The Last of Us on HBO, Ep 2

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All right, welcome back to PotterCast Talks about The Last of Us.

We have decided to just start talking about other things that we're into, because if you're still here on PotterCast, there is a chance that you just like listening to us talk.

We love you for it.

We like sharing things.

And we.

We like to talk with each other, or about each other, as Frankie said last week.

Oh, yeah.

About?

Yeah, we're like, we like to talk about each other.

Oh, no, that's not what I meant.

I mean, that's another podcast.

Tune into my secret podcast where I talk about John and Potter.

Last week, we intended to do episodes one and two.

We only got through episode one.

And I know, Frankie, you feel like episode two is going to be fast, but a lot happens in episode two.

Episode two opens in Jakarta, actually, with the scene of the woman eating in the restaurant and the Jakartan police come to get her.

So they come and pick this woman up from a restaurant where she's eating, again, eating salad, I think bread, on her plate.

And they come and get her.

Just these police just pull her out of lunch.

She thinks she's committed.

She thinks she's committed a crime.

And they take her, actually, for her expertise in mycology, which is the study of mushrooms and fungi.

And you remember this scene now, Frankie, where she goes and she studies?

Oh.

Where she says, no, this can't possibly be in humans.

No, when she's in the city.

It had me thinking, like, if somebody picked you up off the street like that, like looking like FBI or whatever, and they're like, it's a national security emergency.

Like, what do you think they would need you for?

Something like that, where it's like a military situation.

I would wonder what she did, which is, did I commit a crime?

Sure.

Right.

Yeah.

I think that would be my first thought, too.

No one would need me in the apocalypse.

No one would.

It'd be like, we have a dramatic Harry Potter emergency.

Yeah, we have a dramatic fan convention emergency.

Yeah, I'm going to, I'll draw you a picture.

Someone needs to storyboard this for the government.

And planner logistics.

Yeah.

In the apocalypse might actually.

Now that I think about it, what am I talking about?

That's true.

I may not be the logistics guy at my company, but I could do it, have done it.

What about you, John?

Yeah, like a lot of my skill sets without electricity would be really hard up for being able to do anything.

I don't know, but.

But they have electricity.

They just, it's just not widespread.

They have generators.

But John, I think that you could probably take a non-connected computer and program lots of little things.

That would be indispensable.

Oh, probably.

And highly specialized knowledge.

And then they'll start making local networks, not internet, but they'll start making local networks around town and stuff.

And you might be in heavy demand.

Oh, shoot.

Yeah.

Yeah, kind of like, like Nick Offerman.

Yeah.

Yeah, hell of a setup.

I'm excited to talk about your setup.

I can't wait to talk about that.

All right.

I know we want, I know we really want to talk about it.

But let's creep our way through.

I was just using it as an example.

She called it a specific cordyceps.

It's called Ophiopis.

It's called Ophiocordyceps.

And I don't know if it's the only cordyceps, but it is the one that's in that planet Earth.

That's a specific genus of cordyceps.

Deceps?

Cordyceps.

That's in, we all know the planet Earth video of the stuff coming out of the ant's head.

The poor, poor ants.

Poor ant.

When do you think, when this woman was picked up, when do you think she knew that this was, we were done?

The second she saw the slide?

The second she saw the body?

Or in that moment where he says that other people are missing?

In my head.

It's probably when she realized the fungus can grow in the body.

Like, this is impossible.

Because that seems to be like, from the first episode, that the fact that there was a mutation that let them grow in temperatures.

But I just find that fact interesting.

So maybe.

I think that if you had to point it, probably panicking when she realized that it could,

as a human, as a host, and probably had a little bit of hope.

She thought that maybe they had it somehow.

Contained.

But when they realized that there were people that they lost track of, I'm sure that was ballgame for sure.

But one of my questions that I still have about this whole thing that I don't know if we have any kind of answer for.

Is like, any mutation.

Something had to have put it over the edge.

If, say, just temperature is the X factor that they had to wait for.

If not this location.

If not this substrate.

Like, the understanding.

Would be that it could have just occurred.

I think it probably was occurring someplace else also.

But it spread.

It's called the Bogosari Flower Mills.

They are in Jakarta.

It's the largest flower mill in the world.

So it probably, my guess is if it's mutating, it's taking, it's sprouting to other places as well.

This was the flashpoint.

The moment that.

You can't put the pin back in the grenade.

Yeah.

Question.

I guess I just assumed that the outbreak was like, happened around the world.

It wasn't just happening in one spot.

Okay.

It's because of the flower products.

And so it's because of that.

You hear in the first episode, you hear on the radio problems in Jakarta.

Like, it has, it doesn't happen all around the world on one day.

It's as that substance gets around the world.

Before they could realize, right.

I have so many questions.

What happened to the president?

What's going on in DC?

Right.

I would love to see what happened in DC.

Like, even if they lost control for a little while, like they were able to like make these quarantine zones.

Are you telling me that like nowhere in DC is there a quarantine zone?

