The Last of Us Showrunner Reveals Tess’ Backstory Before the Outbreak

The Last of Us on HBO has already released two episodes, and we already had our major post-outbreak loss with Tess (Anna Torv). While we know Tess’ function in the story overall, showrunner Craig Mazin reveals that there was actually a backstory written for the character.

Talking to the Last of Us podcast with Troy Baker, Mazin reveals that Tess had a husband and son that got infected and she had to kill them both. Mazin explains:

“We had talked about, and we wrote it, we never shot it, and it was a little bit of a backstory of Tess and the fact that Tess had a kid. She had a husband and she had a son, and they were infected and she had to kill them.”

There was apparently no room in the episode to have the sequence explaining Tess’ backstory, but the show has confirmed a lot of things that the game has hinted at—like the romance between Tess and Joel.

If anything, Mazin does offer some more details on what happened to Tess’ family. “She killed her husband but she could not kill the son. She couldn’t do it… She locked him in the basement, where, theoretically he’s still a clicker.”

We only got Tess for two episodes, but a lot of fans have been raving about the character online, especially when it came to her death when she is kissed by an infected. Mazin and Neil Druckmann actually have a very interesting breakdown of that scene in the podcast, and it brings the entire thing into perspective.

Catch The Last of Us on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday.