As far as video games adapted for television goes, there has been a general consensus that HBO’s The Last of Us has to be ranked quite high on that list. The series has had a good number of moments that avid fans of the game would easily recognize. However, in most adaptations, it is the job of the creative team to decide what aspects of the source material to leave untouched, those to expand upon and those to change. In the series’ latest episode, we see that there was a bit of change to the storyline, but apparently there could have been more.
In Sunday’s episode, Tess (Anna Torv) gets bitten by a clicker during a scuffle within the museum. Despite aiding Joel (Pedro Pascal) in ending the pair of monsters, she ultimately had to sacrifice herself – given her condition – to prevent a horde of Infected from chasing down Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). This is different from how Tess’ NPC counterpart in the video game meets her end, where she goes out while holding off a group of FEDRA soldiers. Show creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann while speaking on the show’s HBO Max official podcast, revealed that there were more changes to Tess’ plot that did not make the final cut. "We wrote it, we never shot it... It was a little bit of a backstory for Tess, and the fact that Tess had a kid," Mazin revealed. "She had a husband and she had a son, and they were infected and she had to kill them. She killed her husband, but she could not kill the son. She couldn't do it... She locked him in the basement, where theoretically he's still a clicker."
It is a heart-wrenching backstory to have for any character, and it would have certainly made her tragic, yet heroic passing extra painful. Druckmann adds that they had planned a cold open based on Tess’ story but decided to cut it as well: "We had a cold open where we just, where the camera pushed on this door and you just hear this pounding coming from this basement, and then we cut out. And then later, Tess would tell the story of how she couldn't kill her son," he said. "It just didn't fit. But it was fun to think about."
These comments might offer a bit of context as to why Tess feels so much guilt as regards all she has done as clearly referenced while she was trying to convince Joel to keep Ellie safe. Despite telling Ellie that she and Joel weren’t “good people”, her inclination to trust the fourteen-year-old and hold onto hope while only little is available unlike Joel, shows she is not such a terrible cutthroat after all.
The Last of Us airs on HBO and HBO Max at 9 PM ET every Sunday. You can watch the podcast below: