HBO’s The last of us brings us another heartbreaking storyline in episode 5 of the hit series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, this episode also starring Melanie Lynskey, Canadian Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard.
If you’ve been following the social media comments surrounding Lynskey, after Adrianne Curry, the winner of Season 1 of America’s Next Top ModelShe wrote in now-deleted tweets that “her body speaks to a life of luxury… not post-apocalyptic [sic] Warlords.” Episode 5 of The last of us only reiterates that Lynskey is phenomenal in the role.
“I play a character who meticulously planned and executed a fall from FEDRA. I’m supposed to be SMART ma’am.” Lynskey tweeted in response. “I don’t have to be muscular. That’s what henchmen are for.”
In the just released episode of The last of uswe learn about Kathleen’s life and backstory and how she became the leader of the revolutionary movement in Kansas City, Missouri.
We also find out that the man and boy who have Ellie (Ramsey) and Joel (Pascal) at gunpoint are actually brothers Henry (Johnson) and Sam (Woodard). It’s her story that’s particularly heartbreaking.
Here’s everything you need to know about Episode 5 of HBO’s The Last of Us (spoilers ahead):
The episode takes us back to Kansas City QZ, where civil revolutionaries are chanting “f-ck you FEDRA.”
Kathleen and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) enter a former FEDRA prison cell with a group of people they rounded up, all informants who worked for FEDRA.
“You know, Perry, I used to be so scared of these people. Now look at her,” says Kathleen. “Did it feel good to betray your neighbors to FEDRA? … Watching us hang up so you can get medicine, alcohol and damn apples. Did it make you feel better? Did that make you feel safe?”
“Well I’m not FEDRA, lucky for you. Nobody has to die here. We could put you on trial… and you’ll hold out for some time, simple as that.”
Kathleen asks her where Henry is. When no one answers, she instructs Perry to kill her, but then someone calls in and says he’s with Gem (Kathleen’s doctor who we met in Episode 4). They had a place in the open city, but he doesn’t know exactly where it is.
As Kathleen and Perry leave, she confirms that those informants are indeed being killed.
“When you’re done, cremate the bodies. It’s quicker,” she says to Perry.
The episode takes us back in time to the attic that Kathleen and Perry found in Episode 4. But just before they arrived, Harry had been there with Sam and Gem. They have supplies to survive about 11 days. Seeing that Sam (who is deaf) is scared, Henry goes to him and signals that they are fine and no one will find him before giving Sam crayons to draw and decorate the room. Henry also painted a superhero-esque mask over Sam’s eyes.
At that moment, Henry looks out the window and sees Joel arguing with the hunters in the laundromat. There follows Henry and Sam Joel and Ellie.
Why Kathleen is on the hunt for Henry
Now we’re back where we left off at the end of Episode 4. Henry tells Joel and Ellie that they want to help them, not hurt them, and he’s never hurt anyone before. Henry and Sam introduce themselves and the four of them start talking.
Henry explains that he was a FEDRA employee, which initially affects Joel, who doesn’t work with “rats”. Henry emphasizes that Joel needs him. Henry knows the town and how to help them, but he needs Joel’s fighting prowess.
Henry explains that many of the buildings in the city were built by the same developer and share a series of interconnected underground maintenance tunnels. This leads to a dam and finally a footbridge over a river to exit the area. To clarify why there doesn’t seem to be any walkers in Kansas City, Henry says that FEDRA drove the walkers underground, so Kathleen won’t go there, but he was told that all the clickers were cleared out three years ago.
“Okay, maybe there’s one or two, but you take care of it,” Henry says to Joel.
With everyone accepting that this “brutally insane” plan is their best shot at getting out, Joel, Henry, Ellie and Sam all go underground.
On their journey, they reach an area that looks like a classroom or daycare. A set of rules is written on a whiteboard which reads: “Make sure the doors are locked. Ask for the password if you don’t know the visitor. No yelling or playing loudly. Run to the hideout when you hear the alarm.”
“People went underground and built settlements after the outbreak day,” Joel explains as they enter this room.
When Ellie asks what happened to them, Joel replies, “Maybe they didn’t play by the rules and they all got infected.”
Ellie and Sam start playing in this underground area along with some abandoned objects, Sam picks up a Savage Starlight comic, something the two children have in common as they share what editions they owned by writing on a paper writes attached to a clipboard. “Hold on and survive” is the slogan from the comics.
While Henry and Joel are together, Henry reveals that he wasn’t telling the truth, that he hadn’t hurt anyone before. He speaks of a “great man” who “was the kind of man you would follow anywhere, and explains that there was a drug that worked well, but there wasn’t much of it when Sam was diagnosed with leukemia, and what was left belonged to FEDRA. In order to get this drug, he gave FEDRA something “great,” this “great man” who was Kathleen’s brother, Michael, the leader of the Kansas City resistance at the time.
“I’m the bad guy because I did something bad,” Henry tells Joel. “You understand though, you may not be her father, but you are someone’s… I could tell.”
A glimpse into Kathleen’s past life
Back to Kathleen, we find her in her nursery just as Perry comes in to talk to her.
“When Michael and I were little, this room felt so big,” says Kathleen. “I was really scared of thunder, so when it came, Michael told me that this wasn’t a room at all, just a big wooden box.”
“He said as long as we’re together, in our perfect box, we’re safe. He did that for me. He did stuff like that all the time, he was so beautiful. I’m not. I never was. He would be appalled at the things I’ve done and if you came to tell me that Michael doesn’t want me to hurt Henry, that he wants me to forgive him, then I know it too. He told me. The last time I saw him alive in prison he told me to forgive him. And what did he get for it? Where’s the justice in that?”
Perry responds by saying her brother was a “great man” but “he didn’t change anything”.
“You did,” says Perry. “We are with you.”
Two of the most heartbreaking deaths in ‘The Last of Us’
This is where the main action of the episode begins, including an adrenaline-pumping attack scene.
As we see Henry, Sam, Joel and Ellie coming out of the tunnel, they are all hiding behind an abandoned car while being attacked by hunters led by Kathleen. Joel runs to a nearby house and tells the other three not to move.
Kathleen urges Henry to come out. He eventually agrees, but wants Kathleen to release the children. Kathleen disagrees.
“Children are dying Henry. They die all the time,” she says.
Just as Kathleen draws her gun and points it at Henry, a tank falls through the floor. Suddenly, a swarm of Clickers appear and begin attacking everyone in the area, including a Bloater, the largest and most dangerous ford of infected that takes years to develop.
As Ellie, Henry, and Sam run, Joel shoots the monsters to clear the way. They get separated, Ellie alone and Henry and Sam together. Henry and Sam are attacked, but Ellie is able to stab the clickers and free the brothers.
Eventually, Kathleen catches up to her, but just as she is about to fire, a clicker jumps on her, tripping the resistance leader.
Ellie, Henry and Sam make it to Joel and run away from the area to get to a motel room. With this friendship, Joel invites Henry and Sam to come to Wyoming with them.
Meanwhile, Ellie discovers that Sam has been bitten, with a mark on his leg. Ellie, knowing she may hold the key to a cure, cuts her hand and applies her blood to his bite mark.
“My blood is medicine,” she says, promising to stay with Sam because he’s scared.
The next morning, after eventually falling asleep, Ellie goes to put her hand on Sam’s shoulder, who is sitting on a bed facing away from her, and he begins to attack.
As Ellie is chased into the main room where Joel and Henry were sleeping, Henry tells Joel to put down his gun, but he shoots Sam himself.
“What have I done?” Henry repeats over and over at the end of the episode.
He then points the gun at his own head and shoots himself while we see Ellie’s shocked and scared reaction.
Ellie and Joel bury their bodies and Ellie leaves the clipboard with the words “I’m sorry” on the paper.
