The production design is overall excellent in this episode, which is the first time we actually see travel to a full city and see the effects of the apocalypse in it. Everything from the giant practical sets full of debris to the interior sets of abandoned and flooded buildings, to the VFX-aided backgrounds with skyscrapers knocked down.
The episode ends with Joel, Tess, and Ellie finally reaching the rendezvous point with the Fireflies and realizing they are all dead — one got bit, then everyone fought and killed one another. Tess starts getting desperate and begs Joel to just take Ellie to the Firefly headquarters out west. Turns out, she was bitten, and seeing Ellie’s bite, she now fully believes her immunity is real, so the cure is a possibility. After doing so much wrong, she begs Joel to finally set everything right.
When a horde of infected comes running at them, Joel and Ellie leave, while Tess stays behind to blow every one of them up. Right before she goes up, one of the infected approaches and gives her a big old kiss on the mouth, allowing tendrils to enter Tess’ mouth in what’s already the grossest image of 2023. Welcome to “The Last of Us,” where everything sucks and everyone is miserable.