hitting harder than I thought it would, and today, I have to talk about it.
I Was Originally Moved The Most By Sam’s Death
If you know me, you know I love The Last of Us franchise. I’ve played both games and seriously consider them to be some of the greatest of all time—I even have a personal Firefly pendant in my bedroom because I love them so much. The TV show is one of the best video game adaptations.
And as someone who has experienced all the pain because of this series, the one death that always got me was Sam’s death – as well as Henry’s. I mean, how couldn’t it? In the game, it was so sudden and sad, and you knew it was going to happen the moment you saw his bite. The same thing happens in the TV show as well.
What makes it twenty times worse is watching Henry kill himself right after because the guilt of shooting his turned-brother makes him want to end it all. That hits you hard. Very hard. And even now, ages later, after replaying the game time and time again and watching the first season once more, it’s still a big hit in my heart.
But there’s another scene that actually made me sob harder this time naround.
But This Time Around, Anna’s Death Got Me The Hardest
Who’s Anna, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
Anna is Ellie’s mother. We don’t know her that well in the game or the series, just that she died and that she gave us Ellie. In the game, we don’t see her death – we really only get bits and pieces of her from Ellie.
But in the show, we meet Anna head-on. It’s only for the opening minutes of one of the episodes, but it hits hard. A big reason is that the The Last of Us cast member who plays Anna, Ashley Johnson, was actually the voice and motion capture behind Ellie in the games. So, for me, as a game fan, it’s still a big deal, and I love that the show pulled this off.
The other massive part of this, though, is that watching Anna die now made me think of Ellie and all that she would become. Anna killed herself before she was bit, and she handed Ellie off to Marlene to take care of her before she did so. But she has a teary goodbye, one that shows just how much she loved her daughter in those moments after her birth.
But it’s what I know Ellie becomes that makes this death hit twenty times harder. If you’ve played the sequel game, Ellie goes down a path that is hard to come back from, and I can only assume since the second season is following that game, we will see the same path. To me, that’s twenty times worse.
Anna just knew her daughter would change the world, but I don’t think she ever knew what Ellie would truly become as someone who has a close relationship with her mother and my family as a whole; that hit me harder this time around.
I Think Season 2 Is Going To Wreck Me Though
However, I don’t think we’re truly prepared for Season 2 of The Last of Us.
There are plenty of moments from The Last of Us Part 2 that I want in the show, and if they are there, it’s going to hit. And it’s going to hurt. And it’s probably going to make audience members everywhere sob harder than ever before.
While this pain for the first season is still very much there, and the deaths are hitting hard, I have a feeling that Season 2 is going to knock our socks off. So be prepared with your tissues and more. It’s going to be a bumpy ride – even more uneven than Sam or Anna’s death.
I guess I need to replay the game again. It’s time for a Last of Us binge before the show premieres!