Here are some of the best moments from Season 1 of The Last of Us.

Spoiler Alert! This article provides plot details for The last of us on HBO.

It’s a whole new era for live-action video game adaptations thanks The last of us At HBO. Based on the critically acclaimed PlayStation 3 game that was first released in 2013, the series follows Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler who escorts a young teenager named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the United States who is… Outbreak of a monstrous fungal infection.

While live-action adaptations of popular games have had their ups and downs, the last of us Show received its own credit in its first season. The show has delighted longtime fans, newcomers and critics alike, as it painstakingly adapted the source material and dared to deviate in its own way. Therefore, the show is full of memorable moments that make it unique even compared to the game that inspired it.

Here’s our list of some of the best moments from Season 1.

Joel and Ellie’s relationship is the emotional driving force of the entire series. That being said, their very first encounter is downright hilarious. When Joel begins to sneak up on an injured Marlene (Merle Dandridge), he is almost ambushed by the knife-wielding Ellie. Joel counters almost immediately and throws cleanly into a wall. Last but not least, this meet-and-greet certainly left an impression.

When Joel, Ellie and Tess (Anna Torv) try to escape the Boston quarantine zone, they are stopped by a FEDRA soldier who threatens to shoot them if they don’t cooperate. At that moment, Joel recalls the first night of the outbreak, when a US serviceman took his daughter’s life. With his trauma still fresh after twenty years, he finally beats the FEDRA soldier to death.

This brief scene manages to add depth to Joel’s plight in a way that the game couldn’t quite match.

While the games only briefly describe the nature and origin of the Cordyceps Virus goes into much more explicit detail in Episode 2 via a flashback. This short but poignant scene answers many burning questions players may have had about the origins of the virus.

One of the show’s biggest departures from the source material is also one of its most compelling. In Episode 3, paranoid doomsday prepper Bill (Nick Offerman) manages to Cordyceps Outbreak while finding love with Frank (Murray Bartlett), a latecomer that Bill takes in.

We get a glimpse into their 16-year romance as the two experience all the ups and downs of being together. Her story has to be one of the most heartbreaking love stories of the 2020s yet.

Between episodes 4 and 5, Joel and Ellie meet brothers Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) while trying to escape bandits in Kansas City. Amid the chaos, Ellie and Sam manage to find a brief moment of calm as they laugh, play, and read their favorite comics together. It’s a touching moment of lightness in the midst of a world literally plagued by catastrophe.

Joel and Ellie manage to reunite with Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) in a thriving community of survivors in Jackson, Wyo. Here the show delivers a two-hit combo of tearjerkers. Joel admits to Tommy that his trauma is taking a toll on him and that he has doubts about his ability to protect Ellie. Immediately afterwards, Ellie confronts Joel, who insists the two stay together.

The latter scene manages very well to mimic the same scene from the game.

Fans of the game will see that flashback coming, but the mall scene between Ellie and her close friend Riley (Storm Reid) still hits hard. As the two date and reflect on what life must have been like before the outbreak, Ellie and Riley manage to enjoy another night of normalcy. They even manage to find a romantic spark between them, although tragedy immediately extinguishes it.

We absolutely have to give props to Ashley Johnson, who portrayed Ellie in the original game and its sequel. She has a sizable cameo appearance in the season finale in a flashback where she plays Ellie’s mother, Anna. Hearing her fight and her fight against clickers on the show almost immediately reminded us of Ellie from the games and brought us back to 2013 when gamers first traveled with Ellie.

Joel’s original actor, Troy Baker, also has a role in the series.

Season 1 of The last of us now streams in full on HBO Max.