The Last Of Us Episode 1 Review - 9 Ups & 1 Down

10. Up - The Infected Child

One of the episode's most melancholic sequences perfectly set the scene for a desolating state of affairs, following a 20 year time jump in the aftermath of Sarah's death. Even the most optimistic viewers had grasped things probably weren't going to totally hunky-dory following an extinction-level pandemic, but the extent to which the world had gone to sh*t was yet to be unveiled.

New fans are introduced to totalitarian oppressors FEDRA - the last surviving remnants of government - in abjectly horrifying circumstances. In a morbidly inspired piece of poetic license, FEDRA are duly revealed to be euthanising infected survivors, ramping the levels of evil associated with the first game's overarching antagonists up to eleven from the get go.

The first depicted victim of FEDRA's abhorrent prerogative is none other than a young boy, who appears alone outside the quarantine zone with nothing but the shoes on his feet.

Heartbreakingly empty promises of food and toys are made as a test reveals his infection, but the final gut punch is delivered when the next scene reveals the boy's corpse with a sack over his head. Indistinguishable but for his distinctive trainers.

The visual of Joel emotionlessly tipping the child's remains into the billowing flames of a bonfire is indescribably haunting - swiftly establishing FEDRA as an mercilessly sinister antagonistic force, while highlighting Joel's evolution from loving father to hardened survivor in the most brutal clarity imaginable.