The Last of Us Episode 6 Review: The Adventure Continues And We Find Ourselves More And More Involved In The Story
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley
Director: Jasmila Žbanić
Streaming Platform: HBO Max
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
New Monday, a new episode of the series that has become the new HBO Max flagship. The Last of Us progresses at a good pace, jumping in time that takes us three months after what happened in the traumatic previous episode entitled “Endure and Survive”. Summary and analysis of The Last of Us Episode 6 entitled “Kin” with the interpretations of Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley. Premiere on February 20. No wonder Sony regrets missing out on the opportunity to make its adaptation of the video game… although it’s also true that it’s unlikely a better creative team would have been assembled than the one behind this series that manages to fly high in each episode that the platform offers. From this moment, you will find spoilers for episode 6 of The Last of Us, entitled “Kin“, so it is preferable that you do not continue reading if you are not up to date.
Our journey into the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us continues, immersing us in the second half of the season in which – leaving aside the explosive violence that characterized the passage through Kansas City – the emotional connection we are creating with this story and with his characters are getting stronger and stronger. As we will see in this review of The Last of Us Episode 6, the infected once again become a secondary threat, it is the inner monsters that torment the protagonists that become obstacles for their mission. In this new chapter of the story, Joel and Ellie will meet a new group of survivors, a community that has done everything to be reborn and reconstructed following the principles of civilization, and the bond that binds them will be put to the test. Joel, in fact, the more he feels affection for Ellie and the instinct to protect her at all costs grows, the more inadequate he feels for the task entrusted to him. The conflict, in this case as in the previous episode, depends once again on the contrast between the need to put one’s “family” first (which Ellie is fully becoming for Joel), and that of thinking for the good of all humanity.
The Last of Us Episode 6 Review: The Story Plot
Three months after Henry’s suicide, the cold has come, and snow covers everything. Joel and Ellie find a lonely couple sheltering in a cabin. Joel wants to get to the city, but they are lost. After removing their weapons, they are advised to avoid Cody, Laramie, and Wind River as well as any place where there used to be people. They tell them not to go to the west of the river because that is where they take the corpses, some infected and others not, but they suspect that it is precisely where Tommy may be. Stepping out into the sunlight, Joel suddenly has a dizzy spell, but he pulls himself together and they continue on. They decide to camp for the night and cross the river at night.
In front of a bonfire, Ellie asks him what he would do if everything went well and a serum could be created with his blood to cure the infected. He tells her to have a ranch with some cattle like sheep and she says to follow in the footsteps of Sally Ride, the astronaut. Even though he was going to make the two watches, Joel falls asleep and Ellie is in charge of taking care of their small camp following the advice that he has been giving her. They pick up and continue. They cross the river by a bridge and arrive at a dam. However, things take a turn for the worse when they are surrounded by a group of people on horseback. They have a tracking dog that detects infected people. Joel passes the test but there is a tense moment when he becomes suspicious of Ellie. Luckily, he passed the test.
Joel asks about Tommy, and they are led to a community where he finally finds his brother. They hugged. They eat with a real appetite and Tommy introduces them to Maria as his partner and therefore part of the family. They show them the community where they stayed seven years ago. They don’t use the radio to go unnoticed. They have electricity, sewage, and… sheep. It is a democratic community in which “everything belongs to everyone”. Joel leaves with Tommy and Ellie with Maria. The brothers chat and Tommy asks about Tess. Joel lies to her and tells her that she is fine. And he lies about Ellie again, telling her that she is the daughter of a big shot and that she will get paid to reach the Fireflies.
Joel asks him to go to Colorado with him, but Tommy tells him no and it’s not because he’s judging him but because he’s going to be a father: Maria is pregnant. Joel tells him that they will get supplies and leave in the morning. He has a dizzy spell again when he goes out and sees a girl who reminds him of his daughter. Ellie takes a shower and is given clean clothes and a menstrual cup. Maria brings her a new coat and cuts the ends of her hair while she tells him that she was dedicated to putting bad guys in jail. Ellie tells her that she has seen their children’s altar, but Maria tells her that Kevin was her son and the girl, Sara, Joel’s daughter. Ellie is stunned because she had no idea. The conversation becomes tense between them, and Maria ends up recommending Ellie not trust anyone.
Tommy brings his brother some new boots and tells him that going to college isn’t suicidal and that he can if he’s careful. Joel explains the whole truth: that Ellie is immune, something he has verified for himself, and that he has a responsibility. He tells her that Marlene put her in his hands, that Tess died on the way and made him promise to take care of Elie and that he no longer has the reflexes he used to, that sometimes he is very afraid and paralyzed. Also, she has horrible nightmares that she fails him, and they end up killing her. Joel tells her that if she is looking for redemption for what they did in the past to survive, she has to take it with him, who is younger and stronger. She only trusts him, so they don’t kill her. Tommy tells him that they will leave at dawn.
