by The episode 1 of Last of Us web series on HBO Max started with a TV interview happening in year 1968 and a virologist was seen explaining to its host about the threat of Fungi to mankind and how it can control the entire human race like puppets by evolving & mutating. All of a sudden, the interview becomes very serious and the host takes a break.
Fast forward to 26 September 2003, in Austin, Texas, Sarah wakes up from sleep and she makes Pancakes for his father Joel on his birthday and then they both had breakfast together. Uncle Tommy comes back home but they had no pancakes left for him. Sarah takes some money and a watch from her bedroom drawer after which Joel & Tommy dropped off Sarah to the school.
Sarah attends the school and later in the day, she went to a repair shop to get the watch repaired and she makes a deal with the shop owner for 20 dollars. Repair shop owner’s wife arrives and she tells Sarah that we are closing the shop but the owner says its 3:15 and we usually close at 7. Finally the lady gives the repaired watch to Sarah and then she tells her to leave.
Sarah makes a visit to her neighbour Mrs. Adler’s house and she makes cookies for her. Later on, Mrs. Adler feeds food to her mother as she was shown suffering from paralysis. Sarah finds out some DVD’s in the shelf and behind her Mrs. Adler mother started behaving in a weird manner. Sarah borrows a DVD from Mrs. Adler. Sarah leaves Mrs. Adler house and the dog was looking at Mrs. Adler’s mother. Sarah notices a lot of air force planes flying outside.
Joel comes back home from work at night at around 10:00 PM and Sarah gifts him the repaired watch as well as the film DVD she borrowed earlier from Mrs. Adler. Joel forgets to bring the birthday cake but he promises Sarah that he will bring it tomorrow. Sarah and Joel watches DVD together but she falls asleep while watching it.
Joel receives a phone call from Tommy and he requests Joel for help in getting him bail from prison. Tommy tells Joel that he got into a scuffle with some men at a bar and now he is behind bars. Joel puts Sarah on the bed and then he went out to help Tommy in getting bail.
Later at night, Sarah wakes up after hearing the sound of military choppers flying in the air. She starts searching for Joel in the entire house and then she sees Mrs. Adler dog Mercy at her door. Sarah went to Mrs. Adler’s house and she gets shocked seeing Mr. Adler lying down covered in blood. Sarah comes across Mrs. Adler’s mother while she was feeding on Mrs. Adler like a zombie.
Sarah started running and Mrs. Adler’s mother in zombie form started chasing her. Joel & Tommy arrived there and Joel saved Sarah by hitting Mrs. Adler’s mother with a wrench.
Joel, Sarah, and Tommy started escaping in the truck. Joel tells Sarah that all of this is happening because of some kind of parasite and mostly people in the city are effected. Sarah tells Joel that the Adler’s took Nana to the city hospital few days back and it seems she got infected from there. Sarah gets shocked seeing houses burning and people running here and there for help. Joel tells Tommy that we need to avoid army and other people.
Tommy was trying his best to escape from the city but there were a lot of people running in the middle of the road and amidst the chaos, all of a sudden a plane crashed down and its pieces hits Sarah through the truck’s window after which she got unconscious.
Sarah regains her consciousness and Joel & Tommy helps her in getting out of the truck. Her ankle got twisted. A car bumps to their truck and Tommy gets stuck. Tommy tells Joel to take Sarah to the river side and he will meet them there.
Joel lifts Sarah in his arms and he started moving towards the river side but in the middle he finds a zombie staring at him and after that the chase started. Some military guy shots down the zombie and then he gets the order from his superior to shot down Joel & Sarah.
Joel tries to tell the military guy multiple times that we are not sick but he didn’t listens to him and fires at them multiple rounds. Tommy shoots down that military guy from behind but Joel finds out that Sarah has gotten shot in the belly. Sarah dies on the spot and Joel cries loudly after hugging her.
20 Years Later – At Boston in year 2023, Ellie was shown falling unconscious near a FEDRA facility and then she got attended by some military personnel. A female officer tells her that we will bring your favourite food and you are safe here. Ellie receives a injection shot in her arm.
