You're listening to the survival podcast. You're all going to die down here. This is Zombies Ate My Podcast. Hello and welcome to Zombies Ate My Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Murphy, and joining me as always is the busy zombie lord, Lou Page. How's it going, Lou? We're back for fungus zombies. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to talk about... Sorry I had to. Yeah, I know. I lined that up for you, man. I lined it up.
One of us had to make that joke. We're going to talk about The Last of Us Season 2 premiere. As of this recording, one episode is live, and we wanted to jump right in to talk about the second season kicking off. So we're going to talk about that and we've got a whole good chunk of news. So without further delay, let's jump in. The virus has completely devastated over 150 of the world's major regions and is spreading rapidly.
Let's kick things off with an update from the new Resident Evil movie director, promising that it will be unlike any of the previous films. Now, Lou, do you feel like this kind of flies in the face of the last movie we got? Because the director did say...
That the movie would be built in the spirit of, quote unquote, those games. So I'm assuming the Resident Evil games. But it's going to be like nothing we've seen before. But the last film was, I mean... exactly what we wanted but with misguest yeah it was it was it was very close to resident evil one and two maybe not less one but more two
But then again, yeah, I mean, based on the reports previously talking about Resident Evil zero and and I think whatever we're going to get, I think it's going to be in the spirit of Resident Evil. It's going to be unique. I don't think we're going to get anything groundbreaking, but I don't think we're going to get the other Resident Evil series. I think we're going to get something closer to what the last one was, but with some different twists.
Yeah, he goes on to say there's a whole Hollywood Reporter article talking about My movie will be built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B as they descend deeper into hell. That kind of sounds like a Resident Evil 1 movie, you know, when you think about descending into hell. It could be Resident Evil 0, too.
There are two characters, but you mostly play as Rebecca and Billy's just kind of along for the ride. That's true. All the other stuff he's talking about in the fact that it is, you know, it's going to be, you know, back to its horror root. focusing on the video games, focusing on what made those video games so scary.
I mean, he's saying the right things and we won't have long to wait. The fact that the movie will be out in a year and a half. And his track record so far with horror has been pretty good. Yeah, I think we'll continue to see more of this as as as. Time continues and likely start getting confirmed casting and gosh, probably a trailer by this time next year, I would think at the latest.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. We'll keep tabs on that and continue to report. But a movie we never thought would happen has now got a new trailer. And that's 28 years later, has a brand new trailer. featuring the, once again, the Cillian Murphy lookalike zombie. It's not, sorry, not Cillian Murphy. Now that you know it's not him and we get a much closer look at it, it's much less.
yeah looking like him yeah uh i thought this trailer really focused in on like the terror of the rage zombies but also the fact that like the world seems to be somewhat coping 28 years later. Like they've kind of got a handle on things for, to a certain degree. Yup. And it seems like we get a little bit more of our plot. It seems like our, our two main characters. Our father and son, maybe. And they're on an island off the coast of... I think it off the coast of the.
I think the UK. And there is like a bridge going in and out to where they are. And when they leave to go hunting or whatever it is they're about to go do. When the gates are closed, you hear somebody says something like, once you cross that bridge, you're on your own. No one's coming to save you. Yeah, you're out in the world. And yeah, they talk about, so there's a causeway it looks like, but. It seems like the world is not safe. Like there are still roaming.
you know, zombies around. But I think the trailer kind of showcases that there's going to be a heavy focus on the settlement. But there's also some what appear to be, you know, military forces present in the trailer. I think that is a flashback. Yeah. I think that that's going to be a flashback explaining the dad's role in everything.
Oh, okay. Interesting. That's my theory. Yeah, that's a good theory. Another thing that kind of jumped out at me is there, and this was hinted at in the previous trailer, there appears to be some sort of cult that they've come across. with, you know, folks that may be worshipping the virus or the zombies.
It's hard to tell, but it does look like they're insuring another faction that they may get captured by when they leave the island. Well, this is going to be a trilogy, so there's definitely going to have to give us villains. Yeah, more so than just the zombies. This is out in theaters June 20th, so not a long wait. No, two months. Two months, you're right.
Now, are you planning to see this one in theaters so we can chat about it? I'm going to try. We're both going to try. I think we meet halfway. How far? Where would we meet halfway? I don't know. Dude, I don't think there's a theater halfway between us. Somewhere in Quebec. We'll just meet somewhere in Quebec.
uh and watch it at a theater and and it'll be in french but yeah i was gonna say it likely did be in french yeah but that's fine we'll we'll have subtitles be all good uh so yeah 28 years later out soon uh we're gonna make every effort to go see it uh it's funny i was watching this trailer And I didn't have headphones on. I was just watching it on my phone. And my son was walking downstairs and he's like.
And he's like, what are you watching? And I pause it. It's like, I'm just watching a trailer. And he's like, you're watching it. You're watching some, you're watching a trailer for something inappropriate. I'm like, yeah, it's, it's a film that's not for kids. It's about, it's about zombies. It's okay. You'll get there eventually. But I assume you watched this with your daughter, right? No, actually, she'd gone to bed. I watched this all alone. That's good. But I...
That crosses a line. I probably wouldn't watch something this scary with her, but she has seen stuff with me that's kind of like, I'm like, ooh, is this going to be too much? And I'm like, no. And then it's so funny because you never know what's going to make a kid uncomfortable. She's watched me play Dead Rising. She's watched me play Resident Evil.
she's walked in on me watching something spooky that was like zombie related one night and she stood in the hallway because I can't see from where I sit on the couch. And I thought I heard footsteps, but I didn't see her. And so I just kept watching what I was watching. And she was standing in the hallway just out of eyesight. So I couldn't see her watching whatever it was I was watching. And it was something really gory. And I was like, I'm surprised this kid isn't screaming.
And she came. Finally, I get up and I saw her and I went, oh, hi. And she's like, hi. And I'm like. Are you okay? She's like, yeah, I just wanted to go pee. And I'm like, okay, well, you're watching TV. And she's like, what is this? And I'm like, I explained to her what it was. And she's like, can I watch it? I'm like, no, you can expect that.
We've definitely had those moments where we're watching TV and the kids will come down and they'll just kind of stand there like flabbergasted that you as an adult after like just hurt that after they go to bed, you get to watch TV and they're like. why do you get to watch TV after eight o'clock? And I'm like, well, Oh, man. Kids are fun. My favorite thing, though, is you never know what's going to trigger them. She's watched me. I had this conversation actually earlier today.
she's watched me do watched gory stuff she's watched like some of it's been unintentional and some of it has been intentional but she's seen all kinds of stuff what what does she get uncomfortable with We're watching an episode of Star Trek and somebody gets taken hostage. And the Cardassians are talking about torturing somebody. And they're not even torturing. They're just talking about torturing. And she's like, no, no, no. We need to change this, daddy. And I'm like.
You just watched me behead zombies with a chainsaw in a game. But... them talking about torturing a guy is too much and she's like yeah it's scary but to be fair to her like you know one's a cartoon and one's probably one's not yeah fair it's very valid very valid but yeah i know i i I think that the trailer for 28 Years Later, it's very intense. It uses the same sort of music slash soundtrack that the first trailer had. Very creepy, very intense.
I think it ramps up the intensity from the previous trailer. It very much looks like this is going to be... I mean, it's 28 years later. I think it's going to be very disconnected from the other films, but still have. you know, the vibe, uh, 28 weeks later was, was only a couple of years past, or no 20 weeks. There's a half a year past. uh the previous film and and felt very still very connected in a way because it's like it's not a lot of time had passed but this is 28 years
A whole new generation, people born into this world filled with zombies, right? So it'll be interesting to see how they handle that and the fact that it is a trilogy, as you said. they're going to be looking to set up other factions other uh issues because you're right like you know 28 years later as go by you have other factions popping up they might not all agree i just really hope it doesn't boil into like walking dead mode you know where everyone they come across is just an asshole.
