The Last of Us season 1 episode 5 recap & review: Endure and Survive

Open Go TV / February 14, 2023 / Reviews

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In the fifth episode of The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie are forced to team up with strangers in order to get out of Kansas City alive. The episode is now streaming on HBO Max.

Recap

Kathleen’s people, the resistance group, fight off KC FEDRA and kill many of them brutally. Henry and his younger brother, Sam, who is deaf, try to stay away from the resistance and find places they can hide at.

Kathleen, on the other hand, interrogates a group of people they have kept captive. She asks them how it feels to be in their shoes now. She assures them that she is not FEDRA and won’t just kill them right away; she will put them on trial, and they will pay for their crimes.

Before they could proceed with that, she wants them to tell her where Henry is. When no one answers, Kathleen orders her right-hand man, Perry, to kill all of them.

Immediately, a person answers upon hearing those orders. He tells Kathleen that Henry is with Edelstein. They are going to meet up, but he doesn’t know where. Kathleen leaves and orders her people to search for Henry, Sam, and Edelstein.

Perry wonders if they are going to put these people they have in captivity on trial. Kathleen says they aren’t and instructs them to kill them and burn their bodies.

Edelstein helps Henry and Sam settle down in an attic. They have food and everything. Henry calms Sam down and offers him crayons to decorate the place they are at.

Ten days go by. Henry and Sam are running out of food and waiting for Edelsetin to return. When Henry realizes that he isn’t coming back, they head out.

A shootout between the resistance and Joel stops them from leaving the building they are in. Henry watches Joel take Kathleen’s men out. At night, Henry and Sam sneak up on Joel and Ellie with guns in their hands.

Henry asks Joel to not react once they lower their guns. They share a common enemy. Henry is the most wanted in Kansas City, and right now, Joel and Ellie are too.

Joel and Ellie bond with Henry and Sam over dinner. Henry knows that Joel and Ellie are here in this tall building to get a view of the city and find a way out.

Henry claims that he does know a way out, and he is ready to show it to them if they are willing to escort him and Sam out of the city safe and sound.

Henry says he is new to combat, and holding an empty gun on Joel and Ellie’s heads is the most violent he has ever been. They both need each other to get out of the city.

Henry explains his plan to Joel and Ellie. He is looking forward to taking them through tunnels. Joel wonders why Henry needs him if tunnels are an easy way out.

Henry asks them if they have noticed anything strange about this city. Ellie points out that there are no infected. Apparently, FEDRA pushed the infected underground 15 years ago and never let them come back.

The catch is that everyone thinks the tunnels are full of infected, including Kathleen, but they are not, which means they won’t run into anyone. Henry assures Joel that the FEDRA officer he worked with said that it’s completely clean and empty.

Three years ago, FEDRA cleared the infected out. The best chance is that there will be one or two infected. Upon finding out that Ellie and Joel have already fought two clickers, Henry claims that this would be an easy task for them.

Since this is their only shot, Joel and Ellie join Henry and Sam. They travel through the tunnels and quickly come across murals painted by children. They soon find themselves in a classroom.

Joel shares that he has heard about places like these. Some people went underground on Outbreak Day and built settlements. Joel assumes that they didn’t follow the rules, got infected, and died.

The group stays there for a while. Ellie and Sam get along and play with each other while Henry shares why Kathleen is looking for him. Sam had gotten sick with leukemia, and only FEDRA had the drug he needed.

In order to save his brother, Henry betrayed the resistance. He gave FEDRA the leader of the resistance, Kathleen’s brother, in exchange for that drug.

Back in the city, Kathleen goes missing too. Perry finds Kathleen in her childhood bedroom. Kathleen admits that her brother won’t like what she is doing with FEDRA and Henry, but she doesn’t see the point in forgiving them.

Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam successfully get out of the tunnels and out of the city. The moment they start thinking that they are safe, a sniper starts firing at them.

Joel smartly goes behind the house from where the shooter is firing and breaks in. He takes the shooter out and learns that he is part of the resistance, and Kathleen is coming for them.

Joel shouts for Ellie, Henry, and Sam to run. The resistance group comes in their trucks, pushing every car out of the way. Before they could take out Ellie as well, Joel shoots down the driver, resulting in the truck’s accident.

Kathleen and the resistance circle the place. She asks Henry to surrender. She understands why Henry did what he did, but then she tells Henry to rethink whether Sam was supposed to die anyway.

Henry directs Ellie to be ready to take Sam away. He comes out and surrenders. Kathleen points her gun toward Henry. Soon, the cordyceps pull the crashed truck underground. A swarm of infected emerges from there.

The place becomes a battlefield, with the infected attacking everyone in their sight. Joel shoots any resistance member or infected who approaches Ellie.

The arrival of a big infected being turned things around. Ellie, Sam, and Henry managed to get off the battlefield. Kathleen attempts to stop them, but she gets killed by an infected too.

Joel, Ellie, Sam, and Henry escape and find shelter at an abandoned motel. Joel watches Ellie grow close to Sam. He finds a connection here and invites Henry on this journey to Wyoming.

Henry reminds Sam that it’s time to sleep, and he closes the door. Ellie helps Sam with his fear, and the latter soon reveals that he has been bitten. A concerned Ellie shows him her wound. She says that her blood is medicine.

She draws some of her blood out and puts it on Sam’s wound, hoping that it will save him. They promise to stay up together. In the morning, Ellie wakes up to find Sam sitting idle. He soon attacks Ellie. Henry picks up Joel’s gun and accidentally kills his own brother.

Unable to process the situation, Henry proceeds to kill himself too. Ellie and Joel bury them. Before leaving, Joel notices that Ellie has left Sam’s writing pad on his grave, which has ‘I am sorry’ written on it.

Review

The fifth episode is probably the most mainstream entertainer from The Last of Us. It has everything a mainstream show needs: the right amount of pace, emotions, action, and relationships.
The show introduces one-off characters and in a single episode manages to connect them with the viewers, give them their due, their best moments, and wrap up their arc.
Henry’s character especially had a lot going on. He had an emotional weak point in the form of Sam, and his backstory was written well too. On top of that, his nature and commanding behavior towards Joel show how he has been able to avoid Kathleen and the resistance.
The final twenty minutes of the episode is filmmaking at its best. One can make out that at least one obstacle will definitely come in the group’s way while escaping the city. It does, but what follows is something that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
The battle between the resistance and the infected is terrifying. The infected are fast, and the viewers will have their hearts racing while watching the characters fight them off.
The introduction of the big infected, popularly known in games as the ‘bloater’, is done well. It’s chilling, and the fear on Perry’s face tells how bad things are going to be with this monster’s arrival.
One can notice a change in Ellie’s behavior. The moment Henry shoots Sam, he, Ellie, and Joel take time to process the situation. Even the viewers will take their time. No one should witness the death of a kid in such a way.