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This article contains spoilers for HBO's The Last of Us and the game.HBO’s The Last of Us has been a wild success for all involved. The premiere episode brought together 4.7 million viewers and a lot of positive reviews. Much of the show’s success can be attributed to how faithful the series is to the source material. Fans are treated to scenes and direct quotes pulled right from the game itself. However, the show isn’t without its differences. Whenever something crosses over to a new medium, there are going to be tweaks and shifts in the narrative.
While the show does pull heavily from the game, it’s important to note when differences pop up. These differences could pile up over time to make for some significant changes. This article will be updated weekly to keep you up to date with the differences in each and every episode. We’ll refrain from going into whether those differences are for better or worse; that’s for you to decide. If you are looking for some opinions on those differences, we have some very talented writers keeping up with the show as well.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 1 Differences
The first week’s episode has remained very faithful to the heart of the game. While there are some differences, which we’ll get to, they largely expanded on the world and main characters. None of these differences have changed the main plot of the story yet, but subplots and relationships have been shifted or made more explicit.
Doctors Give The Audience Insight
Unlike the game, the first episode begins with an explanation of how humanity could fall to a fungal infection. One of the doctors also makes it clear that a cure to such a threat is considered impossible, making it the end of humanity as we know it.
Sarah Is Given More Time
Instead of starting with the night out of the outbreak, we begin in the morning with Sarah cooking breakfast for Joel. This difference serves two purposes. First, the audience is given more time to connect with Sarah. Second, we see the outbreak slowly unravel as Sarah goes about her day. Audiences witness the beginnings of panic in the streets as Sarah gets Joel’s watch fixed. After that, we see the beginnings of infection in an old woman when Sarah visits her neighbor.
Tess And Joel’s Partnership
This is a minor difference from the game. The audience is shown more explicitly that Joel and Tess aren’t just smuggling partners. The two seem to be in a domestic relationship where they share a bed and living space.
Joel Is Trying To Find Tommy
In the game, Joel and Tommy had a major falling out. Joel hasn’t seen Tommy in quite some time and doesn’t seem particularly concerned about his brother’s safety. In the show, Joel and Tommy seem to keep in touch semi-regularly. When Tommy stops replying to messages, Joel begins putting together a plan to go after his missing brother. This definitely changes the nature of their relationship and will likely cause some changes in later episodes as well.
Joel Needs A Car
Instead of smuggling guns, Joel is trying to set up a vehicle to go after Tommy. Joel is trading away whatever he has in order to get this vehicle. So, instead of making a deal with Robert (a local criminal) for guns, he’s trying to get a car battery. Likewise, when Marlene (leader of the Fireflies) is trying to convince Joel to smuggle Ellie out of the city, she uses the promise of a vehicle to gain his cooperation.
Robert Gets Cut Short
The subplot of Robert ripping off Tess gets cut down in the show. While Joel and Tess still set out to get some revenge (and their ration cards), they find that Robert has already been killed by the Fireflies. While this shortens Robert’s screen time quite a bit, it also speeds things up and gets Joel and Ellie together sooner than in the game.
No Spores
While Joel and Tess go into some nasty places and even encounter a dead Clicker, there are no spores and no mention of spores.
HBO's The Last Of Us Episode 2 Differences
The second episode of The Last of Us remained largely faithful to the game while managing to shuffle some familiar scenes together. Scenes might take place out of order, but they remain similar enough to be recognizable to fans of the game. While this episode contains less one-to-one scenes between the game and show, the cinematography does a good job of making everything look like The Last of Us. Original content still manages to feel very familiar.
The Infection Began In Indonesia
The opening of the show takes the opportunity to show off the very beginning of the outbreak. We're introduced to a woman who has spent her life studying cordyceps. She examines a body that has been infected and is horrified by her discovery. When she learns infected people are still out in the wild, her only suggestion is to bomb the city and everyone in it. Much like the first episode, this is meant to instill a deep sense of hopelessness for the future of humanity.
Joel, Ellie, And Tess In The Hotel
Shortly after deciding to continue their journey together, the group enters a fancy hotel. This is slightly different from the game. In the original telling, Joel and Ellie enter a fancy hotel after Tess dies. The spirit of the scene, however, remains intact. Ellie asks if they'd ever stayed in a place like this pre-outbreak. She also runs up to the check-in counter, rings the bell, and pretends as if she's a customer. All of these moments are pulled directly from the game, but they're shifted within the timeline. While Ellie does mention here that she doesn't know how to swim, the water is low enough for her to walk through it. Maybe we'll see her ride on a wood pallet in the future.
