Warning: spoilers ahead for The Last of Us episode 1.
It’s no surprise that The Last of Us has been an emotional rollercoaster from the start, but a heartbreaking death in episode 1 has left many devastated.
In the end, they were just like any other piece of art.
In the first instalment, audiences are taken to the day of the outbreak 20 years ago, when they meet Joel’s teenage daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker).
After going about her day as normal, the night falls into anarchy when those who have been infected start spreading mayhem in the streets.
When Sarah, Joel and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) seek to escape to safety, Joel and Sarah end themselves surrounded by a soldier, who’s instructed to shoot them despite the lead character screaming that they’re not sick.
The soldier shoots at them and only grazes Joel on his side before being shot dead by Tommy.
However, the soldier’s bullet does reach Sarah, shooting her directly in the stomach and causing her death.
Sarah’s last breaths are utterly horrifying to witness, as Joel tries desperately to pick her up so that he can save her, despite her protesting in agony.
She eventually dies in her father’s arms, which are covered in her blood… and after watching the same scene play out in the video game, plenty of viewers have expressed how upset they were to watch it again in the TV adaptation.
‘I KNEW it was coming yet here I am violently sobbing on the floor,’ one person tweeted.
‘Watching these scenes with Sarah knowing the whole time what’s gonna happen is a cruel and unusual punishment,’ another remarked.
Someone else said that the Joel and Sarah scene ‘hurt just as much as it did in the video game’, adding: ‘And I am NOT okay.’
‘Sarah noooooo😭😭😭,’ one person wrote. ‘I knew it was coming but still I’m upset all over again.’
Others claimed that Sarah’s death ‘hit more’ than in the video game since viewers spent more time with her before her end in the TV show.
Nico, Thandiwe Newton’s daughter, was praised for her emotional portrayal, with one user tweeting: ‘The way this made me sob lot more coz I felt attached to Sarah because we got to see more of her & cause of how GOOD of an actor Nico Parker is.’
‘Nico Parker is going to rip my heart out and I am not ready,’ a distraught viewer said, while another chimed in to add: ‘The original is already painful enough but seeing this part in live action had me bawling my eyes out even more. Pedro Pascal and Nico Parker did such an incredible job.’
During a recent interview, Nico opened up about the pressure of appearing in the highly-anticipated drama, stating: ‘It’s more like the internal, “Oh my God, am I doing justice to this game? Am I doing justice to this character?” But I think it was just trying to separate the two.’
The 18-year-old continued to Deadline: ‘The show is one thing, the game is the other and to keep the two separate was the main aim, but it was definitely incredibly stressful.’
The Last of Us is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays.