Is Sam deaf in The Last of Us?

In episode five of HBO’s The Last of Us, we are introduced to Henry and Sam, two kids that are trying to escape Kansas City before Kathleen and her blood-fueled army can find them. It is pretty easy to notice that in this show, Sam is deaf, as only Henry is able to communicate with him through sign language. While he teaches Ellie a little bit of it in this episode, is Sam deaf in The Last of Us game as well?

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Is Sam deaf in The Last of Us Part I video game?

No, Sam is not deaf in The Last of Us Part I video game. He can hear perfectly fine and communicates through words with Henry, Joel, and Ellie. He is also five years older in the game than he is in the show, so he is in a place where he is not quite mature yet, but the world around him and his brother, demands that he is.

In both the show and the game, Sam makes a quick impression on Ellie as a character. In the game, he does not reveal that he was scratched by an infected, but he wants to know what she is scared of and if she thinks people are still inside the infected. In the show, he has a similar conversation with her but does show her that he is infected. This causes Ellie to try and cure him by putting her blood into the wound, but that is not how you can cure a fungal infection that was already spreading through his leg.

In both instances, Sam attacks Ellie the next morning, forcing Henry to shoot him to save her. The grief of losing the one thing he was fighting for causes Henry to then kill himself. The burial of Sam is also a bit different between the versions. In the show, Ellie writes on his pad that she is sorry she couldn’t save him or stay up throughout the night with him. In the game, Ellie forgets to give him a robot toy he wanted from the toy store, and she holds onto it as a way to remember him forever.