The Last of Us is a fiend for an Easter egg. The first season of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's adaptation absolutely heaved with hidden references to Naughty Dog's The Last of Us games, and the second season has us continuing the tradition of watching this show with our finger on the pause button.
In Season 2, episode 1, the set dressing of Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) room in Jackson, in the garage behind her and Joel's house, is such a pristine ode to her room in The Last of Us Part II I almost fell off my chair. But show has not only included some beloved items in the scene but some Easter eggs — as the team did in Ellie's room in Season 1.
Blasting Nirvana's "Love Buzz," Ellie is cleaning her gun at a workbench in her garage room, surrounded by items and decorations that might get The Last of Us fans excited. Let's break down all the Easter eggs we can see in Ellie's room in Season 2, episode 1. And if you can see any others, let us know in the comments.
Ellie's butterfly-clad guitar
Ahhhh, the guitar. A very important item in The Last of Us Part II and right up front in Season 2 of the HBO series.
In a close-up in episode 1, we see Ellie's acoustic guitar, emblazoned with a butterfly symbol on its neck. It's a moving moment for fans of The Last of Us Part II, as the first thing we actually see in the second game is the same butterfly-clad guitar neck. We see it in a shot of Joel cleaning the instrument he's seemingly just found in an abandoned house outside Jackson, while he's confessing to Tommy his choice to save Ellie and massacre the Fireflies. Joel takes this guitar to Ellie in her room as a peace offering, and he plays Pearl Jam's "Future Days" to show her how it works. (The Last of Us fans either love or hate this moment, as it's actually you playing the guitar through the controller.)
It's a scene which the TV series adapts with Joel offering to fix the strings on Ellie's guitar, and you'll notice there's a Pearl Jam poster on Ellie's wall in the show. Is it dusty in here?
Ellie's journal
Later in the episode, after the patrol, we see Ellie back in her room writing down Dina's "bear-be-cue" joke in her journal. It's a nice inclusion of a tool that's important to The Last of Us Part II, as Ellie constantly writes entries in her journal throughout the game. A scene of Ellie sketching in her journal is the first moment we reunite with the character in the second game, so it's satisfying to see Mazin and Druckmann include a moment that pays homage to the source material.
Savage Starlight poster
Down to the lava lamp, this is a deeply accurate replication of Ellie's belongings as we see them in The Last of Us Part II. But one item in particular stands out — a large poster of Dr. Daniela Star, the protagonist from Ellie's beloved Savage Starlight comics. In the game, Ellie collects these comics all over the map, and in the show, Ellie bonds with Sam (Keivonn Woodard) over them in the most devastating episode of Season 1: episode 5. What's that catchphrase again? "To the edge of the universe and back, endure and survive."
You'll also see there's a bunch of posters of the 1969 moon landing around Ellie's room — remember, Ellie is an avid space fan, telling Joel in Season 1, episode 6 she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, like Sally Ride. Though it's five years later, Ellie hasn't stopped dreaming of the stars.
The Thoughts Twenty poster
There's a lot of music references in Ellie's room beyond the Nirvana song she's blasting throughout the scene. The camera pans over cassette tapes of John Denver, Bryan Adams, Glen Campbell, Marie-Lynn Hammond, and more. There's a White Stripes record on the wall, as well as a poster representing The Strokes' Is This It cover.
There's also a poster for a band called Thoughts Twenty on Ellie's wall, which is a fictional band she has a poster for in The Last of Us Part II.
Ellie's knife
The weapon of choice for Ellie, her switchblade has been stabbed into the table near the door for her to grab when she leaves. This is exactly where you pick up Ellie's signature blade in the game.
Can you spot more?
