Speaker 1: Warning, This podcast contains spoilers for the Last of Us
Speaker 1: Episode five. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion and on
Speaker 1: Rosey Night, and welcome to Next Revision the Crooked Media podcast,
Speaker 1: where we are diving d all the way down to
Speaker 1: the sinkhole beneath Kansas City. Do we talk about your
Speaker 1: favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture?
Speaker 2: In this episode, we're digging into episode five of The
Speaker 2: Last of Us. In the alge just Gonna make you
Speaker 2: cry again, Sorry, and in nerd Out, we've got a
Speaker 2: really brilliant theory about the importance of Marvel video games
Speaker 2: in the MCU, which feels particularly relevant right now with
Speaker 2: the way DC is trying to cross those things over.
Speaker 1: Of course, if you want to jump around, check out
Speaker 1: the show notes for time stamps. Let's go to the airlock.
Speaker 1: We're stepping out of the airlock and into the remnants
Speaker 1: of Kansas City's czy for episode five of The Last
Speaker 1: of Us on HBO and HBO Max, titled Endurance Survived.
Speaker 1: This episode was written by Craig Mason and directed by
Speaker 1: Jeremy web And Boy, for all the folks who were
Speaker 1: like this needs to be more of this show needs
Speaker 1: to be more like the video game. Last two episodes
Speaker 1: have given us the more like the video game part
Speaker 1: of this story and this execution.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that a lot of people who
Speaker 2: played the game off the seeing episode three were wondering
Speaker 2: at the end of episode four, when we saw Henry
Speaker 2: and Samurai, if that would be a kind of Bill
Speaker 2: and Frank reconsideration.
Speaker 1: There is in a time any kind of nuanced moments.
Speaker 2: But if you're ready to get your heart broken because
Speaker 2: you saw them, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: This episode. It's just brutal. We open in a flashback
Speaker 1: of what we learn is about ten days before the
Speaker 1: arrival of Joel and Ellie and Kansas City, and it
Speaker 1: is the fall of Fedra in the Kansas City QZ.
Speaker 1: The rebels, Kathleen's rebels, we are soon to learn, are
Speaker 1: celebrating their victory with fireworks and flares and chances and
Speaker 1: freedom and torture and the summary execution of various federal
Speaker 1: soldiers and citizen collaborators we are soon to meet. Trucks
Speaker 1: are circling the streets making the pretty unconvincing announcement that
Speaker 1: collaborators who surrender will receive a.
Speaker 3: Fair truck I'm pretty sure that if you just look
Speaker 3: out in the streets at what happened here, you got
Speaker 3: them fair trial statement is not really ringing true.
Speaker 1: I mean they're like straight up hanging people out here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I also I want to give you a shout
Speaker 1: out because I do.
Speaker 2: I do feel like even though it was like, you know,
Speaker 2: Drugman and Mason had said, oh, there's this kind of
Speaker 2: revolutionary aspect.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people, including.
Speaker 2: Myself, the first time I watched it in episode four,
Speaker 2: it was kind of like the Kathleen stuff kind of
Speaker 2: felt very quick and we didn't really get a lot
Speaker 2: of insight into motivations. But you were absolutely right about
Speaker 2: kind of the space that she takes up in this world.
Speaker 2: This was an anti federal revolution that was led by Kathleen, who,
Speaker 2: as we gonna learn and as you pointed out last week,
Speaker 2: sees Henry as the reason for like a great loss
Speaker 2: in her life, and it was kind of crazy to
Speaker 2: see that just come directly to life.
Speaker 1: And it's such a good This episode is so good.
Speaker 2: At expanding on this kind of moral gray area that
Speaker 2: the show is really trafficking in compared to the kind
Speaker 2: of good in the game you know, the hunters, they're
Speaker 2: just evil, but here we learn a lot about the
Speaker 2: lengths people will go to survive. That's kind of how
Speaker 2: I feel like this episode.
Speaker 1: Is I agree with you that something like the overthrowing
Speaker 1: Fedra I guess you could argue is like, certainly it
Speaker 1: was just listen. We find out how they were hanging people.
Speaker 1: We find out that Fedra here had a reputation for
Speaker 1: cruelty and that they had a twenty year reign of rape, murder,
Speaker 1: and torture. I'm all four overthrowing them. I also think, like,
Speaker 1: it's not thirty seconds into the revolution before the thing
Speaker 1: goes off the rails into completely indefensive one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we learn we learn pretty quickly that there's two
Speaker 2: versions of what this revolution could be, and it's because
Speaker 2: it is Kathleen who's leading it that it goes this way.
Speaker 1: It is a It is a vehicle for her vengeance,
Speaker 1: we are soon to learn. So hiding in the streets
Speaker 1: as this chaos is unfolding is Henry and a young
Speaker 1: death boy Sam. Henry tells Sam what they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: You know what the plan is to get out of
Speaker 1: here using sign language, and it's basically, hey, stay close
Speaker 1: to me. We don't worry. Everything's gonna be fine. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get out of here. Elsewhere, we see Kathleen lording
Speaker 1: in her victory over FEDRA. She's got a bunch of
Speaker 1: FEDRA prisoners not even collaborate, they're citizen collaborators whom Wood
Speaker 1: were doing what they needed to do to survive.
Speaker 2: There is a moral grayness there, but that is the
Speaker 2: question is some of these people were doing it for
Speaker 2: unbelievable reasons, and some of them, like she points out,
Speaker 2: we're doing it to like get fresh fruit. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of like there's a there's a very strange system
Speaker 2: that was put in place by this fascistic FEDRA who
Speaker 2: would lead in the QS.
Speaker 1: And you know, FEDRA clearly created its antagonist because Kathleen,
Speaker 1: she says, we learned that. We learn that her lieutenant's
Speaker 1: name is Perry. She says, you know, Perry, I used
Speaker 1: to be so scared of these people, and now look
Speaker 1: at them. And she's talking about the thing you were saying,
Speaker 1: which was that apparently these collaborators did what they did
Speaker 1: in order for access to medicine, to fresh food, to
Speaker 1: you know, whatever counts as a luxury in the Kansas
Speaker 1: City QZ and the rest of the population received depression
Speaker 1: and torture and probably murder. And she says, did you
Speaker 1: make did it make you feel better? Did it make
Speaker 1: you feel safe? How does it make you feel now
Speaker 1: in this way that you understand that you're not going
Speaker 1: to get any kind of fair shake with her. She
Speaker 1: insists that there will be trials, although she then says
Speaker 1: right afterwards, but you're all guilty, so we know how
Speaker 1: that'll go, okay, And then she says, and you'll do
Speaker 1: some time, but first you're gonna have to basically give
Speaker 1: up the information on other collaborators. Specifically, the one that
Speaker 1: Kathleen wants above all others is Henry. Where is Henry?
Speaker 1: There's no answers, So Kathleen's like, okay, Perry kill them all.
Speaker 1: And then so a guy's like, oh wait, wait, he's
Speaker 1: with Edelstein. This is we are soon to learn the
Speaker 1: doctor from the previous episode, and apparently it is a
Speaker 1: shock to Kathleen that Edelstein was a collaborator. She is
Speaker 1: she is very surprised to learn this, and the man
Speaker 1: tells Kathleen that Edelstein has he had a safe house
Speaker 1: somewhere out in the city in case quote things went bad,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't know where. So Kathleen orders her people
Speaker 1: to go door to door until Henry is found, and
Speaker 1: Perry's like, I think pretty wisely is like, wait, hold on,
Speaker 1: we just like literally just had a revolution. Maybe we
Speaker 1: need to stabilize things, like we could use people in
Speaker 1: different places doing different things, not just like hunting for
Speaker 1: one guy. And Kathleen is like.
Speaker 2: Excuse me what She's like, he's not my seventh priority,
Speaker 2: Like he is my number one priority?
Speaker 1: Is he not your number one priority? And it is
Speaker 1: very clear from this interaction that whatever, whatever the reason
Speaker 1: is that people follow Kathleen, a significant ingredient to that
Speaker 1: reason is fear. They are both entranced but also afraid
Speaker 1: of her, afraid to cross her in any kind of way.
Speaker 1: And then he's like Perry's like, hey, are we really
Speaker 1: putting him on trial? And gal Arry, Pry, babe, what
Speaker 1: are you saying? Absolutely not just why did you have
Speaker 1: to loss? If yeah, go on, we got we got
Speaker 1: people like smashing broken bottles into people's juggulars outside, you know,
Speaker 1: like there's no trial, there's no trials going on Henry,
Speaker 1: And we see Henry and Sam enter a building. There's
Speaker 1: gunshots ringing out in the streets behind them. Meet Edelstein
Speaker 1: climb up to the attic that we also saw in
Speaker 1: the previous episode, and this is the safe house that
Speaker 1: the man was talking about, and Edelstein is telling Henry
Speaker 1: and Sam, hey, this is safe. There's water, there's toilets.
Speaker 1: You can stay here for a while. And we also
Speaker 1: learn important information coming off of the end of the
Speaker 1: previous episode that Henry's gun is empty. He's bluffing, flat
Speaker 1: out bluffing. So Henry's plan is to sneak out through
Speaker 1: the tunnels, which Edelstein thinks, why don't you just hang
Speaker 1: yourself here in this it's a very it's the timeline.
Speaker 1: We will find out why, Laiza, Yes, we will. Edelstein
Speaker 1: then asks if Sam the boy is scared, and Henry's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he saw twenty five murders, you know, many
Speaker 1: many MUDs. Yeah, And then Edelstein says, he's scared because
Speaker 1: you're scared. So Henry ta the hint and goes to
Speaker 1: ease the boy's mind, basically saying, hey, look at how
Speaker 1: brave I'm being. I'm not scared of this. I'm not
Speaker 1: scared of what's going on, and he gives Sam a
Speaker 1: big bag of crayons and the boy starts to decorate
Speaker 1: the area. We see the drawings, of course at the
Speaker 1: end of the previous episode, but I think there's something
Speaker 1: really affecting, Like it really got me this, Like it
Speaker 1: just shows you. So he's drawing illustrations of this superhero
Speaker 1: called Savage Starlight wears red mask and it has cost
Speaker 1: you much like Superman, and it just kind of shows you,
Speaker 1: like the power of the superhero fantasy, of the idea
Speaker 1: that there is a powerful person who's not going to
Speaker 1: misuse their strength and who's going to do the right thing,
Speaker 1: and who's going to come and save people. And it
Speaker 1: must feel Henry must feel so powerless in this moment,
Speaker 1: just a flesh and blood person doing is surrounded by
Speaker 1: these pictures that are like the embodiment of this fantasy
Speaker 1: that Sam has that someone, some hero can just put
Speaker 1: a stop to this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think something that's really interesting too, is
Speaker 2: like I love that because it is this this idea
Speaker 2: of this comic book superhero kind of becomes really important
Speaker 2: this episode. But also I think something that's very interesting
Speaker 2: is the pictures that Sam is drawing and painting. They
Speaker 2: include the superhero like killing Feder, like this is like
Speaker 2: it's it's both sides, like he has seen violence from
Speaker 2: both sides, but a lot of his dream was like
Speaker 2: this superhero would come and kind of get rid of
Speaker 2: Feder and get rid of this fascistic force. And it's
Speaker 2: this really heartbreaking reality of what that ended up looking like.
Speaker 2: And the fact that now the person that Sam wanted
Speaker 2: to save them somebody stopping Fedra is now the person
Speaker 2: who's hunting them down. And yeah, the visuals, the visualization
Speaker 2: of this drawing and the drawing I'm assuming the act
Speaker 2: to Dig because we see him doing all like beautiful,
Speaker 2: so beautiful and really moving. And they also remind you
Speaker 2: that this is just a kid, like this is an
Speaker 2: eight year old kid, you know, and it's oh yeah,
Speaker 2: just really really powerful stuff. And these two actors who
Speaker 2: portray these characters are just.
Speaker 1: Such good casting.
Speaker 2: Like it's Lamar Johnson as Henry and Covon Woodward as Sam,
Speaker 2: and it's just like it's just like Bill and Frank.
Speaker 1: You want to see more of them, You want to
Speaker 1: see more. I want to see more. X Ray Vision
Speaker 1: will be back. We're excited to announce the return of
Speaker 1: Stuck with Damon Young, in original podcast from Crooked and Spotify.
Speaker 1: On this show, award winning author Damon Young has returned
Speaker 1: for more off the cuff conversations inspired by today's most
Speaker 1: culturally relevant headlines and roundups of Damon approved listeners submitted questions.
Speaker 1: He's joined by some of the brightest minds and bold
Speaker 1: voices of the black community, including Keise Layman, Roy Wood,
Speaker 1: Elaine Welterroth, Nicole, Hannah Jones, and Moore. The trailer is
Speaker 1: live right now. In the first episode drops February sixteenth.
Speaker 1: Listen to Stuck with Damon Young for free only on Spotify,
Speaker 1: and we're back. We fast forward ten days. The pair
Speaker 1: are down to their last can of food. Henry looks
Speaker 1: outside and the roundup of collaborators, even ten days later
Speaker 1: is continuing.
Speaker 2: And it's this very like there's like tanks driving down
Speaker 2: the street on timing. This is like become a military
Speaker 2: as much of a military operation as feder You can
Speaker 2: tell like they're ready to keep this town. Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Said it before, and it's a thing that I've talked
Speaker 1: about in other pods, But it's like you don't you
Speaker 1: don't think about an enemy as a person or a
Speaker 1: group that you have a relationship with. But the relationship
Speaker 1: between antagonists is a very real one. And in this case,
Speaker 1: just like in many cases, the enemy created the mirror
Speaker 1: image of itself that has not taken over. Like for whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever the the high flung ideals of freedom and a
Speaker 1: return to safety and security that that sparked this revolution war,
Speaker 1: they've become fedra. They are for all intensive purposes, the
Speaker 1: thing that they overthrew. Sam meanwhile, ten days later, continues
Speaker 1: to draw. He's passing time with his art and all
Speaker 1: the while, Kathleen's people are getting closer, getting closer, getting closer,
Speaker 1: and Edelstein hasn't been back in a while. He went
Speaker 1: on may not.
Speaker 2: Du and its coming back, may not return.
Speaker 1: Sam flat out is like he's dead, isn't he. Henry's like, probably, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's probably dead. Sometime after this, Henry is like, Sam,
Speaker 1: we got to leave. We have to leave, and I
Speaker 1: know that's scary, but here again, Henry, trying to be
Speaker 1: that superhero, is like, don't worry, because I've analyzed almost
Speaker 1: like almost like in a video game, you know, like
Speaker 1: I've analyzed the patterns that I've used them every day, like,
Speaker 1: we can make it. Yeah, we can do it. We
Speaker 1: can get past them because I've watched their patterns and
Speaker 1: you trust me. I can you know, don't worry, I
Speaker 1: can do it. And again they embrace, they hug, and
Speaker 1: they're surrounded by these drawings, and there again you get
Speaker 1: this feeling of of how small and weak Henry has
Speaker 1: to feel with this incredibly heavy burden that he has
Speaker 1: surrounded by these images of what that the person he's
Speaker 1: sworn to protect, you know, dreams about, which is just
Speaker 1: like a person who would come and protect them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's this really heartbreaking kind of evolution as
Speaker 2: we get through that episode too, because we come to
Speaker 2: see that and learn that Henry in no way sees
Speaker 2: himself as a hero. He sees himself as the bad guy.
Speaker 2: So to constantly have his brother like dreaming of this
Speaker 2: heroic figure or seeing Henry as this heroic figure, is
Speaker 2: like really a heartbreaking thing.
Speaker 1: So they're getting ready to leave their safe house when
Speaker 1: they hear a screech of tires and gunshots and this
Speaker 1: is the sound of the ambush of Joel and Ellie,
Speaker 1: and Henry watches all this unfold through the window, and
Speaker 1: he turns to Sam as he watches Joel, you know,
Speaker 1: in Henry's mind easily dispatch like two of Kathleen's militia.
Speaker 1: He turns to Sammy says, new plan. So now we're
Speaker 1: back where we left off in the previous episode. Henry
Speaker 1: and Sam. They get to drop on Ellie. Henry has
Speaker 1: his gun on Ellie. Sam has his gun on Joel,
Speaker 1: and Henry immediately feels that Joel is the danger. So
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, look at me, listen, We're not here
Speaker 1: to hurt you. We can help each other. We haven't
Speaker 1: hurt you at all, Like we didn't shoot you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put my gun down, and then you know, we
Speaker 1: can have a truce, right, we can just you know,
Speaker 1: was that okay? And it's very obvious that Henry has
Speaker 1: not done shit like this before. He doesn't know what
Speaker 1: to do in a situation like this. And it's also
Speaker 1: obvious just by Joel's demeanor that he's a hard ass,
Speaker 1: that he's a Yeah, I mean he has seen him
Speaker 1: kill guys like just the other day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But it's also just like in the moment, he
Speaker 2: is not scad Like if Joel wanted these kids, he
Speaker 2: could disarm them.
Speaker 1: Uh So, when Joel is like to Henry's query of like, hey,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna put my gun down, it's cool, right.
Speaker 1: When Joel says like okay, like the undertaker or something,
Speaker 1: Henry is really and rightfully nervous and is like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's really weird the way you said okay. And Ellie's
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, he's just got like resting asshole voice.
Speaker 1: But you can't help being like that, right, Joel. So
Speaker 1: Henry's like, okay, fine, I'm gonna trust you, but if
Speaker 1: you try anything like I'm going to shoot Ellie. Of course,
Speaker 1: Now again Henry's gun is empty. Henry then tells Joel
Speaker 1: uh that he and Sam are brothers, and that he
Speaker 1: is the most wanted man in Kansas City. The militia
Speaker 1: out there they're searching, they're looking for him. Although right
Speaker 1: now Joel and Ellie are probably you know number two,
Speaker 1: you're running in close second, he says. Later, they eat
Speaker 1: off Joel and Ellie supplies, and Ellie introduces herself and
Speaker 1: makes really effective small talk the way that kids just
Speaker 1: can you know, like these are they immediately fallen together
Speaker 1: as people, as peers people broadly in the same age group,
Speaker 1: and you can tell that Ellie just like delights in
Speaker 1: being around Sam.
Speaker 2: And she's so happy to see Sam and just yeah
Speaker 2: for the power of them to kind of have somebody
Speaker 2: who's more on her level, who also gives her someone
Speaker 2: to kind of like look off, uh, and also is
Speaker 2: not Joel, who is like really cranky all the fucking time.
Speaker 1: So they're having this dinner and Ellie's introduced herself to
Speaker 1: Henry and Sam. She's asked Sam how old he is.
Speaker 1: There's this nice little rapport building, and then Ellie hits
Speaker 1: Joel on the leg like are you going to introduce yourself,
Speaker 1: and Joel like, I'm Joel. Listen, we didn't kill each other.
