\n<\/p>\n
With its fifth episode,\u00a0The Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0once again gifts us a pair of new, beautifully realized characters, only to remove them from the board in harrowing fashion. Mercifully, these emotional deaths come\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0the show\u2019s biggest monster sequence yet, thanks to the arrival of the dreaded Bloater\u2014among the most iconic villains from the\u00a0Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0video game on which the\u00a0Craig Mazin<\/strong> and\u00a0Neil Druckmann<\/strong> show is based. More on that piece of work in a bit. First, let\u2019s rewind the clock to the top of this tragic tale.<\/p>\n Written by Mazin and directed by\u00a0Jeremy Webb<\/strong>, \u201cEndure and Survive\u201d begins nearly a fortnight before the events of last week\u2019s episode. We see what, up until now, we had only heard about:\u00a0Melanie Lynskey<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0Kathleen\u00a0 and her allies taking back their home from the cruel Kansas City chapter of FEDRA. Power abhors a cruelty vacuum, and Kathleen\u2019s here to fill it, presiding over a new group of people more than willing to execute their enemies on the streets with public hangings and shootings aplenty.<\/p>\n \u201cDid it feel good, betraying your neighbors to FEDRA, watching us get thrown in prison, watching us hang, so you can get medicine, alcohol\u2026 fucking apples?\u201d Kathleen asks a literally captive audience minutes before ordering their deaths. \u201cDid it make you feel better? Did it make you feel safe? How does it make you feel\u00a0now<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n As the episode wears on, we learn more about the vengeful tune humming beneath all of Kathleen\u2019s actions: a laser-focused quest to find and kill the aforementioned Henry, a young man who collaborated with FEDRA to get medicine for his sick brother Sam. The cost of that medicine: selling out Kathleen\u2019s brother, Michael, leader of the Kansas City resistance. Pushed on the subject by her second-in-command Perry (played by\u00a0The Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0video game alum\u00a0Jeffrey Pierce<\/strong>), Kathleen relents that Michael would have advocated for mercy against Henry. But Michael\u2019s not here anymore, is he? And Kathleen doesn\u2019t care about what he would have wanted, only what she wants. Given that she liberated them from FEDRA, the whole of Kansas City is backing her play.\u00a0That\u2019s the kind of commanding presence even Twitter trolls can\u2019t deny<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the other corner of this conflict: Henry, the most wanted man in Kansas City, and his younger brother, the eight-year-old superhero named Sam. Many years his senior, Henry wants nothing more than to get his brother safely out of the city. But after nearly two weeks in hiding and no discernible plan of action in sight, Henry and Sam\u2019s options are starting to look rather grim \u2014 until Joel and Ellie roll into town, guns blazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Identifying the\u00a0Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0leads as possible allies, Henry and Sam follow Joel and Ellie through the city and into the night, making their acquaintance by way of sticking unloaded guns in their faces. Perhaps one can forgive Joel for responding to this introduction with his \u201casshole voice\u201d as he warily studies Henry and Sam. Ultimately, he hears them out at Ellie\u2019s behest, and in time, they all agree on a plan: escape Kansas City by way of a tunnel system, once loaded with infected, now presumably empty.<\/p>\n The trip leads the four travelers to an abandoned underground community. An hours-long break quickens the bonds within the group, particularly between the youngest members of the party. Sam, who is deaf, immediately clicks with Ellie over a shared love of corny jokes and comic books. Joel and Henry, meanwhile, tacitly connect over a shared instinct to protect their loved ones at all costs. As Henry recounts the tale of betraying the Kansas City resistance to save his brother\u2019s life, he openly wonders whether or not he\u2019s crossed a point of no return.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a bad guy, because I did a bad guy thing,\u201d says Henry. \u201cYou get it, though. You may not be\u00a0her<\/em>\u00a0father, but you were someone\u2019s. I can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel isn\u2019t one to look back at his past. He certainly isn\u2019t about to discuss his dead daughter with a group of strangers, even ones as pleasant as these. On the other side of their rest stop, with Kansas City falling behind them, Ellie makes a pitch: these strangers should join them on their journey to Wyoming. There\u2019s no time to debate it, however, as the group comes under attack \u2014 first by a lone sniper, whom Joel sneaks upon and kills, and then by Kathleen\u2019s entire army, with Henry finally in their sights.<\/p>\n The group faces overwhelming odds, even with Joel now standing in sniper position. He shoots a single truck driver, plowing the exploding vehicle into an abandoned house. But soon, everyone\u2019s outnumbered. Left with few options, Henry surrenders, offering to trade his life for his brother\u2019s safety. Kathleen refuses. \u201cI know why you did what you did,\u201d she tells her target, \u201cbut did you ever stop to think he was supposed to die?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n