Roots Instead Of Spores
In this week's episode (and after-episode footage) it's explained that the infected are linked in some interesting ways. Stepping on a connected root can alert a horde to your presence from a great distance. Since spores were removed from the show, these roots take their place as a threat within the world. This is a clever shift, because Ellie isn't immune to this threat the way she is with spores.
Ellie Gets Bitten A Second Time
In the game, Joel is convinced of Ellie's immunity when she breathes in spores. In this episode, Ellie gets bit for a second time. She shrugs off the bite because she knows she's immune to its effects. Joel doesn't seem convinced. When Tess reveals she has been bitten herself, she compares her infected bite to Ellie's clean bite. In the game, Ellie is only bit once. Tess compares her bite to Ellie's scar. The second bite is something of an oddity, but maybe it will come up in future episodes.
Tess Protects Joel And Ellie From Infected
Ellie, Joel, and Tess arrive at the meeting point to find a bunch of dead Fireflies. In the game, FEDRA pulls up to the door of the building Tess, Joel, and Ellie are in. Tess stays behind to fight off as many as she can while soldiers swarm the building. FEDRA doesn't arrive in the show. Instead, the group triggers a horde by disturbing a fungal root. Once the horde is close, Tess sets up a trap and kills herself along with the horde to protect Joel and Ellie.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 3 Differences
Episode three is the largest departure we’ve seen yet in this adaptation. Instead of focusing on the journey of Joel and Ellie, the audience is told the story of Bill and Frank. In the game, Frank is dead by the time Joel reaches Bill. Joel is also still on a quest for a car, which Bill helps him get. In this episode, you won’t see a schoolyard full of infected or a bloater in the school gym. This is a quiet episode about companionship and love.
Joel Explains More About The Outbreak
Ellie has a lot of questions. As long as they don’t get personal, Joel seems largely happy to educate Ellie on how the world fell apart. Joel explains the tainted food supply, which was alluded to in the cold opening of episode two. He talks about the progression of people getting sick, to biting, and spreading the disease.
To hear Joel tell it, humanity was gone within 72 hours of the outbreak. Joel also sheds some light on the horrors of humanity in the days following the outbreak. The military would round up people and promise them a safe place. If there was no room, they would just kill everyone to prevent the spread of infection. It’s a cruel world, and we’re left with that bit of information before the show shifts focus to Bill and Frank.
We Meet Frank
We never meet Frank in the game, but we see him very early on in episode three of the show. He’s a man at Bill’s mercy, and after an uncomfortable exchange, Bill agrees to help him. Frank is the opposite of Bill. He isn’t paranoid. He wants to have friends. He wants to do more than just survive in this world. Frank brings a bit of balance to Bill’s world.
We See Bill And Frank’s Romantic Relationship
While it was largely understood that the two men were more than just survival partners in the game, it was never explicitly shown or said. HBO expanded their story so audiences could see these two men fall in love, build a life, and grow old together.
We See Bill And Frank’s Partnership With Joel And Tess
When Frank brings up the notion of wanting friends, he mentions to Bill that he has been talking to a woman on the radio. We later see Joel and Tess having dinner with Bill and Frank at Bill’s house. While Tess and Frank seem to be genuine friends, they also arrange for a trading of goods in order to help one another. While Bill is self-sufficient, there’s always room for improvement. The four of them carry on with this arrangement for years.
Bill And Frank Commit Mutual Suicide
In the game, Frank commits suicide off-screen after some kind of falling out with Bill. He leaves a note about hating Bill in the end. It’s largely believed that Frank became infected and then hanged himself to avoid turning. It’s a sad moment in the game, but the show hits even harder. When Frank is stricken with an incurable illness, he’s left with Bill taking care of him day and night.
Frank asks for one last good day with Bill, and then he wants to take a lot of pills and never wake up again. As hard as it is for Bill, he agrees. They spend the day together and even get married with their own ceremony. By the end of the episode, Bill joins Frank in his suicide, and they die in one another’s arms.