Speaker 1: Let's call this a win win and get out of here,
Speaker 1: to which Henry is like, no, I have an offer. Clearly,
Speaker 1: you two, Henry says, came up here to find a
Speaker 1: way out of the city. I know the way. I
Speaker 1: know the way out of the city, and I promise
Speaker 1: tomorrow I will tell you what it is. So the
Speaker 1: next day it's light, we see that they're in like
Speaker 1: a conference room of what was formerly like a business office,
Speaker 1: and they're looking out at the streets of Kansas city.
Speaker 1: There are humbies going up and down Kathleen's people, and
Speaker 1: you know, Henry's like, welcome to what does he call it?
Speaker 1: We Killer k C. And apparently Casey Fedra was the
Speaker 1: worst of the world. It's unclear like how much coordination
Speaker 1: and command and control there is in feder.
Speaker 2: It seems pretty clear got dropped in and then it
Speaker 2: was just like survive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it seems pretty clear that each feder that
Speaker 1: controlled whatever QZ was just kind of doing its own
Speaker 1: thing without any kind of oversight, you know.
Speaker 2: And the baseline was terrible, Like if we look at
Speaker 2: the Boston QZ, they were just hanging people for leaving
Speaker 2: the QZ. And it seems like in spite of how
Speaker 2: bad that was, this is this is worse.
Speaker 1: So Henry talks about it. He says, you know, this
Speaker 1: was the worst of the worst. The Federal here were rapists, murderers,
Speaker 1: Their reign of terror went into a like the moment
Speaker 1: basically the QZ was built. And he says something I
Speaker 1: think very important here. He says, what happens when you
Speaker 1: do that to people the moment they get a chance,
Speaker 1: they do it right back. And that's what's going on now.
Speaker 1: Henry then tells Joel that listen, I'm not Fedra, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of work. I'm a collaborator. And Joel's like, I
Speaker 1: don't work with rats today, you do, Henry says, because
Speaker 1: I know this city, and he goes about proving it.
Speaker 1: Can I just say Joel is a hypocrite? Yeah, because
Speaker 1: I saw that. I saw that, Like, I know he didn't.
Speaker 1: I know he like, I get it. He's not a snitch,
Speaker 1: he's not, but he has informed on people.
Speaker 2: He hasn't informed on people, but I saw him like
Speaker 2: given Fedrick, drugs, get him ration cards, well sneak. It's
Speaker 2: it's the levels of what you have to do to survive.
Speaker 2: And we learn that Henry is weighed this, this is
Speaker 2: weighed heavily on him what he had, He did.
Speaker 1: Very very recently admit that he ambushed and murdered innocent
Speaker 1: people exactly Joel Jewel riding the smallest high horse ever witnessed. Also,
Speaker 1: this guy is like.
Speaker 2: A teenager as well. Like that's the other thing. I'm like, Joe,
Speaker 2: you're like fifty six, bro, Like you probably rid on
Speaker 2: people when you're a teenager, though, you know not to
Speaker 2: defend collaborators.
Speaker 1: I think this.
Speaker 2: I think this is one of the most interesting thing
Speaker 2: about this episode is like it's all about this horrifically
Speaker 2: morally gray area of like what you do for survival,
Speaker 2: and at no point are they like this is the
Speaker 2: right thing or this is the wrong thing, other than
Speaker 2: like Kathleen's vengeance is obviously like consumed her. But there
Speaker 2: is this really interesting pullem push in this episode about
Speaker 2: I agree, the lengths people will go to survive and
Speaker 2: how that can be like weaponized.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're absolutely right on the kind of scale of
Speaker 1: immoral behavior. For some reason, we joel ambushing innocent people
Speaker 1: to take their clothes and food and guns and whatever
Speaker 1: else they had somehow feels maybe because it's more active
Speaker 1: in the in the you know, within the context of
Speaker 1: we did what we had to do, feels like more
Speaker 1: actively doing what you had to do. That feels somehow
Speaker 1: more honorable, that's the right word, because you're doing it
Speaker 1: you had to do by informing on people who will
Speaker 1: then go out and do the thing that you were
Speaker 1: too weak or unarmed to do yourself.
Speaker 2: Informing on people to survive when those people were probably
Speaker 2: just doing what they had to survive. It's this, it's
Speaker 2: this really horrible kind of a Rowborus cycle. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they do a really interesting job, as we'll
Speaker 2: learn a bit further in this episode, of really expanding
Speaker 2: on that space with Henry's story and making he he
Speaker 2: essentially becomes like the person with the un the unchoosable task.
Speaker 2: That's like they do a great job of building it
Speaker 2: into empathy. He is not one of these people who was,
Speaker 2: you know, informing on his neighbors to get an apple.
Speaker 1: Like, there's so much more to it.
Speaker 2: But I love the way that they kind of have
Speaker 2: that reaction from Joel. But then we get to see,
Speaker 2: just like in the game, Henry is really the first
Speaker 2: person that it feels like Joel kind of opens up
Speaker 2: to even more than like Ellie, Like there's this kind
Speaker 2: of unexpected connection there, probably because of these caretaker.
Speaker 1: Roles, Yeah, very clear parallels. Joel asks a really important question,
Speaker 1: which is why you're doing this if you know the
Speaker 1: way up and just fucking go? Uh, And Henry's like,
Speaker 1: because you're good at fighting and I'm not. And the
Speaker 1: way we're gonna go is really dangerous. Now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you what it is. And also my gun is
Speaker 1: not loaded, so and I've never I've never physically killed anyone.
Speaker 1: So I need you. Yeah, I need you because, like you,
Speaker 1: you're good at this. And then Ellie is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we killed two clickers on the way out here. He's like, see,
Speaker 1: like you killed two clickers. That's and that clicker and
Speaker 1: you survived. Like that is such a great It's such
Speaker 1: a small thing, but a really important moment to let
Speaker 1: you know how the really, really fierce joy is a fight,
Speaker 1: and of course we're going to see it at the
Speaker 1: end of this episode. So then Henry tells him how
Speaker 1: they're gonna get out. He draws a map, basically a
Speaker 1: box of four highways in which they are the middle.
Speaker 1: They are inside that box in the former QZ, which
Speaker 1: is now controlled by Kathleen's forces. What they need to
Speaker 1: do is get across one of these highways out to
Speaker 1: the river, across the river to safety. But they can't
Speaker 1: do it above ground. The way they're going to have
Speaker 1: to go it's below ground, these maintenance tunnels that were
Speaker 1: built to connect various properties that were once owned by
Speaker 1: the same real estate developer. And so Thenjoel again he's like, well, so,
Speaker 1: why what do you need me for? Yeah, go ahead,
Speaker 1: and do it and then and then Henry gives them
Speaker 1: the bad news. Okay, so there's no infected here, as
Speaker 1: you've noticed, he says, drove them underground fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: and haven't let them up since. Only good things those
Speaker 1: vascious motherfuckers did. But good news, Henry says, the tunnels
Speaker 1: are empty. How do I know? Someone told me it
Speaker 1: was only like three years ago. This is I actually
Speaker 1: love this because there's two things I really love about
Speaker 1: this one. It's a really cool explanation for the evolution
Speaker 1: of the infected. It's like such a cool idit.
Speaker 2: And if you've ever read Max Brooks World War Zoo,
Speaker 2: which I just think is like one of the best
Speaker 2: like sci fi horror books I've written, there is a
Speaker 2: whole plot line about how a certain country, when the
Speaker 2: zombie apocalypse happened, basically they hid all that they all
Speaker 2: moved underground. But then the rumor has it that basically
Speaker 2: the reason no one ever heard from them again, even
Speaker 2: after other places started to recover, was because a zombie
Speaker 2: had gotten in. And it's this idea of all these
Speaker 2: people living underground who have been infected. It's such a
Speaker 2: scary vision. And something else I found that was really
Speaker 2: cool after I watched this episode, is that Kansas City
Speaker 2: actually does have like real ancient underground maintenance tunnels. So
Speaker 2: I thought that was a really cool addition. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I love that, Like the idea that fedro this federal
Speaker 2: was so brutal that they actually managed to essentially like.
Speaker 1: Rid that city of infected. That's like unheard of.
Speaker 2: It sounds absolutely bonkers, but it tells you something about them.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, Henry's like, oh, it's all
Speaker 1: good now, like three years ago they cleared it. A
Speaker 1: sure sounds too good to be true, my friend, But
Speaker 1: here's the upside, here's the actual upside. Henry tells them
Speaker 1: Kathleen's people won't be there. They're gonna be looking in
Speaker 1: the tunnels, knowing everybody's too scared to go down there.
Speaker 1: And you guys are really good. You killed two clickers.
Speaker 1: You can handle it. So they head out down through
Speaker 1: the lobby of an office building, into the basement and
Speaker 1: down again into the tunnels. Joel and Ellie, after what
Speaker 1: they have already been through their short time together, are
Speaker 1: already on edge. Henry is just like chat, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: look it's empty down here, and they're shut. Joel, of course,
Speaker 1: is not convinced. He just tells them, hey, be ready
Speaker 1: to run. So they move through these tunnels quite a
Speaker 1: long ways until they get quite surprisingly to this area.
Speaker 1: It's like a concrete box with a door on the
Speaker 1: other side, and the concrete walls are painted with scenes
Speaker 1: as if from a kindergarten or a grade school, you know,
Speaker 1: happy children, giant flowers, golden castle. There's a door. They
Speaker 1: go through the door and it's the remnants of an
Speaker 1: elementary school that was built underground. Joel says, I read
Speaker 1: about places like this people went underground after outbreak day
Speaker 1: and very interesting to read the whiteboard behind them. There's
Speaker 1: a whiteboard with the message the rules of the school
Speaker 1: still up. One, make sure the doors are a lot
Speaker 1: to ask for the password if you don't know the visitor. Three,
Speaker 1: no shouting or noisy play for run to the hiding spot.
Speaker 1: When you hear the alarm, and Joel thinks, well, it infected.
Speaker 1: Must have somebody didn't follow the rules. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought there was a great moment when they first see this,
Speaker 1: like beautiful painted kind of mural. Sam is so excited
Speaker 1: as an artist, and he kind of runs ahead and
Speaker 1: you get this great moment from Joel where you know
Speaker 1: that Joel of like four days ago would have just
Speaker 1: that kid, would have been the canary in the coal mine.
Speaker 1: But he stops him, and he pushes him back, and
Speaker 1: he goes back in front, and he's getting a little
Speaker 1: bit more of that caring. There's something about the idea
Speaker 1: of looking after these kids in a way he couldn't
Speaker 1: look after Sarah that is really changing who he is.
Speaker 1: And I thought this was such a cool, spooky addition,
Speaker 1: this kind of empty grade school that feels like it's
Speaker 1: going to be this creepy resident evil type space, but
Speaker 1: actually ends up being almost like a sanctuary for them
Speaker 1: for a little bit. It's a really smart inversion of
Speaker 1: kind of what we get what we expected. Sam and
Speaker 1: Ellie find a Savage Starlight comic and then just bond
Speaker 1: over it. She tells him that she has issues four, five, six,
Speaker 1: and eleven. He has issues five, six and eight. They
Speaker 1: you know, kind of reference the tagline of this series,
Speaker 1: which is Endurance Survive, and at Ellie's urging really with
Speaker 1: Henry agreeing it's a good idea, they decide to stay
Speaker 1: there until dark, when they can move around above ground
Speaker 1: more safely. Ellie and Sam passed the time playing together,
Speaker 1: and Joel and Henry, as you mentioned, start kind of
Speaker 1: like opening them up up to each other. And Joel,
Speaker 1: already a different guy I think than he was a
Speaker 1: few days ago, basically apologizes so like, hey, I didn't
Speaker 1: know your situation. If you collaborated to help him, I
Speaker 1: get it, like we've all done things. Yeah, He's like,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have judged you. Yeah, I shouldn't have judged you.
Speaker 1: And then Henry is like, oh yeah, what do you
Speaker 1: think about this? And didn't just collaborate and just inform?
Speaker 1: I informed on a great man, a great and charismatic leader.
Speaker 1: Sam got sick leukemia. The only drug that could save
Speaker 1: him was of course, controlled by FEDRA, and so to
Speaker 1: get it, I informed on this person and this person
Speaker 1: the leader and I guess figurehead of the Casey resistance
Speaker 1: movement was Kathleen's brother, which is we learned now why
Speaker 1: she's after him. And he says, still think you should
Speaker 1: take it easy on me? Or am I the bad guy?
Speaker 1: He says, And he says, I'm sure I'm the bad
Speaker 1: guy because I did bad guy stuff. And Joel doesn't
Speaker 1: say it, but you can also tell there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different emotions going across Pedro Pascal's face here, but
Speaker 1: you can definitely tell that one is discussed at what
Speaker 1: happened and also you did what you had to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he he is accepting of this kind of horrible
Speaker 2: story that he has to tell. And there's something you know,
Speaker 2: Henry explains that this guy like always forgave, he was
Speaker 2: always kind. He he had been leading this moment and
Speaker 2: had this kind of this love for all the people
Speaker 2: in his community. But you know, as we're going to
Speaker 2: find out, he led the revolution, but he didn't lead
Speaker 2: them to revolt.
Speaker 1: That was Kathleen. So it's like, you.
Speaker 2: Know, this Henry unintentionally kind of inspires the actual revolution
Speaker 2: by by informing on on this man who you know,
Speaker 2: meant so much, but he did it for like, like
Speaker 2: we were saying earlier, like this is a choice you
Speaker 2: would never want to have to make watch your eight
Speaker 2: you know, child, a child die because the government is
Speaker 2: withholding their medication, and you can get that medication if
Speaker 2: you just make one choice. It's all about this idea
Speaker 2: off you have to sacrifice one life for another, you know,
Speaker 2: and it's it's such a heartbreaking kind of expansion.
Speaker 1: But like you said, Joel, Joel is judging him. You know,
Speaker 1: honestly it would have been. You can't make any excuses
Speaker 1: for what it's clear that Fedra did, But the actions
Speaker 1: of Kathleen's forces in their victory also show that, like, okay,
Speaker 1: well kind of what's the difference? Like this story, this
Speaker 1: episode really made me think about how whether someone's a
Speaker 1: hero or a villain really depends on when you meet them.
Speaker 1: You know, when when in your when in their story
Speaker 1: do you arrive because you know where we arrived with Joel,
Speaker 1: is he's a hero because we never saw him ambushing
Speaker 1: and killing untold numbers of innocent people. We see Henry
Speaker 1: as a hero because though he did something horrific and indefensible,
Speaker 1: he's also a completely powerless person trying to protect his
Speaker 1: brother on the run from maniacs with guns. Kathleen, maybe
Speaker 1: if we'd met her two weeks ago, we would have
Speaker 1: been like what an yeah, like and now it's like
Speaker 1: she's power mad and vengeful and like not doing the
Speaker 1: thing that will actually help her community, Like this is
Speaker 1: a personal grievance you should be rebuilding. Why are you
Speaker 1: doing this? There's also an important moment here in this
Speaker 1: exchange where Henry can just immediately tell that Joel was
Speaker 1: once a father because of the way he's like protecting
Speaker 1: Ellie even though he knows that they're not related. We
Speaker 1: go back to Kathleen, who is hanging out in the
Speaker 1: Federa orphanage where her and her brother were raised. Perry
Speaker 1: finds her there h he has no information for her,
Speaker 1: no idea where Henry is, no idea where Joel is,
Speaker 1: no nothing, And he says that he asked, you know,
Speaker 1: people have been looking for her, that nobody had any
Speaker 1: idea where she was, and they had to talk to
Speaker 1: her mom to figure out that she'd be here. And
Speaker 1: then Kathleen starts reminiscing about her brother and how and
Speaker 1: he really did seem like a great guy. You know,
Speaker 1: he acted as her protector, he did, you know, he
Speaker 1: begged her to forgive her enemies. That even the last
Speaker 1: thing that he said to her with when he was in.
Speaker 2: Prison, he said, forgive Henry, like he did what he
Speaker 2: had to do, just forgive him. But she know, and
Speaker 2: she knows that like her brutality and her violence and
Speaker 2: all these terrible things she's done, of things he would hate,
Speaker 2: like if he was here, he would be so disappointed
Speaker 2: in her. And she assumes that Perry is there to
Speaker 2: basically say to her, like your brother would say, nay,
Speaker 2: Henry alone, like let's just build, let's make things bout.
Speaker 2: But nah, Perry's in, He's he's all in on the
Speaker 2: Kathleen train.
Speaker 1: And this is the this is the danger of violence
Speaker 1: is like again, like no one can. It must have
Speaker 1: felt good and just and right, and indeed it probably
Speaker 1: was to rebel against feder and take them down. At
Speaker 1: the same time, the people who were called to violence
Speaker 1: are often like the least stable and worst people you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, and Kathleen is definitely not the person who
Speaker 1: you want to be following in a post revolutionary like.
Speaker 2: She took the following her brother had and utilized because
Speaker 2: her brother died ten days ago, you know, and then
Speaker 2: the revolution happened like it was within that timeframe.
Speaker 1: That is the reason Kathleen is the leader. What did
Speaker 1: your brother do?
Speaker 2: He was great, but he didn't overthrow fed You opened
Speaker 2: to Fedra because you were so violent and angry and
Speaker 2: consumed by this vengeance that you could, and you enlisted
Speaker 2: the people around you who had followed your brother to
Speaker 2: do it. It's a it's a very interesting character study.
Speaker 2: And obviously mel Nielenski is like incredible.
Speaker 1: She brings a an almost like she brings a pettiness
Speaker 1: to what is a very important clearly like you know,
Speaker 1: existential matter, and I think it says so much about
Speaker 1: her character. She's just like aggrieved, she's like really hurt
Speaker 1: and angry. And also it's just in charge of, like
Speaker 1: of what is a very very dangerous like mob of
Speaker 1: armed people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such clever casting too, because it's like, and
Speaker 2: this is what Melanie has always been great at. From
Speaker 2: Heavenly Creatures, the Yellow Jackets. Like, people see her and
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, that's someone who's like a mom, that's
Speaker 2: like my mom. Like, so to see her in this
Speaker 2: midst of this rage, it's not like some tattooed zombie
Speaker 2: survivor with one arm, Like, this is just a woman
Speaker 2: who looks like a really normal white woman in it,
Speaker 2: and she's just been absolutely consumed by this fury and
Speaker 2: like you said, that pettiness, that aggrievedness.
Speaker 1: So when you see her, you know, I saw a.
Speaker 2: Few people who were like I don't know if I
Speaker 2: buy it, Like I'm like, that's your own conception of
Speaker 2: what somebody like that can be like in this the
Speaker 2: whole point of this character in this story is like,
Speaker 2: how would this affect normal people?
Speaker 1: Make them behave?
Speaker 2: And in Kathleen's case, it's this kind of nightmarish vengeance
Speaker 2: which will eventually destroy her entire community.
Speaker 1: X Ray Vision will be back and we're back. Finally,
Speaker 1: Henry and the group emerged from the school and they
Speaker 1: come out on the other side of the highway through
Speaker 1: a parking garage. They're in a suburb now it's night,
Speaker 1: no one around. Henry is extremely proud of himself and
Speaker 1: he should be. He actually should be.
