Episode 6 of The Last of Us, “Kin,” marks the start of the show’s home stretch, with just three more to go till… Well, we’re not going to spoil things for anyone who hasn’t played the game. What we will be spoiling is this episode, as a look at how it compares to the game. So let’s discuss all the major differences between the HBO show The Last of Us episode 6 and the original video game.
A List of All the Major Differences Between The Last of Us Show Episode 6 and the Game
The Last of Us episode 6, “Kin,” sticks more closely to the game than some other episodes. Is that a good thing? It depends on your perspective — certainly, some people have balked at the show deviating from the game. But we’re happy with the way the show has fleshed out the game’s world and given us some stories we might otherwise not have been privy to.
So, what’s different about episode 6? Here are those differences:
- Joel and Ellie meet Marlon and Florence, two characters who weren’t in the game.
- The pair also go camping again. The game just jumps from Henry and Sam’s death to them being at Jackson’s dam.
- Joel gives Ellie a sip of alcohol.
- Ellie and Joel talk about what they’ll do after Ellie has had her blood taken, which is what she thinks the Fireflies are going to do. In the game, she doesn’t look past that moment.
- In the game, Joel knows where Tommy is and that Jackson exists. In the show, he has no idea and has been told by Marlon and Florence that there’s death on that side of the river.
- Instead of just turning up at the dam’s gate, as in the game, Joel and Ellie are captured by Maria and her fellow Jackson dwellers.
- A dog that’s apparently able to detect the infected doesn’t perceive Ellie as a threat.
- We actually see inside Jackson, whereas in the game we only ever see the dam / power plant and its surroundings. It’s The Last of Us Part II that gives us a real look at Jackson.
- Tommy reveals that Maria is pregnant. That’s not the case in the game.
- It’s revealed, throughout the episode, that Joel is having panic attacks and feels he’s incapable of protecting Ellie. In the game, he’s afraid for Ellie but doesn’t have panic attacks. Among the differences between episode 6 of the show and the Last of Us video game, this is maybe one of the more pronounced.
- It’s Christmas in Jackson. You can question how accurate their calendar is, but they’re celebrating Christmas with all the trappings — tree and so on. In the game, it’s fall when Ellie and Joel reach the power plant.
- Maria gives Ellie a menstrual cup, along with written instructions on how to use it. We were going to say that we couldn’t imagine Joel having that conversation, but he was a single father. Either way, it’s not mentioned in the game.
- Ellie learns that Maria was an attorney. In the game her former profession isn’t revealed. She also learns that Maria had a son that she lost.
- The dam / power plant gets attacked in the game, which doesn’t happen in the show. The dam appears briefly, but the pair don’t visit it.
- We see a girl staring at Ellie. A lot of people, ourselves included, think this is Dina, Ellie’s love interest who features in the second game.
- Ellie sees a horse called Shimmer. Shimmer is the name of the horse she ends up riding in The Last of Us Part II, but the horse is only introduced in that game.
- Instead of Tommy and Joel chasing after Ellie, who’s left on her own, Joel and Ellie end up leaving together.
- Unlike in the game, where Joel and Ellie tangle with a Bloater, there are no infected in the university. In fact, there are no infected in the whole episode.
- Instead of falling onto a piece of rebar and being skewered, as in the game, Joel is stabbed by a bandit.
- Joel is already by his horse at that point, so there’s no sequence where he has to drag himself back there.
That summarizes all the differences between The Last of Us episode 6, “Kin,” and the original Naughty Dog video game. What do you think of the changes for this episode?
