The fourth episode of ‘The Final of Us’ strengthens the bond between Joel and Ellie, whereas introducing us to a brand new risk: Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen.
Editor’s notice: The next incorporates spoilers for Episode 4 of The Final of Us.
After final week’s beautiful 1/3 episode, “Lengthy, Lengthy Time,” the fourth episode of The Final of Us ultimately receives us to the center of what makes this story so particular: Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). For the first time, we get to spend fairly a little bit of time with this pair with the help of themselves, as they make their method to Wyoming to find Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna).
Whereas not virtually as tragic as any of the earlier three, this week’s episode is doing loads of important work in developing the connection between Joel and Ellie, as they study to imagine each completely different, start accepting each completely different, and begin to perceive how crucial having another person wanting their backs could also be. A lot of The Final of Us as a story is prepared this bond, and this fourth episode is the first time we positively begin to see this connection flourish.
Joel and Ellie on the Highway
We begin the episode with Ellie, by myself in a gasoline station bathroom, admiring the gun she took from Invoice and Frank’s place with out Joel realizing. Ellie seems within the gun, pulling the set off with an empty barrel, and smelling the weapon earlier than she locations it away. We’ve already seen Ellie’s curiosity in relation to violence, as she regarded intrigued by Joel within the first episode when he killed the FEDRA officer, and in final week’s episode, “Lengthy, Lengthy Time,” she stabbed a trapped contaminated, seemingly to see what it was like. Ellie grew to become born on this worldwide of violence, and outside the partitions of the Boston quarantine sector, she appears to be accepting the sector’s severity.
As she leaves, we discover Joel siphoning gasoline for the truck that moreover they obtained from Invoice and Frank’s home. Whereas Ellie waits, she pulls out her joke ebook, “No Pun Meant Quantity Too,” and begins offevolved studying them to an unwilling Joel. In a while, as they maintain on within the truck, Ellie rags on Joel a chunk additional, as she reveals a Hank Williams cassette that Joel locations on, after which after discovering a gay porn journal, she jokes about how all of the pages are caught collectively. Very similar to the game, these moments with the magazine and the joke e ebook show that the barrier between these two is cracking. Ellie is already establishing herself as a lot as her protector, while Joel is starting to slowly however nearly be given Ellie and her eccentricities, step-by-step.
Whereas they strain down the highway, we see that the sector of man has misplaced to nature. Buffalo however roam in herds, whereas we see loads of vehicles and navy motors left on the side of the road, deserted, with even a big bridge giving out within the center. Joel and Ellie pull off the road and into the woods to spend the evening, and Joel cooks a meal of 20-12 months-vintage Chef Boyardee ravioli. Ellie likes the pasta, and Joel even concurs collectively along with her. As they devour, they discuss their plans, that they’ve to achieve Wyoming in just some days, and Joel tells Ellie that however the cold, they can not make a hearth, as it will probably entice completely different people. Ellie asks if these completely different people would rob them, to which Joel says they’d have larger on their minds than that.
As the 2 lie down of their dozing baggage for the evening, Ellie receives out her shaggy canine story e ebook and asks Joel a extreme question: “why did the scarecrow win an award?” To which Joel replies, “because of the truth he grew to become super in his self-discipline.” Ellie seems drastically shocked, amazed by this lighthearted side of Joel. As Joel goes returned to mattress, we see a unprecedented smile on his face for under a second. Ellie then concernedly asks in regards to the ones folks, making certain they gained’t find them. Joel assures her they gained’t find them, which Ellie accepts—each different sign that there could also be already agree with rising between these two. Nearly as if he’s second-guessing himself, or perhaps merely to make sure, we see that Joel stays up all evening time alongside together with his gun, protecting Ellie from strangers who can also or will not be lurking obtainable.
Tommy and Joel’s Historical past
The subsequent morning, the 2 pack up the truck and head again on the highway—Joel manning the wheel with Ellie maintaining a tally of the map. The subject of dialog heads towards Tommy, and Joel opens up, saying that Tommy was what he referred to as a “joiner,” and that he dreamed of changing into a hero. Tommy enlisted within the Military after highschool after which was shipped out in Operation Desert Storm, however that did not make him really feel like a hero.
12 years later, after the outbreak, Tommy satisfied Joel to hitch a bunch heading to Boston—which Joel did primarily so as to preserve Tommy secure and alive. There, they met Tess, they usually fashioned a crew. However then, Tommy met Marlene, who talked him into becoming a member of the Fireflies, with goals that he may save the world. Joel says that Tommy and the Fireflies’ hopes of saving the world are a pipe dream and that they are delusional. However final Joel heard, Tommy additionally left the Fireflies, and now he’s on his personal, which suggests Joel has to go get him. Ellie questions Joel’s lack of hope, saying that we now have to attempt, however Joel rebuts that she hasn’t seen the world but, so she would not know. However, Joel says you retain going for household, and that is about it. When Ellie says that she’s not household, Joel says, “No, you are cargo. I made a promise to Tess, and he or she was like household.”
