The Last of Us Episode 5 Review: Endure and Survive Manages to Highlight With an Incisive Writing
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Melanie Lynskey, Keivonn Woodard, Lamar Johnson
Director: Jeremy Webb
Streaming Platform: HBO Max
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
From this moment on, you will find spoilers for The Last of Us Episode 5, entitled “Endure and Survive“, so you shouldn’t continue reading if you are not up to date. The Last of Us has also reached its halfway point: the series created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann with its fifth episode enters the second half of the season which, given the fold taken by the events, it becomes even more intense, dramatic, and tense. Week by week The Last of Us, the HBO Max series, is becoming one of the greatest exponents of streaming thanks to a story told with the precision of a surgeon, very seductive characters, and a forcefulness in production design that we rarely see. So, it is not surprising that the audiences increase, its popularity does so in parallel and we are dedicating a review to each episode. The one that concerns us today, “Endure and Survive” places us beyond the middle of this first season, which consists of nine and serves as the conclusion to the journey through Kansas that started in the previous episode “Please Hold on to My Hand“.
The interlude in Kansas City of the protagonist duo, which will end in an exploit of pure violence, is essential to better understand the direction that the series wants to take (the next few episodes are truly heart-pounding) and to consolidate the relationship between Joel and Ellie, more and more united. As we will see in our review of The Last of Us Episode 5, this fifth chapter of the epic adventure based on the famous Naughty Dog video game shows us once again a world full of dangers, of bloodthirsty infected, but also of people who have lost everything and are willing to do anything, to survive and to have their revenge. Once again, we realize that in this story it is not the “zombies” who are scary (although we must admit that in this episode they are quite striking in their spectacular entrance on the scene) but the people who remain: there is still hope for a genre human so broken and brutal? What is left for us to save?
The Last of Us Episode 5 Review: The Story Plot
The Last of Us Episode 5 starts moving us a few days back in time to show the revolutions in the streets of Kansas, cries of freedom and death to PHAEDRA. The corpse of a stabbed man is exhibited, and pressure is put on the collaborators (allies of FEDRA) to show their faces. Kathleen and Perry go to see inmates who are accused of selling their neighbors to PHAEDRA in exchange for alcohol, food, and comfort. She asks for their collaboration to find out the whereabouts of Henry. One of them says that he is with a certain Edelstein. Kathleen orders them to go door to door looking for him since she now knows that he and Sam are still in town. Also, they finish off the informers and burn the bodies.
Henry and Sam meet with Edelstein who turns out to be the doctor. They have food for approximately eleven days. Sam is deaf and very scared, so Henry tells him that he doesn’t have to worry, they’ll be fine there. They paint together on the wall. Ten days later the food supplies are almost gone, they only have one can left and Henry is aware that they have to go out for supplies. Sam asks if they’ve killed Edelstein, and Henry tells him that they probably have, but they still have to find food. He asks her to close her eyes and paints a mask on her with paint to instill self-confidence.
Just as they are about to leave, Joel and Ellie‘s car crashes, and what we saw in the previous episode happens, causing Henry to have to change his plans. And so we come to the moment where Henry points the gun at Ellie and Sam at Joel. Henry says that he is going to trust them but not try anything, they are armed. Joel asks who they are and explains that he and his brother Sam are being wanted, just like they are. They share their food with them and introduce themselves. In the morning Henry tells them that the survivors of Kansas have been killing for twenty years and that they have managed to drive Phaedra out for eleven days.
He’s a collaborator, which sounds awful to Joel since he doesn’t want to deal with snitches. However, he will not have any other choice. Henry knows a way out but needs Joel to clear it. He explains that Kathleen is in charge and makes them a rudimentary plan: the idea is to leave through the maintenance tunnels until they cross a bridge that will take them to freedom. The problem is that FEDRA buried all the infected underground, so the underground route is very risky. Henry has information that one of the tunnels was purged three years ago, and it’s his best asset.
Thus, they head into the tunnel with weapons drawn and ready to defend themselves. Joel asks them to light up, stay quiet, and prepare to run if necessary. They come to an area decorated with children’s drawings where Sam feels in his element, but Joel urges caution. The Place Is Abandoned: Joel says he’s heard about those places where people used to hide. They don’t know what happened to them, they probably got infected. Ellie and Sam find comics they both like. Ellie repeats the motto: “to the ends of the Universe and back, resist and survive”. The boys find there everything they need to have a good time: a ball, reading books, and toys. Ellie asks them to spend the night there to come out on the other side warm at night. There the boys play and relax.
Joel and Henry take the opportunity to catch up: he tells him that if he was helping to take care of his brother, he understands even if he doesn’t share it. Henry comes clean and tells him that he has killed a man: it was when he found out that the boy had leukemia and learned that Phaedra had the medicine, so he handed them over to the resistance leader in Kansas, who was Kathleen’s brother. . He tells her that he thinks he understands him because even though he’s not Ellie’s father, he was someone’s and it shows. Thus, he puts the personal conflict between Kathleen and Henry on the table.
Kathleen is in her childhood room, where she lived with her brother Michael. Perry goes looking for her and she explains that he used to protect her by telling him that her room was impregnable while they were together. She believes that he was a very nice person but that she is not and that she would be horrified by what she is doing. Perry tells her that they are on her side, that her brother was not able to change things and she was, and that therefore they will continue on her side. Joel, Ellie, Herny and Sam come out of the tunnel on the other side. Ellie tells them that they are going to Wyoming. When they think they are safe, they shoot at them. Joel decides to surround the house and attack from behind, taking advantage of the darkness.
The guy who is stalking them is a very old man. He asks her to put the gun down but doesn’t listen to reason and Joel shoots him. A radio alerts the man that they’re almost there, let him hold on so Joel has just enough time to lean out the window and tell the others to run. Events precipitate Joel’s fires from inside the house at the motorcade of vehicles in which Kathleen and Perry are. Joel manages to finish off the driver of the first vehicle and a huge explosion occurs when he crashes into a house. Kathleen asks Herny to turn himself in, but he tells her to let the kids off something which she refuses. She knows the reason why she betrayed her brother, and she doesn’t care: she considers that perhaps Sam should die as so many children have done and that he is not special. Henry asks Ellie to grab Sam and run when he turns himself in.
As Kathleen loads the gun, they see a hole open in the ground and the burning vehicle falls through, followed by a tangle of infected speeding out. Kathleen’s men open fire and Joel from his position too, but all is chaos. Ellie gets into a car where an Infected is then introduced. Perry sees a gigantic clicker come out of the gap and tells Kathleen to take cover and not stop running just before the clicker pounces on her and rips her head off. Ellie manages to escape from the vehicle and helps Henry and Sam. They try to run away, but Kathleen finds them. She is jumped by an Infected at the last second and they run for the embankment as the Infected continues to emerge from the ground. Already undercover, Joel meets with them and they decide to continue together until Wyoming.
Sam asks Ellie if she’s never afraid but she tells him that she’s afraid all the time, especially of ending up alone. Sam asks if you’re still inside your body if you turn into a monster and shows him a bite mark on her leg. She shows him her scars and tells him that her blood is medicine. He cuts her hand and applies it to the wound. Sam asks her to stay up with him and she promises that she will. They hugged. The next morning, Sam transforms and attacks her. After a few moments of confusion, Henry shoots him, and in despair to see what he has made of her, he then shoots himself in the head. Joel and Ellie bury them and she leaves a note saying “I’m sorry” before leaving.
The Last of Us Episode 5 Review and Analysis
Endure and Survive manages to highlight, with once again particularly successful and incisive writing, one of the central themes of the story: in a world of this type, in which there is now so little left to save, can we still think of the good of the community or is it fairer – more “natural” – to focus only on the people we love? What choice makes us more human? The character of Henry becomes the symbol of this moral dilemma, to save little Sam and get the medicines he needed to survive he sold the head of the resistance, Kathleen’s brother, to the federals. A good, charismatic man who would only do good. Doing so unleashed the fury of Kathleen who – after taking her brother’s place and leading people to revolt through the ferocity of violence – made finding Henry, revenge, her main goal.