But you got to think that would be where the most heavily locked up military zone.

Yeah.

And like anybody left, wouldn't they want to like come back and see like all of the supplies.

Yeah.

All of that would be there.

From a purely voyeuristic gamer standpoint.

I so badly want them to make New York and DC.

What's going on.

The Disney parks.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

Oh, how fun.

Ooh, that'd be interesting.

Right.

Roller coasters.

What's going on at the Alamo.

There are so many places in America that I want them.

Thinking like Antarctica, like assuming that they didn't, they didn't get a shit.

It meant a grain.

Like how quickly did they realize it was the grain?

Maybe they avoided it for a while and they see what's happening on the news.

They're still like, oh man, what a crazy situation.

I'm hungry.

I'm going to get a sandwich and then sorry.

There it is.

Game over.

Yeah.

I think it just, if it was something like COVID where there's a 10 day incubation period or that it takes a little longer to spread, I think we'd, they'd be in a better place.

But because.

By the time you tell people not to eat it, it is already out in the world.

Plus one person can infect so many people.

Plus it lasts so long.

There's so many factors that it just, there's just no shot to stop that.

Once you.

And if, say if like I had it and he's like, like you would get it and then die or we'd only become a zombie if you died type of thing.

The show it's biting or liquid transfer blood or fluid transfer.

In the game, if you cough, no, but if you give off spores, so the infected person will either continue growing and become a clicker, become a bloater, get bigger and bigger or lay down and die.

And one of the things the fungus does is instruct its host to lay down and die in a place where it can multiply the most.

So that's why you see this like big collections of fungus because they'll just settle down and become piles of mold.

And that's where all the spores come from in the game, but they've changed the spores to like these under.

I think this.

Yeah.

I think at the end of episode two, not to get ahead of ourselves.

Was that like a spore thing?

And they changed.

Yeah, that is actual.

If you look up the cordyceps, that's what it looks like.

That's slimy, wormy.

That's what.

Yeah.

And they've made it like.

It was so creepy.

Not in the game.

Yeah.

Not in the game.

But it's also.

It worked.

It was very.

And it feels.

Like it's growing out of the existent wet tissue in the body, right?

It feels like that's what would happen.

Yeah.

Hootie.

Soup.

Soup's gross.

Great acting in that opening scene by the old.

Both of them, but the older woman especially.

She's apparently some very famous person in, I think, Asian film.

Yeah.

I should have looked her up.

I thought you were going to say that she's actually like a specialist in like funguses and everything else that they've just.

Do you know?

It's.

Yeah.

And it's.

There's a lot of fungus stuff in pop culture these days.

The Star Trek Discovery.

Anthony's playing or will be playing for a more season.

A mushroom specialist.

A fungus specialist as well.

Oh, yeah.

Mycology.

Who knew?

Not your ecology.

That was maybe the worst joke you've ever made.

No, there's a long list.

Who knows?

So she tells them to believe.

Which is not like things that you would expect her or anyone to say.

Lightly.

We see how polite she is and how considerate she is and everything else like earlier on in her scenes.

So for her to come at them with that, it's like, oh, man, this is serious.

It's also the first word that's recognizable in English.

It's an interesting choice.

There's this long pause is all all this chatter.

And then she just goes, boom.

And it's just it hits so strongly.

And then she says she wants to go home.

She wants to go home, be with her family.

Fair.

I don't know what I would do in that situation.

I don't want to try and leave.

Right.

Wouldn't you try to like it sounds like she's going home to wait to be blown up.

Well, I feel like she just imagines that there's not a good likelihood to get out.

Escape the situation.

Yeah, it's very depressing.

She will not be one of the last of them.

No.

Oh, wow.

That's so rude.

That's super rude.

What's the Eiffel Tower?

Well, Dan.

There's a note in the second game, a minor note, that if when you go by Las Vegas, you can still hear them screaming inside all the hotels.

Oh, God.

It's just you don't go near Vegas.

Oh, God.

Everybody just.

What do you mean screaming?

Scream.

The clickers and the bloaters and whoever is in because it's so badly infected because it's just a glut of people.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

He they like they.

Sorry.

Like, but they actually scream.

I know they go like.

I haven't experienced it yet, so like it's just new to me and so like I there's something there's something really creepy about the stowaway and like not like they're aggressive physically, but they don't like.

Yeah, like that kind of screeching.

This is that like they do have was evolution where they start out is like they're going to run and they can click and then they can bloat or whatever it is.

And like it's been 20 years when we pick up with Joel again.

Like.

Only people that should be still running and clicking are the ones that were more recently did.

But like after a while, you would have to run out of people.

Right.

Except for those that survived up till that point.

But there's only so many people that survived up till that point.

Joel says in this.

They answer this a little bit in this episode.

Ellie asked how long infected last.

And he says some of them a few months and some of them have been going have been moving for 20 years.

And that is.

Well, I want them.

I want the creators to address the logic.

Yeah, I love it.

I'm sure they have it.

What do they eat?

