Isabela Merced as Dina is already one of the superlative casting decisions ever .
There are obviously MASSIVE spoiler forward forThe Last of UsSeason 2andThe Last of Us Part IIvideo game !
1.First, in the opening scene with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), Owen (Spencer Lord) mentions that he knows about a group of survivors in Seattle run by Isaac. A majority ofThe Last of Us Part IIgame takes place in Seattle, and Isaac is played byJeffrey Wright, who will be reprising the role in Season 2.
2.Since the TV show has the opportunity to expand the story from the game even more, one of the biggest things in Episode 1 is that we see Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Dina’s (Isabela Merced) relationship, which we don’t get to see in the game.
3.During this Dina and Joel scene, Joel also teaches Dina about electronics, which is something she was also interested in inThe Last of Us Part IIgame. However, she tells Ellie that she learned a lot of it from Eugene (more on him later).
4.In the video game, you get to play as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) during the moment when she and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) are clearing out infected up in the mountains and practicing shooting with the scope. However, unlike the show, this scene is used as a flashback later in the game.
5.Tommy and Maria’s (Rutina Wesley) son, Benji (Ezra Agbonkhese), is a new addition to the TV show and doesn’t exist in the video game.
6.When Joel is talking to Maria in her office, you can see a board that depicts the current patrol routes, including Alpine, which Dina and Ellie go on later in the episode.
7.Gail (Catherine O’Hara), Joel’s therapist, is also another character who doesn’t exist in the games and is a new addition to the TV show adaptation.
8.When Joel pays Gail in weed, and she says winter never stopped Eugene from delivering better weed, it’s a nod to a video game scene. While Eugene is never seen inThe Last of Us Part II, Ellie and Dina stumble upon his growroom.
9.Gail mentions that Joel killed her husband, Eugene. In the game, Dina and Ellie mention that Eugene died from a stroke, and he regularly went on patrols with Dina while living in Jackson. He was also a Firefly who served with Tommy. Joe Pantolianohas been castas Eugene in Season 2, so I’m assuming a flashback to his life and death is in our future.
10.In Ellie’s room, you can see she has aSavage Starlightposter on the wall. She was obsessed with these comics in Season 1 and the video games. InThe Last of Us Part II, Ellie also has this poster on her wall.
11.We also see Ellie at a workbench cleaning her gun, which is something players do inThe Last of Us Part II. Workbenches appear throughout the game so you can upgrade your equipment.
12.Dina hilariously remarks on Ellie’s black Converse after Ellie reveals that she traded her old boots for a new holster. In the games, Ellie notably only wears Converse, which has turned into a running joke with players about how she does everything in them.
13.Both Dina and Jesse joke that Ellie looks like the characters out ofCurtis and Viper. The movies are notably Joel’s favorite, and they are mentioned inThe Last of Us Part IIwhen Ellie says she’s going to try and have a movie night with Joel despite their rift. Meanwhile, in Episode 1, Dina mentions that she and Joel are going to have a movie night.
14.Not only is Shimmer Ellie’s beloved horse fromThe Last of Us Part IIbut she was also mentioned in Season 1 when Ellie and Joel first get to Jackson.
15.Before heading out on patrol, Dina asks Jesse if they should “sign the log books,” which is something you do in the game while out on patrol with Dina and Ellie.
16.The patrol leader for Ellie and Dina’s patrol is Cat, who is just mentioned in the game. InThe Last of Us Part II, Cat is Ellie’s ex-girlfriend, who gave Ellie her signature tattoo. In the game, Ellie also remarks to Dina that she knows she doesn’t like Cat.
17.Ellie and Dina’s patrol through Greenplace Market is also something directly from the game.
18.When Dina and Ellie enter the market, Ellie picks up an empty bottle to lure the clicker out. In the games, bottles are something players use a lot in combat.
19.And while Ellie is walking through the market, she spots a dog as an employee of the month, which is another Easter egg for game players. In the game, the exact date the dog is employee of the month is a combo to a safe.
20.Ellie records Dina’s bear pun in her journal, which is something she often does in the game. As Ellie, players carry around her journal and she often logs things in it — like song lyrics and thoughts about Joel and Dina — for players to then read.
21.The dance scene is almost an identical shot-for-shot recreation from the scene inThe Last of Us Part II, right down to the same music. However, while the dance happens in real-time in the show, in the game, it’s used as a flashback later on.
22.Like, this iconic moment between Dina and Ellie even has the exact same dialogue as what is said in the game.
23.And finally, composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who created the music for bothTLOUgames and now also works on the series, can be seen playing the guitar during the dance. He also makes a cameo inThe Last of Us Part II, where he’s playing the banjo.
Alright, that’s all for now. Come back again next week for even more details from the next episode.