Bill Leaves A Note And His Possessions To Joel
In something of a callback to the game, it’s Bill who leaves a note this time. He jokes (or maybe he doesn’t joke) about never really liking Joel. Bill leaves Joel all of his possessions in the hopes that Joel will use his skills and resources to protect himself and Tess in this dangerous world. With Tess gone, Joel and Ellie load up Bill’s truck to continue their search for Tommy and The Fireflies. Ellie manages to sneak one of Bill’s guns into her backpack.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 4 Differences
Episode four deviates from the source material in a few ways, but largely remains true to the heart of the core experience. Joel and Ellie are on something of a road trip until they’re ambushed by a group called The Hunters. In this telling of the story, we never hear the antagonists called The Hunters. Instead, they’re painted as a group of freedom fighters who liberated their city from the tyranny of FEDRA.
Ellie Practices With Her Gun
The episode opens with Ellie emptying and reloading the gun she picked up at Bill’s house. This is a large departure from the game. In the video game, Ellie’s first encounter with a gun is when she picks up the dropped weapon and defends Joel with it in the heat of the moment. In the show, we see Ellie practicing and becoming more competent with the weapon she’s been asking for the whole time. Of course, Joel knows nothing about this.
Joel And Ellie Spend A Night In The Woods
While on the road, Joel and Ellie have to stop to sleep. While this must happen in the game, the audience never sees it. In the show, we’re given a glimpse into what the duo’s evenings are like when they have to stop for rest. Joel and Ellie eat, talk, and even joke around. It’s a quiet moment that serves to further build the relationship between the two characters. The next morning, the audience is treated to a scene of Joel making coffee, which he notoriously loves in the game.
Joel, Ellie, and Kansas City
Our protagonists are driving until they come upon a blocked stretch of highway. They find themselves in Kansas City and have no choice but to go through. In the game, this situation takes place in Pittsburgh. While the location of the events is different, the events themselves largely remain the same. Joel and Ellie are ambushed after a man stumbles into the street pretending to be sick. While this ambush immediately paints The Hunters as an evil faction looking to harm innocent people, it doesn’t quite fit with the shows narrative of them being freedom fighters.
Ellie Saves Joel
In the game (and not in the initial ambush), Joel is being drowned by a man who has the upper hand on him. Ellie picks up a dropped gun and kills the man on the spot. Here, we see a young man sneak up on Joel during the first encounter with The Hunters. Ellie sees Joel in trouble, sneaks up behind the man, and shoots him in the back. However, this does not kill the man. The man is left on the ground begging for his life before Joel tells Ellie to leave the room. Joel then kills the man himself with a knife.
Kathleen
During a scene from The Hunters’ point of view, we’re introduced to Kathleen. In the game, this faction never had a leader or a motive outside of just capturing anyone they could find. Kathleen moves The Hunters from just an enemy faction to a true antagonist with goals and motives. Kathleen is looking for a man named Henry, who is from the game. Now she’s also on the hunt for Joel and Ellie, as she believes the two may be working with Henry in some way.
Henry And Sam Sneak Up On Joel And Ellie
In the game, Joel and Ellie encounter Henry and Sam by chance. During this episode, Joel and Ellie settle down in a building for the night. They’re woken up at gunpoint by Henry and Sam, who have clearly sought the duo out. The episode ends there with the audience left wondering what comes next.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 5 Differences
While episode 5 has several differences from the game, the show remains faithful to the broad strokes of the story. The largest difference is likely the presence of infected. Certain sections are also significantly shortened or cut to keep the story moving. Infected are used very sparingly in the show, so we don’t see Ellie and Joel encounter them as often as in the game. In the show, they must serve a narrative purpose, while in the game they exist to be obstacles.
Sam Is Deaf
In HBO’s version of The Last of Us, Sam is deaf and communicates with his brother through sign language. He communicates with other people through a little notepad he can write on. This is a shift from the game, as Sam has his hearing in that version of the story. The change does seem to deepen the bond between Henry and Sam even further, as they have a way of communicating that very few other people know.
No Infected Near Ish’s Place
In the game, the journey through the tunnels and Ish’s refuge is filled with infected. This creates a challenging, and even scary, environment for players to move through. In the show, the place is rumored to be infected, but the tunnels are actually clear of any infected. While the fear of infected still exists, the journey itself goes smoothly and the group makes it through the tunnels with ease.
Henry Gave Up The Leader Of The Resistance
In the game, Henry and Sam are trying to avoid The Hunters, but don’t have any personal history with the group. In the show, Henry is an informant for FEDRA. In order to save his brother Sam from illness and acquire medication, Henry gave up the leader of the resistance. The leader was Kathleen’s brother, causing Kathleen to initiate a manhunt for Henry and his brother Sam.
