The first season of “The Last of Us”, perhaps the first truly successful film adaptation of a computer game, is over. On the way to Monday’s season finale, the series creators made one of several interesting moves: They used the strong individualism inherent in the computer game to say something about how crisis situations can force crystal clear certainty. A certainty about who we are willing to sacrifice and not. THE KEY: Teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsay) is immune to the fungal pandemic, and may therefore be the key to saving the world. Photo: HBO. The computer game from 2013, and the TV series that springs from it, take place in a desolate and post-apocalyptic USA. A pandemic of sorts controlled by an aggressive type of fungus has turned most of humanity into zombie-like freaks, blindly attacking everyone they meet. Whoever is bitten meets the same fate. It is through this landscape that Joel (Pedro Pascal) accompanies the teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsay). She is immune to the fungal infection, and the hope is that she can be the source of a vaccine or cure for the disease. (NOTE! ROCK ALARM). This is where it is appropriate to say that what follows does not hide what happens in the last episode of the season. That caveat being given: I like to think that people generally like each other well. That they want safe and good lives both for themselves and others. You can then also do that as long as you are not in an acute crisis situation. Take a war, a natural disaster or a world full of other dangers. Suddenly, some have to take greater risks than others. Someone has to protect the herd, get food, confront intruders. Some pose a danger or burden to the community, perhaps because they are ill or injured or need a type of care or attention that cannot be provided. In this week’s episode of “The Last of Us”, Joel and Ellie finally arrived at the hospital in the abandoned Salt Lake City, where the rebel group Fireflies are waiting for them to examine Ellie. But then Joel, who sees Ellie as his own child, learns that the planned operation involves an intervention in her brain, one that she will not survive. Without hesitation, he kills anyone who stands between him and Ellie, rips her off the operating table, and escapes with her. Humanity would rather be the puppet. FIRST PERSON SHOOTER: Joel (Pedro Pascal) values nothing higher than protecting the girl he is responsible for in “The Last of Us”. Photo: HBO. Joel’s journey through the hospital is one of the scenes in the TV series that most resembles a computer game. It also has clear features in common with a number of action films. What such games and films have in common is that a large proportion of the people the energetic hero meets are cannon fodder. They are greatly outnumbered, but fortunately often shoot remarkably poorly. They are also hardly human. Often you don’t see their faces. They are only there to be a human obstacle course between the protagonist and the target. In “The Last of Us”, the humanity of Joel’s victims comes out in brief glimpses. One of them stretches his hands in the air, another begs for mercy, without it saving them. Here, the series allows its own protagonist to emerge as more brutal than what the regular action film does. But even in such an imaginative tale as this, the purpose is obviously to say something about the human. It is more than implied that there are situations that can turn anyone into “first person shooters”. In situations where someone should or must be sacrificed, there are very few people who are willing to sacrifice some of their own. Presumably it is easier to sacrifice yourself than the child under your protection. An earlier episode in the season points forward to this moment. On the way to Salt Lake City, Joel and Ellie have stopped by Kansas City, and ended up in bloody anarchy. After society broke down, the city was ruled as a dictatorship by the military organization Fedra, before the citizens revolted and overthrew those in power. POINTING FORWARD: Henry (Lamar Johnson) steps over moral boundaries to keep his little brother Sam (Keivonn Woodard) alive. Photo: HBO. In the episode that takes place in Kansas City, there is a frantic hunt for those who were informers and collaborators. Rebel leader Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), who took over leadership of the rebels after Fedra executed her brother, wants to get hold of Henry (Lamar Johnson), the man who framed her brother. It turns out that Henry was driven by concern for his own little brother, who needed medication. The rebel movement eats itself because both Kathleen and Henry are closest to their own. REVENGE: Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) hunts down those who betrayed her brother, and thus does the same as them: puts her own family first. Photo: HBO. According to this logic, the world is ending because we love each other, not because we hate each other. In the world depicted in “The Last of Us” forces people to prioritize. And then they simply do not prioritize the greater good, the higher purpose.
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The world is ending because we love each other – Expression