Speaker 2: I have to say, she's supremely great fake out by
Speaker 2: the show too, Like I'm like, oh, this is it,
Speaker 2: Like they're gonna be underground, it's gonna be like the
Speaker 2: subways in the game.
Speaker 1: Like they're gonna have to be killing the zombies. No,
Speaker 1: this actually legit Like was a great plan, great plan,
Speaker 1: it worked. What could you say? Joel of course would
Speaker 1: like everybody shut the fuck up because the river. They're
Speaker 1: close to the river, but they're not there yet. And
Speaker 1: then Ellie, surprising Joel invites Henry and Sam told come
Speaker 1: with them to wyoming Joel, you could just tell is
Speaker 1: he's like hard no on that. But before they can
Speaker 1: really discuss it, shots ring out a sniper in a
Speaker 1: house at the end of the street and they're hiding
Speaker 1: behind a car kind of pinned down. Joel tells Ellie, Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys stay here, I'm gonna go around, sneak on
Speaker 1: top and you know, sneak up to that house and
Speaker 1: take the sniper out. This guy is bad aim. And
Speaker 1: also he's wasting like a ton of This guy's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's bullets. Is a very interesting part of that, like
Speaker 1: the reality.
Speaker 2: Of how this would happen, Like sure, Kathleen has this
Speaker 2: petty vengeance kind of fueling her, and Perry seems to
Speaker 2: have some kind of military training, but not everybody in
Speaker 2: Kansas City, in this community would have that. Like she
Speaker 2: knew the doctor. These are people they've known their whole lives,
Speaker 2: and some people aren't going to be trained to be
Speaker 2: a sniper. This man's just wasting the bullets he shooting. Honestly,
Speaker 2: not gonna lie. I do believe that. I like Joel's idea,
Speaker 2: and also it gets in this really great position of
Speaker 2: like enacting one of the the really like intense parts
Speaker 2: of the game.
Speaker 1: But also I don't necessarily think Henry and Sam are wrong.
Speaker 2: If they'd have just done the zig zag run, they
Speaker 2: all could have probably gotten away and hide.
Speaker 1: Behind the cars. But just to murder someone it's been
Speaker 1: a while he does, and there's and also like there's
Speaker 1: an important moment here where as Joel is leaving, Ellie's like, no,
Speaker 1: don't do this, it's stupid, and he's like, do you
Speaker 1: trust me? And she does.
Speaker 2: There's like a moment, but then she nods and it's
Speaker 2: just like there's something there and she.
Speaker 1: Doesn't want him to go. She doesn't want to be alone,
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to not have Joel at her side.
Speaker 1: It's it's a big moment. It was a big and
Speaker 1: very very touching moment. You know, as you know from
Speaker 1: playing the game, you gotta get that soup rifle acquire
Speaker 1: as soon. I actually found it really.
Speaker 2: Interesting because there's so much of this episode narratively, especially
Speaker 2: with Sam and Henry, that's.
Speaker 1: So directly taken from the game.
Speaker 2: But then there's also quite a lot of diversion with
Speaker 2: Kathleen and with Kansas City instead of Pittsburgh. And then
Speaker 2: you end up in this situation where as soon as
Speaker 2: they get to that street of cars, I was waiting
Speaker 2: for the sniper because I knew I knew that Joel
Speaker 2: was gonna and that's when my heart started to sink
Speaker 2: because it meant I knew the way the episode was ending.
Speaker 1: And but yeah, yeah, you've got to get in there.
Speaker 2: And I love this because this this moment as well,
Speaker 2: like you know, when Joel gets into the house, it
Speaker 2: is just it's a really great telling character moment of
Speaker 2: the kind of Joel that we have in this Joel
Speaker 2: was tired in the game, but he's not really tired
Speaker 2: emotionally or soulfully of killing people. That doesn't feel like
Speaker 2: it's more just like, oh, this sucks. I wish I
Speaker 2: didn't have to live in the zombie Apocalypse. But in
Speaker 2: this moment when we see him and he sees that
Speaker 2: there's this old man with bad aim, and he says
Speaker 2: to him, he's like, just give me the gun and
Speaker 2: stay in your position and just don't tell anyone that
Speaker 2: I was here. And the guy turns to him and
Speaker 2: Joel's like, don't try and shoot me.
Speaker 1: Joel, doesn't that you want to kill someone in that moment,
Speaker 1: I take it back. He actually is like he is heartbroken.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to kill another person. This is an
Speaker 2: old man. He's like, don't do it, my friend. He's like,
Speaker 2: just don't do it.
Speaker 1: Joel sneaks over as you mentioned, gets the drop in.
Speaker 1: The old man gives him the opportunity. He's just like,
Speaker 1: just give me the gun and sit in this room
Speaker 1: for an hour. That's all you gotta do. Don't do
Speaker 1: and then he the guy doesn't, so he kills him,
Speaker 1: and then everything seems like it's gonna be great. But
Speaker 1: then a radio cracks to life and you hear Kathleen's
Speaker 1: voice and the guy called called it in, already called Kathleen.
Speaker 1: He already called it away. And so Kathleen's forces are
Speaker 1: they're like right here. So Joel yells out the window
Speaker 1: of run. Kathleen has a convoy of trucks and then
Speaker 1: the lead truck is like this garbage truck with like
Speaker 1: a plow on the front, and it's just like pile
Speaker 1: driving Rerex out of the way. We had this great
Speaker 1: action sequence where Jull snipes the driver.
Speaker 2: Just like you feel like you're just like you feel
Speaker 2: like you're just in the game, and this time is
Speaker 2: like there's more of Kathleen's people are coming and you're
Speaker 2: just thinking, like when of the infect are gonna show up,
Speaker 2: because that's the next people that you've got to snipe.
Speaker 2: But this truck's just pile driving. There's this huge you
Speaker 2: think Ellie's gonna get caught. She you know, she kind
Speaker 2: of she has this moment where she falls over when
Speaker 2: in front of the truck after Joel saves her and
Speaker 2: you see someone grabbing her and you're like, oh no,
Speaker 2: but it's Henry. Henry goes out of his way to
Speaker 2: save her life and he pulls her behind the truck.
Speaker 2: And I think in that moment when Joel sees Henry
Speaker 2: do that, there's like a switch that flips.
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like, okay, these I have to go all
Speaker 1: out to save everyone. So the truck that was chasing
Speaker 1: them blows up and crashes into the front of the house.
Speaker 1: And as this is happening, all of Kathleen's people are
Speaker 1: pouring out of their cars. There's like there's like one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two hundred people out there, so many people,
Speaker 1: this feels like it might be all of them.
Speaker 2: Like it might be it feels like more of the
Speaker 2: revolution and this is everyone like they're so consumed.
Speaker 1: It's the it's the mob with the pitchforks. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they are angry. Kathleen calls to Henry. She's like, hey,
Speaker 1: just like come out and let's just deal with this.
Speaker 1: He doesn't. He wants to some assurances that like Sam
Speaker 1: and Ellie are gonna be fine, Like first of all,
Speaker 1: Ellie's not involved in this, and second, well Sam's a kid,
Speaker 1: and she's like, no, no, we're gonna kill him. Sorry,
Speaker 1: there's they're definitely dead. So that's not even on the table,
Speaker 1: she tells them, and you realize, Okay, Kathleen is if
Speaker 1: you needed any more, you know proof, You now know
Speaker 1: that Kathleen is just way way away.
Speaker 2: From she's unhinged, kind of Final Destination esque rant where
Speaker 2: she's like, well, if kids die, kids diling, if Sam
Speaker 2: was supposed to die, and this is you getting what
Speaker 2: you'll come up and says, because you fucked around with fate,
Speaker 2: she's death, the angel of death.
Speaker 1: He has to, you know, kill Henry and avenge her brother.
Speaker 2: Though it's not gonna make anything better or change anything
Speaker 2: other than add two more notches to her her bloody belt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can really here get the sense that she
Speaker 1: is fucking drunk on power. Yeah, or at least getting drunk,
Speaker 1: because you know, when you start talking about fate and
Speaker 1: you messed with fate and kids just you know, can die.
Speaker 1: Who cares like they die all the time. That is
Speaker 1: just too much. And I'm like, Joel, can you just
Speaker 1: like shoot her right now? Like shooter he was?
Speaker 2: I guess you kind of get these shots of him
Speaker 2: looking and he's trying to like kind of work out
Speaker 2: the lay of the land. Yeah, and like obviously if
Speaker 2: he shoots out, maybe some people are gonna know where
Speaker 2: this is. But there's this moment when so Henry steps
Speaker 2: out because he's brave and he's like he tells Ellie
Speaker 2: like you're gonna take Sam, You're gonna run, and he
Speaker 2: steps out into the open, And I have to say,
Speaker 2: this is why Melanielinsky deserved that, Emmy. This is why
Speaker 2: she's so good in Yellow Jackets. Heavenly Creature is like
Speaker 2: one of my favorite movies. But in this moment when
Speaker 2: she looks at Sam with that gun, she looks upset,
Speaker 2: like she looks sad in her eye that she is
Speaker 2: gonna kill him.
Speaker 1: But she's still gonna do it, but.
Speaker 2: There is this moment there's like tears in her eye
Speaker 2: and you can't tell if it's because she's like so
Speaker 2: happy she's found him or she realizes that he is
Speaker 2: just a scared kid with his hands up. But in
Speaker 2: that moment, I was like, oh shit. I was like,
Speaker 2: Joel's gonna sniper. He's gonna sniper before she can do it.
