If you’ve read our The Last of Us episode 2 recap, you’d know that a lot goes down in that episode. As Joel, Tess, and Ellie continue on their journey from the Boston Quarantine Zone to find the Fireflies, they end up crossing an abandoned, flooded, hotel lobby.
After one shot of the decrepit building showed a frog jumping onto the piano, the internet soon became obsessed, with the little amphibian adding an endearing sense of realism to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi series. But this now-viral shot from the episode ended up occurring completely by accident, according to The Last of Us‘ co-creator.
Neil Druckermann, who has been closely involved with the horror series after co-creating the original videogame, shared a behind-the-scenes snap on Twitter of the frog alongside a disgruntled seagull to explain how the shot was meant to go down.
“Piano frog wouldn’t be a thing… if piano bird did its job!” he wrote. “I guess everything happens for a reason. (And before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion… that’s a fake frog for the bird to eat — which it never did!)”
So, it looks like our beloved piano frog would’ve ended up being chomped to death if Druckermann had his way — but we think the scene as it is ended up being just as powerful. If you need a run-down of what’s what in The Last of Us before episode 3, here’s cordyceps, the infected, and clickers explained.