After the heartbreaking story of Bill and Frank in episode three, Joel and Ellie return to center stage on their journey to Tommy, so he can lead them to a firefly hospital.

The journey goes well until they get to Kansas City, where the highways are blocked and they have no choice but to take a detour. 

Of course, nothing goes to plan; and after a quick gunfight in which Joel eliminates two attackers, a third takes advantage of his hearing and gets the jump on him. While Joel is being choked out, Ellie shoots the attacker in his back, using a gun she stole from Bill’s house.

The attacker no longer fights, and instead pleads for his life. Joel knows he can’t let him go, and Joel tells Ellie to leave the room before killing him.

The two quickly flee the scene as more people begin to arrive to find their dead group members. After fleeing, Joel apologizes that Ellie had to save him. He feels that kids shouldn’t experience hurting another person like that. Ellie says that it wasn’t her first time, but refuses to go into detail of the event.

The audience is then introduced to Kathleen (Melanie Lynsky), who is the leader of the resistance that overthrew a F.E.D.R.A. quarantine zone and rules in ways just as terrifying and cruel as F.E.D.R.A.

It’s revealed one of the men killed by Joel and Ellie was Kathleen’s son, bringing them to the top of the list of people she wants to bring vengeance to.

Meanwhile, Joel and Ellie are going up a massive set of stairs in an attempt to find a hidden spot to rest for the night. They eventually reach the top and find a spot as Joel sprinkles broken glass on the floor to alert him if people break in, but Ellie is worried Joel’s hearing isn’t good enough.

Sure enough, the episode ends with Joel waking up to a kid aiming a gun to his head, bringing his finger up to tell Joel to stay quiet.

The next episode sets up with the upcoming story of Henry and Sam, and brings in the next antagonist with Kathleen. The bond between Joel and Ellie is beginning to grow, though Joel is still holding himself back as he is too scared from the loss of Sarah to build a connection. This episode also shows that even if F.E.D.R.A. is bad, what will end up replacing them could be even worse.

The episode officially begins with a flashback, showing the moments when the resistance overthrew F.E.D.R.A. Soldiers and sympathizers are seen being brutally murdered in the street as vehicles loop one message.

“The City belongs to the people,” the voice said. “Collaborators, surrender now and you will receive a fair trial.”

Though, these collaborators would not get a free trial, and instead, Kathleen would have them executed once she has extracted any valuable information from them.

The flashback ends and it sets up the same scene as the end of the previous episode. Tensions are high as Joel and Ellie are held at gunpoint by new characters Sam (Keivonn Woodard) and Henry (Lamar Johnson).

Eventually, the tension dies down and Henry reveals he needs their help to escape Kansas City – and this way they can help each other. After seeing Joel’s previous gunfight, Henry believes Joel is the muscle he needs to get through the city safely.

Henry relies on Joel because he lacks combat experience against the infected, and especially their mutated versions  known as clickers. Alongside this, Sam is deaf in the TV adaptation, which makes him more reliant on Henry.

Joel initially doesn’t like Henry, as he was a collaborator; people who gave up members of the resistance to F.E.D.R.A. in exchange for something. Joel eventually comes to terms with this, as Henry knows the city very well and Joel is in a similar situation: desperate to leave.

Henry reveals his plan of going into the city’s vast underground network, with the only potential flaw in this plan being that F.E.D.R.A. forced all the infected underground to make the streets safer. Henry reveals that, although this is a flaw, he has heard rumors that F.E.D.R.A. has cleared out large portions of the underground network before the takeover.

Joel doesn’t want to put his life in the hands of a rumor. Without any other plans, he agrees – and the group of four go towards an entrance to the underground tunnels.

Upon entering the tunnels, it’s evident that the place is empty. Henry makes loud noises, but Joel disapproves as they haven’t even been there for more than a minute. Upon further inspection, the place is proven to be empty and they decide to rest for a little.

During this time, it’s revealed why exactly Henry is the only real collaborator that Kathleen is interested in, Sam was diagnosed with leukemia, and the only way to get medicine was to give F.E.D.R.A. a man who he himself looked up to. The person he would give up was Kathleen’s brother who, at the time, was the resistance leader.

“There was a man, a great man,” Henry said. “I gave them something big… that one great man… I’m the bad guy because I did a bad guy thing.”

Here, it’s shown how much Henry has to grapple with his decisions, as he was forced to give up a great man who he looked up to – if he hadn’t , he loses his brother. Henry understands the reasons for Kathleen’s wrath and struggles to tell if his decision was worth it or not.

Later, they decide to get moving again; but from this point on, they have to travel above ground, exposed to Kathleen’s patrols.

The group leaves, and while walking, Joel opens the possibility of Sam and Henry joining them to help Tommy. While talking, however, a sniper shot rings out from a building and all four of them run for cover.

Joel tells them to stay put and goes to take the sniper out. At this point, the sniper’s radio gets a message and Kathleen says they are on their way.

While trying to run away, a massive armored vehicle starts plowing through the road followed by a convoy. Joel manages to take out the driver with his sniper, and the vehicle crashes into a house.

The rest of the convoy shows up, and Ellie, Sam, and Henry are forced to hide behind a nearby car. Kathleen starts a monologue about how sometimes kids die and she feels no sympathy for Henry because Sam was supposed to die.

Henry exposes himself, but before Kathleen can shoot him, the crashed vehicle sinks into the ground. What rises from the pit of fire is a massive hoard of clickers.

The clickers weren’t the worst this hoard has to offer though. Soon after, a roar would echo out and the infamous bloater emerges from the pit tearing everyone down in its path.

Kathleen’s second-in-command tells her she must go before he goes to distract the bloater by firing his gun at it. The bullets do nothing as the bloater charges and tears him apart, just like it was portrayed in the game. 

Kathleen confronts our three protagonists again and monologues more before ― ironically ― a child clicker attacks and kills her.

After escaping to a motel, they all get ready for bed, and Sam and Henry write back and forth. Sam soon lifts his pant leg and exposes a bite wound that he had gotten earlier.

Ellie naively says that her blood is medicine and will help him, so she cuts herself and puts her blood on his wound. She says she will stay up with him, but she falls asleep – and in the morning, she is attacked by the now infected Sam.

The fight breaks out into the hall where Henry and Joel are. Henry grabs Joel’s weapon before he can, and with hesitation, he shoots his brother before shooting himself shortly after.

Henry sacrificed a good man for his brother, just for that good man’s death to mean nothing.

Episode six continues as Joel and Ellie cope with the loss of Henry and Sam, and they now must continue their journey in the winter as they try to reach Tommy.

The opening shot shows a hunter coming back home, and as he talks to his wife, she alerts him of another presence in the house.

Joel emerges and tells him to drop his gun. He complies, and Joel explains that they’re just lost and don’t want to hurt them. The two point them in the right direction, giving them a warning not to cross the river. They don’t know what’s out there, but they did find bodies of people who crossed.

After continuing for some time, a large group on horseback showed up, demanding that they stand still and let their dog smell them for infection.

Joel starts to have a panic attack, as the F.E.D.R.A. tests still read positive for cordyceps on Ellie, and though he expects the worst, the dog doesn’t attack Ellie, and instead, she pets the dog.

The large group takes them back to their camp, and to Joel’s surprise, Tommy was at the camp. Joel learned that Tommy was never in any danger, but did leave the fireflies.

Joel and Tommy have clear disagreements about their past, but while Ellie is away, Joel and Tommy have a conversation where Joel reveals he doesn’t think he is able to properly protect Ellie at his old age. Joel even mentions the incident that occurred in Kansas City when Ellie had to save him.

“You know, she saved my life there, from another kid… Five years ago, I would’ve destroyed him. But she had to shoot him to save me. Fourteen years old. Because I was too slow and too f——- deaf to hear him coming.”

Joel starts to cry in this scene, and the audience is shown Joel’s true connection to what is now his surrogate daughter, and that he doesn’t want to keep failing her like he feels he has been.

Eventually, Tommy agrees to take her the rest of the journey to the fireflies – but Ellie hears part of their conversation and thinks Joel wants to ditch her.

They get into a heated argument in which Ellie says she’s not like his daughter, and this strikes a nerve, causing Joel to leave. 

“You’re right, you’re not my daughter,” Joel said. “And I sure as hell ain’t your dad.”

This argument is exactly from the game and really important in driving the plot, as it is Joel’s fear of failing someone like he did Sarah, but Ellie has had everyone she knows either die or leave her. She misunderstands Joel and thinks he just doesn’t care about her.

The next morning, Ellie and Tommy go to the stables. Joel is also there getting a horse ready, and says Ellie deserves a choice, and with no hesitation, she chooses Joel.

They reach what Tommy said would be a firefly base, but it’s clearly abandoned. They find papers detailing that they moved locations. As they continue looking, raiders show up.

When trying to escape, Joel is attacked by a man with a bat. He dodges the swing, and the man breaks his bat. Joel kills the man, but shortly after, notices he was stabbed with the bat. They ride off while being chased, but get away just in time as Joel passes out due to blood loss, leaving Ellie alone and distraught as the episode ends.

In the next segment, it will be Ellie’s turn to look after Joel and take care of his wounds before the finale – when they finally reach the fireflies.

My review

The Last of Us TV show has shown itself to be one of the best TV adaptations ever made, following the story with a lot of loyalty while enhancing the development of the characters.

Henry and Sam are a perfect example of this, as the show makes one key change in making Sam deaf. Sam relies so much more on Henry for this, and it amplifies the emotion when he ultimately fails to protect him.

The development of Henry and Sam, along with the massive action scene, is why episode five is my favorite episode of the series.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were the perfect cast for their characters. While some were skeptical because Ramsey doesn’t look like Ellie, Ramsey embodies Ellie in every way.