This post contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season two, episode two. Technically, it also contains spoilers for Game of Thrones‘ “The Long Night,” but that doesn’t count.
The Last of Us just delivered a heart-wrenching, tense, terrifying, action-packed episode, one of the best in television history. This episode had everything you could ever want. It combined world-class spectacle with a deeply human story, great writing, and incredible performances. It featured an all-out assault on a fortified outpost—located in the cold and snowy north—by a massive horde of fast-moving, violent, zombies entirely under the control of a master that threatens every living being on the planet. Every plot and character development made sense, both in a vacuum and for the show’s bigger story. It also featured Bella Ramsey! And, most importantly, you could f***ing see what was happening.
So, while it took six years and a totally different show, HBO finally gave us the “Battle of Winterfell” we deserved.
Not everything that happens on TV is about Game of Thrones. Not everything that happens on HBO is, either. But it was impossible to watch The Last of Us’ absolutely stunning episode and not see the obvious connections between the infected attack on snowy Jackson, Wyoming, and the White Walker attack on snowy Winterfell. Cordyceps was the Night King, the Infected its wights. The commune was the Stark castle with giant walls that couldn’t hold against the living embodiment of death. The Last of Us even put those who couldn’t fight this true existential threat underground, same as Game of Thrones.
Only, unlike Tyrion’s illogical plan, Jackson’s leaders didn’t lock up their vulnerable with corpses destined to transform into undead soldiers. Maria didn’t send the kids and elderly into a cordyceps fungus garden. Nor did Tommy foolishly lead a cavalry of the town’s best warriors to die outside Jackson’s walls the way Jon Snow handed Dothraki over to the Night King for literally no reason. Everything that happened during the infected attack on Jackson made sense.
The town both failed and succeeded for logical reasons, not because it “looked cool.” There was no deus ex machina to save the day, either. Jackson barely held on. Meanwhile, Ellie couldn’t save Joel on The Last of Us season two, the antithesis of Game of Throne‘s “The Long Night,” where every single person who sat around the fireplace the night before survived. Yes, everyone who was there for Brienne’s emotional knighting lived through the White Walker attack. Clearly, Jackson’s supplies didn’t include plot armor.
Am I still really this bitter about an episode of TV that aired six years ago? So much so that my response to watching an all-time great episode of television, on an incredible series, has me complaining about Game of Thrones?
Is that a joke? Of course, I am. I’m going to be bitter about it if I live 600 more years. In fact, I hope someone teaches me Melisandre’s magic. I want to keep writing this exact article for centuries. I will never tire of being angry that Game of Thrones botched the most highly-anticipated showdown in TV’s history, a battle thousand of years in the making… Especially when it should have been amazing. It took 55 days and more than 750 people to film that one episode. And while it undoubtedly featured some incredible acting and sequences, it was a big, anticlimactic, nonsensical dud.
At least it seemed that way. How can any of us be totally sure when nearly two months of filming and millions and millions of dollars of production were all hidden by near-total darkness?
Forget the great writing. Forget the incredible visuals, perfect pacing, true terror, standout acting, genuine emotion, and actual logic. The fact The Last of Us actually let us see its zombie horde attack made it the good version of Game of Thrones‘ “Battle of Winterfell.”
Hopefully, that’s a sign The Last of Us won’t completely fall apart during its final season, too.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He thinks about how Game of Thrones ended every day of his life. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
Content shared from nerdist.com.