HBO Max
The Last of Us: episode 2 hides an awesome Uncharted easter egg
The series adapting one of Naughty Dog’s biggest franchises won’t stop hiding details for their biggest fans, and this time it’s a huge reference to the treasure hunters of Uncharted.
This isn’t the first time that Naughty Dog unites the universes of two of their most popular franchises, The Last of Us and Uncharted, but this time they’ve gone ahead and done so in a different format: the HBO Max adaptation of Joel and Ellie’s post apocalyptic adventure.
In the second episode of the series, which was released and broadcasted this past Sunday (and also directed by Neil Druckmann, director and co creator of the franchise), Naughty Dog hid an amazing easter egg for Uncharted fans. Where you able to find it? Here’s a spoiler warning for episode 2 of The Last of Us, Infected, for the rest of the article.
The Last of Us x Uncharted
Tess, like the rest of the characters in the adaptation, comes with a larger background and depth as a character than what we ever saw in the video game; and apparently, she’s got some sins to make right for. Could it be the robbery of some important loot committed against another iconic thief? Far beyond whatever theory we could craft, the truth is that in Episode 2 there’s a detail that surprised and lit up fans of the Uncharted series.
In the final stretch of the episode, Tess offers herself up to try and stop a horde of infected headed towards them after a huge explosion, sacrificing herself and giving Joel and Ellie time to escape. At that moment, Tess pulls out a Zippo lighter from her pocket, but not any old lighter, but one with some very specific decoration: three stars and the number 76. Sound familiar?
It’s the exact same lighter used by Sam Drake, brother of Nathan Drake, during Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, released in 2016 for PS4. It’s a small detail that apparently happened thanks to NEil Druckmann: When the props department asked him if he’d like a particular design for Tess’ lighter, he couldn’t help himself to do the easter egg. And it seems like they even made an extra as a gift to Troy Baker, who’s not only part of the series and Joel’s voice actor in the games, but also the voice of Sam Drake in Uncharted 4.