I'm very worried it's going to end up being a political commentary. Oh, maybe. Yeah. I mean, didn't Alex Garland get that out of his system? He did a war movie. He did a Civil War movie. That's my worry, is like... I don't mind some of that, but lately everything seems very heavy-handed with what they're trying to tell me, and I'm worried that that's what this is going to do.
Fingers crossed they don't. I don't get that sense from the trailers, but I can understand, you know, the fear. And we're not saying that, like... All messages of that like should be shouldn't be present. No, no, not at all. Not at all. But I just I'm I'm worried. Because I saw because of the cult thing and the religious overtones that seem to be throughout the trailers.
I'm worried it's going to be some kind of heavy handed messaging or something. And if it does, that's where it's going to lose me. And not because I even would disagree with the messaging. It's just that again. I just want to watch something that's entertaining and interesting and different. Although, now that you mention it, I am a little worried that this trailer is showcasing that the second they leave the island, it's just...
you know, nuts out there. Like they come across a priest. It's like, Oh, the flock are coming home. It's like, well, your flock are all zombies. And then you come across a cult leader. Who's like worshiping bones and skeletons. And it's like, Man, we should not have left. What were we thinking? You know? Yep. Back to the causeway.
I I'm a little like the trailer is trying to be intense. So hopefully there, we still don't know what the story is. The fact that they leave, why are they leaving? Uh, you know, it sounds like they're leaving to go get something like the community needs something. Yeah. Yeah, but the way they word it is like, well, once you leave, you're on your own. Almost like a threat, as in like, why are you leaving?
I don't know. We need to see more. When we do see it, we'll talk about it here. I'm sure we'll get at least one more trailer previous to the launch in June, so look forward to that. We will talk about it. Lou, now we enter the Last of Us portion of the show. How do you feel? I know you didn't buy The Last of Us Part II, but now's your chance. Sony did this for you. Now's your chance to buy it. They're re-releasing The Last of Us again as a complete edition.
Part one and two in one handy, expensive package. What are your thoughts on that? Nope. Nope. Okay. I'm enjoying this show. I enjoyed my time with the first game. I don't enjoy games that force me to force me to deal with like. Surefire way to get me to put a game down is to force feelings on me. That's not why I play games. If you're trying to make me feel or think about something that is that is like.
It can have a story that's thought-provoking, but if you're making me do something like in Call of Duty, there's the airport in the... Modern Warfare 2, where they make you walk through an airport where guys are shooting up the airport and you have a choice whether or not you do or not. It doesn't really affect the plot. When you do stuff like that, that's where you lose me in a game. I'm here for entertainment when you try to make me feel something that's beyond.
just an interesting thought and you're trying to be like you're the bad guy how does that make you feel i'm like no no Yeah. No, well, The Last of Us Part II, I think, did that more than Part I. Part I definitely had it, but having played Part II... There are moments that the game makes you play. Because it knows. As soon as I heard a review.
And it talked about, like, you play as Ellie and you think you're the hero. And then you play as somebody else and you think you're the hero. And then they come across conflicting things. And you see both sides of the conflict. And I was like, oh, I don't need this.
I don't need to play a game and then 20 minutes later play what I thought was the villain and find out they're not the villain. It's a conflicting story. And both of them are right. And both of them are right. Nope. Sorry. Nope. Nope. I don't need that kind of feeling. That's not entertaining to me. It'll be interesting. I enjoyed the game. It did make you feel. I can watch something like that. Yeah. Like a TV show or a movie.
Playing it is something different. You're requiring me to interact with it. And when I have to interact with it, then it's not fun. Yeah, no, I 100 percent. I mean, that's part of video games. The fact that they make you interact is. is part of the medium, right? And if you're not into that, that's totally fair. And I know a lot of people who skipped part two knowing just when it was released, right at the start of the pandemic.