Confrontation With Kathleen
In the game, there is an encounter between the hunters, Joel, Ellie, Sam, Henry, and infected in a residential area. However, the narrative importance has shifted quite a bit in the show. Here, Kathleen shows up with her crew to confront Henry. Kathleen blames Henry for her brother’s death. She’s also looking for Joel and Ellie because Joel killed a couple of her men. Instead of immediately engaging in a firefight, Kathleen offers the group the option of giving themselves up. Henry is about to give himself up before disaster strikes.
The First Bloater
During the confrontation with Kathleen, a horde of infected erupt from underground. Among the infected is a bloater. This is an enormous infected that has most likely lived a very long time. In the game, the first time we see a bloater is when Bill takes Joel and Ellie to a nearby school in search of a truck battery. A bloater does not show up during the encounter where Joel is sniping enemies to save Ellie, Henry, and Sam. While this is a fairly large difference, it’s good to finally see a bloater in the show itself.
Ellie Tries To Save Sam
In a fairly large departure from the game, Sam reveals his bite to Ellie. In the game, everyone is surprised when Sam turns, including Ellie. In this episode, Ellie declares that her blood is medicine and tries to share her gift with Sam. This is a moment where we see Ellie as a real child, because she doesn’t really know how her immunity works. It’s a touching scene between Sam and Ellie. Inevitably, Ellie’s efforts don’t work and Sam is turned by the morning. Just like in the game, Sam attacks Ellie and Henry is left with the unimaginable task of killing his own brother.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 6 Differences
Episode six has a lot of differences from the game, but manages to maintain the integrity of the story by including many scenes that are almost identical to the game. A lot of what has been changed condenses the story and adds depth to the characters.
Joel And Ellie Encounter A Couple
The episode starts with Joel and Ellie breaking into a couple’s house in the woods. Joel is looking for information about where they are. The couple shows them where they are on a map, but warns them to stop going west. They claim that nobody ever comes back from that direction. While Ellie isn’t scared, Joel is definitely taken aback by this new information out of concern for his brother’s well-being.
Joel Is Having Panic Attacks
When Joel and Ellie leave the couple’s house, Joel becomes short of breath He has to stop for a moment and regather himself before moving forward. This happens several times throughout the episode.
Joel And Ellie Camp Overnight
Audiences are treated to another scene of Joel and Ellie camping in the woods. It’s inevitable that the duo had to camp like this in the game, but players never saw it. Joel and Ellie talk about what they might do after their journey is over, and they’ve gone their separate ways. These are conversations from the game, just placed into a new scene.
Jackson’s People Find Joel And Ellie
In the game, Joel and Ellie come upon a large dam the people of Jackson have taken over. This is where Joel finds Tommy. In the show, a group of riders from Jackson are out on patrol and come upon Joel and Ellie. The encounter is more tense and hostile than the game’s version, and Tommy isn’t there to cool things down. Eventually, Maria realizes Joel is Tommy’s brother and the group takes Joel and Ellie back to Jackson.
Tommy And Maria Are Having A Baby
This scene takes place in a bar inside of Jackson, which serves to show some of the comforts they have in the community. When Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie through dangerous territory in search of the Fireflies, Tommy reveals that Maria is pregnant, and he’s going to be a father. Joel reacts pretty coldly to this, most likely for two reasons. The first reason would be the loss of his own daughter, and the second being that Tommy is turning him down. The two part ways for a while.
We See More Of Jackson
One of the biggest changes from the game is just how much of Jackson we see. Many of the things we see, like all of the lights and businesses, are mostly things we see in Part II. We see Ellie go to the movies, we see Joel and Ellie eat a good meal, and we see the residential areas of Jackson. These things really show how much of normal life the people of Jackson have regained. While Tommy mentions many of these things in the game, the player doesn’t see them.
Joel Gets Emotional With Tommy
When Tommy seeks out Joel in a workshop, Joel gets real with Tommy. He tells Tommy that Ellie is immune. More importantly, he reveals that he feels like a failure. He’s getting older. He’s less capable than he was, and he’s scared that he’s going to get Ellie killed. This is one of the first moments where we see Joel open up about caring for Ellie more than he lets on. He’s scared, but not for himself. He’s scared that he’s going to lose her the way that he lost his daughter and Tess.
Ellie Doesn’t Run Away
This is another change most likely made to improve the pacing of the show. In the game, Ellie runs away to a nearby house. Joel and Tommy have to ride out in search of her, encountering resistance and danger along the way. This nearby house is where the emotional scene between Joel and Ellie takes place. In the show, it’s in the house they’ve been given in Jackson.
