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First time I'm truly jealous of "non-book readers" because a lot of this episode had this weird air of subverting expectations for those who'd played the game...and kind of softening the blows of the story in the process.
Don't get me wrong, really good episode of TV, but...
Granting that they had to bypass a lot of video game shit, namely that during the tour of the town while Tommy and Maria are explaining to Joel how the dam gives their town electricity a bunch of raiders attack, beforehand Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie the rest of the way to the Fireflies not because he's feeling inadequate and slow but because he deeply wants to get away from Ellie before he fully lets his guard down around her. Tommy declines, not because he's got a kid on the way but more simply because life is just pretty peaceful in Jackson and he doesn't want to give that up. In the moment, you can feel that Joel might just leave Ellie in Jackson anyway to head back east.
Joel defending their settlement makes Tommy feel like he owes Joel, Ellie overhears their conversation and steals Shimmer (the horse) so Joel chases after her. I've had to explain to some friends that don't play games that I truly believe Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson could've been nominated for Oscars for their performances back then, and I mean...just listen to this scene compared to their confrontation in this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Xs6sZGq3o
Even forgetting everything I said before that link, the way Ellie calls Joel out on his bullshit in this scene compared to how they did it on the show...I can't fully explain why, but to this day anytime I see Sara's death at the start of the game or this argument between Ellie and Joel I feel a weight in my chest, and the show's not going there.
I think the show's version of getting to that point, with Joel getting all torn up about it rather than, as an earlier episode so aptly put it, treating her as cargo to be dumped onto someone who knows the region better, and piling the Sara flashbacks on top of everything is so damn heavy handed compared to the game.
I'll admit that I was always really curious about this specific section of the adaptation because playing the game back in 2013, all the moments this episode covers were what convinced me no matter how tried and true the basic plot details were, I was seeing something special.
Again, if I forget all that, I really enjoyed this episode. But it's a...odd feeling to 100% think that all of these events paled in comparison to the original portrayals of them.
~~~~~~~~~ "This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517 Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz
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