My thoughts on the finale
As an adaptation of something I love? It was good. As a stand-alone TV show, I felt it was excellent.
I don’t know why, but the Giraffe scene never really connected with me in the game. But this version of the scene? Unbelievable. I feel like the scene finally clicked into place for me, and it was beautiful.
Joel’s massacre in the hospital was a little too unrealistic, but it’s executed so well I can keep that suspension of disbelief. The editing, the music, Pedro’s performance? Chefs kiss.
Ashley’s role as Anna was so tragic and wonderful. It’s impossible to separate her from Ellie, and that connective thread was done so well. Hearing all the familiar grunts and breathing while she’s running during the opening scene gave me goosebumps. Her characters addition to the story was smart and grounded Marlene even more.
My main criticism, and it’s been my criticism for the last three episodes, is the infected. Specifically the lack there of. This feels like the biggest “gimmie” moment they could have done with the infected by having it directly be in service of the story, and they fumbled it.
In the game, Joel and Ellie enter a tunnel full of infected after they find the abandoned medical bay. This would have offered a perfect spot to reintroduce the fungal network, pay off the Bloater introduction in episode 5 by essentially having it a “boss fight”, and have Joel put everything on the line to save Ellie.
It would have hammered home the lengths he will go to protect this little girl, which would only have heightened his rampage in the hospital. Heck, it could have even paid off Ellie’s inability to swim by having Joel save her if an infected hits her into the water below.
It would have been the perfect spot to use the infected in a place to serve the story and I don’t understand why it wasn’t taken advantage of, especially since we really hadn’t seen them since episode 5.
In saying that, it was still an incredible episode of TV
9/10
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Last edited by Cole436; 03-13-2023 at 01:50 AM.
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