Joel Gets Stabbed
In the game, Joel struggles with a man attacking him, falls, and is impaled on an iron rod. In the show, a man attacks Joel and Ellie with a baseball bat. The bat breaks, and the man stabs Joel in the side. Joel kills the man, allowing him and Ellie to escape, though Joel appears to be near death by the end of the episode.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 7 Differences
Episode Seven covers a lot of the game’s DLC, Left Behind. This wasn’t part of the original game. Instead, it came later and showed the players exactly what happened when Ellie had to take care of Joel during the winter. While there are some large differences between the game and the show, the heart of the story largely remains the same. This is a story about Ellie’s past, her relationship with Riley, and how she found out she was immune.
Joel Tells Ellie To Go
In the game, Joel is too hurt to really communicate. Ellie is left on her own to make all of the decisions, and the idea of leaving Joel doesn’t even come up. While this is a minor change in the show, it’s a potent one. Joel cares for Ellie so much that he’s willing to die in pain and alone to see her get to safety. Ellie, of course, refuses to leave Joel.
We See Ellie In School
In the game, we only see Ellie in her bedroom while she’s at the FEDRA school. In the show, we get to see Ellie in gym class and in an officer’s office. As you might expect, Ellie is a bit of a troublemaker, but a smart one. The officer tells her what her life could be like if she didn’t get in trouble. Essentially, she could be one of the people who runs the QZ instead of a grunt worker. Ellie seems to take it to heart.
Ellie Doesn’t Leave The House
In the show, we only see Ellie search for supplies to use in the house. In the game, Ellie goes in search of medication to a local mall. The game then cuts between Ellie in the present and Ellie’s past with Riley. In the present, Ellie faces danger from both people and infected as she searches for supplies to save Joel.
No Throwing Bricks Or Water Guns
In the game, Riley and Ellie have a couple of playful competitions as they play games with one another. They throw bricks at two cars on display to see which one can knock out more windows. Riley also has a couple of water guns in her backpack. The two girls then get into a water gun fight. These are playful moments between friends that didn’t make it into the show. Instead, we get some more moments of the two paying attention to the store in the mall, like Victoria’s Secret.
The Mall Is More Alive
In the game, some of the mall has power, but it isn’t as lit up as in the show. The show really brings life to the mall by having most of the lights come on. Stores are lit up, the food court is lit up, and the arcade is in working condition.
Riley And Ellie Get To Play Mortal Kombat II
In the game, the arcade is full of busted machines that don’t have power. Ellie and Riley are left to use their imagination to experience some of the games. In a touching moment between friends, Ellie closes her eyes and pretends to play a fighting game while Riley describes everything. In the show, the arcade it lit up and working. The two girls bust open a machine with quarters and get to experience playing Mortal Kombat II together.
Riley Is Stationed At The Mall
In the game, Riley and Ellie break into the mall to have fun. In the show, it’s revealed the Riley is living in the mall at the order of the Fireflies. Riley seems to have some makeshift explosives that she has made, which sparks a confrontation between the two girls. Ellie sees the fireflies as terrorists who could potentially harm her or others in the QZ. She doesn’t think Riley fully understands what she has signed up for.
Ellie And Riley Only Face One Infected
In the game, Ellie and Riley are forced to run for their lives from multiple infected. The end result is the same. Both girls get bit and have to decide how to spend their last moments. In the show, they only come face-to-face with one infected. This is another example of the infected in the show being even more dangerous than the infected in the game.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 8 Differences
This episode of The Last of Us cuts out a lot of moments from the game. However, the adaptation managed to keep the core moments of the story in-tact to deliver another episode that’s largely faithful to the original telling. Audiences are introduced to David, James, and their group for the first time. The episode remained narrowly focused on the struggle between Ellie and David. Keeping things so tightly focused increased the tension even more than the game.
David Delivers A Sermon
In HBO’s telling of The Last of Us, David is a preacher in addition to his group’s leader. He refers to his people as his flock, and uses religion to maintain a tight grip on everyone. This new religious bend makes him feel even more sinister than in the game. It also gives his group the feeling of a cult instead of a band of people. David even insinuates that he is a father to the people within his group.
Ellie And David Don’t Fight Off Infected
Part of keeping things narrowly focused meant removing the infected from the episode entirely. In the game, David and Ellie are forced to rely upon one another as they defend themselves against infected. In the show, we skip over this and focus on the campfire conversation between Ellie and David. Aside from the infected, the scene plays out the same as in the game.
