Well that's that. Season 1 did a lot of things right and some things not so much. I think of it as a really good cheese pizza, satisfying but could use more flavor, which for the show would mean a few more infected/human fights, and not feel like they're speedrunning the last couple of episodes. It's a crime how we never got the hotel basement, that could've easily been one of the highlights of the season if done properly. As for episode 9 itself, it was great for the most part. The added dialogue about Joel's suicide attempt and his grief being healed by Ellie was moving and of course you can't have an adaptation of TLoU1 without the giraffes. I found the hospital rampage slightly disappointing because it looked a bit too, I don't know, PG-13 for my taste? I guess the games spoiled me with all the gore and whatnot but the show made it look like something out of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies which had notoriously shitty action scenes. Well at least it was there I suppose and it's better than just killing a couple of dudes + Marlene and the doctor and calling it a day like I kind of feared they would do.
Speaking of, I really appreciate how Merle Dandridge brought her A game with her acting skills unlike episode 1 where I was unimpressed by her and thought maybe they should have cast someone else. Ashley Johnson, like Troy Baker in the last episode, was decent with the little screentime she had. I'm not sure if this is really the guy they're going for with Jerry, it's possible that they still haven't found the right actor at the time of shooting and this was more of a placeholder if you will plus his face was pretty obscured anyway. They really needed another take for "You'll just come after her", the way Pedro delivered it sounded like he was reading the script for the first time, like what the hell was that? It was weak af compared to Troy Baker's stone-cold delivery.
Thankfully they didn't botch the acting in the last scene, and The Path playing as the credits started to roll was perfect. When it's all said and done the show doesn't touch the game in terms of overall quality. It was still a valiant attempt however and it has a good foundation, but there is plenty to improve upon for their TLoU2 adaptation which is gonna be a mammoth task. It seems that complaints were heard about the lack of action so that sounds promising. They don't have to overcompensate for it either but just give us more compared to what we got this season. They should have a bigger budget so that ought to help. Better direction for the action scenes would go a long way too because the few action scenes they gave us were rather mediocre apart from episode 5 where all hell broke loose and a bloater showed up.