If they're all trapped in the Las Vegas hotel and there's no humans to feed, do they eat each other?

What happens?

Oh, they have to eat each other, right?

Because like.

Maybe they eat the grow out of them like and then it feeds it.

I have a really gross theory on what would happen.

Will and I talked about this.

What would happen if a pregnant person was infected?

That if the baby is sufficiently long and has developed into a human, that it would see that child as food.

Oh, no.

Sorry.

I should really trigger warning.

I should really have trigger warned that gross.

That the baby is going to eat the body?

No, that the host.

No, like they eat the baby.

That would depend on like where it is.

Like they cannibalize the baby?

I thought I thought you were going to say that somehow like the host.

Be like instructing the fetus via whatever sort of stem cell like instruction to be like, OK, so there's some cordyceps out here now and y'all need to adjust your programming to like counteract.

Like if you ever encounter these cordyceps, here's how to defeat them.

So honestly, I think that that may be how Ellie became immune.

I think her mother got bit right before she gave birth.

Well, shit.

And right before.

And she gave birth in enough time for it to be present in the child with the child to create antibodies, because we know that the COVID vaccine is passed down.

OK.

Wait, the COVID vaccine is passed down?

Yes, if the mom gets vaccinated, the child is vaccinated.

That's wild.

But like if a woman is pregnant after.

I don't know.

I'm sure if while she's pregnant, but I'm not sure if you get pregnant.

Yeah.

OK.

And I was just like breast milk.

Could somehow also transfer the vaccine.

Oh, interesting.

But I don't know if that was for real or not.

Yeah, breast milk's magic.

It's strange to be in this time of like somewhat unknown science on like an important thing.

We haven't collected enough data.

One day we'll know it all.

But eventually we'll know and we'll look back and be like, damn, like they were wasting all that time, like wiping down their boxes of cereal.

Anyway, to get back to the episode, I loved and I laughed when.

First of all, I love this.

The shot of Ellie curled up in the grass sleeping.

It's just like innocent in nature and it's so bright and she's like all alone and she's curled up like she's in a womb.

She turns around and test and all of their gun.

Yeah, because that's the moment she's going to wake up and have been turned, right?

They're just waiting.

They're just waiting for it to happen.

No, they've never seen it not happen to any.

They're very skeptical.

I would be skeptical, too.

Shit.

And then how do we know how long she was in there?

She says that her arm is three weeks.

She says that her arm is three weeks old.

The bite.

And did she know she was immune until that point or that was a discovery for her as well?

That was a discovery for her as well.

Ellie.

That was a discovery for her as well.

You'll learn more about that later.

How far have you watched so far, Frankie?

Again, like I watch more.

I'm excited to watch and discuss about it, but this is an effort for me.

I'm so sorry, Frankie.

Was three spooky for you?

She was different.

Because.

Yeah, that wasn't that wasn't that was a different type of like tenseness.

Yeah.

Where is this going?

How is it going to handle it?

And so it was different.

Wasn't.

I didn't get to have to worry about.

Yeah, which is nice.

But there's the whole ugly part of humanity that comes with zombie stories that gets taxing for me.

Oh, yeah.

Episode eight is going to be real hard for you, Frankie.

Yeah.

Bree and I were watching that thinking like, oh, no.

I wonder if we I wonder if we do a joint watch with you for that.

Well, I'll see.

I will definitely know more once I like I'll start watching episode four this week now that we're talking about.

Yeah, do four or five.

So I'll I'll know more about is once I once I get deeper.

Do you think Tess knows about Sarah?

Do you think Tess knows Joel's histories?

I expect her to know about Sarah.

So like they got close.

Joel is meant to be in a relationship with Tess.

Not that Joel's like a super jested.

I'm sure like hasn't had any therapy since the whole Sarah situation.

Like there is there's no therapy.

Yeah.

Maybe he's had some heart to hearts with true Tess.

There's definitely not a lot of therapy.

Tess had her own heartache, her own situation with her own child at one point that Joel was around to either.

So I would think it would have come up.

Can you is that from the game?

I don't remember this.

Let me try to remember this.

So Tess had a child that at one point.

At one point became infected and she didn't have it in her to put the child down.

And so they ended up locking the child in a basement, essentially.

That's right.

Where do we find that?

I don't remember, honestly.

And half of me now wonders if this is not the person that Ellie encounters when they went to that to Joel was like, I stashed some guns here or whatever.

And then Ellie.

Oh, that's.

Oh, it actually makes sense.

Like.

Why would they put him there?

But that'd be wild.

They wrote it for the show, but they never shot it.

It was a backstory for Tess.

Craig Mazin revealed this.

Tess had a kid.

She had a husband.

She had a son and they were infected.

She had to kill them.

She killed her husband, but could not kill her son.

She locked him in the basement where theoretically he's still a clicker.

So there is a basement someplace where Tess's son is still clicking around.

Like, what would you do in that situation?

It's like you have a child.

The child has no hope of recovering.

But do you really are like, if you don't kill this child, you know, the existence it's going to have.