The fact that some of its more shocking early moments were revealed in a leak and or discussed openly because people were upset by that. skipping it. I remember when The Last of Us First season aired Jocelyn, my co-host on the Gamers Inn, who had not played the games, but knew how popular they were.
I had asked her like, well, now that you've watched season one, are you going to wait the three years for season two? Are you going to go buy like part two for the PS4 for like 20 bucks? And I think or I believe her response was, I'll just wait for the show, you know, like. No, I mean, I can play spooky games. It doesn't bother me because I know that as soon as you're trying to make me feel... something that's beyond my entertainment value, I'm not interested in playing anymore.
But that's just me as a gamer. I don't play games because I want them to be thought-provoking and give me feelings. I want to play games because I want to escape. And when you make me have to have conflicted views on things, then I'm like, this is too much like real life. That's not why I do this. Yeah, that's fair. And again, we're getting more Last of Us re-releases. I'm waiting to see what Naughty Dog does next that's not Last of Us.
Or not Nathan Drake? Well, they did have that trailer for Intergalactic, which looks pretty cool. So you'll have that. We'll see. Well, I mean, it's a ways off, so it's really hard to get excited. I mean, when we talk about the equivalent of a video game... wait for a trailer in terms of movies is basically i'll wait for a public demo you know like in terms of like a like an e3 showcase not necessarily like a here's the demo go play it
So that's a ways off. But if you did want to buy The Last of Us again, the complete edition is $100 US. It includes both games for the PS5, part one, which was the remake, and part two, which was remastered. Look, I know why they do this. I think folks at home know why they do this. I know Lou knows why they do this. It's because they discount these games. to rock bottom prices and the only way to recover from that
is to package them up, sell them at a bigger price. I think the news article we have was basically saying if you bought them separately, you save $20 by buying the complete edition. Technically, you could just wait for a sale and do it that way, but I know why they do these complete editions. I don't know if they've removed the individual games. I think they're still available.
Some folks might see this and be like, oh, complete. I got to buy that, you know? Yeah. So it's just a marketing thing. It's complete until what's his name decides he wants to make a third one. And then it's not a complete set anymore. I mean, let's see what happens when HBO runs at a runway. And I truly believe like Neil Druckmann as a creative, like I feel like if he finds the right story, he'll make a part three, even though he has said.
Yes, no, yes, no. He said the same thing for part two. He's like, well, we don't have a story if we had a story. And I think working on the show. puts yourself back in that creative mode and gets your brain thinking. And then maybe the show can inform a part three in a way, just like the games informed how the show could change things. I mean, we'll see what happens. Never say never. And I think he said that as well. But he said at this point, don't hold your breath because.
But yeah, as you alluded to, The Last of Us has officially been renewed. For season three. I mean, I thought this was already had already happened. I thought they had already greenlit the season three. So I, I saw this news and was like. Is this news to anybody? They've been talking about this season being split into two parts, at least. So, like, okay. Like, yay, it's official, but...
I thought this was already a done deal. Yeah, I thought so too. They were more talking like, I think creatively, they would have to split part two into multiple seasons. so you kind of assume from that angle of like well if they're not going to finish the story in season two that must mean there's a season three but now it's official We'll see the breaking points for part two. We don't really know what those are just yet.
But we'll certainly talk about it. So that's our news. But now let's head into our main topic. Hey, what do you call grizzly's ribs? Did you just make that up? Yeah. Barbecue? Yeah. Seriously? We're talking about The Last of Us Season 2. I figured I would clip the... the most positive, uh, fun interaction of the, of the show. Yep. Uh, just, just, you know, lighten the mood a bit because I'm, I gotta warn you folks at home. If you have not played part two, you have no idea what's happening.
This is probably going to be... the happiest this show is going to be. Maybe even this season, if they do, I don't want to spoil it, but there is a possibility for a bottle episode to be more heartwarming than this short two-minute clip. or two-minute segment that this clip refers to. The Last of Us Season 2 set five years after the first season. We pick things back up in Jackson, Wyoming with Joel and Ellie living within the community, but something appears to be straining their relationship.
And you get a preview of that at the very beginning of the episode when they flashback to the end of the first season. showing that interaction where Ellie asks Joel, like, is that the truth? Is that what happened? And he says, I swear. And she says, okay. I will once again recommend folks to not stop listening to this show and go listen to another podcast, but definitely check out the HBO The Last of Us podcast that they have.
where they talk about like sort of behind the scenes and how they crafted it if you're wondering why the start of this season meshed so well with the end of the last season, it's because they shot multiple sort of extended takes of that scene for season one. And while they did end up cutting it after Ellie says, okay. They did an extended take where you get Joel's reaction and they use that to start season two, which I think was a really smart choice.
And you get to see the fact that Joel is like, okay, that's what I get to believe for now. You know, that she's okay with it. I'm going to convince myself, basically. that she's okay with my choices. Lou, I've talked a lot. I've played the game. You have not played the game. How did you feel coming into this season? I go into this not knowing the full plot of two, but only having a vague idea of where it's going and what's happening.
I know Abby's story a little bit. She's the part I'm a little vague on from the games because I haven't played as her. I was not aware that her vengeance was because of fireflies. I thought it was because of the cult people Joel killed, not the fireflies. So knowing that the Fireflies are involved made me go, oh, OK, I can see where this is kind of going more now.
Yeah, and this is a change they made between the game and the show, and I was going to ask you about Abby. You don't get the context for Abby's revenge against Abby. Well, Abby's... Well, yeah, it's in the episode. Her quest for revenge against Joel, you don't get that context in the game until way later. The fact that they...
They do a flashback for Ellie and Joel, and then they do a flashback for Abby, second scene, highlighting the fact that her and her group are like the sole survivors from the attack when Joel saved Ellie. Is is very important context for what is about to happen, because that is the story going forward is the story of of Ellie and Jackson and Abby and her group on on the on the war path.
So the fact that they give that right away, I think is important for, because when you look at the video game, if you remove that interactive element and you're just telling a story. you do, you do kind of want to apply extra, extra context. Cause in a video game, like the whole point of part two was like,
to push you as a player to want to seek revenge and not necessarily find out why it happened, but just seek revenge. And then they flip the script on you. And I know that's why you didn't like it. I think you're going to enjoy this season because with the medium of television, they're able to like, well, we don't have to worry about, you know, making the player feel through interactions. We can just tell the story and order in whatever way we want, you know? Yeah.
But the fact that they do that with Abby and give us the context for why she's hunting down Joel. That's where we see her there. And they talk of a splinter group from the Fireflies out in Seattle and joining them. That plays a big part. They mention Isaac. He's a big part of this story as well. And you don't really see her again until the very end when you see them in the snow approaching Jackson five years later. And it's clear that they're there to attack. Oh, yeah. They're there for revenge.
Here's my thing is I get revenge. I get it. But if you're attacking a town that had nothing to do with what happened to the things, then how are you any better than what they just did? You're going to go in and kill a bunch of innocent people. Then you're not any better than Joel. Yeah. I mean, in the context of the show, they do say like, I want to kill Joel. Joel has to die and he's got to die slowly. That is that is the information we're given to.
To say they're going to attack Jack, we don't know if that's the case. We don't know how it's going to play out. There was an awful lot of them for them to not attack. Yeah, you do get the sense that they're a tight knit group and they're all out together. But you do get the sense from the beginning of the episode that there are some.
agreements on what should happen. They all do eventually say, yes, we'll help you kill Joel. However, they're all pretty apprehensive about it. They've just been through an attack on their community. And they're kind of reeling, but you do get the sense that Abby has like... like a much bigger stake in what happened. But the rest of the group, outside of Owen, who is the character that kind of... agreed more with Abby and said he would help.