In a final dialogue between the two, she recriminates him for choosing to put Sam’s good before that of all the others, without realizing, however, that this is what she is doing too, placing love for her brother – and the need for revenge – in front of the safety of the people who count on her. The last portion of the episode – after a relatively “quiet” first part – is the tensest and full of violence: the four fugitives have almost managed to get out of the city but are found by Kathleen and her people. Immediately before the woman can finally get her revenge, however, all hell breaks loose: dozens and dozens of infected (apparently led by a creature larger than the others, with extreme strength) emerge from an opening in the ground and throw themselves without mercy on the people present on the scene. Joel, who has just killed a sniper hidden in a house, manages to protect Ellie by aiming at the infected.
This sequence, extremely agitated but orchestrated with particular clarity and precision (the direction does not disappoint even in this kind of scene), is the one that has most so far made us rethink the origins of The Last of Us as a video game: Joel completes his “mission”, saving Ellie from the infected who pounce on her from time to time. A perfect tribute to the gaming roots of The Last of Us that draws us into the action and leads us to empathize even more with the protagonists. This fifth episode is also a fundamental piece in building the inner world of the protagonist couple: Joel and Ellie further consolidate their relationship, with the grumpy fifty-year-old who is increasingly transformed into a fiercely protective father figure. Sam and Henry become the perfect counterpart for the two, recalling, albeit differently, the dynamics that keep them together.
In The Last of Us, Episode 5 Kathleen played by Melanie Lynskey is also particularly striking, she gives life to a character who arouses conflicting emotions in the viewer: on the one hand, it is impossible not to understand the reason for her actions, on the other we cannot unless hate her, hoping for the salvation of the other characters. Kathleen’s strong ambiguity – which Melanie Lynskey portrays perfectly – is perhaps the most intimate and fundamental feature of the series itself: in a world of this kind, do right and wrong still exist? In The Last of Us, there aren’t really “good guys” and “bad guys”, just people who do everything to survive and to protect those they love. It is therefore difficult to blame them for the choices – perhaps horrible and unforgivable – they make.
Goosebumps watching the new episode of The Last of Us: it serves as a perfect combo with the previous episode, to the point that perhaps it would have been more satisfying to join both episodes and share the story by expanding the previous one a little more. Be that as it may, it has it all: drama, action, character development, and moral dilemmas that are exposed to the viewer to make them think about what they would do if they found themselves in the place of the survivors. The production design, the quality of the special effects, and the specialists at the service of the story make this episode completely climatic, it could almost have corresponded to a season finale of any other series in use.
Additionally, the main plot continues to develop: Ellie’s failed experiment by applying (in a somewhat naive way) her blood to a bite from an infected person, already gives us a clue that it will not be so easy to find a cure for the plague. of cordyceps. But not only have we faced the most brutal face of the infected, also seen very well the differences between them, but the hopelessness of the people and their moral depravity have become clear. Kathleen has been one of the epitome of that condition to the extent that she has not minded desecrating the memory and desires of her beloved brother for revenge.
It’s sobering since Kansas was one of Phaedra’s few free fiefdoms, which is why Kathleen, despite her expeditious methods, had so much support. So, the big question is if only another form of fascism can end the military dictatorship, ergo there is no way out. The Last of Us 1×05 is an amazing episode: it gives you something to think about, it shows the darkest corners of the human soul and it doesn’t pay attention to the tension when it comes to showing the gallery of infected, making it clear who the “final bosses” will be. Best of all, it also does it on its terms, making a great adaptation of the video game, but with its identity language. Chapeau!
The Last of Us Episode 5 Review: The Last Words
Endure and Survive manages to highlight, with incisive writing that has characterized the series up to now, one of the central themes of the story: in a world where there is now so little left to save, can we still think about the good of the community or is it more natural focus only on the people we love? The Last of Us 1×05 is another fundamental piece of what is proving to be the most successful television work of the year. The Last of Us flies high again with a well-tuned episode, decisive and brutal when it should be. For the first time, they are infected en masse and they are terrifying.
