At this level, Easter eggs have change into as synonymous with HBO’s The Final of Us as they’re with a Taylor Swift video.

For the lauded TV adaptation, co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have each expanded the world of the Naughty Canine sport and strategically included fan-favourite options from it, that means each gamers and newcomers are consistently stored on their toes. And within the fifth episode, there’s an especially small however essential reference to a personality from the sport referred to as Ish that you just may need missed.

Who’s within the drawing in episode 5 of The Final of Us?

In episode 5, in a fleeting second, the collection sees Joel (Pedro Pascal), Henry (Lamar Johnson), Sam (Keivonn Woodard), and Ellie escaping Kathleen’s militia in Kansas Metropolis via its underground tunnels, after they come throughout an deserted kindergarten. We be taught via their dialog that on the outbreak of the cordyceps an infection, some residents moved underground as an alternative of residing in quarantine zones (QZs), and so they established settlements, this one together with an academic facility for kids.

It is on this sombre, dilapidated room, lined in peeling murals of clouds and rainbows, that the collection sneaks in two components from the sport: the collectible Savage Starlight comics Ellie and Sam love and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it second when Joel examines a hand-drawn image of two folks holding massive weapons.

Labelled Danny and Ish, the 2 figures are captioned, “Our protectors.”

The second captured in “The Final of Us” episode 5 trailer.
Credit score: YouTube / HBO

The identical kids’s drawing could be discovered within the sport, identically labelled for these two thriller figures. Joel finds the drawing in a settlement established within the sewers beneath Pittsburgh (the present modified the situation to Kansas Metropolis)(Opens in a brand new tab). As within the present, we by no means meet the residents of this camp (properly, we’d). However within the sport, Joel items collectively the tragic story of this settlement via objects and notes you discover not simply within the kindergarten however within the broader world. And it is all a couple of man named Ish.

Who’s Ish in The Final of Us?

The folks drawn by a younger settlement resident have a complete backstory in The Final of Us sport, although you by no means meet them. YouTube channels together with Midnight Morgan(Opens in a brand new tab) and Squatch Gaming(Opens in a brand new tab) have glorious breakdowns of the tragic story of Ish, a type of drawn, who escaped the cordyceps outbreak by fleeing the chaos in his boat — a robust alternative given we’re uncertain whether or not Contaminated can swim or not. Within the sport, you discover Ish’s boat beached close to Pittsburgh, and inside, a handwritten be aware begins his story, which exhibits Ish returned to the mainland because of dwindling provides.

When Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam discover an entrance to the sewers beneath Pittsburgh, they’re met with a fairly dilapidated tunnel community. However there, they discover one other be aware written by Ish, which explains he’d retreated into the system as an easy-to-defend hideout to keep away from each Contaminated and non-Contaminated. By way of one other be aware, we be taught that whereas on a provide run exterior the sewers, Ish met a bunch of individuals “who didn’t need to shoot me on sight” and that Ish invited them to affix him underground, which it seems they did. Together with kids.

Right here, one of many settlements Joel and Henry point out within the TV collection was established, and thru notes and numerous home set-ups explored within the sport, we see a glimpse right into a useful, comparatively thriving group underground. In an effort to maintain themselves protected from Contaminated and Hunters, the settlement’s “home guidelines” seen on a wall within the sport are included within the present, found by Joel, Sam, Ellie, and Henry within the kindergarten. Within the sport, you encounter booby traps to discourage intruders, and due to the hand-drawn image, we all know Ish and one other resident referred to as Danny protected the group with weapons. But it surely’s fairly clear in each that one thing’s gone awry within the camp.

What occurred to the underground settlement?

Although the present would not go into this element, the sport determines the doom of the settlement as brought on by a door left open, that means Contaminated overran the camp.

In a chilling, blood-stained be aware left by a resident named Kyle, one of many first to affix the settlement, it turns into clear that he and a bunch of kids had been trapped by Contaminated — and as an alternative of ready to be attacked, Kyle took issues into his personal palms via an implied overdose. That is made clear via a really upsetting discovery made by Joel within the sport involving lined our bodies present in a small room, and the phrases “they did not undergo” scrawled on the ground. It appears the remainder of the settlement had been both attacked or went the identical manner.

A be aware Joel finds in a close-by home after the tunnel ordeal explains that Ish survived the assault together with his good friend, Susan, and some kids from the settlement. This is what Ish’s be aware reads within the sport:

One open door. That’s all it took. Certainly one of us forgot to shut a door and a horde of these monsters entered our camp. We shut them in there and wrote a warning on the surface. Susan and a few the youngsters are with me, so far as I do know, we’re the one survivors…

Each a part of my being simply desires to surrender. It’d be really easy to give up to this world. I can’t try this although. I’ve an excessive amount of religion in humanity. I’ve seen that we’re nonetheless able to good. We are able to make it. I’ve to remain sturdy. For her. — Ish

It is a tragic backstory, artfully pieced collectively by Naughty Canine within the sport, not with dialogue however via notes, objects, and by finally uncovering horrifying scenes of previous violence Joel, Ellie, Sam, and Henry encounter of their journey. However within the present, it is however one image that can dredge up some chilling recollections for gamers.

The Final of Us is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab) New episodes air each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.