I don't understand the choice to just not want to, even if by the time it ever gets killed by somebody, if ever, it has to go through the long, painful, losing your mind to the cordyceps stage.

Like, that had to be, it has to be a nightmare.

Like, how do you not want them to avoid that?

Yeah.

I, I would, to me, it seems, seems like a mercy to do some sort of situation where you talk to them and tell them.

Just have Joel do it.

There's this book that I need to remember the title of it because Jem read it, read it.

But it's, there's this, it's this world where people's organs fail.

And like, if kids get it, like they die.

And so they have like these Disneyland parks to euthanize children.

What?

Because they know they're going to die.

They know they can't live.

This is real?

No, it's real.

But he said it was a real, it's a book.

I was going to say, what?

And so it's like a Disney.

Like, it's like, that's the norm of the world because only the rich, only the rich can afford to, like, there's the main character is like, who's like nine because his family's rich and can, can change his organs in a couple months.

But other kids have to like, otherwise they just go to this like Disneyland park and the kids know.

And it's like this whole thing.

It's this whole culture.

And so it's like this.

But at the same time, the stigma is gone because that's their reality.

Like Jem read it and he said that it's a very gentle and charming read.

That's Jem's name.

The concept.

That's really freaks me.

It sounds.

But like, I think.

First of all, you think that people would just stop reproducing because if you know that you're, you think like humanity would end.

But we're really talking about where this is concerned is terminal chronic illness, right?

We're talking about cancer.

We're talking about ALS.

We're talking about terminal MS.

MS is not terminal, but like when things have developed that you can't really move.

We're talking this.

It's really an allegory for chronic illness.

I mean, a lot of chronic illness in those situations.

Dementia.

Really dementia is the big one for this, right?

I feel like what makes all those things as awful as they are relative to just getting hit by a car is how long drawn out that illness is.

And like the infection stage to the transformed stage is hours.

Right.

But we're talking about they're still in there.

Yeah.

But they can't be themselves until they become, we suspect, until it's like clicker stage, right?

Yeah.

So how is that?

I'm not saying it is or isn't, but is that different from somebody being trapped in dementia?

Is they also become a killing machine?

So that's a whole other layer.

I wonder if we're ever going to get any kind of story or canon in some form that talks about the scientists that survived, how they were able to get to the point where they had this device that they can scan somebody and tell if they're infected.

Like all of this shit would have had to have come after.

Right.

And like I've seen.

I've seen people in the Last of Us subreddit talk like and say, oh, I'm actually in this field.

This is how this would have to have worked or whatever.

Interesting.

You don't just stumble upon this technology at somewhere.

At some point, they had to have been doing the experiments on people, like maybe even experiments on like humans that they intentionally to see how long things take and wait to see what markers show up in the blood and everything else.

And like maybe that's.

That's what happened in D.C.

Who knows?

You'd have to think there is a plan in place someplace, at least in America and other first world countries that has a list of people, much like who you would collect after a nuclear fallout.

But for a terminal pandemic like this, where there are certain scientists, there are certain engineers, there are certain.

You would think we've seen that all by now.

After you would think like came out of the woodwork.

But COVID didn't turn people into killing machines.

And it wasn't tearing down.

Cities as horrific as it was.

So like you wonder if there is a kind of emergency plan where you gather these specific people and get them into a bunker, isolate them, quarantine them, make sure they're not infected.

And then they get to work on fixing whatever it is.

And it has generators.

There was an interview recently where Neil Druckmann said that he thinks there's more story to tell in The Last of Us.

I won't spoil because part two is part two.

But I personally think they're working on three now.

And I hope it goes into.

Yeah, I would love this.

I'd love it if it would.

It's hard to talk about this without talking more about what happens and where they leap things into.

But I agree that like I was able to imagine in my head canon what happens next.

And I feel like there's plenty there to draw on and also plenty of big gaps to fill in satisfying ways.

I hope that they do more.

The most recent episode eight, they just said is like the most.

Viewers that they've had so far, 75% higher than the premier like that's oh my all of you people are insane and you guys are wanting more.

I'm sitting here cringing and getting nervous and I realize how do you guys like I don't know what is driving masochism I'm doing because I want to talk to you.

Masochism like story masochism like I want a story to destroy me.

There is some.

Media that I can watch that makes me feel uncomfortable but when I watch this aside from like the human on human violence like I don't squirm at this like I'm curious about this it feels like a mystery I joke a lot about masochism I joke that it's like to be because and part of that is yes I want a story to wreck me but the humanity in this story and the story that is ultimately told with it is one of the best stories I play the first game.

That's fair.

That's a good.

Observation yeah I play the first game repeatedly because not because I love fighting zombies but because I love the emotions the arcs I've only played the second game like two or three times because it is not the first story is about love and the second story is about revenge so it's not as it's not a good a place to sit in and it's not as enjoyable on purpose it is that is the point of that game which is really another topic for another time but can you have revenge without love.

I.

Venge yes revenge revenge is needs a strong emotion and like and for justice I think there's a lot like what are you getting revenge for if not something you loved being petty revenge yeah you mean real like vengeance yeah because part of me like I honestly the part of me that's just like that's not fair you got away with it so you that's like I'm going to tell I want you in trouble and so like but I don't that is that kind of revenge justice or if that's.

I want you to get in trouble and so like but I don't that's kind of revenge justice or if that's.

me being mad at somebody for getting away with I'm saying like the kind of there's a kind of revenge that you wake up with morning after morning yeah having something that needs to be satisfied like that I think that's not that is something that yeah I think it has to be.

Yeah I think the offense has to have been rooted in love I think that's astute because I don't like okay look it I'm going to use a very trite or I don't know very binary example.

like.

When it comes to certain broken like I want like there's like a revenge energy that I want like occasion for the travesties and I'm regret I'm lacking to see the love they're other than it's it's or it's it's me reaction to the lack.

It's not the love that you have for them it's it's it's still that you that's what I mean like so where would the law and that's the love and the morning that you feel for.

Your.

world your country your fellow citizens that they have in the presence of these sorts of

bull getting into positions of power yeah like it's valid to me that's more the negative space

of love but it's still the same word i guess in concept because it's it's the absence there

from you something important to you was taken from you there's a lot of that

deep thoughts with butterflies i think that's enough to like be watching is like i think so

much of my internal life was really really really uncomfortable that every media i watch is just

escape like i don't like watching things that make me sad or make me think about about uh so

there's no escapism to it or beauty to it it's harder for me to like to watch but i think everyone

has that to a certain extent so i don't know i feel that and i'm not i was thinking about that

last week that's

like certain people will feel certain things like more and again not to get way ahead of

ourselves but there's some things that happened in the episode just yesterday that's highly

triggering in ways that every episode previously hasn't been yet they really outdo themselves

every week truly there's this hilarious meme that's going around with bernie sanders

goes below is once again i'm

sobbing at that zombie tv show it's like yeah it's a zombie adventure that somehow manages to be

freaking devastating every week right yeah so good he said that oh you know that bernie sanders

gift it says i am once again and then they like once again like i'm once again sobbing at that

zombie television i have such the visceral loves that i think i've mentioned this before that i

have in the game

is exploring post-apocalyptic worlds there is such it's so attractive to walk in ruined

not like i would want to do it in my life but there is some that voyeuristic look at lives that

got paused walking into like old buildings and old spaces that people used to be in there's

something cool about that so when they walk out into boston and like the buildings are leaning

on each other and they go into a place that used to be

a state house it used to be a place of government and now it's just an old ruin there's something

it feels mythical there's got to be something to that because this is yeah happening in lots of

media and or at least lots of you know similar my sister anna is in love with this game fallout

oh i play fallout and yeah very popular game fallout fallout four is the one that she's

never stopped playing yeah she's constantly she's i'm like i don't understand because i haven't

really played it through yet but just existing in that world is so interesting and i think it's so

interesting and i think it's so interesting and i think it's so interesting and i think it's so

interesting to her yeah and it's post-apocalyptic skyrim yeah that's what it is it's the same game

studio too there you go they make good games yeah yeah i feel like if i had to try to put my finger

on it it's almost like you have the ability to see like what happens after like your own life is

over and if you things that men's get preoccupied with like their mortality i'm sure is high on the

list and so to have a chance to see like what happens after like your own life is over and

and so to have a chance to see like what happens after like your own life is over and

and see what was left behind what happens when all this ends when we shuffle off everything

it's such a cool yeah i guess i guess it just it goes to the more of the zombie narrative

could give me like an abandoned theme park that's overgrown oh my god yeah that's really cool but

then i can't divorce the fact that like all these people left their things behind because zombies

yeah but just forget about that it just colors it but just

better

i hope like dc is completely abandoned and we get to walk around in it i want a video game i don't

know if one does this i want a video game to make a faithful replication of the white house

i want to walk around in it oh what a national security hazard that would be

that's valid no like here's i remember when pictures of the blue like there's pictures

of it all online like you know what i'm saying there are video games i feel like it might have

been a grand theft auto or it was something that was like making like a block for block

you know mile for mile recreation of manhattan and it was the first that in grand theft auto

well what i'm saying is that like they got put off from that early on because of like these

like it wasn't too far long after 9-11 so like idea is it's like you're creating things that

could help terrorists train on how to orchestrate

what i'm talking about would be about as useful as watching the west wing or making a 3d model

on your computer like they're not going to talk about where the entrances and exits are and how

to get past security it's going to be like the stuff that's online but your video game character

can walk through it yeah not totally but because it's fun it's that voyeuristic let me touch it

do you know that there's a replica of the oval office at the new york archives there's a three

quarters replica and you can just walk into it it was very cool three quarter yeah it's pretty

interesting so it's like you feel big

but it actually feels very small so if it's three quarters well it's not like you would feel yeah

yes you do feel big in there i'm a monster but it makes you think that the oval office isn't actually

that big yeah i've been in the reagan mobile office like they have a recreation of it at the

reagan museum i think it's the same size in x-men 2 they made a recreation of the office for the

scene which nightcrawler at the um we're off we're way off topic we're not even at episode

three yet but that's okay you want to know something about it i'm not sure i'm not sure

something funny though you guys what like you're talking about walking around recreations of things

like accurately that's a reason a lot of people are playing that hogwarts video game they made

that castle they made that castle every room every closet every everything that you could design they

did texture oh that's where i've seen a lot of it like it's all over youtube and the emotional

complications right you know it's such a

crazy i still use your example of jk rowling pooping in the pool i think it's such a great

way to explain it's just because it's like the pool's still there it's still harry potter it's

just they're knitting out like that's cool and wonderful and everything but it's still fictional

i like recreations of real like real shit yeah it's really i mean i ain't gonna pretend that

we didn't like dislike yeah traipse around scotland trying to find some like imaginary

version of it and then pretend like we're not we're not gonna get excited

when they actually make it in the computer we are trying not to i understand about this thing

i get you i get you don't complicate things hey okay youtube is a thing yeah it's a really

complicated thing for a lot of people yeah it's back to the show uh the hotel scene

is actually from pittsburgh in the game when they go to pittsburgh but they moved it to

boston i thought it was really sweet so we can have that moment of them kind of again

being in a hotel being in a ruined old remnant of the world yeah that was cool so the hotel is

where what's her face like pulls the her that's at the end of the episode right that's the end

that's the state house okay close thinking one thing i didn't get is why did she take forever

to light that stupid light i counted i counted there were grenades around there were almost 40

clicks there were i counted 39 clicks and you know usually there's like a trope of like

three now in two different episodes ellie asked if something bad's in the back room and he goes

only you so i'm like waiting for the third one i'm hope i think it's probably gonna be in the

last episode but this was 39 she tries and i think it was just just tension yeah i mean wonderful

tension it's wonderful tension but it's just one of those things that like i like i don't know what

i guess that you want the grenades there for a fact or something but it just seems it would

have been wise just because just because like my

tension no i loved it just like you guys ever see did you no avatar don't it's not great okay

so maybe i thought you were telling us to go see it no no you were saying to go see something else

because i needed to talk about how it's the new clothing like and i'm like this is this is bad

right like there's a mcguffin in there oh other it seems to have disappeared from this course

really quickly frankie just like last time i hope so conspiracy people love

that love it conspiracy anyway no one's actually going to see it it's just james cameron running out

and buying tickets you know something else seriously he probably would the billionaire

or something if you were elon musk and you had that many billions you can just buy a billion

dollars worth of tickets and then it's done a billion dollars at the box office you could

hey guys let's all distribute our wealth let's do that let's tell a billionaire some money

makes me so sad when i think about billionaires yeah yeah many of them have become very

disappointing anyway and so then ellie besides when she got in fact probably no billionaires do

you think the time when ellie got infected was the first time she saw an infected like running around

and uh like very close to it um i don't know actually i don't know how sheltered existence

was and she's never seen anything she's never seen she's never been on the outside of the qz

and if there's not been acted in the qz then maybe she hadn't seen one yeah i wonder what

the quarantine zone where we're boston there's major cities have quarantine zones where they

shuffled people in if they had enough room and if they didn't have room for you they took you

out of your home and then shot you which is super cool as we learned in the beginning of the third

episode one thing i like tess made a comment earlier in that episode talking about how

zombies or the mushrooms are more connected than you realize type of thing

that's when they were looking down and they're all like wiggling in time right and then later

on the episode when you uh light that stupid lighter for 39 times like one of them did her

and just came over and like did that that creepy and so like it makes me like that's into that

sorry in the in the video game can they like telepathically there's no talk to each other

for lack of a better word with each other but there's no indication that they can like they

do know when a non-infected is

around because they attack it's really interesting so they can tell when someone's infected though

they can kind of like i would imagine right you can feel it and that is true of mold because like

that connectivity is i don't know if it's sentient like they're talking about but there is

a connectivity aspect to mold i'm talking out of my butt about this but i believe that is true

in the games do they like each other no what did you guys what did y'all make of the kiss

what did you think that was behind that i at first was like

this is absolutely ridiculous what in the hell are they doing here and then it was so creepy though

it was creepy as hell it was a really interesting visual but not seeing anything like that ever

happened in the game my first reaction was like what in the hell and then i digested a little bit

more i listened to the podcast like a good fan than i am and they talk about the fact that in

every other instance that we've seen the humans interacting with these things like they have been

most often with violence the infected and the whole life form if you want to think of it as like a

collective it can appreciate and recognize threats and will respond to the threats accordingly and

usually like with violence but when it encounters tess and it recognizes that yeah there are like

grenades around here but she's not attacking any of us they don't feel like they have to

engage with her like that

like alternatively you know part b to this thought is that they recognize she already is infected

but she's just so early on that they recognize maybe they can accelerate it a little bit by