Some workers were shown burning bodies of the dead people for the military and a lady tells Joel that she can’t burn the body of a little girl after which Joel fulfils her duty. After the daily work, Joel gets the money for the job and he seeks out information for the next day jobs.
Joel went in search for a corrupt FEDRA officer and he finds out about some people getting sentenced to death for breaking Quarantine laws. Joel makes a deal with a corrupt FEDRA officer and the officer warns Joel to stay off streets for next few nights.
Robert was shown keeping Tess captive and she promises him that her guy won’t do anything bad to him, if he frees her. Robert agrees but the place blows up and Tess escapes while other guys dies at the spot. Tess finds out some military people approaching her and some people from the rooftops started shooting at them. The military people took Tess in her custody and she tells them that she is not a firefly.
Ellie was shown in a dark room and she was kept chained. A firefly member came in and she gave her food but Ellie kicked it in anger. The firefly member tells her to count from 1 to 10 and Ellie abuses her after counting till 8. She asks Ellie her name and Ellie says my name is Veronica, same as yesterday. The firefly member leaves and Ellie warns her that FEDRA people will come looking for her.
Joel manages to extract Tommy’s present location (Cody Tower) from a guy in the bunker and then he starts preparing to rescue him. Next morning, Tess came back home and she tells Joel that she got jumped by a couple of teenagers. Joel treats her wounds and she tells him that she was in FEDRA lockup all day. Tess tells Joel that the guys who jumped me were with Robert and he sold of our battery to someone else.
Joel tells Tess that we need the battery or else Tommy will die in the Cody Tower. Tess tells Joel that we will hunt down Robert and then we will take our battery back.
Marlene had an argument with Kim over keeping Ellie captive. Marlene tells her about her plans regarding attacking FEDRA and takes that girl to a certain building. Marlene gives her a chit, Kim gets shocked reading that chit but Marlene tells her to keep it quiet. Kim tells Marlene that we will take Ellie where she needs to go.
Tess manages to get the information about Robert’s current whereabouts and then she tells Joel about it.
Marlene unlocks Ellie and she gave her a backpack. Ellie takes out a knife from it and Marlene tells her that she took her to FEDRA when she was a child because she felt Ellie will be safe there. Marlene calls Ellie by her name and Ellie asks her, Are you my mom? Marlene says that I’m the leader of Fireflies in Boston QZ. Ellie calls Marlene a terrorist and Marlene asks her, Was Riley a terrorist?
Marlene tells Ellie that she has a greater purpose then anyone of us could’ve ever imagined and she tells him that I will tell you something but you can’t tell it to anyone else or otherwise you will die.
Joel and Tess went to hunt down Robert at the battery deal location but they found out his dead body there along with the empty battery. Joel gets attacked by Ellie with a knife but he pushes her down. Marlene was bleeding out and she made a deal with Joel & Tess to take Ellie out of the QZ and in return her men will provide him with filled batteries and supplies. Joel accepts Marlene’s deal.
Joel & Marlene brought Ellie to their place after which they locked her in the room and they started planning out their next move. Ellie reads the codes in Joel’s book and she asks him about Bill & Frank. Joel tells her that he needs some sleep and Ellie tells him that your watch is broken.
Ellie tells Joel that he mumble’s during his sleep and Joe asks her, Who are you, some big wig’s daughter or something? Ellie responds saying yeah something like that. Ellie breaks the codes and she tells Joel that 80’s means trouble. Marlene came and she tells Ellie to grab her jacket because its time to go.
Joel, Ellie, and Tess came out on the street from under the ground. They started moving slowly from within the pipes but unfortunately they got caught by the same corrupt FEDRA officer with whom Joel made the deal earlier. Tess and Joel tried to offer him bribe but he was not listening. Ellie attacked him with a knife and the officer pointed a gun at them. Joel had a flashback of Sarah getting shot and then he killed the FEDRA officer with his bare hands.
Tess sees the meter reading for Ellie and she gets shocked. Ellie tells her that she is not sick and its three weeks old. Joel, Tess, and Ellie ran away from the spot.
