HBO's The Last of Us season 1 was full of incredible episodes, but some were better than others. Show creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had the difficult job of adapting the critically-acclaimed 2013 The Last of Us video game that Druckmann also wrote. Not to mention The Last of Us premiered at a time when audiences seemed to have mostly moved past zombie media.
But The Last of Us season 1 managed to impress, with consistently high approval ratings and viewership. The Last of Us season 1 ran from Jan. 15 through March 12, 2023, for a total of nine episodes. While they were all excellent, a few episodes were standouts and others were more forgettable.
9 Episode 2, "Infected"
The Last of Us episode 2, "Infected," was in the challenging position of providing a lot of exposition — with Joel, Tess, and the viewers first learning the exact reason they were tasked with transporting Ellie. Joel and Tess also have to teach Ellie and the audience more about Infected as they encounter her first Clickers and a horde. On top of the exposition, "Infected" also had to build up the relationships between the three characters enough for Tess's death at the end of the episode to still be impactful. Anna Torv delivers a great performance as Tess, but "Infected" rushes her belief in Ellie's immunity, so she can urge Joel to carry on the mission after she dies.
8 Episode 6, "Kin"
The Last of Us episode 6, "Kin," brings back Gabriel Luna's Tommy and introduces his wife, Maria. "Kin" is a much-needed break for the season, slowing things down and giving Joel and Ellie a chance to rest in the civilized city of Jackson. However, the episode may be just a bit too slow, and Joel's decisions in the episode, while understandable, are somewhat frustrating.
Joel convinces Tommy to take Ellie on the rest of her journey because he doesn't think he's up to the job anymore. Pedro Pascal shines in emotional scenes with Luna and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. It's an important beat in Joel's character development, but the audience already knows this is the story of Joel and Ellie, so him going with her at the end is inevitable, taking away some of the episode's tension.
7 Episode 9, "Look for the Light"
The finale of The Last of Us season 1 is episode 9, "Look for the Light." While it wraps up the character arcs of Joel and Ellie, it falls a little flat. The decision to make Joel's rampage through the hospital subdued and quiet reflects his emotional state better than a bombastic shoot-out, but it does mean the episode lacks real action and mostly just moves from one talking scene to the next.
The final clash between Joel and Marlene is also frustrating. Though Marlene is right that Ellie would probably decide to die for a cure, she is still taking away Ellie's consent and body autonomy just as much as Joel, making it harder to see her point of view. In the original video game, Ellie is unconscious from almost drowning when the Fireflies rescue her and Joel—meaning there is no chance to ask her permission before rushing her to surgery. But "Look for the Light" chose instead to have the Fireflies knock Joel out and more or less kidnap Ellie without showing us precisely what they tell her before she goes under.
"Look for the Light" is still a masterclass episode, driven by the performances of Pascal, Ramsey, and Merle Dandridge as Marlene. In the hands of lesser actors, it could have been a disappointing season finale. But they keep it afloat with interesting glimpses into the minds of Joel, Ellie, and Marlene.
6 Episode 4, "Please Hold to My Hand"
The Last of Us episode 4, "Please Hold to My Hand," introduces Melanie Lynskey's fascinating villain Kathleen. It also features good bonding moments between Joel and Ellie. It's a well-made episode, but almost forgettable compared to its follow-up, episode 5, "Endure and Survive," which explains more of Kathleen's motivation.
5 Episode 1, "When You're Lost in the Darkness"
The Last of Us episode 1, "When You're Lost in the Darkness," opens 20 years before the rest of the show takes place and follows Joel's teen daughter, Sarah. The episode's first act is tense — especially for viewers who already know Sarah's fate — as the outbreak slowly begins in the background of an otherwise ordinary day. Viewing the outbreak through a teen girl's eyes makes it appropriately scary and confusing, punctuated by her untimely death.
The rest of "When You're Lost in the Darkness" is a little more plagued by less interesting exposition and set-up. But the choice to show the initial outbreak and then jump to 20 years later creates a stark contrast between the life Joel knew and the life he now lives. It's a good way of showing his character and setting up his arc.
4 Episode 5, "Endure and Survive"
"Endure and Survive" is the superior of the two Kansas City episodes. It brings in Henry and Sam as the perfect allies to Joel and Ellie—paralleling their relationship in many ways. The audience also learns how Henry and Sam parallel Kathleen and her late brother, who was killed by F.E.D.R.A. after Henry turned him in. The explanation makes Kathleen one of The Last of Us' most sympathetic but simultaneously horrifying bad guys.
Sam is also one of the rare children in The Last of Us, and his brief friendship with Ellie highlights her loss of innocence and desire for peers throughout the series. Making Sam deaf in the TV show (he isn't in the video game) also adds another layer to his relationship with Henry, as well as to his friendship with Ellie. Though Sam and Ellie can't speak to each other traditionally, they still find ways to bond over their shared interests.
3 Episode 7, "Left Behind"
The Last of Us episode 7, "Left Behind," adapts a DLC to the original game, explaining more of Ellie's life before she met Joel. The TV adaptation gives Bella Ramsey room to show off her acting chops alongside Storm Reid as Riley. It's a shame that the viewers won't get more of Ellie and Riley's relationship, but "Left Behind" explains it succinctly.
"Left Behind" is to Ellie as the first half of "When You're Lost in the Darkness" is to Joel, explaining her trauma and how she also lost the most important person to her. It also fills in some of the gaps about the Fireflies and how Ellie discovered her immunity. It's aesthetically interesting, with the mall setting offering a different visual from the rest of the show's usual dilapidated buildings and forests.
2 Episode 8, "When We Are in Need"
Another episode highlighting Ellie, episode 8, "When We Are in Need," is the real climax of The Last of Us season 1. While episode 9, "Look for the Light," brings Joel's character arc full circle, "When We Are in Need" is where his and Ellie's relationship is solidified. Though Joel barely appears in the episode, he kills several men to get to Ellie, foreshadowing what he will do in the finale. And calling her "baby girl" at the end brings him full circle from Sarah.
Ramsey once again delivers a knockout performance as she faces off against Scott Shepherd's David. Shepherd brings David to life as a character initially somewhat understandable before his layers are peeled back to reveal his true abusive and creepy self. The final battle between David and Ellie in episode 8 is the most terrifying of the series, and no Infected are involved. "When We Are in Need" shows that the true horror of the world in The Last of Us is not the cordyceps but the people.
1 Episode 3, "Long, Long Time"
The Last of Us episode 3, "Long, Long Time," diverged from usual post-apocalyptic media and set a precedent for the rest of the season. If "When We Are in Need" shows the horrors of humanity, "Long, Long Time" highlights the beauty. The episode is perhaps the biggest and most effective departure from The Last of Us video game, turning Frank into a fully-fledged character and giving him a romance with hardened survivalist Bill. "Long, Long Time" is almost a standalone movie in its story, and it's hard to believe it packs years of Bill and Frank's lives into only an hour of television.
The romance between Bill and Frank is not about them being queer. It's about them finding love in a hopeless place—which offers an all-too-real parallel to queer relationships. Bill and Frank live a better life than they may have if the apocalypse hadn't happened. Though their ending can be seen as tragic, they lived full lives and died peacefully together. Their love story shows Joel what matters most, pushing him forward on his quest with Ellie and fueling his character arc in The Last of Us season 1.