Speaker 1: But no, but they fate came into play. The truck
Speaker 1: that is on fire starts sinking into the ground, uh,
Speaker 1: and it falls through a massive hole and everyone's looking
Speaker 1: over it like oh, like oh fuck, and you hear
Speaker 1: this roar of what you know can only be infected
Speaker 1: and they come fucking pouring out of the hole and
Speaker 1: it's everything. It's runners, clickers, it's clickers, mom, and.
Speaker 2: Also clicker almost there's like this even more exasperated, like
Speaker 2: even more like accentuated hive mind, Like they come out
Speaker 2: of there like an explodeon. It's completely different to anything
Speaker 2: we've seen before.
Speaker 1: And it is so good and so scary.
Speaker 2: If you've been waiting for that horror movie Resident Evil.
Speaker 1: Living, this is it. You're this is like de spewing everywhere.
Speaker 1: This is an episode.
Speaker 2: It's all about like reflections, and we've been seeing that
Speaker 2: since really episode three. But like, they do this really
Speaker 2: interesting thing where we see the zombies killing all the people,
Speaker 2: and it looks exactly the same as when they were
Speaker 2: killing the FEDERA collaborators at the beginning, Like you have
Speaker 2: you had people holding onto the Federal collaborators and cutting
Speaker 2: their throats, and you have the zombies and they're the
Speaker 2: infected and they're eating they're kind of on people's necks,
Speaker 2: and it looks so similar, and it's just this horrible,
Speaker 2: kind of horrendous orgy of violence. And it's really sad
Speaker 2: because Ellie and Sam and Henry are hiding behind this
Speaker 2: car together again and there is a great moment for
Speaker 2: them to just run, but they're so shocked and so
Speaker 2: scared that they don't really know.
Speaker 1: What to do. Kathleen's people open up on these infected
Speaker 1: and I just want to say that, first of all,
Speaker 1: Kathleen's folks were kind of in a horseshoe pattern and
Speaker 1: were clearly shooting each other, like there was a lot
Speaker 1: of friendly fire happenings.
Speaker 2: Again, it's not this is the thing they didn't plan this,
Speaker 2: this was a this was driven by vengeance. They they
Speaker 2: don't a lot of them don't have training. This was
Speaker 2: a terrible idea. They shouldn't have all been there. Un
Speaker 2: Lest we not forget, Kathleen knew that there were infected
Speaker 2: under the ground. She knew that there was something wrong,
Speaker 2: and she didn't say anything. And this is that the
Speaker 2: tunnel vision that she had for Henry no pun no
Speaker 2: no pun, nobody, and and uh, you know it led
Speaker 2: to this and oh, it is just this is such
Speaker 2: a great action scene and it's so scary and frantic
Speaker 2: and frenetic, and it just is just, oh, it was
Speaker 2: just so effective. By the whole time, in the back
Speaker 2: of my I've played the game, I know where this
Speaker 2: episode's going, and.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see it. I do know it.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a nice little sequence where Joel is
Speaker 1: covering Ellie is like zig zagging through the streets, and
Speaker 1: then you hear this bloated kind of burping roar. And
Speaker 1: if you played the game, you know what's coming next.
Speaker 1: It's a bloater, which is the most the rarest of
Speaker 1: the super infected, because it takes many, many years for
Speaker 1: an infected to develop into this a Bloater is basically
Speaker 1: a tank on legs, heavily armored.
Speaker 2: And all over it and it's punching people like and
Speaker 2: killing them like it. This is a whole different kind
Speaker 2: of thing. This is a nightmare monster.
Speaker 1: There is a great I don't know if this is purposeful,
Speaker 1: but I enjoyed it. So Perry is like, Kathleen, I'll
Speaker 1: cover you, get out of here, and and he stays back. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Ellie is, you know, zig zagging through the streets bodies
Speaker 1: like and course, and of course Bella has been in
Speaker 1: an a scene like this before the Battle of winter
Speaker 1: Fell episode at the last season of Game of Thrones,
Speaker 1: and she dies in that episode, torn apart by a
Speaker 1: zombie giant, and Perry dies in the exact same way,
Speaker 1: getting killed the giant bloat giant.
Speaker 2: A lot of people were really excited to see the
Speaker 2: blow as they were.
Speaker 1: Like, well halfway through, like how often we seen it?
Speaker 1: And they just delivered this thing is terrifying, Geary. It
Speaker 1: looks it looks so scary.
Speaker 2: But the funniest thing is even amidst all of that,
Speaker 2: you are just like, where is Kathleen?
Speaker 1: Where is Kathleen?
Speaker 2: Because you just know that she is the most imminent
Speaker 2: danger out of all of these things.
Speaker 1: It's her.
Speaker 2: She is the one who will kill Ellie and Henry
Speaker 2: and Sammoth if anyone does so.
Speaker 1: Ellie manages to escape from a little girl clicker, which
Speaker 1: is one of the most horrific things I've seen in
Speaker 1: this show.
Speaker 2: Big, big contortionist style, like yeah, oh yeah, very very
Speaker 2: much of like the conjuring, kind of feel the malignant,
Speaker 2: the exorcism of Emily Rose, kind of like feeling your body,
Speaker 2: whatever is inside your body possessing it, in this case,
Speaker 2: the cordyceps mushroom. They don't understand how a body is
Speaker 2: supposed to move, so they can't. And this is a
Speaker 2: really great way that that's brought to life. And Ellie
Speaker 2: is just like.
Speaker 1: She's scared, but she doesn't. She's a survivor. Ellie manages
Speaker 1: to get Henry and sam who are hiding under a
Speaker 1: car to safety. You know, stabs a bunch of infection
Speaker 1: and it's off. Oh we get to see it. It
Speaker 1: was such a cool moment. And they're about to get
Speaker 1: away when Kathleen gets to drop on them, and it
Speaker 1: is a very very just moment when Kathleen, who moments
Speaker 1: ago was saying, well maybe kids. Maybe she just like
Speaker 1: kids die sometimes made kids that are sick deserve to
Speaker 1: die because kids die every day. That the person who
Speaker 1: said that is then killed by a child clicker infected
Speaker 1: who leaps on her and just savages her.
Speaker 2: It is everyone you can't stop watching it, And Joe
Speaker 2: Ellie has also watching it because this is not like
Speaker 2: the Bie.
Speaker 1: This is these have.
Speaker 2: Gone feral on the ground because she is just like
Speaker 2: pummeling her face, like Melanielinsky, you were great, I'll miss you.
Speaker 1: But Cathleen good, good heroes, Our heroes manage to get
Speaker 1: out of there, and the infected as a whode turned
Speaker 1: towards the city too. We can only imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: rampage through the streets and kill everyone there. It's almost
Speaker 1: biblical like this, this community, this city that is defined
Speaker 1: by vengeance, by like bloodthirsty vengeance, is then like completely
Speaker 1: wiped clean by this force of need. Sure, the Cortyceps,
Speaker 1: like it's hard not to feel like they kind of
Speaker 1: deserved it.
Speaker 2: A really horrific thing, because I truly backed that they
Speaker 2: should have overthrown Fedra And but I'm like, the question
Speaker 2: is sadly because of the death of Kathleen's brother, they
Speaker 2: didn't have anyone there to be like, well, now we've
Speaker 2: done that, let's try and transform our situation and not
Speaker 2: just end up in the same cycle that we were
Speaker 2: in again.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you said something I think that
Speaker 1: was really that really resonated, which was how the violence
Speaker 1: of the infected that they were, you know, that they
Speaker 1: were utilizing against Kathleen's people really mirrored that night when
Speaker 1: the resistance overthrew feder And you're absolutely right, And I
Speaker 1: think what you know, we've been talking all series about
Speaker 1: how like what's one of the core themes of any
Speaker 1: zombie shows, like the people are the real enemy, the
Speaker 1: real danger, and what's even as right is that it is.
Speaker 1: What really shook me about that opening scene was like,
Speaker 1: it's not just that the first of all, the infected
Speaker 1: are doing what they're doing because that's what's in their
Speaker 1: nature to do. There's no malice, Yeah, they're just they're
Speaker 1: just a force of nature. But the way that the
Speaker 1: Kathleen's people were going about, like this execution and torture
Speaker 1: of people where they're like stripping them of their clothes,
Speaker 1: like you know, there's an element of I'm not just
Speaker 1: killing you. I want to humiliate you and rub your
Speaker 1: face in it before you die. I want to make
Speaker 1: it as painful and as terrible as possible. It's true,
Speaker 1: it was truly, truly horrifying, and it's like, weirdly, then again,
Speaker 1: we've said it all serious. It's worse than what the
Speaker 1: effect did do in a in a very real way,
Speaker 1: and it.
Speaker 2: Highlights again I love that thing you brought up about
Speaker 2: the nature of the infected, that idea of who gets
Speaker 2: to choose who lives and dies, the notion of course
Speaker 2: the effected are are running rampant, killing everyone. You want
Speaker 2: to kill them so you can survive. But there are
Speaker 2: bigger questions afoot here of is this evolution? Is this
Speaker 2: the next stage?
Speaker 1: Is this something?
Speaker 2: And how do humans behave when they then are not
Speaker 2: at the top of the food chain and suddenly it's
Speaker 2: like they don't just turn on the things that are
Speaker 2: above them, they turn on themselves and it kind of
Speaker 2: exasperates the worst. This is definitely one of the bleaker
Speaker 2: episodes of the season because it's really about like it's
Speaker 2: about the horrors that we commit to ourselves and also
Speaker 2: about I think the really sad thing about Kathleen's brother's
Speaker 2: death is like, there's something so powerful. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of us are in a space where we think
Speaker 2: about this a lot now, about like forgiveness and like
Speaker 2: what that means, and whether it comes to the idea
Speaker 2: of like prison abolition or or forgiving somebody who has
Speaker 2: done you wrong in your personal life. Forgiveness can be
Speaker 2: like extremely powerful when it's put into play in a
Speaker 2: way that is like gonna make a change. It's not
Speaker 2: a forgiveness and you let somebody fuck you over again.
