See how close the new season of The Last of Us is to the game

The Last of Us is a hit HBO show based on a hit series of video games. Although there have been expansions and swerves, the show has been uncommonly faithful to the source material; that makes sense when you consider that Neil Druckmann, who had a huge hand in making the games, is also a co-showrunner on the series.

But how close are they exactly? Well, the plot of the season 2 premiere episode, "Future Days," more of less adapts the early events of The Last of Us Part II. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his surrogate daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have settled down in the town of Jackson, Wyoming, which is mostly safe from the zombies that roam beyond the walls. They're not speaking to each other on account of Ellie (I assume) putting together what Joel did in the season 1 finale, when he massacred a hospital full of people in order to prevent them from performing surgery on Ellie; the surgery would have killed her, but they also could have used her immunity to cure the zombie plague.

Anyway, Joel lied to Ellie about what happened, and now everything is awkward. The broad strokes are there. But the visuals in the premiere also harkened back to the game in some very specific ways. Take the New Year's Dance that Ellie attends near the end of the episode. The whole thing plays out eerily similar to how it did in the game, right down to the close-ups when Ellie starts dancing with Dina (Isabela Merced):

This dance ends like most dances do: with a drunken homophobe yelling slurs at Ellie and Dina before Joel tackles him. If I had a nickel. Again, the scene played out very similar to the way it does in the game:

Ellie, who is still freezing Joel out, doesn't appreciate the assist:

There are plenty of other parallels. For instance, here's Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) on a sniping excusion with Ellie:

The The Last of Us Part II, players can upgrade their weaponry at a work bench. The show nodded to that mechanic:

The season 2 premiere introduced a new type of zombie known as a stalker, so named because they're stealthy, fast and crafty. Compare how they look in the game to how they look in the show:

Finally, we can't forget about Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a new character who will play a huge role in Joel and Ellie's lives. Her introduction in the show directly recalled her introduction in the game:

Again, with Neil Druckmann on board, it's not surprising at all that we see all these parallels. The first season may have even stuck closer to the games:

At the same time, fans can expect some deviations in the weeks ahead, although nothing that takes the show so far away from the source material that it isn't The Last of Us anymore. New episodes drop Sundays on HBO and Max.

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