“The Last Of Us” Episode 1: The ending explained – and what the number in the credits means for the next episodes

With a proud running time of 80 minutes, the first episode of “The Last Of Us” is already packed. The prelude takes up a lot of time for the introduction and amalgamation of the important characters and settings to position everything so far that the actual main story can really begin.

Joel (Pedro Pascal), still deeply scarred by the loss of his daughter 20 years later, meets young Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in the midst of the ongoing mushroom apocalypse, which he is forced to create against his will in order to become supporters. of the Firefly rebels. They are still searching for a cure for the rampant pandemic, to which the immune Ellie may well hold the key.

By the end of Episode 1, Joel, his partner Tess (Anna Torv), and Ellie have successfully (albeit with a fatal accident) made it out of Boston’s military-controlled quarantine zone and are now making their way through the devastated metropolis. Given the gloomy situation in the world, it should be clear that this will not be easy. But the latest shots already indicate that…

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Sinister foreshadowing with Depeche Mode

Parallel to their departure for the contaminated area beyond the protective walls of the quarantine zone, we again see the radio in Joel and Tess’s apartment, which suddenly turns on and plays a very specific song, which some viewers wondered not only what kind of song is it, but especially from which decade it comes.

Finally, it was established earlier in the episode that a certain Bill and his partner Frank use radio transmissions to contact Joel and Tess in coded form: if they play a song from the 1960s, it means it’s new merchandise for the smuggler duo, a 1970s song means the opposite. And if something sounds 80s, it warns of trouble or trouble.

Even if you are not familiar with the history of music, you probably guessed it based on the whole structure of the radio device topic: At the end of the first episode of “Last Of Us”, a piece of music from the 80s can actually be heard. The song that appears in the credits is actually the 1987 song “Never Let Me Down Again” by the synthpop group Depeche Mode.

That’s behind the song selection

By the way, the fact that this song was chosen – as so often in the edit – also pays homage to the popular “The Last Of Us” video game template, as revealed by showrunner Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”). In the first episode of the official “Last Of Us” series podcast, Mazin explains that the games also used what should have been upbeat music from the 80s on a number of occasions and then turned it into something dark or melancholy (think Ellie’s heartbreaking cover of one – ha’s world hit “Take On Me” in “The Last Of Us Part II”).

In “Never Let Me Down Again” (in English something like “never let me again” or “never let me down again”) this ambivalence is said to be even in the song itself, as the initially happy sounds are in stark contrast with the lyrics , about a friendship overshadowed by drug addiction. Drugs aside, the song is a nod to Joel and Ellie’s complex future relationship, one that’s always about feeling like one is abandoned by the other, but is ultimately there for each other when it matters.

In fact, the song will appear in a different way later in Season 1, but we’re not going to say exactly how just yet. So you better prick up your ears as you watch over the next few weeks. You can listen to the said podcast here:

What a threat to the as yet unseen Bill and Frank (played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) with Depeche Mode’s number remains unclear. In any case, in the world populated by bloodthirsty mutants and no less brutal marauders, all kinds of dangers lurk, and we will see quite a few of them in the series. In fact, Joel and Tess are believed to be discouraged from going anywhere near Bill and Frank’s current whereabouts – a warning they no longer hear. However, the whole thing will not be resolved until episode 3, so much is already expected without spoilers at this point.

What’s that scream at the end of episode 1?

That nothing good awaits Joel, Ellie and Tess in episode 2 is already teased in the last seconds of the first episode of “Last Of Us”. Here we see the destroyed city panorama, in which the remnants of the Boston skyline, including two tall buildings that have crashed into each other, loom ominously against the stormy night sky – a sight copied almost exactly from the game template.

An eerie sound ringing in the distance that those who know the games know all too well further heightens the fear of what is to come. Here the characteristic scream of a so-called clicker can be heard. In the world of “The Last Of Us”, clickers are mutants long infected with the cordyceps fungus and can no longer see due to the vegetation on their faces, but can hear all the better – and therefore extremely deadly. This will also be seen in episode 2 of the series adaptation, which will be released in the (very) early morning hours on the Sky streaming service WOW on January 23, 2023.