“The Last of Us” removed a scene that showed Tess’s past

Warning SPOILERS

The second episode of ‘The Last of Us’ premieres Monday, January 23 on HBO Max And with it came the series’ first dramatic death. Tess Servopoulos, Anna Torv’s character, sacrificed herself after being bitten by a clicker to give Joel and Ellie (Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) time to escape. The scene is as spectacular as it is sad and also serves to make Joel recognize that there is something special about Ellie’s immunity and agree to take her to Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).

As will happen from week to week, the premiere of each episode is accompanied by a new chapter of the series’ official podcast that the platform account uploads to its YouTube, Spotify and other channels. It involves its two creators, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, and in the latter-focused 1×02 we discover that while Tess’ ending is what it is, there was much more planned for her.

The key is hope

Starting at minute 13, Mazin explains that what he likes most about that scene is that we see a big difference between Tess and Joel: “The difference is Tess has hope. Which I love, because it’s a surprise. She seems so tough, she seems to have integrated really well into this new world, I mean, she gets hit and her attitude is she gives it to him.” the same. And she trades in arms. And she’s in control of her and Joel’s relationship, She is clearly the boss. And here, all of a sudden, he’s expressing hope.” Further on in Mazin’s audio sentence: “He is brave enough to dare to hope“.

Of course there are many differences between the series and the video game and at the narrative level, perhaps the main one is that, in the scripts, Mazin and Druckmann can stop and tell things that in the game would mean having to let go of control and pay attention to a story. Interrupting the game every now and then with information doesn’t seem like a good idea, but in this format you can afford to design multiple backgrounds for your characters: “We talked about it and wrote it, but we never shot it”continues Mazin, “We had a little bit of Tess’ backstory and the fact that Tess had a child. She had a husband and a child and they were infected and she had to kill them. She killed her husband, but she couldn’t kill her son. He didn’t make it, he locked it in the cellar where in theory it’s still a clicker”..

“We Had a Cold Open”Druckmann intervenes referring to one of those scenes that precede the end credits, “where the camera pushed a door and you heard banging coming from the basement and we cut there and then Tess told the story of how she couldn’t kill her son. As Craig says, it wasn’t right, but it was fun planning it.”

The reaction of the fans

After the episode aired, fans of the series took to social networks to mourn Tess’s death and begin their (fictional) mourning, as well as comment on the licenses that the adaptation takes. For those who have played the game before, Torv was doomed, but those who return to this story seem genuinely unhappy with the character’s epilogue:

#The Last of Us #you god the transition from the soldiers killing Tess to the mob of infected… this episode proved once again how much care and heart has been put into this series… such a love letter to those who have played the game like me .

? abby? (@abbysworldd96) January 23, 2023

“God, the transition from the soldiers killing Tess to the mass of infected… this episode proved once again how much care and heart has been put into this series… a love letter to those who have played the game as myself”.

TESS MOTHER You weren’t supposed to make out #The Last of Us pic.twitter.com/zrenw000tW

? Joel Miller defends TLOU SPOILERS (@ellievjoel) January 23, 2023

“Tess, woman, you shouldn’t have been with him.”

dealing with Tess’s death all over again, but in a new way, it was heartbreaking #you pic.twitter.com/cRyieKJEPF

? Mary (@anasroyco) January 23, 2023

“Reliving Tess’s death, but in a new way, was heartbreaking.”

JUST FINISHED EPISODE 2 WHAT A BAD SHIT #TLOU pic.twitter.com/idB7wl4WZA

— ikawho (@pechupops) January 23, 2023

“I finished episode 2. That shit hurt me.”

The third episode of “The Last of Us” will be available on HBO Max starting January 30 and in it we will meet the characters of Offerman and Bartlett. In eCartelera we will comment on it weekly in our particular summaries of which you can already see the first one here.