We See More Of David’s People
In the show, we see more of David’s group than we did in the game. The video game mostly shows David’s group as enemies that act as an obstacle. In this telling, the group seems smaller, hungrier, and in poor spirits. We see the group hungrily eat human meat, though it’s uncertain who knows about the cannibalism and who doesn’t. When it comes time to eat, everyone has small portions except for David who has an entire bowl of food to himself. When a girl speaks out of turn, David smacks her to the ground and then offers her his hand. This is a prime example of his abusive nature with the group, something we don’t see in the game.
David’s Group Captures Ellie Quickly
In the game, Ellie really gives David and his men the runaround. She kills a lot of David’s group before David manages to catch her inside of an abandoned building. Ellie in the show tries to get away on horseback. James shoots the horse and Ellie is thrown to the ground. She’s dazed and possibly even knocked unconscious.
James Almost Kills Ellie
In the show, James and some other members of the group surround Ellie. James levels his gun at her while the others tell him to do it. David stops James by firing his gun in the air, but we’re led to believe that James most likely would have ended Ellie’s life right then and there. This is also a moment where we see that the group’s wishes are out of alignment with David’s, though nobody will stand up to David or speak out against him.
One Of David’s Men Finds Joel And Gets Killed
In the game, Joel comes to and goes in search of Ellie. In the show, a man discovers Joel in the house and searches for him. Joel sneaks up on the man and kills him with the knife Ellie left in his hands. He struggles to get up and begins his search for Ellie. While he doesn’t take out as many people as he does in the game, he does cut a violent path to find Ellie.
Ellie Has A Heart Of Violence
While much of the conversation between a caged Ellie and David is the same, the show’s David throws in an extra twist. David tells Ellie that she reminds him of himself, and that she has a heart of violence. Of all the things he says to her, this seems to rattle her the most. She recoils and claims that he doesn’t know anything about her.
HBO’s The Last Of Us Episode 9 Differences
This episode is, perhaps, one of the most faithful to the game. While there were certainly some streamlined elements, the differences were few and far between. We received many of the essential scenes that were to be expected this episode. We saw Joel and Ellie with the giraffes, we watched Joel tear apart a hospital full of people, and we received the final lie at the end of the episode. It was an episode light on infected and light on changes, but we’ll cover the biggest changes right here.
We See Ellie’s Birth
Ashley Johnson, the original Ellie, plays Anna in the show. Anna gives birth to Ellie while under attack from an infected. We see that Anna is bitten, and then she cuts the umbilical cord. Anna is all alone with Ellie for a while, but doesn’t want to nurse her for fear of passing on the infection. Anna is very brave during all of this, and holds her baby close while she still can.
We See Marlene Take Ellie And Kill Anna
When Marlene and her group return to the house Anna is in, Anna begs Marlene to take Ellie to Boston with them and find her a good home. Anna lies and says the umbilical cord was cut before she was bitten by the infected. It seems like the timing of the bite and passing on of the infection is why Ellie is immune. Marlene takes Ellie and Anna’s knife out to one of the other members of the group. Then she goes back and kills Anna before the woman can turn.
Joel Admits To Attempting Suicide
While walking through an old military medical camp, Joel stops to talk to Ellie. He tells her more about the scar on his head. He admits to her that after Sarah’s death he tried to kill himself. The two share a moment. Ellie thinks he’s telling her that time heals all wounds, but what he’s really saying is that Ellie healed his wounds. Their relationship healed his wounds. He didn’t think he had anything to live for, but now he does.
Ellie Doesn’t Have The Picture Of Joel And Sarah
In the game, there’s a fairly pivotal picture of Joel and Sarah. Tommy tries to give it to Joel and Joel refuses it. Maria then gives the picture to Ellie. When they’re in the military medical tents, Ellie admits to having it and gives it to Joel. He’s finally in a place where he can accept such a thing. This was completely cut from the show.
Joel And Ellie Don’t Encounter Any Infected
In the game, Joel and Ellie certainly have a few more encounters with the infected before they encounter the Fireflies. This was most likely cut for pacing purposes. While not a major change to the plot, it’s worth mentioning that it’s different from the game.
Fireflies Attack Joel And Ellie
In the game, Fireflies discover Joel and Ellie in crisis. In the show, the Fireflies sneak up on Joel and Ellie and attack them. Joel wakes up in the hospital, Ellie is already being prepped for surgery, and the rest of the episode plays out almost identically to the game.