The Last of Us finds apocalyptic meaning where Walking Dead couldn’t

The first six episodes were filmed over the course of Last of UsJoel (Pedro Pascal), is hopeless. But he’s trying — at least somewhat. It is essential to have it. Joel keeps being reminded of the fact that Ellie’s shepherding westward through the United States (Bella Ramsey), is much more than simply shipping an absurd biology experiment. As we wrap up the sixth episode, Joel comes to believe this as well, picking away at the scar tissue of his past trauma until he’s able to accept that he might have a purpose beyond the day-to-day struggle for survival. Even when the story goals shift, it gives the series a place to start.

It’s a message that comes close to feeling like a zombie world Sunday school lesson at times, but it’s also one of the parts of the show that feels the most genuinely refreshing. Particularly in relation to The Walking DeadAnother blockbuster, apocalyptic series, was titled “The End of the World”, and it ended right before. Last of Us debuted. If any show was set to prove the opposite, that eventually mankind’s cruelest id will emerge again and again… and again in times of struggle, it was AMC’s long-running epic about Rick Grimes and a cast that consistently shuffled in and out because 90% of the time, they were on the menu.

The show has more than a dozen episodes to its credit. Last of UsThe show has reached an emotional high point, though one might argue that episode 3 which focused on the wonderful relationship between Bill and Frank is the peak of the theme. Ellie confronts Joel about his inability to move on after his daughter’s death and how his fear is affecting her. When he changes his mind about leaving her, it’s a huge, vulnerable moment for Joel: Ellie needs him, and Joel realizes that he is capable of being needed again and that he can be there for someone.

Meanwhile, The Walking Dead’s first season only lasted six episodes and similarly reached a grand narrative point, sending Rick and company hurtling into their journey with new, upsetting knowledge about the zombie infection while also letting certain characters sour in their personal issues and even choose sudden death over indefinite misery. At this point, they’ve both shown clear examples of their narrative aims, and the results couldn’t be more different.

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Photo: Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC

It’s in the “indefinite misery” where the comparisons between the two series become the most stark. The relationships between characters are not totally different — though by the end it seems that The Walking Dead would be prone to use its expanded cast as mere cannon fodder, it wasn’t that way in the beginning. They’re often wracked with hurt, and each death is treated with appropriate and desperate grief. But one needs to look no further than the two main brotherly relationships — actual brothers Joel and Tommy in TLOU Rick and Shane are close friends. TWD — to find out where the paths diverge.

TLOUTommy, the wildcard of the family and the brother who needs to be protected against his worst impulses, is Tommy. Joel’s hunt for him isn’t just done out of vague sibling bonds. He needs to make sure that, in the time they’ve been apart, Tommy didn’t screw something else up — the sense of nurturing that he once had for his late daughter has now been passed on in warped fashion to his brother, an adult man who should be able to handle himself. The opposite of what Joel and his audience expected is Tommy’s happy marriage and the baby on its way to him in a community. If anything, it forces Joel to reevaluate his own life as a loner that’s only good for dealing out more pain, and as someone who seems to long for a life far away from his responsibility to others and the potential human ache that comes with it. His ultimate struggle is described as difficult but manageable.

Rick finally finds Shane. TWD The course of events is reversed when they take control as the de facto leader of their group. Shane’s once sexy relationship with Rick has slowly been dissipated, leaving him with a fervent violent streak. It doesn’t help that Rick’s appearance means that Shane’s affair with Rick’s wife, Lori, is over, and Shane takes out his frustration with muscly displays of anger and vengeance. Rick’s reappearance means Shane also begins to lose time with Rick’s impressionable son, Carl. He’s a kid that seems enthralled with Shane’s good-’ol-boy mannerisms and tendencies and being alienated from him further crushes Shane’s purpose.

Photo by AMC

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

He now feels a haphazard display of righteous fury, despite the responsibility that he had as Rick’s friend and cop. He nearly beats Carol’s abusive husband to death at one point (the zombies finish the job) and one gets the sense that he did it as much out of justice for Carol as out of a boiling dissatisfaction with his diminished role in the world. His ability to see blindly is what makes him no longer a leader nor a lover.

Joel and Rick are now protectors, moving in completely opposite directions. Joel has realized his violent capabilities, with nearly everyone he meets recognizing that there is — or could be — something more to him. He fights against his trauma-born instincts and tries to be a better man for those he loves or use these violent abilities for good. Rick is a complete newbie to the zombie-infested desert. Although people have faith in Rick and implicitly trust them, Rick will continue to push the limits on what it means for a man to be good. The ingrained terrors of the bloody world won’t let him act otherwise if he wants to keep himself or his group alive. His misery isn’t a choice, and his family and relationships provide little solace — it’s borderline predestination that this world will ruin him.

Both series have the same theme — “The Real danger isn’t the zombies, it’s the people, because get it? We Are the Walking Dead, etc., etc.” — but the relationships between the leads renders them as opposites. TLOU The society is trying to get out of its doom. Ellie as well as Joel discover that it’s easier to be impersonal than dealing with the complications of connecting. They have come to the realization that it is necessary to build connections, and being without them is detrimental, Tommy suggests to Joel. TWD doesn’t offer the same aspirations — if the world is to get better, it will do so through outlasting those that want to make it worse. Shane quickly discovers that careening into Hell is possible, even when his friend is by his side.

There have been many great works of art about humankind’s ability to spiral out of all moral control in times of strife and panic. The godfather of all zombie cinema, George Romero’s Night of the Living DeadIt didn’t provide a reassuring message, which made it impactful. The closest the film has to a hero character, a brave Black man in the ’60s, is shot by a mob simply out of thoughtless fear. It is clear that humankind can eat itself alive, even when zombies are trying to do so. We learn this from the movie. It’s a masterpiece.

Photo: AMC

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

It is now up to you whether The Walking Dead is a masterpiece is arguable, though Rick and Shane’s catastrophic brotherhood certainly made for some great television. It became the television equivalent of “doomscrolling”, giving viewers all kinds of possibilities. It’s a show that opened with Rick Grimes recoiling in horror from a little zombie girl before shooting her, an ugly “what must be done for survival” that was horrifying at first and then became numbing as it was compounded. Because characters had to go through this first, they were not granted goodness until they survived. TWD deemed our instinctual effort upon realizing that the world was irrevocably ruined — paranoia, rage, and loneliness.

This left is not a workable ending. TWD feeling much like Shane — swinging blindly on a road to greater depravities. They are both zombie shows. Both will be going toward the macabre rather often. TLOU’s bleakness is countered by the reverse course of its lead characters, while TWD’s moments of nightmarish dread pull the plot, characters and all, with them. Although some were quite shocking, others proved to be very effective. However, the series fell out of popularity and many people did not want it.

Eventually, with everyone having committed numerous atrocious acts, all you’re left with is a series of vague redemption arcs, ones that are destined to collapse as soon as the clock rolls back to “what must be done for survival.” It’s one of the reasons why the upcoming six-episode TWD miniseries focused on different characters, while obvious franchising, is actually kind of enticing — with just six episodes, the story has to be contained. Character drama must lead to something. One can’t rely on the feeling that it will just get worse.

Its first six episodes featured the following: Last of UsIt has been shown that connecting with others gives you purpose and a reason for living. Like the strawberries in Frank’s garden sprouting amid a dead world, it instead opts for a structure about finding purpose in connections with others. Situations will get worse in a world where there are many people with the same disease. However, the series has created a postapocalyptic model of connection that looks worth saving.