The latest episode of HBO’s hit series The Last of Us is here a full two days early! Opting to release the episode on HBO Max Friday night to avoid competing with the Super Bowl, HBO has also given fans a gift by letting us see part two of an epic two-part story a few days earlier than normal.
“Endure and Survive” is one of the most action-packed, emotionally devastating episodes the series has yet produced, with big ramifications for Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and their journey. As always, there will be SPOILERS in this review for this week’s episode of The Last of Us.
The Last of Us Episode 5 review: “Endure and Survive”
We’ve officially crossed the halfway point for season 1. “Endure and Survive” marks the occasion with the single biggest action set piece on the show so far, as well as some of the most emotionally devastating moments.
The first 15 or so minutes of the episode are devoted to filling in the backstory of how the Kansas City QZ fell, and how Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) began her hunt for brothers Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard). I really enjoyed these opening flashbacks. They flesh out who Sam and Henry are and show how they went into hiding. It also gives Lynskey more room to flex her acting chops. I had a hard time totally buying her as a hardened revolutionary leader in Episode 4, but the added scenes of her trolling the captured FEDRA informants and ordering their deaths in the beginning of the episode went a long way toward convincing me.
Another interesting thing that about these opening flashbacks is that they establish just how recent the fall of the Kansas City QZ is. When Joel and Ellie arrived there in Episode 4, they were thrust into the middle of a chaotic, ongoing situation. “Endure and Survive” shows us that the resistance movement only overthrew FEDRA 10 days before Joel and Ellie’s arrival. The flashbacks show how Doctor Edelstein (John Getz) helped Henry and Sam go to ground before his capture, and that Sam and Henry witnessed Joel and Ellie’s car crash and subsequent shootout with the raiders. This brings us right up to date, as Henry decides to follow Joel and Ellie in hopes that Joel can help them get out of the city with his gritty resourcefulness.
Uneasy allies make for entertaining traveling companions
The episode then skips back to where we left off in Episode 4, with Sam and Henry holding Joel and Ellie at gunpoint. This first time we get these four characters in a room together perfectly encapsulates their dynamic. Joel is reluctant to trust Henry, enough that Ellie needs to reassure their new friends that “That’s just the way he sounds, he has an asshole voice!” Ellie herself is just excited to cross paths with other people who aren’t set on killing them, and to hang out with another kid.
The banter between Ellie, Joel, and their new traveling companions is a treat. We’ve spent a lot of time with Joel and Ellie by themselves; showing how they interact with other people helps to highlight how much their own relationship has changed.
Despite his reservations, Joel eventually decides to go along with Henry’s plan to sneak the group out of the city through a network of underground tunnels. Henry tells us that one of FEDRA’s few good deeds in Kansas City was driving all the infected underground, however he’s convinced that they aren’t in the tunnels he wants to sneak through.
Surprisingly, the plan actually works. Since they laid out how the plan was supposed to go, I was expecting it to go horribly wrong and for the group to be swarmed by infected. Instead we get a bunch of great character moments as everyone takes advantage of the momentary peace.
There are a lot of great little nods to the game in this section, such as the party discovering an underground classroom where Ellie and Sam talk comic books and play soccer. Even the specific comic book, Savage Starlight, is from the game, as is the signature catchphrase from which the episode takes its name: “Endure and Survive.”
Alas, all good things must last. While our heroes are underground, Kathleen and her forces continue searching the city, and we learn why she and Henry are so at odds. Henry’s younger brother Sam was diagnosed with leukemia, and FEDRA had the only medicine that could help him. In order to get it, Henry sold out his friend Michael, who was also Kathleen’s brother and the leader of the resistance movement. Michael was beaten to death by FEDRA, which spurred Kathleen’s quest for vengeance.
In a great twist, Kathleen reveals to her right hand man Perry (played by Jeffrey Wright, the same actor who portrayed Joel’s brother Tommy in The Last of Us video game) that Michael’s final wish was that she forgive Henry for selling him out. But Kathleen can’t do that; foregiveness was Michael’s thing, and it got him killed. So she hangs onto her vengeance, and because she actually overthrew FEDRA, unlike her brother, Perry and the rest of the resistance fighters are firmly behind her.
This was a great touch that filled in some big gaps from the previous episode, like how Kathleen won Perry’s loyalty. It also highlights the self-destructive nature of vengeance, one of the major themes of The Last of Us Part II video game. And it leads to a spectacular conclusion.
All hell breaks loose in Kansas City
After emerging unscathed from the underground tunnels, Joel, Ellie, Henry and Sam come under fire from a hidden sniper at the city outskirts. Instantly, the mood shifts from relaxed to intense. This entire set piece — as well as the subsequent fallout with Henry and Sam — is extremely faithful to the game. There are lots of small differences, but the general flow is the same, and lots of specific beats carry over.
