Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us season 2, episode 1.
The Last Of Usseason 2 premiere’s fun video game Easter egg has fans celebrating on social media. Based on the Naughty Dog PlayStation video game franchise, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s hit HBO series returned Sunday night, picking up the story with Pedro Pacal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie in Jackson, Wyoming, five years after the events of the season 1 finale.The Last of Usseason 2, episode 1, features many moments pulled straight from the game, including Ellie and Dina’s misadventures in Greenplace Market, with the former fending off a new kind of infected after falling through the ceiling.
A new post on Reddit fromu/Neptune4848calls out one fun Easter egg included in a Greenplace Market scene inThe Last of Us' season 2 premiere. Specifically,the fan celebrates the show’s inclusion of a dog being named Employee of the Month for July at the grocery store, a fun detail also included inThe Last of Us Part IIvideo game. See the post below:
“Audibly yelled ‘yeahhh!!’ when this came on,” the user writes, following up with: “Silly Easter egg, so glad they included it.” The comments on the post are filled with other users sharing their joy at the subtle Easter egg. Check out select reactions to the scene below:
What This Means For The Last Of Us Season 2
The Response To Season 2 Explained
The response to season 2 has been glowing from critics so far, earning the new season a 96% score onRotten Tomatoes. In hisThe Last of Usseason 2 reviewforScreenRant, Graeme Guttman awards the show a seven out of 10 score, praising the “remarkable” performance from Ramsey, writing that"Season 2 is strongest when it focuses on Ellie’s journey and Bella Ramsay is more than up to the task.“The inclusion of the fun dog Easter egg mentioned above, however, could suggest that the show’s sophomore outing will appeal to those who played the games, too.
As of writing, season 2 is at a lukewarm 71% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes, a fall from season 1’s 80%. At least part of the reason for this seems to be review-bombing, with Ramsey unfortunately becoming the target of bullying online. Using audience-driven review scores becomes a lot less useful to gauge the performance of a show in cases where a vocal subset of viewers is unhappy about a creative choice, butthe positive sentiment in the Easter egg post above suggests that there are indeed content game-players enjoying the series.
Viewers Should Be On The Lookout For More Fun Game References
Image via Max
If the dog employee of the month is a sign of things to come, it’s possible that many more subtle Easter eggs will be featured in the six episodes ofThe Last of Usstill to come.Easter eggs fall far behind storytelling in terms of their importance in the grand scheme of any adaptation, but they do serve as small winks to viewers familiar with the source material. They can be a great way to build positive sentiment, if nothing else.
WithThe Last of Usseason 3 now confirmed, the show seems to be in good hands. Though Mazin and Druckmann have been largely faithful to the games so far, they’ve also shown they’re not afraid to deviate and expand elements when appropriate. It remains to be seen how the rest ofThe Last of Usseason 2 will go down with audiences, but viewers should evidently keep an eye out for more references and Easter eggs in the episodes to come.
