As has become tradition for the first several Sundays of 2023, we’ve acclimatized to the expectation of having our hearts broken week after week as The Last of Us continues to find increasingly devastating ways to make us ugly cry.
The seveth episode, titled ‘Left Behind’ is no different, but for the second time in two weeks, something of an editing snafu has managed to slip through the cracks and onto our television screens.
During Ellie and Riley’s dance scene in the Halloween store, eagle-eyed viewers may notice something of a continuity issue. In an over the shoulder shot (from Ellie’s perspective) of Riley at 46 minutes and 22 seconds, as Ellie slows down and stops dancing, she is seen reaching for her wolf mask to take it off.
The episode then cuts to a shot of Ellie, in which her hands are still down at her side, only for her to once again reach up and actually remove her mask for real.
While The Last of Us is being widely lauded as the possible pinnacle of television in 2023, this moment joins a slowly growing list of minor editing room errors which have taken the audience out of the moment.
The other two instances we’ve spotted so far included a visible production crew in a wide overhead shot of Ellie and Joel crossing a bridge, and a mysterious hand poking out from behind a stable door during a scene in which Ellie interacts with a horse.
While not unforgivable, it does beg the question how a massive budget and high-profile HBO series continues to make these tiny errors.
In any case, The Last of Us will be back next Sunday on HBO Max for its penultimate episode.