This week we have had a double of ‘The Last of Us’ since, because of the Super Bowl, HBO Max decided to advance the broadcast of the fifth episode to today. So we have already been able to enjoy ‘Endure and Survive‘, which continues the adventure of Joel and Ellie (Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) in Kansas City.
By the way, from here spoilers for episode 1×05 of ‘The Last of Us’.
The end of ‘Please, don’t let go of my hand’ (1×04) ended in a cliffhanger, with Joel and Ellie being awakened at gunpoint by Henry (Lamar Johnson) and his brother Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard). Thus, the time comes to know who these brothers really are.
liberation day
The episode begins with a flashback that begins the day of the liberation of Kansas City from Phaedra’s rule. The streets are taken over by the militia led by kathleen coghlan (Melanie Lynskey) and the path to take is clear: all traces of the “old regime” including the “Collaborators” must be ended. Henry is one of them.
Thus, this new installment of the series shows us the crossroads between the brothers, the little deaf boy, and our favorite survivors, with Joel quite leery of reaching out to Henry, especially after learning of his status as a collaborator.
But both characters find themselves with a common enemy (Kathleen and her thirst for revenge) and a goal (getting out of the city alive). And the plan is as simple as it is dangerous: flee through the city’s network of tunnels.which are “forbidden” ground since FEDRA buried the infected underground.
Henry considers that there is no longer any danger. Neither Joel nor the spectators (if you remember episode 4 it is implied that there is a revival) we are so sure of it.
infected ration
For those who complained that they don’t get infected enough… here are two cups for, shortly after emerging from the tunnels and just as they are cornered by an utterly lacking Kathleen of empathy, a whole horde of infected emerges from the ground, including amazing monsters and hideous fungal infants. It’s the biggest clicker attack, if I remember correctly, in the entire series.
As in this series it cannot be all joy. After the beautifully written attack, we find out that not everyone has escaped completely unscathed: Sam has been bitten. Something that only Ellie knows and that they will keep to themselves as they go to bed. Not before trying to cure him with the blood of the immune, to see what happens. As you can imagine, she doesn’t turn out the way she would like.
ellie the girl
This Kansas City arc is especially important in developing Ellie as a character… and that’s how we see it. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann stress that she is still a girl. Shaped by tragedy and circumstance, but a girl nonetheless. The joke book is a clear tool for this… and the crumbs that she makes with Sam, with whom she plays, jokes and reads comics enhances it.
Even the naivety with which Ellie tries to cure little Sam with her blood makes sense. For this reason, beyond the attack and the cruel fate, the end of the episode, with that “I’m sorry” it impacts and overwhelms even more than other scenes of the style in this series. Kansas has left our protagonist touched, but it is not the first scar she has received.
Now there is just over a week left to see what awaits Joel and Ellie again. In ‘kin’ the landscape is dyed white snow in which he continues on his way to look for his brother Tommy.