Comments on Episode 9...
1. Not sure why there was some discussion about that being "polarizing". It was the same as the game, just shorter.
2. I wish they'd had a real giraffe if they were going to do that scene. The CGI... wasn't that great.
3. Merle Dandridge was fantastic. Ashley Johnson was fantastic-er. Really great cameo.
4. Again, and I've said this for roughly the entire back half of the season, they just didn't give it enough time to breathe. Joel is basically John Rambo plowing through soldiers in a hospital killing everyone... okay, maybe in a video game, but they needed that whole sequence to be a
lot less video gamey, even if they had to do something totally different. Dude was clearly not playing on Grounded.
Scenes from the episode in game form:
Joel and Ellie with the giraffes:
Joel wakes up in the hospital with Marlene:
Joel kills Marlene:
Ending scene:
... I actually think that last scene was actually probably better in the game.