More so. But the whole group is there. They're all there to support Abby. They want to get this done. They all have a... like a personal stake in this matter because they all lost people. You saw the amount of graves that were marked there as they were burying fireflies. So I think we'll get more context to what's happening there in the second episode. This is going to move quick, especially, I think, early on.
But then the season is likely to slow down. I think we're looking at like a couple of big episodes. I haven't watched, there was a trailer kind of looking forward. I didn't watch it. I never watched those. Surprise me. Yeah, exactly. I did not watch it, but I feel like we're in for some action and then we're in for some. from slower moments so uh yeah um How did you feel about this was some casting news that we reported on last year?
But now that we get to see it in action, how did you feel about Catherine O'Hara making her debut? That was one of the more entertaining parts of the episode with her role in what was going on. She's not from the game, am I correct? She's mentioned her character. She's she mentioned she's the wife of Eugene. Eugene is a character that that.
also doesn't really show up but is is felt is present but i think the wife is is only mentioned in name and she's off screen and or not even i don't know maybe she's She could be dead in the video game. I can't remember, but she is mentioned. So the fact that they've kind of fleshed out that character and made her present is really neat. Yeah, I see. I wasn't aware of that. I just know that I never heard anything about.
that character so i was like cool this is a new character that's not in the game i like when shows do this sort of thing it adds some kind of substance it also adds a character that they can kill off later and make you feel something oh god i hope they don't do that Catherine O'Hara is awesome. I mean, she is playing the psychiatrist in the show, and she does a session with Joel. I have to ask you, do they clarify why why Joel killed her husband? No, but.
I think I get the... So I get the sense from the episode and the discussions that happen is that Joel... uh, put him down because he was bit. Okay. All right. That's what I was thinking, but they never made that clear. And they said a year ago, and I was like, well, we just flash forward five years. So this clearly happened in the flash, the flash jump ahead. I don't understand the context. Joel clearly killed this guy.
And probably had a good reason. Joel doesn't really kill people anymore unless he has a good reason. So yeah, I was thinking, I was thinking bitten, but I was like, I don't know. Yeah. I think that's the context that's there is that you could piece it together that. She understands why he had to do it. But she still doesn't have to like it. No, and maybe there's...
You know, maybe there's additional context that would be given. You know, I do worry that that I do worry that they're going to like. And then kind of like slow things down way too much and try to squeeze. I'm worried about that too. Yeah. I, how many episodes do you think we have Joel for? Uh, I, I, I'm thinking three. honestly that's that was my thought was i don't think he makes it beyond three or four well sorry i think we get four but in the context of the story they're telling.
But I think, you know, Joel has a presence. And yeah, so I think that there's some more Joel that will be had. I mean, before we move on from Catherine O'Hara, I did want to mention that if you are, like, I love that she's having this resurgence ever since she was on Schitt's Creek. But if you're looking for more Catherine O'Hara, she's in the studio, which is the new Apple TV plus Seth Rogen show. And she's really good in that, too. So if you're like.
I need more Catherine O'Hara. You should watch that. I've been enjoying it. It's pretty funny. And it's a good half hour comedy. Don't get many of those these days. It's all this one hour prestige television. It was time for all that. In the clip we played, you heard Dina, which is a major character and a close friend of Ellie. After that clip, we get an intro to The Stalkers, which is a new Yeah, that was what I was going to say. I was going to say that they're evolving. Yeah.
They're thinking, they're planning, they're becoming smarter creatures. And this is something they spoke to in the pre-press in that five years goes... goes on and humanity adapts but so does the virus and you you see that a couple of times uh in this in this episode alone the stalkers first and foremost But then you see it at the very tail end with the... tendrils coming through the roots of that like pipe that's all overgrown yeah but but let's talk about the stalkers for a bit like
I remember in the video game, they were very easy to take out. And Ellie was kind of, I think she just wasn't prepared. This is also a show and not a video game. In a video game, you know what's coming, you know what the thing is, so you know how to handle it. In the show, my favorite thing was, I know nothing about this infected type.
I wasn't aware that there was a different infected type into that. Something that was new to me. I was going to be my question for you. And when she falls down the hole. I was kind of like in the middle of making my lunch while I was watching.
I looked down for a second, and then I looked up, and there was something running across the background in the scene where she was looking around. And she was facing out towards the camera, and you saw this shadowy thing running across what looked like the top of a bookshelf or something. And I went... Oh. And I stopped making my sandwich and I just sat there for a minute until whatever it was attacked her. And I was like, that was kind of cool. Okay.
Like the regular infected, the clickers and stuff, they're interesting. But seeing something that's new like that made me go, oh, we have a new threat. Yeah. And very dangerous because again, like it.
You saw it in this scene where they've been trained, they know how to handle... um these these two characters uh ellie and and dina are like oh there's two of them let's split up we're very good at taking these things out close quarters with a knife like they don't even bat an eyelash they're they're good to go um So the fact that humanity is kind of adapted...
so too does the virus and you have these stalkers that are like more like kind of like kind of like velociraptors and in jurassic park is how i kind of got the the sense of it is like they're smart they they stalk their prey they don't Like Ellie even tries to like coax it out, like run at me, run at me because that's how they've been able to do it before. Well, the stalker does not run at Ellie. It kind of slinks away and hides and takes advantage of the situation.
Well, if Ellie wasn't Ellie, she'd be dead because she got bit again. Right. So but the stalkers are weak. So in the video game, they are like that. They do stalk your prey. They do hide. They do kind of like. make more human sounds to try to make you think that it's a hurt human instead of an infected. But they are very weak. And you saw that in the show as well, where as soon as they took a hit, like a shot to the gut, they were down.
So it doesn't require a shot to the head. It's basically like any damage is going to take out this infected type. So we get an intro to The Stalker. Specific to Ellie, I thought throughout this episode that they made a point of showcasing... several things. And we talk about humans adapting. We talk about Ellie's skill set.
We get a scene with her fighting and training. We get a scene with her doing what I called a gun check scene. So basically in the game when you do all your weapon upgrades and stuff. And then you get her stitching herself up from that bite she had by the stalker, which kind of shows that as a character, like she has become the survivor.
With all the training and skills that Joel was in the first game or first season, now Ellie has sort of taken on that banner and is very, very capable of defending herself. keeping herself alive. And I thought that was, knowing what's coming, I thought, okay, that makes sense to establish the fact that not only Ellie, but this whole community has been working to...
to be better, stronger, faster than the dangerous world that surrounds them. What did you think of those scenes? Did that jump out at you as well? Overall, just in general, It was weird from the moment the whole show began. I felt like everything was heart-wrenching. Like the whole way through. And I was like... Oh God, this is, I forgot what this show is like. This is not going to be a happy ride.
And so at every turn, like when they're in front of the council and they have the discussion, like, oh, this like, like, I feel like this show does what Walking Dead wishes they could do. The whole time I'm watching this, I'm like. Yeah, Walking Dead wishes that they were this good. Yeah, I do get that sense. Like the fact that there is this sense of loss and trauma and danger around every corner in this world.
You really don't get that with The Walking Dead. You may have got it in the first season, maybe the second, but the world just becomes so fantastical that the enemy is just some... weird mustache-twirling character, not the zombie.
In Last of Us, it's very much... The zombies are the threat. Yeah, yeah. They're a bigger threat than everything else. Well, the episode ended with... you know, reestablishing that the infected are the threat with, I knew as soon as they cracked open that like clay pipe and it was filled with root. I knew immediately, like, oh, that's going to be... And how they talk about it in the HBO season is they're establishing that, or the HBO podcast is they're establishing that.
