With less than 24 hours until the sixth episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” drops on small screens, we’re back with yet another trailer breakdown for the upcoming episode. The trailer contains several clues, Easter eggs, and hints at what we can expect in the next episode and the ones to follow. In Episode 6, there will be a long-awaited reunion, and more new characters will be introduced, and we’re all for it. As the time for the next episode draws nearer, let’s get into the trailer breakdown.
The trailer for the next episode starts with a beautiful shot of the Northern Lights in the night sky as Ellie and Joel sit around a campfire, and she shares her regrets. It’s evident how much she had come to care for the little 8-year-old kid when she says that she tried helping Sam. A montage shows a clip from “The Last of Us” Episode 5, with Ellie rubbing her blood on the kid’s wound as Joel listens with concern on his face. This scene of Ellie and Joel at a campfire was never a part of the game, but concept art had been released for the same, where the surrogate father-daughter duo seems happy, for a change. Joel responds that saving a person’s life is much more complex than what Ellie tried, as the second montage shows Joel pleading with Henry to hand over the gun before he hurts anyone—an attempt at saving a life that Joel failed at. After multiple episodes of being sure that she’s what humanity needs at the moment to help it out of this apocalypse, Sam’s death leads to Ellie becoming doubtful of her own abilities to bring about a change.
We see Joel arrive in the city of Jackson on horseback in the winter, and the town is buzzing with people going about their day, and one can be forgiven for thinking it’s like any other city and that the cordyceps infection was nothing but a bad dream. Interestingly, we don’t see Jackson as a fully-functioning location with facilities in the first game because Joel’s brother Tommy and his crew were still working out of a power plant back then. Additionally, Joel and Ellie arrive to meet Tommy in the fall, whereas it’s winter by now in the show. The showrunners probably want to bring the timelines of the two games as close as possible so that the events of the second game can pick up right after the first. The signboard of “Lights Festival 2003” can be seen, which was the last time people had actually lived without the constant risk of death—and life seems to have stopped since then. There’s also the “Tipsy Bison” bar, which had a lot of significance in the second game. Joel’s voice over explains his purpose—he’s searching for Tommy’s whereabouts, and he finds Tommy, now visibly older, working. The brothers’ emotional reunion with a hug differs from the way they met in the game—Tommy’s men had guns pointed at the stranger Joel until Tommy identified him as his brother.
At night, while it snows, Joel and Tommy can be seen arguing outside, and the older brother defends his actions, saying the things Tommy judges Joel for had to be done to save their own lives. Tommy shoots back, saying Joel can’t excuse their actions as “things,” and he’s equally responsible for them because they killed people together. This is similar to the argument the two brothers had in the game, although the location varies. A woman earns Ellie’s caution about the ones she trusts, and this woman can be deduced to be Maria, Tommy’s wife. Maria greets Joel in the game as his sister-in-law, so “The Last of Us” Episode 6 is probably going to introduce her as Tommy’s wife. Maria’s warning can be viewed as a foreboding prediction of what’s to come because Ellie shall have to face grave dangers in the near future with Joel being out of commission.
The next scene shows Joel and Ellie being surrounded by several people on horseback. This scene isn’t a part of the original game, and it can be deduced that this is how the Jacksonites discovered Joel and Ellie before bringing them back to the city. With the tension picking up and the tempo rising, Ellie and Joel approach something with their guns at the ready; someone swings a bat as a horse races past; dogs can be seen barking; and Ellie shoots from horseback and appears to be supporting Joel. These scenes are probably from the shootout that ensues when the two head to the university where the Fireflies were supposed to be but instead are met by a gang of raiders. It’s here that Joel is deeply wounded after falling onto a piece of rebar and having his stomach impaled, which might explain why Ellie is supporting the hunched-over Joel. This will kick off a very important section of the game where Ellie will encounter the leader of the gang of raiders, David, who’s also one of the most disturbing villains in the game—far worse than the mindless zombies who roam the earth.
There’s also a split-second scene of a hooded figure carrying a crossbow and dead rabbits on either hand and in all probability, this is David. Ellie met him while out hunting for food during the cold winter, and soon afterward, he showed his true colors as a psychopath. “The Last of Us” Episode 6 will probably end with an introduction with David, only to pick up from the next, where he comes into his real self.
