The em Last of Us /em Finale Nearly Wrecks Everything the Show Has Accomplished

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Episode 9, "Look for the Light." The Last of Us has been roundly praised as the best video-game adaptation ever made, even the first to be truly great, and part of that greatness is that you don't need to have played the original games to appreciate it. Although the HBO series is replete with moments from the games repeated beat for beat and even shot for shot, it's not hobbled by mindless fidelity to its source, and it finds ways to exploit its new medium that would never work if you were sitting in front of the TV with a PlayStation controller instead of a remote control. But in the final episode of the first season, "Look for the Light," The Last of Us returns to its source material in a way that comes close to wrecking everything the show has accomplished. Joel and Ellie have finally reached the goal they've been headed toward the entire season: the Firefly encampment in Salt Lake City. Joel has spent the past 20 years grieving the murder of his teenage daughter, Sarah, at the beginning of the Cordyceps pandemic, and the more recent death of his partner, Tess, and an uneasy reunion with his brother has underlined the lesson that it's best for him not to care for anyone at all.