where the planet geek

Not me swinging in a year late to do [this challenge]. ( ⌐■_■ )

I've watched approximately two million pretty much every blind reaction for The Last of Us on YouTube, and I can't recall any of the reactors taking notice of this particular detail. It's a part of the game that I was thrilled made it into the show. It's such a flash, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but my mind instantly went to it when I read the prompt for the first challenge. When I think of amber, I always think of John Hammond's cane in Jurassic Park and something long lost being preserved in amber.

That's what Joel's broken watch is to him. Keeping Sarah's gift close to him long after it stops working and wearing it every day is a constant physical reminder of his life before the world ended, his love for his daughter and Sarah's love for him. It symbolizes a part of himself that has been in hibernation for twenty years.

Early into their journey, Joel talks to Ellie alone on a rooftop and afterward, he looks down at his watch. Subconsciously, right at the start of their relationship, that sleeping giant—the Papa Bear part of him, both the purest and most dangerous part of him—starts to rustle. It's not awake yet, but even then, the Papa Bear part of him saw Ellie and drew Joel's eyes down to his watch, making a direct connection between her and Sarah. A reminder of what he lost, for sure, and one of the first big indicators that his 'cargo' was going to change his life by reminding him that he could still have one.

I adore that tiny moment: his love for Sarah perfectly preserved in a broken watch. And a visual representation of the broken part of himself that, foreshadowed here, Ellie is going to heal.