The Last of Us: who is Tess in the game and in the HBO Max series

The television version of “The Last of Us” has been hailed as an example of a multimedia adaptation of video games. This quality, however, has nothing to do with strictly following everything in games. Yes, the HBO series is very faithful to the game that inspired the production, but it has some differences, both in the narrative and in its characters. Next, we will face one of the central figures in the opening sequence of episodes, the smuggler Tess, partner of Joel.

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Tess in video games

Before moving on, it’s worth mentioning that the text below contains spoilers for both the first game and the series, especially the events of the second episode. So, if you haven’t reached that point in the story yet, the content may hold some surprises.

Who plays Tess in the game is actress Annie Wersching, best known for her role as Renee Walker in the series “24”. Wersching is responsible for the voice acting and motion capture for the character.

In the game, Tess’s character does not have such a thorough biography. Thus, almost nothing is known about her life before the pandemic and not even her surname. What you see is that she’s a bootlegger, just like Joel, and that she’s the more cerebral part of the duo. Despite some hints, it’s unclear if she and Joel are, in fact, romantically involved, but there is some flirting.

And since tragedy is something extraordinary in this story, Tess ends up having a tragic end. While she and Joel are taking Ellie to where the fireflies are supposedly waiting, the smuggler is attacked by a clicker, which goes unnoticed by the others.

Only after arriving at the meeting point, the Boston Congress, does Tess reveal that she has been infected. In addition to the fireflies dying, an enemy faction is heading towards the location. As a final act, she decides to stay put to delay the invaders and give Joel and Ellie time to escape. Tess probably represents Joel’s greatest personal loss since the death of his daughter.

tess in the series

Who brings the character to life in the HBO series is Anna Torv, known to the public for her role as Olivia Dunham in the series “Fringe”. The actress, incidentally, has also worked in video games, voicing and acting as Nariko, the protagonist of the PlayStation 3 game ‘Heavenly Sword’.

Perhaps the most noticeable change in the TV character’s characterization is the fact that the actress has slightly lighter hair than in the game version. Equally subtle is the change regarding Joel’s involvement. In the first episode of the series, we see her and Joel (Pedro Pascal) sharing the same bed, giving life to a love story between the two, even if this is not explicit. The game provides even less evidence for this relationship.

Unlike what happens in the game, Tess would reveal her past on television. According to showrunner Craig Mazin, the writing team even wrote scenes from Tess’ life before the pandemic. The director talked behind the scenes in the second episode of the show’s official podcast.

According to Mazin, Tess was married, but her son and husband were infected. She had to kill her husband, but she couldn’t kill her son. Instead of killing him, she locked him up and ran away.

Another change in relation to the game occurs in character death. While she in the game she is killed in a firefight, she in the series she sacrifices herself to protect Joel and Ellie from a horde of infected invading Congress. Although in both versions she died, her TV outcome ended up being more tragic, especially considering that she had the same fate as her family members, having been infected.

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Source: Olhar Digital