The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3: TV Show vs Game Comparison

The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 3.

This week’s episode of The Last of Us takes a moment to grieve and breathe after last week’s showstopper. It also takes a little detour from the game; much of this episode depicts the reaction of Jackson’s people to the events they’ve just suffered, and their vote on if they should pursue Abby or not. This is all original material for the show, and so there’s actually very few scenes in this episode that are taken straight from the game.

There are four key sequences from this episode that are recreations of moments from the game, and here we’ve compared them against the original source material, analysing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. You can see both versions in the video above, or read on below for our written explanations.

Joel’s House

Following the harrowing murder of Joel in episode 2, Ellie visits her deceased father-figure’s house to mourn. As in the game, the front yard is covered in flowers left by the residents of Jackson. Unlike the game, though, Ellie enters alone rather than accompanied by Dina.

The show’s version of Joel’s house features many of the same props that decorated this location in the game, including his workshop room full of carved animals. In Joel’s bedroom, the bed linen is the same blue and white sheets. More importantly there’s the same red box on the bed that contains his signature items: the broken watch and his revolver. Ellie takes these and holsters the revolver in the waistband of her jeans, just as she does in the game.

Tommy’s Plans

The need for revenge begins to rise when Ellie talks to Tommy about what happened. While the broad strokes of this scene are the same in both show and game, particularly in tone, the actual setting and words are not recreated one-to-one. In both versions Ellie is angry and frustrated that Tommy wants to be more sensible about their next move, and so tonally the scenes match. However, where in the game this conversation takes place in a quiet, private room between just the two of them, in the show it’s conducted out in the open with Dina present.

In terms of dialogue there are close matches – both versions of Ellie say that Joel “would be halfway to Seattle by now” if the situation was reversed. Both versions of Tommy also note that Jackson would be left vulnerable, although in the show this is a clear reference to the prior episode’s horde attack rather than the game’s more general assessment. In both scenarios Tommy says it’s ultimately up to Maria as to if they get to hunt down Abby, but in the show he says that it will need to go to a full town vote, while the game version says he expects there will be “folks she can spare”.

The Ride to Seattle

Ellie and Dina head out to Seattle on horseback in search of Abby and her group. In both versions Dina asks Ellie to recall the first person she killed, and Ellie proceeds to explain how she saved Joel from a bandit in the first game/season. While the show’s dialogue is not an exact match to the game’s script, the details are largely the same – Joel was attacked and Ellie pulled the trigger to save him. The conversation is longer in the game, however, as Dina reciprocates with her own story of her first kill.

Later, the pair discover an overgrown car, which they consider a sign that they’re finally close to Seattle. This is, again, broadly similar to a moment from the game, even if the dialogue line is not a one-to-one match.

6 out of 10

Later in the episode we see Ellie and Dina camped out in a tent. Before lights out, Dina asks Ellie a question: how would she rate their kiss at the dance out of 10? This moment is a recreation of a scene from the game, but the timing and content of this conversation is notably different to the original game version.

In the game, Dina asks Ellie to rate the kiss while they are smoking marijuana at Eugene’s weed den. As we know from last week’s episode, this doesn’t happen in the show since it is Jesse, not Dina, who accompanies Ellie to Eugene’s den. It’s not just the time and location of this exchange that is altered, though. In the show, Ellie says that she’d rate the kiss a six, something that Dina is playfully upset about. In the game, it’s flipped – Ellie hesitates to answer, and so Dina says she’d score it a “solid six”. The two interpretations showcase very different dynamics; Dina in the game is much more confident and knows how to pull Ellie’s strings – she enjoys teasing her. Dina in the show, meanwhile, is depicted as more “teenage” in her approach, which emphasises the “young girls in the apocalypse” element of their love story.

For more from The Last of Us, check out our spoiler-free season two review and our spoiler-filled review of the third episode. We’ve also looked at how the changes to Abby have affected the way the show handled Joel’s death, and spoken to Kaitlyn Dever about how her version of Abby is “so much more” than her rage.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor.