The Last of Us (Season 1), Episode 5: The second season of ‘The Last of Us’ has been greenlit, and of course, speculation about how the show will progress is already rampant. . The most natural assumption is that the second season will adapt ‘The Last of Us: Part II’ and if that is to happen, then a key element of the game’s second installment is already in place from this season – multiple perspectives on the same incident.
The score in this episode, especially when Henry and Sam are about to leave Doctor Edelstein’s hideout, recalls Santaollala’s ‘Endless Flight’ from ‘Babel’ as it sets up a wonderfully conceived look at a tragic relationship. It’s also the first time that the story’s videogame origin can be seen when Joel shoots from the window to keep Ellie’s path and surroundings clear during the climactic battle.
Another week, another excellent episode that shows just how good Druckmann and Mazin are at developing our two protagonists and at fleshing out minor characters.
The Last of Us (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap:
Ten days before Joel and Ellie’s arrival in Kansas City, the Resistance, led by Kathleen, broke free from the QZ, overthrew the FEDRA dictatorship, and grabbed power. FEDRA soldiers were brutally maimed and killed in this wake, scattering the people throughout the city.
Kansas City’s FEDRA was infamous all over the country for its monstrous conduct as it went about raping, murdering, and torturing civilians for the twenty years, they were in power. Collaborators of FEDRA are asked to give up lest they face the consequences as counter-revolutionaries. Kathleen, who is ravenously searching for Henry, finds out from an arrested group of collaborators that Henry is probably going to meet Docotr Edelstein, who has a secret hideout.
After getting this information, Kathleen asks Perry to kill the collaborators and burn their bodies, despite promising them a fair trial. She also makes Perry send out men to search, door-to-door, for Henry since they don’t know where this hideout is.
Henry, with his eight-year-old, deaf brother, Sam, stealthily makes his way to Edelstein, the old doctor whom Kathleen killed in the previous episode. The doctor’s hideout is the one Perry found out in the previous episode. Edelstein got it from a FEDRA officer he had collaborated with.
Henry has just about enough food supplies with him for the three of them to survive for 11 days or so if they carefully ration it. After ten days, Edelstein goes missing during a food supply run. Henry assumes that he’s been caught. Along with Sam, he now plans to escape Kansas City, a risky endeavor given that they have guns but no ammunition.
As they’re about to leave the hideout, a shootout in the street stops them. The shootout is the one Joel and Ellie were forced into after being ambushed upon their arrival in Kansas City.
After dark, Henry and Sam make their way into the same building where Joel and Ellie are hiding. The two manage to avoid Joel’s glass trail carefully. They make their way to Joel and Ellie, holding them at gunpoint. The two parties parley over each other’s safety. Henry and Sam are glad to find some food from Joel and Ellie, after which Henry tells the two of them that he has a plan which will get them out of the city.
The next morning, Joel is antagonized upon discovering that Henry is a collaborator. But he agrees to cooperate upon realizing that both parties need each other. Henry and Sam know the way out of the city, and Joel and Ellie can clear that way for all of them. Henry explains how they can escape the city without alerting the Resistance’s soldiers by using underground tunnels shared by some buildings that the same developer built.
The only problem is that the Infected in Kansas were all driven underground about 15 years ago by FEDRA and were not allowed to resurface. Therefore, the bowels of the city are crawling with Infected who’ve lived there for a decade and a half. Henry, however, assures Joel that he got a intel from a FEDRA soldier that few years back the soldiers have cleared out all the Infected. He further says, even if there are any left, there won’t be too many.
The four head underground and get into the tunnels without running into any problems. There, they come across an empty underground settlement. Its walls are covered in paintings made by children. These settlements were set up at the beginning of the outbreak. The mysterious disappearance of the people living in such settlements was attributed to them having eventually gotten infected and killed each other.
The four decide to rest for a while there. Ellie and Sam become friends as they both like Savage Starlight comics. Henry tells Joel that while he never killed a man with his own hands, he gave up Kathleen’s brother, Michael to FEDRA. Michael was the Kansas City Resistance leader, a beloved and inspirational figure.
Henry did it because Sam had been diagnosed with leukemia. Obviously, the medicine required to treat him was in really short supply. So he had to trade something valuable with FEDRA in return for it, which turned out to be Michael.
In their old room, Kathleen ruminates on her memories of Michael. She tells Perry that the last time she saw him while he was in prison, he had asked her to forgive Henry. But being the ruthless person she is, unlike Michael, she cannot do that. Perry reminds Kathleen that given she’s their leader, he and the soldiers will do whatever she asks for.
That night, the four leave the tunnels and are away from the Resistance soldiers at the city’s perimeter. Just when they think that they’re safe, a lone gunman starts firing at them. Joel sneaks up on him and finds out that he’s an old man, Anthony, whom he reluctantly kills in self-defense. Turns out, this man was a part of the Resistance. He had already informed Kathleen about having found the four of them.
Kathleen arrives with truckloads of armed men. Ellie, Henry, and Sam are forced to run away from a large truck leading the envoy, which is essentially trying to run the three of them over. Joel shoots the driver just in time, causing the truck to crash into a house and explode.
Kathleen and her soldiers have cornered the three of them. Joel helplessly looks at them from his vantage point, unclear on what to do to save them. Kathleen isn’t in the mindset to show compassion for Sam or Ellie. She vows to kill them all. Yet just as Kathleen is about to kill Henry, the burning truck is sucked into the ground. A large crater opens up from which countless Clickers emerge and start attacking everyone in their way.
The Clickers quickly overpower the soldiers while Joel uses Anthony’s gun to keep Ellie safe. A Bloater then emerges from the ground, the most dangerous kind of Infected, gigantic in size. Its body is covered in thick fungus layers, which act like armor.
This is the final nail in the coffin for Kathleen’s men. Ellie saves Henry and Sam as they’re headed towards Joel, away from the battleground. Nevertheless, Kathleen manages to stop them at gunpoint. Fortunately for them, she is attacked by a Clicker just in time, and subsequently, she gets killed
The Last of Us (Season 1), Episode 5, Ending, Explained:
Having escaped the carnage, the four take shelter in a house away from the city. Joel tells Henry that the two can join him and Ellie on their expedition to Wyoming if he wishes. Henry agrees, especially since it means Sam would have a friend in Ellie. Later, in the bedroom, Sam and Ellie discuss – through Sam’s reusable notepad – each other’s fears.
Ellie tells him that she’s always afraid of ending up alone. Sam then reveals to Ellie that during the fight, he was bitten. A deeply unsettled Ellie tells Sam that her blood is medicine. She slits her palm with a knife and rubs some of it on Sam’s wound in order to quell his anxiety. He asks her to stay awake with her, and she agrees.
However, by the next morning, the infection has spread, and a feral Sam attacks Ellie. Joel is about to shoot him, but Henry stops him. Then, he shoots Sam dead himself. Shocked at having killed his dear little brother, Sam shoots himself in the head as well. Dejected by the whole affair, Joel and Ellie give the two a proper burial. She writes ‘I’m sorry’ on Sam’s reusable notepad and leaves it on his grave, apologizing for her blood failing to cure him. The two continue their journey to Wyoming.
