Who knew that a blanket from Amherst Island, Ont., could get you through the zombie apocalypse?
In episode 8 of The Last of Us, the main character Joel is recovering from a flesh wound. Keeping him warm is a wool blanket, which was made at Topsy Farms, and the owners had no idea.
“We started watching, and within a couple of minutes, this blanket came up on the screen with the main characters,” says Jacob Murray, co-owner of Topsy Farms.
“We were like ‘No, it can’t be!’ So we looked at each other, looked at the blanket, and we were like ‘It’s got to be!'”
Jacob Murray says about a year ago, a production company contracted Topsy Farms asking for a wool blanket, but couldn’t say for what show it was for.
Murray says they went ahead and sent the blanket, but forgot all about it — until they were watching The Last of Us for the first time.
“We went back through, checked our email, found it and reached out to the buyer,” says Murray. “And actually got the final confirmation that yes, in fact, that is a Topsy Farms blanket in the world’s most popular show.”
The Last of Us is indeed one of the world’s most popular shows. Episode 8, in which the blanket was shown, was viewed by 8.1 million people in the U.S., according to Neilsen ratings.
“The Last of Us is the most talked about show right now,” says Morgan Hoffman, a reporter for Entertainment Tonight. “We just saw the Season 1 finale, and I’m still not emotionally over what happened.”
Murray says they have seen a bump in blanket sales since the episode aired.
There’s only one blanket in that style left, and Topsy Farms is giving it away in a contest on their social media channels — after all, it is “the last of” their now most famous blanket ever.