Games
The Last of Us series: We couldn’t even spot this poignant Easter egg in episode 9
There is an Easter egg hidden in the season finale.
The many Easter Eggs in the first The Last of Us seasons are what make the HBO series so appealing to fans of the games. Finding the allusions is sometimes more and sometimes less easy. But you have almost certainly not discovered an Easter Egg, since that is not possible at all. It comes more from a small acting prop that only now that we know about it can be considered as such.
Warning, spoilers follow for the last episode of the first season of The Last of Us!
Ashley Johnson reflects on Anna Brief
In the first season of The Last of Us series adaptation, Ashley Johnson, who portrays Ellie in the games, plays her mother, Anna. In episode 9 we experience Ellie’s dramatic birth in a flashback and how Anna dies after an infection.
What we all cannot see: Johnson carried a letter with him during the shoot, which is also found in TLoU Part 1. This is the letter Ellie’s mother wrote right after she was born. In the game, Ellie keeps it in her backpack after “Lakeside Resort” after Marlene gave it to her (in The Last of Us: American Dreams comic).
The letter expresses her love for her daughter, that she can trust Marlene and that she should find her destiny and fight for it. An extremely emotional and encouraging text that should give Ellie stability in the dangerous world.
In order to reflect on this emotional bond as an actor, Johnson wrote the text personally and by hand on a piece of paper and then carried this letter invisibly in her pocket during the shoot, as she revealed to Deadline:
In the game there is a letter that Anna writes that Ellie keeps in her backpack. And I wrote that letter down and just kept it in my pocket as a sort of reminder to myself of where this character came from and the history of it.
Ashley Johnson in the Deadline interview
You can see the teaser for the mentioned ninth episode here:
0:23
The Last of Us Series – Teaser prepares you for the season finale
Now that we know about it, this reveals another easter egg, although we never get to see it in episode 9. A small but fine detail that shows once again how touching not only the story of the game and the series is, but also the acting process behind it.