Speaker 2: It's a forgiveness that makes everything better for everyone involved.
Speaker 2: And if Kathleen's brother had survived, there is a chance
Speaker 2: that they could have built a different kinds of city.
Speaker 2: And I think that that threat of forgiveness is so
Speaker 2: key because as we see, it's also about like forgiving
Speaker 2: yourself something that Henry never did before. And Henry still
Speaker 2: does not have the ability to do any most needs to.
Speaker 2: And well, it's just it's a really bleak episode, but
Speaker 2: I understand the gut punch storytelling that they're going for.
Speaker 1: So our friends get across the river and they're posted
Speaker 1: up in an old motel, Joel and Henry still like
Speaker 1: kai on adrenaline are bonding. Elli and Sam are bonding
Speaker 1: in the other room. They're reading the Savage Starlight comic. Joel,
Speaker 1: you know what a change we've seen in him, invites
Speaker 1: Henry and Sam to accompany them to Wyomi. He says, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can come with us. We're going on foot, but
Speaker 1: you can come with us. Elli and Sam meanwhile reading
Speaker 1: the comic, and he asks her have you ever been scared?
Speaker 1: And she's like yeah, like I'm terrified all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm scared all the time. Uh, what about you? And
Speaker 1: then Sam asks an absolutely crushing question, which is if
Speaker 1: you turn into a monster, is it still you inside?
Speaker 1: And then he shows her as those who played the
Speaker 1: game were expecting that he has been bitten. I want
Speaker 1: to stop here and say that you got to do
Speaker 1: bite checks you encounter infected. I feel like, like like
Speaker 1: after bed, I feel like if anybody's going to bed
Speaker 1: or anything, you get to a safe space check for bites.
Speaker 1: Let's just do that right now, because maybe you didn't
Speaker 1: feel it because of the adrenaline. Let's let's make sure.
Speaker 2: We do that and you can have a conversation like
Speaker 2: is this what are we going to Shall we see
Speaker 2: how I will say, I love I was really I
Speaker 2: wanted Sam and Henry to have a different fate than
Speaker 2: they did in the game. But I understand that's one
Speaker 2: of the most affecting parts of the game. It's very
Speaker 2: affecting it. But they make little choices in the way
Speaker 2: that they tell the story that I love because in
Speaker 2: the game, Sam and Ellie kind of like Ellie gives
Speaker 2: him a toy and Sam kind of like throws a
Speaker 2: toy on the floor and Ellie leaves, and in the
Speaker 2: morning he's just he's transformed. And here him and Ellie.
Speaker 2: He gets to share that fear with someone, and Ellie
Speaker 2: gets to reassure him, and she and.
Speaker 1: You see the goodness the le the inherent goodness of Ellie,
Speaker 1: which is I have this immunity, first of all, showing
Speaker 1: her his bite as a way to hope, you know,
Speaker 1: do the thing that Henry's been trying to do this
Speaker 1: whole time, which is give him hope, give him look,
Speaker 1: give him strength. And she says, you know, my blood's medicine,
Speaker 1: and she cuts her palm open and starts rubbing the
Speaker 1: blood into the wound. This really almost primal, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of attempt to heal him. And of course, man,
Speaker 1: I wanted it to work. So I wanted it to work.
Speaker 1: I wanted it to be that you wanted to work.
Speaker 1: And I also want to give them so much credit
Speaker 1: in this.
Speaker 2: So Cavon, who plays Sam, is a deaf actor, and
Speaker 2: I love the way that throughout this episode we have
Speaker 2: Sam teaching Ellie some signs, like they sign the title
Speaker 2: of the episode, that Ellie's making an effort to communicate.
Speaker 2: And the other way that Sam communicates is through like
Speaker 2: a one of those irasable like kids boards, And it's
Speaker 2: like hard to put into context how emotional and affecting it.
Speaker 1: Is for these two people, these two kids.
Speaker 2: They're trying to communicate the most urgent thing he's asking
Speaker 2: her about these fears, this existential idea of like will
Speaker 2: I still be inside the zombie?
Speaker 1: And Ellie's like scrawling like my blood is medicine.
Speaker 2: Like just the way that they decided to communicate this,
Speaker 2: it just added a whole other layer of.
Speaker 1: Just emotion for me. And so yeah, and also the
Speaker 1: importance of like kids having their own community. You know,
Speaker 1: there is something so special about like they keep this secret,
Speaker 1: and of course they can only keep it till morning,
Speaker 1: but they don't there's no Joel, there's no Henry. Come see,
Speaker 1: it's just like okay.
Speaker 2: He sleeps on the bed next to him like she
Speaker 2: wants him to know that she believes that this is
Speaker 2: gonna watch.
Speaker 1: But in the morning he's sitting on the edge of
Speaker 1: the bed and she goes and looks at him, and
Speaker 1: he's infected. He attacks her. Henry draws his gun to
Speaker 1: stop Joel from doing anything. He fires his gun at
Speaker 1: Joel's feet, saying, don't do it, don't you know, don't
Speaker 1: attack Sam. But Sam is you know, really threatening ally now,
Speaker 1: And Henry almost without thinking, almost instinctively shoots Sam and
Speaker 1: kills him. And he's inconsolable. He can't believe what he's done.
Speaker 1: He can't come to grips with it, and he turns
Speaker 1: a gun on himself and he kills himself. Later, Joel
Speaker 1: and Ellie bury the brothers, and Ellie places that scratch
Speaker 1: pad that she used to communicate with with Sam on
Speaker 1: his grave and it says I'm sorry on it, And
Speaker 1: then a measure of how Ellie has changed in this
Speaker 1: you know, a few days of this journey that have occurred.
Speaker 1: She is just like a hardened person now She's just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: which way are we going? Yeah? Which way She's she's
Speaker 1: taking in that. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Like that's when she lays down the board, is almost
Speaker 2: like her saying goodbye to that like hopeful child who
Speaker 2: thought she could heal him, and now she's Joel. Which
Speaker 2: way's west? She doesn't want to hear it, she doesn't.
Speaker 2: They've buried their friends. They felt like they were building
Speaker 2: this family, and yeah, I mean this is this is
Speaker 2: one of the most absolute gut punch like moments of
Speaker 2: the game because you spend so much time with Sam
Speaker 2: and Henry and you really in the game in different ways.
Speaker 2: But there's like this conversation that Sam and that Henry
Speaker 2: anna Joel have about motorbike and motorcycles, and Joel's telling
Speaker 2: him the feeling of riding a Harley, and there's this
Speaker 2: kind of human connection that Joel makes there that you
Speaker 2: assume will have to extend further than where it does,
Speaker 2: because then you know, the next morning, this whole kind
Speaker 2: of terrible thing plays out. Yeah, just so sad, and
Speaker 2: I was I was really bummed to see it go
Speaker 2: this way, but I understand.
Speaker 1: Like it was. It's truly great television.
Speaker 2: This episode, and I think it's going to leave a
Speaker 2: lot of people really heartbroken.
Speaker 1: It felt. You know, this is an action episode, obviously
Speaker 1: with high drama, but it really makes you think, Like
Speaker 1: it really had me thinking about like revenge and how
Speaker 1: it's one of the most primal like feelings someone can have,
Speaker 1: as I've been wronged, people I love have been wronged,
Speaker 1: and I want to do something about it, and you can.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a way to think about Revenge is
Speaker 1: almost like the stone on which like rules and laws
Speaker 1: and justice can be built, because it's that understanding that
Speaker 1: people will take revenge on you if you wrong them
Speaker 1: that creates the impetus to create these rules so that
Speaker 1: you know, people can live in a kind of ordered
Speaker 1: and peaceful society. But when you just give yourself over
Speaker 1: to this feeling that is righteous. You know you've been wronged,
Speaker 1: and to defend yourself against the wrong, especially when that
Speaker 1: goes on for years, is righteous. But when it turns
Speaker 1: into just like wanton killing, when you can't step back
Speaker 1: for and say, let's talk, let's figure out who actually
Speaker 1: did the worst shit?
Speaker 2: Yeah about the system for Yeah, for Kathleen Federer is
Speaker 2: almost irrelevant compared to the personal vendor as she has
Speaker 2: against Tennis.
Speaker 1: That's what it is.
Speaker 2: And she actually says to Henry, she straight up says
Speaker 2: to him, She's like, I know why you did it.
Speaker 1: She's like, I don't care. He should have died. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think something point that is really scary.
Speaker 2: About this episode two that kind of contradicts our expectations.
Speaker 2: And this is probably a good setup for if you
Speaker 2: found this episode hard to watch or felt like it
Speaker 2: took a strange turn narratively that left you shocked, this
Speaker 2: is preparing you for where we're going this season for sure.
Speaker 2: Because something that I think that is really harsh and
Speaker 2: kind of hard to stomach but real about this is
Speaker 2: Kathleen does kill Henry in the end like this, if
Speaker 2: she hadn't have had this vengeful quest, if she hadn't
Speaker 2: have taken two hundred people there, if they hadn't have
Speaker 2: taken the snowplow, Sam would have never got bitten, they
Speaker 2: would have been able to leave. And in that way,
Speaker 2: she actually creates this self fulfilling prophecy of that fate
Speaker 2: still coming true, and I think true. I think in
Speaker 2: that moment at the end, when Henry is so inconsolable,
Speaker 2: I actually found it to fit.
Speaker 1: I feel like.
Speaker 2: It's more in In the game, it feels so shocking,
Speaker 2: and here I feel like it's still as shocking and horrendous,
Speaker 2: but there's a lot more weight to the burden that
Speaker 2: he carries because he is essentially torn apart this community
Speaker 2: and this betrayed this man that he respected, who he
Speaker 2: clearly had love for in order to save Sam, and
Speaker 2: the end, he still couldn't save him. And I think
Speaker 2: that is just like.
Speaker 1: Heart it's heartbreaking. I mean, by that same token, Kathleen
Speaker 1: inherited this movement that her brother built and effectively destroyed it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because she didn't see it for years. Yeah, she didn't
Speaker 1: care about the movement. She didn't care about building a
Speaker 1: better world for the people that follow her brother's miss
Speaker 1: She didn't care about me, She didn't care about She
Speaker 1: didn't care about like fulfilling the thing, the goals and
Speaker 1: the mission that all those people like believed in. All
Speaker 1: she cared about was taking revenge on the person that
Speaker 1: she felt was responsible for hurting her and her brother
Speaker 1: and and providing a vehicle for the bloodlust of her followers.
Speaker 1: Like in a in a really in a very real way,
Speaker 1: I think A part of the reason why the resistance
Speaker 1: decided to follow Kathleen was that the thing that her
Speaker 1: brother didn't give his followers was an excuse to Jaquille. Yes,
Speaker 1: and she let them do it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like, yeah, she was the one who
Speaker 1: did the overthrowing, but.
Speaker 2: It it's it's really what that means is like she
Speaker 2: gave them that space.
Speaker 1: You made it okay, you your example said we can
Speaker 1: go out there and hang people in the street, strip
Speaker 1: them nude, and drag them from the backs of cabbage, stabbed,
Speaker 1: covered in knife covered in knife stabs, throat slit, tortured
Speaker 1: to death, set on fire, and you give us cover
Speaker 1: that that's fine, that's righteous, and that's good and we
Speaker 1: can do that. It was really really chilling, really chilling
Speaker 1: and impactful episode. Wow. RP. Salmon, Henry, I love the breaking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're absolutely right. This is going to get harder
Speaker 1: before it gets easier. If it does ever get easier,
Speaker 1: it's never going to be easier. It's never up next
Speaker 1: nerd Out.
Speaker 2: In today's nerd Out, where you tell us what you
Speaker 2: love and why, or like today, a theory that you
Speaker 2: are excited to share with us.
Speaker 1: Which obviously we love both. But you know I'm a
Speaker 1: theory lover.
Speaker 2: Reid explains, Now this is really interesting because you know
Speaker 2: I'm a big one about oh, the comics seed things
Speaker 2: to go in the movies. Reid has spotted an interesting
Speaker 2: pan that you cannot deny. So here he's going to
Speaker 2: explain my video games maybe another important source of how
Speaker 2: marvelous seeding things for the MCU.
Speaker 1: Jason take it away. Okay, here it goes Read writes.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking of the video games we've seen from
Speaker 1: Marvel over the last five years, and how many of
Speaker 1: the characters who appeared in those games later appeared or
Speaker 1: were reintroduced in the MCU. The Spider Man video game
Speaker 1: introduced task Master and Lyles Morales. The Avengers video game
Speaker 1: seated Abomination, task Master, Modoc, and Kate Bishop, all of
Speaker 1: whom appeared or will appear in the MCU. Shortly, The
Speaker 1: Guardians of the Galaxy video seated Adam Warlock. The Midnight
Speaker 1: Sun's video game is likely seeding Blade, a new generation's
Speaker 1: Ghostwriter and Magic Magic with a K. And there's an
Speaker 1: upcoming Wolverine video game not a surprise at this point,
Speaker 1: but the X Men are coming to the big screen.
Speaker 1: Based on the video game trend, My big takeaway paying
Speaker 1: close attention to which characters appear in the Marvel video
Speaker 1: games seems to generally point you in the direction the
Speaker 1: MCU is going. I think that this is right. The
Speaker 1: facts are there. I'm like, it's just deniable. When you
Speaker 1: read it, you're just like, yeah, I think the fairs
Speaker 1: are there. And I think, you know, we've seen this
Speaker 1: in other places, the toys with Lego, you know. I
Speaker 1: think that this is a outgrowth of corporate some form
Speaker 1: of corporate brand sitnergy. And I think that reader is
Speaker 1: absolutely right. This is how we can tell. They want
Speaker 1: a broad direction of where the MCUs. They want people.
Speaker 2: They want as many people as possible to know these characters,
Speaker 2: so when the trailers come out and the merchandise comes out,
Speaker 2: people are excited to see them. They want every movie
Speaker 2: to feel like No Way Home or Multiverse of Madness,
Speaker 2: where those trailers were getting people excited. And if you
Speaker 2: want people to be excited, they need to know who
Speaker 2: the characters are.
Speaker 1: And not everyone is out here reading Jim Starlin comics.
Speaker 2: Knowing who Adam Warlock is though, you should because like
Speaker 2: Adam Willock, anything but like introducing him in a very
Speaker 2: popular video game great because when God Ins the Galaxy
Speaker 2: Volume three comes out, people are going to recognize him.
Speaker 1: It's very smart.
Speaker 2: I think that Taskmaster one is what really sold me
Speaker 2: because yeah, me too. That is like a very much
Speaker 2: like you know them or you don't know them character.
Speaker 1: So yeah, semester is definitely not like it's a I
Speaker 1: guess I would just say there are many villains that
Speaker 1: you think would be introduced before task Master. I totally agree.
Speaker 1: So the fact that test Master appeared in the video
Speaker 1: games and then in the movies feels very notable to
Speaker 1: me as well. Yeah, thank you read.
Speaker 2: If you have theories or passions, which we know you do,
Speaker 2: but if you want to share them with us, hit
Speaker 2: us up at x ray at cricket dot com.
Speaker 1: Instructions are in the show notes. As always, that's it
Speaker 1: for our show today, Rosie pluglukluk plug plug plug plup
Speaker 1: plug Plug.
Speaker 2: I will have a cool more cool last of US
Speaker 2: coverage coming out at IGN. I wrote a fun piece
Speaker 2: at Primetimer about the Harlequin animated Valentine's Day special which
Speaker 2: is coming out this week.
Speaker 1: It's really really good.
Speaker 2: I reviewed it there it's very saucy and raunchy, so
Speaker 2: if you like from the comedy.
Speaker 1: You'll probably love it. Obviously, ant Man's coming out, so
Speaker 1: you know that's I'm gonna be all over that.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking about it, And as usual, we
Speaker 2: can find me here twice a week and at Rosie
Speaker 2: Marks on Instagram and.
Speaker 1: Letable catch the next episode Wednesday, February fifteenth, where we'll
Speaker 1: be talking about everything you're gonna see over the course
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl Sunday, all those trailers, plus a primer
Speaker 1: on ant Man, head of ant Man and the Waspontomania,
Speaker 1: and of course remember two episodes a week every Wednesday
Speaker 1: and Friday. In your ear noggins twice, the Deep Dives twice,
Speaker 1: the Everything Wednesday and Friday. Yes, and if you.
Speaker 2: Want to hear us other places or see us other places,
Speaker 2: subscribe on YouTube.
Speaker 1: You can now watch four episodes of the show.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we're on Zoom, sometimes we are together irl Shocking.
Speaker 1: Plus follow at XRV pod on Twitter.
Speaker 2: Where you can see us retweeting cal stuff and interact
Speaker 2: with our rad social media masters. And check out the
Speaker 2: discord to meet and hang out with a ton of
Speaker 2: amazing fans and listeners plus Jason and I and that
Speaker 2: Discord would not exist without Heidi, who is our amazing
Speaker 2: moderator who also hooked up and a way for us
Speaker 2: to do really rad giveaways. And Jason is about to
Speaker 2: announce the winner of our first have a giveaway.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that again, Shasta Heidi for creating the bot
Speaker 1: that allowed us to randomly select the winner of the
Speaker 1: Last of Us Activation Pack, which includes a car Heart
Speaker 1: backpack and a car Heart jacket and a bunch of
Speaker 1: cool branded stuff within there. Drum roll please, the winner
Speaker 1: of the Last of Us Activation Pack is Discord member Nate.
Speaker 1: Shout out Nate, Congratulations emails on the way, and that
Speaker 1: pack will be heading to you next week. We'll be
Speaker 1: doing more giveaways like that, So if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a place to find a community and we'd like to
Speaker 1: join the Discord. On top of the fact that there's
Speaker 1: really great people there and we're there and the conversations
Speaker 1: are super fun and really informative, you get to you
Speaker 1: get to win stuff. We be doing more of these
Speaker 1: cool stuff. Five star reviews, five star ratings. We need them,
Speaker 1: we gotta have them, we love them. Here's one from
Speaker 1: so very Kind designs. Love this show so excited. We
Speaker 1: have two episodes week. Love all of Rosie's comic knowledge.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, blushing, blushing, blushing yeah.
Speaker 1: Five star reves. We love them. Give them five star reviews.
Speaker 1: The more cool, weird comic book knowledge we will dig up.
Speaker 1: See you next time. My x ray Vision is a
Speaker 1: Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord
Speaker 1: and Soul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself
Speaker 1: and Sandy's Rhard Are editing and sound design. Who's by
Speaker 1: Facilli's Photopoulos. Dylon Villanueva and Matt de Group provide video
Speaker 1: production support. Alex Reller for handles social media. Thank you
Speaker 1: Brian Vasquez for theme music. See you next time. Bye bye,
Speaker 1: mm hmm