The Scene That ‘The Last Of Us’ Fans Have Been Waiting All Season For Finally Happened

All season long, HBO’s The Last of Us has done an incredible job of recreating the video game’s most memorable scenes. Sarah’s death. Sam and Henry. Ellie and Riley’s date at the mall from the Left Behind DLC. The season finale was no different. “Look for the Light” had maybe the most iconic moment from Naughty Dog’s masterpiece. No, it’s not Joel lying to Ellie, although that was also handled well; our recap has you covered there. It’s the giraffe scene.

It’s a rare moment of joy for Ellie, who, if you’ll recall, recently went feral on a pedophilic religious nut — who was also a cannibal trying to kill her and Joel (“It’s OK, baby girl”). No one needed to play with a cute animal more than her.

In the video game, the pack (herd? flock? murder?) of giraffes were originally going to be deer, but “deer are too mundane. Deer are pretty small and mundane. And giraffe are pretty incredible,” The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann told Kotaku in 2013. “You go to the zoo and you see a giraffe up close… I was in Tampa, Florida, and there was a place where you could see giraffes, and it’s pretty incredible, seeing this majestic animal up close.”

Also incredible: the reaction to the giraffe scene.