'The Last of Us' Episode 2 is a Thrilling, Nightmarish Glimpse at How a Pandemic Starts

After a very promising debut episode, The Last of Us is shaping up to be the best video game adaptation we've ever seen. Say what you will about the Halo television series or

the groan-inducing Sonic the Hedgehog movies, but HBO and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann are truly working on a whole other level. Whether it’s because of Druckman's

involvement, or commitment to the source material, The Last of Us’s premiere simply had the right sauce. It certainly helps that the series has a spectacular leading man in Pedro

Pascal—who plays Joel, a smuggler in a post-apocalyptic zombie world—but The Last of Us has such a phenomenal tale that the odds were always in favor of its success. That

story, featuring classic Lone Wolf and Cub elements, features Joel smuggling a young girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who was infected by the mushroom zombie virus, cordyceps—but never

turned. It feels eerily similar to other stories, such as Netflix’s Sweet Tooth, James Cameron’s Aliens, Star Wars’s The Mandalorian (which also stars Pascal), or—dare we say—The

Walking Dead, but when it works, it works. And The Last of Us just works.