getting in and giving her a face full whatever it is they've got in their mouths i don't know

whatever it is they've got in their mouth some will said will and i thought i have a question

um so you said that the the podcast said that it was because she went they did

make a point to say that she wasn't resisting and if you're not resisting them they're not going to

come at you with with violence but it's not just that she wasn't resisting is that she's

one of them and she wasn't resisting yeah that that could be it too there's lots of other humans

that don't resist and still get attacked i think ultimately they would still walk up to you and

bite you but they might not knock you down first they might like try to just shove it through your

ears or your eyes but i would you know biting is also attacking in this instance from yeah

yeah to to pull out my storyteller tool like i would like the fact that they had her have that

scene with ellie talk about like they're connected blah blah blah and then at the end of them having

that such a poetic scene it was so creepy magic and and part of the the reason i like like part

of me the reason i want the grenades to be out of that situation is because was she was like the

mushrooms telling her

not to light it and so was that her struggling and her fight was like and so like i thought there

was a take of it that the mushrooms like because they're so symbiotic and they're already taking

on like she's infected it was going like no we're not gonna let you do this we know what you're

doing you're not gonna blow and then they kissed and then she did it i perceived it as that's one

yeah i perceived it as welcoming her in yeah and like the cordyceps in her connect because it was

so the cordyceps in her connecting to the cordyceps in him she is now part of the network

yeah totally i feel like it's just like a oh you're not connected you're not online yet

i'm gonna come connect you i do feel like all of this though is like working backwards from the

fact that ultimately they decided they wanted to see affected essentially kiss buddy who is

still at that point mostly human and have the kiss be the vehicle for the

in that way and when you think about how thematically this whole season is meant to be

love types of love and the ways that you can express love in this world and how that can be

of a reason to continue going on when it's gone like we see in episode three like that's the

hopeless feeling that makes you think i don't want to live anymore not the fact that they're

in the post-apocalyptic like insane situation having the love and then losing it and then

i like that analysis of it i think there's a lot to that there's an argument that the cordyceps is

alive and trying to protect itself as well and is just evolved i yeah i like to like it seems

too like in a world building devoid of like the new one director like i like the notion that the

the fungus is connected it recognizes that is a very healthy host and so they get another like

oomp like she's she's that's a very a body and so like that

is just gonna like that's her final dose now she's full zombie and look how healthy she is like this

one wasn't decaying this one got a little bite like that in my head was part of it too but that

is more exact this is more world building but like that in my head i can see it working that way too

it can be all of it what a mistake boom yeah it's like oh she betrayed us that's such a badass in

the game frankie test just fedra shows up in the game they are chasing these people who left the qz

and

test takes down a bunch of them to slow it down and then you enter a whole fight to get out of

the building like everything in the game all this story is interspersed with so much more fighting

and so much many more impossible situations because it's a video game there has to be it

would be lame if there wasn't fights constantly yeah and it would be very weird and it would be

boring if it was always just infected that you were fighting but for the show it totally makes

sense that cut out that whole thing yeah there are humans that were hunting them in the story

that's a distraction when we have 10 episodes and so much else to talk about

there's one more she was someone who knew anna torv not to oh the character yeah yeah anna torv is the

name of the actress yeah and so like oh and so now like after episode three now like now it's more

like i don't know how much i i don't like now i'm caught up with what i know about the universe

because like i knew and i knew it was gonna have to be the two of them on the journey and so i knew

not to get too attached to anyone else yeah there's one more episode that's like a little bit more

piece of that episode that i want to mention which is joel and ellie's sort of first moment

of connection which is where he reaches out to her for the first time and walks up to her and says

is it everything you hoped for when she's looking at the view and she says jury's still out but man

you can't beat that view that's direct from the game the scene is shot for shot from the game

and it is a very special fan moment it's just one of those and i think i think this might be why

because joel has been resisting for a long time and he's been resisting for a long time and he's

to her and every moment is the first time he initiates a conversation it's first time he

asks her opinion it's the first time they like have a moment and it's wonderful and they did

they did i think tess is a big reason for that though right yeah because tess's motivations

have changed yeah tess is a believer has hope and sees at the end of what now what she knows

is the end of her life sees a chance to finally do good at the end of her line to joel there was

tense you know

i'm like i'm about to die like i will accelerate that to save you like if i ever mattered at all

if any of this relationship and and whatever you didn't want to label us like if any of that

matter take my one last important thing with you and make it important to you too i think that'll

reach you i don't know who you are if that doesn't reach a man and it makes the kiss even more tragic

because the thing that she couldn't get from joel the thing that she wanted the

that she wanted that she never i mean she climbed into the bed and he's facing the other way

he never touches her like that she gets that from the last moment of her death yeah before her death

yeah so i have a proposition for y'all we record again this week and do episode three alone because

we keep trying to do two episodes at once and it's just not working listen there's only 10

episodes in this season i don't know when they're gonna nine yeah i don't know when they're gonna