Ellie is reading a newspaper and hallucinates about the things that worried people before cordyceps: movies, matching clothes… Things that seem absurd to her. Ellie tells him that Maria told her about Sara and that she also knows what it’s like to lose loved ones: she overheard your conversation with Tommy and is hurt. Joel tells her that at dawn they are going to separate because it is true that he is not her father, and she is not her daughter. When Tommy goes looking for her, Ellie is prepared. They go to the stable and Joel is saddling a horse. He tells her to choose, and she says that she wants to go with him without hesitation. Tommy explains which way to go. The brothers hugged and say goodbye and thus resume their journey.
Joel teaches Ellie how to shoot a rifle and tells her about what the world was like before. He tells her that he was a contractor and built things. They reach the point that Tommy had pointed out in five days. Joel tells him that if he could choose, he would pass on the sheep and fulfill his dream of being a singer. In the vicinity of the university, there are monkeys, probably from the chemistry laboratory. Even though there is an emblem of the Fireflies, the guard post has no one so they decide to leave the horse to enter the building, take out their weapons, and act cautiously. The site is abandoned and although there are remains of medical activities, it seems that the Fireflies made a list of what they were taking and went from there to another better-equipped place. They hear a noise upstairs and go to investigate, but it was the monkeys messing everything up.
They find a plane with several marked points and see the people below. They decide to go out from behind to get back on the horse and run away from there. Joel confronts one hand-to-hand and kills him, but the guy has stabbed him in the belly and he’s starting to bleed profusely. Three others go after them so they get on the horse and run away while Ellie shoots. Once safe, Joel falls off his horse and loses consciousness. Ellie doesn’t know where he’s going to go or what he’s going to do.
The Last of Us Episode 6 Review and Analysis
At the center of this sixth episode of The Last of Us, we find, even more than in the previous ones, the bond that is slowly building between the two protagonists. The heart of this episode is, in our opinion, enclosed in two dialogue scenes, one after the other: first we see the confrontation between Tommy and Joel, who manages to get naked and tell his brother all his doubts and those that feel like weaknesses; then the one between Joel and Ellie, who understood that the man wants to entrust her to Tommy and she is extremely upset. Ellie would like to stay with Joel, whom she now trusts and with whom she has established a bond that is getting stronger; he, on the other hand, is crushed by the affection he begins to feel for her and – consequently – by the terror of losing her and not being able to protect her, as happened with Sarah. The memory of his missing daughter is one more element in this complicated mix of feelings and fears, which triggers an inevitable sense of guilt in Joel since he somehow finds himself “replacing” her in her heart with someone else.
The acting skills of the two main performers are among the reasons why The Last of Us is such an engaging story, both are very good at bringing to the screen both the strongest and most fragile sides of their characters, which make them so human and so – even in such an extreme situation as the one in which they find themselves – “similar” to us. Among the most emotional moments of Kin, we find undoubtedly the long sequence in which the two cross Wyoming on horseback, heading together towards what they believe to be the base of operations of the “Lights”. Joel opens up more and more to Ellie and the two joke with great familiarity, in an exchange that is both touching and funny, between a “father and daughter” who are simply happy to spend time together.
The final cliffhanger abruptly takes us back to the violent and dangerous reality in which this story is set, underlining once again how survival in such a world is difficult, and one must constantly look over one’s back. It is with a certain fear that we will approach the vision of the next episode, because, we have to admit it, by now we have become so attached to Joel and Ellie that we do not accept the possibility that something could happen to them. The Last of Us is a very powerful drama and this episode makes the most of the visual and musical section to make Joel’s vital moment coincide with the weather seasonality itself. The change of scenery, with the snow-covered landscapes, is not trivial, nor is it that air of twilight western creeps into the soundtrack (and in the way of shooting).
If winter brings with it the cold, which paralyzes and makes us think of the end of the road, the simile is perfect for framing the tiredness that Joel suffers and making him feel that he is not up to the challenge that lies ahead. She feels weak and accuses the passage of time and the weight of responsibility because her emotional bond with Ellie is getting stronger. There is also a certain coldness in the way his brother receives him: not so much because of the welcome but because he had ignored him, stopped answering on the radio, and decided to live a new life apart from Joel, Tess, and all his acquaintances.
This episode also shows the bright side of survival after the great outbreak: there are still dangerous survivors and looters, forced to resort to violence to survive, but it is also possible to achieve a certain degree of comfort collaboratively in small communities (we have a sort of Commonwealth on a much smaller scale). In short, “Kin” is an episode in which the plot progresses at a good pace, showing at least two more communities of people who survive in isolation: Tommy’s couple and commune, and also demonstrating that large open nature spots are one of the few places where safe havens can be found. The Last of Us knows how to take advantage of photography and combine background and form very well, creating an exciting whole and involving the viewers with the characters. Hats off to Pedro Pascal’s very restrained but also tremendously accurate performance in this episode. Another caramel that we tasted with real relish.
The Last of Us Episode 6 Review: The Last Words
The Last of Us Episode 6 delves into the inner journey that the two protagonists are experiencing. The adventure continues and we find ourselves more and more involved in the story of Joel and Ellie. Another episode that borders on perfection and manages to touch the viewer with emotion while showing desolate landscapes, dangerous survivors, and a luminous (and fragile) community. Pedro Pascal’s interpretation is especially brilliant in this episode, with echoes of a twilight western.
