This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us's Season 1 finale.

Season 1 of The Last of Us capped off its stellar run on HBO last night with an emotionally devastating finale that stays remarkably faithful to the gut-punch of an ending the original game hit fans with years ago. Despite all the changes Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin employed to improve and expand the game for television, that ending was left nearly untouched, and for good reason. When it came to the infamous hospital scene, the pivotal moment where Joel (Pedro Pascal) makes his devastating decision, Mazin couldn't resist making one little tweak, however. Keen listeners could've heard a certain track from when Joel picks up Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in the game serving as a sorrowful backdrop to his attack on the Fireflies in the show.

The Last of Us was able to retain composer Gustavo Sataolalla who brought back his twangy, melancholy music that elevated the tone of the original game. That also gave Druckmann and Mazin the space to work with him to rearrange, create new tracks, and determine how to improve on the original soundtrack. In the game, Joel's massacre of the Fireflies is mostly silent, leaving room for gameplay as the players soak in the horrific context of Joel's actions. Once he picks up Ellie from the room, however, the track cuts in for a moment that's devastating both for how it dooms humanity and for how it stains Joel forever.

At a virtual press conference last week, Mazin spoke to employing that track in a way that emphasizes the duality between the love for Joel and the disdain for his despicable actions. He said:

"There was one option that we had that we employed, I think, to great effect during Joel’s attack sequence in the hospital. And that was to take a very different piece of music that was meant for what happens right after in the game — which is his picking Ellie up and walking out with her - and taking that and putting that under that sequence. In the game, that sequence is largely gameplay. But here, it is this beautiful, sad, mournful cello-based piece. It allowed us to feel almost heartbroken by what Joel was doing and what he was breaking inside of himself and how he was betraying something that he probably knows Ellie wouldn’t want him to do. You’re both rooting for him and you’re also so sad for him. That’s the brilliance of Gustavo is that sometimes just taking a piece from over here and putting it under this makes magic."

Pedro Pascal as Joel in the Season 1 finale of The Last of Us
Image via HBO

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Mazin Understood How to Make The Last of Us's Ending Work on TV

With that small change, it's yet another show of how Mazin understood the assignment when coming in to help adapt The Last of Us for a new medium. The scene makes full use of Santaolalla's track, starting from when Joel takes down his first two Fireflies. It stands out even more as his gunshots become muted during his fight through the hospital. In opposition to the game, it only goes silent once Joel enters Ellie's room, kills the doctor, and whisks her away.

At that same conference, Druckmann expressed his utmost trust in Mazin when it came to that powerful ending thanks to how well he handled the source material. The Chernobyl creative won over Druckmann with many of his changes over time, like changing Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank's (Murray Bartlett) ending for the better. Even if Mazin had an idea to alter that masterful ending, Druckmann would've listened as he explained:

"Had Craig come and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been thinking about this other ending,’ I’m sure at first I’d tense up a little bit and just hear the pitch. But our process would be like, ‘OK, let’s talk it through.' We would go back through the whole season and say, ‘Have we worked up towards this other ending, potentially?’ And we’d consider it and often the answer would be, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t quite work’ or ‘It changes too many things’ or ‘Now it’s shifted too much.’ And then we’d go backwards and undo, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Z, until we got back to where we were and then keep going."

All episodes of The Last of Us Season 1 are now streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Season 2 and check out the trailer below.