Welcome to Savage Starlight, the officially unofficial podcast for the last of us on HBO. I'm Jim, I may run and today we're talking season one episode two. We just finished watching it. It's called infected. I think we all know why?

Holy moly, there are a lot of infected. I was not expecting. You know, when they first said, okay, it's going to be the tendrils. They're going to be connected. I was not expecting to them to do anything this cool with it.

That's the thing. I was thinking like long, Zorro whip like things that are coming out of hallways and whipping people or shit like that. I wasn't expecting like a trip wire network that would bring literally every infected down on you. That was a very cool shot concept.

There are some shots as Joel is walking up to the state house where they're shooting his feet. And I'm like, they're really making me think he's going to step on like a trip wire and set off a landmine or mortar or something. But like, then I remembered, oh no, they're telling me he might step on some fungus that tracks them in. They're live fungus. Some live fungus.

I thought they did, you know, yeah, everyone got to see some infected this episode. Some of the more advanced infected ones known as a clicker. I thought that the sound design, when Joe was open, Joel was opening some of those doors, the way the hinges creak sounded like a clicker kind of like a

What do you call that like a premonition foreshadowing if you were like a game player, it's like, you know, it's visceral. And man, they really, I tell you, I don't think you need to go to YouTube and watch a video play through because this is exactly what it feels like to play this game. These things are tough.

You feel like a rich man, if you have five bullets in your revolver, three shells in your shotgun, a good shiv, and a med kit.

And one good two clicker firefight and your fucking flat broke like, yeah.

They gave us clickers. They gave us our first water sea, which is a staple of the hallmark of the last of us games. They gave us our first stealth sequence. Like there are so much last of us in this episode of the last of us.

Yeah, when they were like creeping behind that counter, it's like, this is just playing, this is just like playing the game. And the locations.

Oh my god, like I, the 7 wall made this a point in his season overview. It came out like two weeks ago.

But he specifically cited this hotel. It's like, this is a location that the walking dead would have to justify two or three seasons shooting in to make it pay off.

This fucking show, you're in it for 10 minutes. And then nothing collapses and you're onto the next one.

It's, it's crazy. And I definitely can see sometimes there's some seams between the CGI and the digital mats and all that kind of stuff. And man, it, like when you're inside some of these interiors, it just feels rock solid. I know it can't be. I know there's no fucking way. This is all practical. But oh my god, it really does look like it is.

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely not all practical. But I love it. I just even the, you know, the fungus on the floors and the walls and just the, the bodies.

Yeah, strewn inside the fungal network. Like even when they're all dried up is horrible. It's horrible. And I love it.

It was extremely tense episode too. It was like, yeah, it from the, from right after the cold open, I mean, honestly, kind of even in the cold open, they, they just start the tension and they just ratchet it up. And I'm like, okay, when are we going to get a particular type of zombie or infected, I guess.

And they show us the clickers. And I'm like, all right. But it took, it took all episode to get there. Right. And every time they walk in a new room, a new location. I'm like, is this going to be the place for the encounter one?

And how loud they were being, that's the other thing that kept on like, I guess they were pretty secure in this particular location or pretty familiar with it. But like when she started digging that bell and frogs are hopping on a piano. I'm like, oh, god damn it. God damn it.

We're going to trigger a stealth section here.

Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, I was wondering if the things, the zombie things would be scary or would work or would be, it would be tense.

And as I was, you know, watching this thing and for, you know, like halfway through the clicker scene, I'm like, like watching like this. Like, oh, my God, oh, fucking.

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