Warning: Spoilers for The Last of Us to follow.
With episode seven of HBO Max’s The Last of Us having come and gone, we’ve learned that showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann aren’t above including the original game’s DLC storylines. Seventh episode “Left Behind” is based on The Last of Us: Left Behind, a DLC pack for the game that gives us a peek into Ellie’s past, namely the heart-wringing circumstances in which she first got bit.
It was an extraordinarily sweet episode that followed Ellie and her old friend/crush Riley as the two girls take in the magic of an abandoned shopping mall, indulging in everything from escalators to photo booths to carousels. And arguably the second-highest high that Ellie reached (the highest, of course, no doubt being her kiss with Riley) was when she was brought to the arcade, where she finally got to play Mortal Kombat II; a game that she just so happens to be obsessed with despite never having gotten to play it before.
Given the girls’ inexperience with the game and life before the cordyceps virus, some viewers may have done a double-take when the girls performed the famous Fatalities, in which a series of unorthodox inputs are made to trigger a special, cutscene-esque move that often results in some match-ending gore.
The internet, of course, wasn’t the gaming info hub that it is today back when Mortal Kombat II was released, and with no fellow gamers to whisper Fatality rumors to them, one may have wondered how the girls knew how to trigger such moves. Druckmann, however, in episode seven of The Last of Us‘ official podcast hosted by Troy Baker, was all too happy to dive into why Ellie and Riley had the moves figured out.
“This is something we talked quite a lot about; as they collect totems from this old world, one of the things that used to be really popular were video game magazines. If they were infatuated with this game, Ellie would collect anything to do with this game, including these magazines that listed the moves that they would memorize in case they would ever play it.”
For a scene that could have easily been chalked up as a suspension of disbelief, it’s quite heartwarming that Druckmann had an answer all thought out anyway, as if we needed any more testaments to his love for the show and property.
The Last of Us is available to stream on HBO Max, with new episodes releasing every Sunday until the season finale on March 12. A second season has been announced.