do another one there's no sense in that i don't know when they're gonna do another one i don't know

right that's fair clearly we're enjoying we have enough to talk about it's a good observation do

you want to do some drums okay i have an update about that podcast we called we talked about last

week oh my god what i found out the next morning stupid podcast the jk rowling podcast what i found

out the next morning that these people came to leaky con and recorded interviews with people

at leaky con under a false pretense so it was a press pass that they applied for

that went to some site that doesn't exist anymore that now forward to the barry weiss conservative

blah blah blah and we have very clear guidelines that if you're going to interview anybody at our

event you have to tell them what it's for you have to make them sign a waiver all these things and

they took interviews with these people just talking about how much they love harry potter

while ignoring that the event all its attendees very much pushed against all of jk rowling's

rhetoric it just they were technically it's not like illegal but man does it feel slimy

i didn't really listen to it so i don't really know what they were asking them like setting

them up with gotcha kind of questions or was it just like a fluff piece it's all just quotes

about how much they love harry potter's a fluff every thing's a fluff piece yeah it's a fluff

piece you can tell that they cut like there's one line like like you could pull that from any year

no like yeah right you had to come to the gun sorry frankie what are you saying but there's one

there was one line that's they were for you could tell i think by the tone of the of the voice

and just the language used that was past tense that like we used to do her as our like as a

mother mom and but like but then they like maternally but then and then it and then they

talk about how people view her maternally there it definitely was was a caveat in a

contest with a caveat i didn't listen to it because it said it was past it did just like i

i like my curiosity got the better of me and i'm not gonna i try i try i did try to listen to when

somebody was like oh licky con people are in this one well i gotta listen

i just skipped around a little bit and listened to the interviews what else you watching what else

what else you guys doing lately uh steven universe i'm re-watching that with jim i've heard it's so

good so wonderful it's honestly the opposite of the last of us but with jim a good like palette

cleanser it's sherbert but it's but it gets complicated like there's some nice complicated

flavors in it later i'm mature as well it's a show that ages well and going back and watching

how how fun it is to be in that universe it makes me want to be i want to be a crystal gem

what would my gen be i'm gonna draw my jim frankie i'm waiting for you to just create

it's like i know that you love the system of it all and i feel like it's just a question

of like patience between you and loving your own version of this thing that we're talking about

and you could give them well i mean binary there well definitely there's definitely been

tell a story and so it's gonna there's i think eventually i want is i went through some

complicated bullshit and so i think there's some narrative that i can i can use to help people

what else you guys paying attention to these days i was trying to think if there's any other

show that like we have been excited about and watching and i'm stumbling i can't struggling

to think of anything i have been listening i have a book recommendation uh the house

oh yeah the house by the cerulean sea by teen i think it said i don't know um it's just this

really uh um in this world there are there are magical people and so this he's a case worker

that works with magical youth and he inspects um orphanages that house magical youth and make

sure that things are up to par and then he goes to this one actual island they the special people

like management takes them out of his world and he goes to this one island and he goes to this

and he goes there he falls he meets this guy there's love meet all the kids there's like

one of the kids is the antichrist and that's what he has to check up on him because he's really

powerful and dangerous and it's just a really lovely i got a lot out of it from like like

being queer it's like oh it's like any any kind of othered like the magical people just kind of

like x it's kind of like x i don't know mrs peregrine's children you know what i mean cool

but there's no fighting it's all

it's really really quaint there's a film fighting a creature that is there is but it's not it's just

wonderful it was a really really lovely i have been listening to worlds beyond number the new

dnd podcast by bretton lee mulligan abria iangar eric ishii and lulu oh it's so good i'm a patron

so i can get the early content and like all the lots of content it's like take the best people

in the game and just what's it called worlds beyond number it is

absurd they're like playing with the genre it's delicious it's very very good i can't recommend

it enough i'm just went to it boom download these listen to these later yeah yeah anyway y'all i

miss you miss you too we're gonna see you both pretty soon it's nice to yeah it's nice getting

to hang out yeah it's nice to have a reason to come to get shitty chat even though it's a scary

zombie show frankie you can pick the next thing we're done with this

the next thing we can do soon universe or something be great i will say this

there's the reason that we picked this show it wasn't just like this random thing i know

we're twisting frankie's arm here but like at least from on my part like nothing else has came

around that has like scratched the itch quite as well since harry potter even like in all the time

in between it probably says more about me and my awareness of fiction in general but i just

happened on this one and maybe it was the combination of the two i don't know i don't

know if it was the combination of the game and the show just totally but we didn't just like have

the topic handed to us here it was interesting enough to actually like want to pick it apart

like we picked apart harry potter because that that's the fun part a lot of meat on the bone

yeah and even in in my discomfort i'm still enjoying this good frank you know i'm just

being vocal like grass so like this is fun and i probably wouldn't watch it if we weren't doing

this so in a way i'm grateful also scared grateful and scared excited and

cool wow twiddle dials and stuff see you next time take care y'all bye see you next time

don't mushroom

you