They are expanding when humanity expands and progresses. You have to destroy to create. And that was part of it is that they're just, you know, fixing up these houses, fixing up the piping and they discover all these roots and they kind of just leave it. Um, early on established in season one that the, the virus, the fungus, it, it, it coordinates through a network. And yeah, I thought like, you think they would have.
maybe done something about i know they're just roots and they were talking about clearing them out or whatever but Just one. I actually didn't see it coming, but they dropped the sparkler after they're celebrating New Year's. They dropped the sparkler in front of the pipe. It's going to start a fire.
And that's how it's going to happen. You know, going back to the Walking Dead classic of it, it's humans making stupid human errors causing... the the the drama the case yeah but but in this case it it was sort of but it's an honest like oh i dropped my sparkler and and it's not causing a fire but it is it is showcasing The virus, the tendrils kind of working their way through the roots because we've seen them react to heat, to noise, to sound, all that stuff. So it was bound to happen.
We'll see. Yeah. I think the next episode is going to be a battle. When it ended with the way it ended with them marching through the snow, and I was like, I only got like two minutes left. There's no way this... It shows Abby again, and it rends the credits, and I went... Oh, you're gonna make me wait a week. Oh, they got you. Well, there was a concern that maybe, uh, maybe the show wouldn't.
There was always a concern that the show wouldn't land, but I feel like this first episode, while not as intense as the first episode of season one. I appreciate how less intense it was. Yeah. There was just enough tension to hold you, but not enough tension that it punched you in the face the whole time. I also laughed when they're in the dance hall, the guy who's clearly going to be the homophobic dude.
I just watched him in a bunch of stuff recently, and I was like, oh, yep, he always plays a bad guy. They just put him in as a bad guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he dies in the next two episodes. Yeah, there was a hint in the HBO podcast that they would tell more of his story. I feel like the next episode is going to be heavily focused on Jackson as a character, like the town. which will eventually lead to the infected attacking because we got that tease at the end.
I hope that was a concern I had as I was watching this. They're setting up Jackson as a character. They better not burn it to the ground. Keep it. Just keep this part of The Last of Us, like this small section of hope. don't burn it just keep it because it's it works so well and clearly people care um and maybe that's what we'll see we'll see humanity sort of banding together you know Hopefully, this isn't The Walking Dead, so people might band together. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Well, we only had one episode to talk about. Uh, but I, I think we did a really good job breaking it down. Um, we will have more episodes to chat about. I don't think we'll have to wait for the finale to, to revisit this. Um, you know, maybe mid season. Yeah. Well, I. I think everybody knows mid-season is going to be a big moment, so we will return for that. But until then, we're going to fit in one more Extra Life movie, and that is 28 Days Later. So we're going to watch that.
complete the set. We watched 28 weeks later. Now it's time for 28 days later. And then soon, 28 years later. so gonna be fun times Another movie I threw out there was Night of the Zoopocalypse, which is not available yet in Canada, but is available... digitally in the u.s which is weird because it's a canadian uh film but um we're gonna add that one to the list too which is a animated film it's basically zombies for kids set in a zoo That one, Lou, we'll be able to watch with our kids.
No problem. Yep. I'm not picky with my kids, so chances are she already knows what zombies are. She already knows. I'm not afraid of zombies because daddy kills zombies. That's what she tells people. That's smart. Well, thank you to our patrons, patreon.com slash zombiesatemypodcast. You can visit our website, ZombiesAteMyPodcast.com, for show notes and all our previous episodes. You can send us an email. We may read it on the show, info at ZombiesAteMyPodcast.com.
Join our Discord at tiny.cc slash zampdiscord. It's the best place to connect with fellow listeners as well as Lou and I. This has been Zombies Ate My Podcast, and as always, we close out the show with some fine zombie knowledge from the busy zombie lord himself. Take it away, Lou. You gotta shoot those zombies. Don't let them bite you. You're not Ellie. Don't let them bite you.