10 Things You Somehow Missed In The Last Of Us
When you're lost in the darkness, look for the detail.
With two video games worth of source material to work with, it is somewhat unsurprising that HBO's take on The Last of Us has been rammed with hidden detail and callbacks from the very first second.
What is perhaps more impressive is the acclaimed show's ability to seamlessly integrate these callbacks into its tumultuous narrative. Despite the extensive catalogue of Easter Eggs featured across the first season of The Last of Us, none of these touches feel forced.
With that being said, even the most die-hard of fans (looking at you, unhinged individuals who play the game on Grounded with Permadeath activated) would have struggled to keep up with every single piece of detail - there's a lot to process in nine episodes.
With weighty themes of death, parenthood and survival taking centre stage in this stunning drama, it's entirely understandable that many of the minor details utilized by the showrunners may have gone missed upon first viewing.
Warning: This article contains significant spoilers from The Last of Us: Part I and The Last of Us: Part II!
10. The Workbench
The workbenches featured within The Last of Us number amongst the games' most iconic attributes.
These makeshift design stations were a veritable gold mine of resources for players, providing them with the opportunity to enhance their armory with the addition of scopes, grips and various other murderous implements.
Thankfully so, as the weaponry attained at the beginning of the game is notoriously unreliable, in an attempt to replicate the condition that most firearms would be in 20 years after an extinction level event. As such, the benches always came in handy when preparing to fight off hordes of infected or murderous hunters.
With that being said, the application for such a concept is limited in a live action adaptation - consistent appearances from the workbench simply wouldn't add anything of legitimate value to the overall viewing experience. However, Mazin and Druckmann clearly recognized the emotional significance of such an iconic element amongst gamers, choosing to include it in an affectionate tip of a hat to the mechanic in Episode 8.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it instance, one of the infamous workbenches can actually be seen in the background as Joel infiltrates Silver Lake in search of Ellie. It's just a shame that he doesn't utilize it in order to inflict even more damage on David's loathsome group of cannibals.