The first leg of the sequence revolves around Joel taking out the sniper. As gunshots fly overhead, he sneaks around and flanks the shooter. When he gets into the building with the sniper, he discovers it’s an old man. Joel begging this man not to force him to pull the trigger and kill him is a brilliant turn from the show that tears at the heartstrings.
After the old man is dead, his radio goes off, revealing that he was a lookout for Kathleen and that the rest of the raiders are on the way. What follows is the biggest sequence on the show since the season premiere. Kathleen and her raiders crash their way through abandoned vehicles until they finally have Ellie, Henry, and Sam cornered, while Joel tries vainly to defend them from his sniper nest. At the last minute, Joel shoots the driver of a truck and it crashes down into the tunnels below the city…and carves a path for an army of infected to boil over onto the surface.
That initial burst of infected is one of the most terrifying undead attacks I’ve seen since “The Long Night” on Game of Thrones. The infected explode out of that hole, so fast that I jumped. I shouted. It was scary in the best way.
There are a ton of highlights, but of course we need to mention the bloater. This huge infected is nigh unstoppable, and carves a bloody path through Kathleen’s soldiers. That includes Perry, who receives a suitably gruesome end when the bloater rips off his head.
Kathleen could escape in the chaos but is too obsessed with revenge. Instead she corners Henry, Sam, and Ellie only to become a meal for child clickers. Bye, Kathleen!
Ellie, Sam, and Henry all make it out of the infected attack thanks to some handy sniping from Joel. Everything should be good from here right? …Right?
If you become a monster, is it still you inside?
After escaping the battle, Joel, Ellie, Sam, and Henry all hunker down to recover for the night in an abandoned motel. Things seem to be good. Everyone is happy and growing closer; Joel invites Henry to accompany him and Ellie to Wyoming while Ellie and Sam bond in the next room.
However, it quickly becomes clear that things are about to get bad fast when Sam reveals to Ellie that he was bitten during the infected attack. In a crushing change from the game, Ellie tries to reassure him that her blood is medicine, cuts her hand, and rubs it on the wound. It’s so heartbreakingly child-like that she thinks this would work and doesn’t tell Joel and Henry about Sam’s condition.
Instead, Ellie wakes up the following morning to find that Sam has already turned. He attacks her, the pair break through the door and into the main room where Joel and Henry were sleeping, and things go from bad to worse. After forcing Joel to stay back while Ellie struggles for her life, Henry shoots his infected younger brother, bringing Kathleen’s prophetic “maybe he was supposed to die” line to grisly fruition.
Stricken by what he’s done, Henry ignores Joel’s pleas to hand over the gun and instead ends his own life. The way the camera lingers on Ellie and Bella Ramsey’s choked scream of horror as the gun goes off is brutal. This was a huge scene from the game, and the show not only got it right but made it even more devastating.
“Endure and Survive” ends with Joel and Ellie burying Sam and Henry and continuing toward Wyoming on foot. But you can bet that the scars from this shared traumatic experience will have a big impact on their relationship moving forward.
The Last of Bullet Points
- One question I came out of Episode 4 with is why exactly Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) follows Kathleen’s orders. This episode really fleshed that out. Pierce and Lynskey subtly built a compelling dynamic between these two characters.
- Henry painting a superhero mask on Sam was such a cute and heartwarming scene. You’re tearing me apart, The Last of Us!
- Henry uses his knife to show Sam his reflection, which is a great little post-apocalyptic touch. No mirrors in the refugee attic!
- Sam communicates using a magic slate paper saver, a toy similar to an Etch A Sketch which was extremely popular in the United States up until the 1990s or so.
- Henry musing that he “hasn’t heard [Sam’s laugh] in a long time” is pulled straight from the game.
- Joel and Ellie both getting defensive when Henry accidentally calls Joel her dad was a wonderful moment.
- I love the thousand-yard stare Joel gives Ellie when he tells her to get out her gun in the tunnels only to find out that she disobeyed him and hid it in her pocket instead of her bag. A lot of emotions were conveyed with a few subtle expressions.
- Kid versions of infected weren’t something we saw a lot of in the game, so the inclusion of a child clicker was a terrifying addition for the show.
- Ellie shanks infected with her pocket knife during the big action sequence, one of her iconic moves from the game!
- That ending was a huge moment. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be here sobbing over the fact that Ellie wrote “I’m sorry” on Sam’s magic slate paper saver and left it on his grave.
Verdict
“Endure and Survive” was a big episode for The Last of Us, combining the shatteringly effective personal stories that made episodes like “Long, Long Time” so good with the best action set piece on the show to date. It also expanded the story in some unexpected and interesting ways, keeping iconic beats from the game while throwing one curveball after another. It was an excellent hour of television, with a horrifying climax that’s sure to haunt viewers for weeks.
Episode Grade: A
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