What did The Last of Us Episode 6 change from the video game?

How was the university different in The Last of Us game?

At this point, The Last of Us did something I really didn’t expect and just kept going. For the first time, the show combined two chapters of the video game into a single episode. That means that Joel and Ellie’s exploration of the University of Eastern Colorado is much shorter and less tense than it is in the game.

That said, there’s not much that’s really missing. With the exception of a small segment in the game where Joel has to sneak through a nest of infected to open a gate for Ellie, the entire opening part of the university chapter is basically just Joel and Ellie riding their horse around and talking. Once again, we get bits lifted directly from the game, like Joel revealed he wanted to be a singer when he was younger and the pair coming across a group of escaped lab monkeys in the common area.

There are a ton of aesthetic similarities in this section. Remember that gate I mentioned Joel needing to open in the game? He doesn’t have to bother with it in the show, but there is a brief moment where he and Ellie ride past a gate that looks just like it. Similarly, the science building also looks very much like it does in the game, with ample windows that give it a mirror-like quality.

The brief journey through the science building is more or less the same, albeit much shorter. Joel and Ellie still go there, still discover that the Fireflies are gone, and still get spooked by a noise before discovering it’s only the monkeys causing a ruckus. The scene where the monkeys jump out the window looks exactly like it did in the game.

The biggest difference is how Joel and Ellie find out that the Fireflies have moved to Salt Lake City. In the game they discover a body holding a voice recorder which tells them exactly what happened. In the show, Joel and Ellie deduce where the Firelies went from a map with pins on it.

Was Joel stabbed in The Last of Us game?

This brings us to the confrontation with the raiders. As with the show, they pop up just after Joel and Ellie discover that Salt Lake City is their next destination. In the game we get an extended action set piece as Joel and Ellie have to fight their way back out of the science building against a whole group. In the show, they’re attacked by one guy as they try to slip away.

Either way, Joel gets injured. In the game, he’s jumped by a raider as he walks through a door. The two tumble over a railing to the floor below, where Joel is impaled on a protruding piece of metal. Ellie must save Joel a handful of times before they finally escape the university.

The show kept the spirit of the sequence the same but simplified things: Joel simply getting stabbed with a railroad spike right before he and Ellie get away on his horse. Ellie still has to take over, getting him on the horse and shooting at the remaining raiders to give them cover, but it’s way less brutal than in the game. Of all the things The Last of Us has cut from the game, Joel’s slow, agonizing walk out of the science lab while Ellie desperately fights to keep him alive may be the most notable.

However, the episode ends in exactly the same way as this chapter of the game: with Joel falling off the horse and losing consciousness while Ellie begs him to get up and murmurs that she doesn’t know what to do. Next week we’ll be in the Winter section of the game. If you’ve played, you know there’s plenty to be nervous and excited about.

The Last of Us premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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