Bother in Kansas Metropolis
Additional down the highway in Kansas Metropolis, the interstate goes via a tunnel that’s blocked by wrecked vehicles and vehicles. As a substitute of backtracking additional, they take an exit off the freeway with plans to get on on the subsequent exit. As they drive via town, we see piles of our bodies that they handle to overlook, they usually see a quarantine zone that has been abandoned. Quickly after, they see a person strolling on the street doubled over, calling for assist. Joel tells Ellie to place her seatbelt on and the 2 drive in the direction of the person, with Joel saying they don’t seem to be going to assist him. As they move the person, one other man drops a cinder block on their windshield, their tires are popped by a spike strip, and one other man seems with a gun. Joel and Ellie crash the truck right into a laundromat as they’re shot as from the road.
Joel tells Ellie to crawl right into a gap in a close-by wall and to remain there till he will get her, promising her that she gained’t get harm. As soon as she’s there, Joel hides behind the ineffective truck and shoots at their attackers. Joel believes all the boys to be useless, however then one other man sneaks up behind him, knocking Joel to the bottom, and urgent his gun as much as his neck, slowly killing him. Realizing she has no different selection, Ellie sneaks up on the person and shoots him along with her secret gun. However the man isn’t useless, crying and begging Ellie to not shoot once more. Joel takes the gun from Ellie, takes the begging man’s knife, and tells Ellie to get again into the wall. From her hiding spot, we hear Joel stabs the person to loss of life. With all the boys gone, Joel and Ellie go away the laundromat, and head to the streets, hoping to seek out larger floor and a path out of hazard.
Kathleen and the Hunt for Henry
We then depart Joel and Ellie and meet Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), who’s interrogating an older man in a FEDRA lockup, asking him the place she’s going to be capable to find the folks she’s in search of. The itemizing ends with the identify Henry, and Kathleen can inform the person is mendacity about now not realizing Henry’s whereabouts. Kathleen then appears on the mobile they’re in, and questions whether or not this grow to be the FEDRA lockup whereby her brother changed into crushed to lack of life. The person says that Kathleen grow to be wronged and that he is sorry, nonetheless she’s long gone too a good distance and this has to cease. However Kathleen elements out that of route, it has to forestall, now that the individual doesn’t expertise safe and guarded, nevertheless it did not rely whereas he grow to be safe and ratting folks out to FEDRA. As Kathleen holds a gun to the individual’s head, we examine that he grow to be the medical physician that added her, and the medical physician guarantees that he by no means suggested FEDRA something roughly her brother. However Kathleen states that Henry did they usually know he’s nonetheless throughout the metropolis, and he or she believes the well being practitioner is aware of during which he’s. She holds the gun as a lot as his head, and the individual as soon as once more reiterates that he grow to be her well being practitioner. Even though Kathleen says, “You don’t assume I’ll do it?,” we’re capable of see that this bond does preserve just a few weight along with her. When she hears a truck horn from the streets, she leaves the cell and the medical physician unharmed.
On the highway, her crew has discovered the boys that Joel killed. The chief of the squad, Perry (Jeffrey Pierce, who performs Tommy in The Final of Us video video video games) says that the those that did this had been outsiders, closely equipped and never from FEDRA—however they might be mercenaries. Kathleen posits that perhaps Henry referred to as these mercs in, after which asks if any of the boys may stay with the help of a well being practitioner, to which the boys reply there could also be no probability. Kathleen turns spherical and instantly returns to the well being practitioner’s mobile with goal, pulling out her gun and capturing the medical physician ineffective. Kathleen returns to the road and claims that the demise of those males is Henry’s work, and that he could not stop until they uncover him. Her people should discover Henry’s collaborators and kill all of them. As they go on their problem, we see Kathleen’s crew is intently armed, with weapons, autos, and lots more and plenty of fellows to enact a building-by means of-building search merely.
“We’ll Get Via This”
We in the reduction of to Joel and Ellie who’re hiding out in a bar, watching as Kathleen’s males search the flats for Henry and his “collaborators.” In addition they see a tall constructing just a few blocks away, which they plan to go to as soon as issues die down. In a second of quiet, they each ask one another in the event that they’re all proper. Joel then confides that he feels dangerous that Ellie needed to save him from the person who snuck up on him, getting choked up by the concept that a child had to try this to guard him. Joel says he is aware of what it is like, the primary time you need to harm somebody like that, and that it was Joel’s fault, that Ellie shouldn’t have needed to shoot the man, and Joel apologizes to Ellie. However Ellie confesses that it wasn’t her first time, with out delving into particulars. After that, Joel provides Ellie the gun again, ensuring she is aware of methods to use it, and tells her to place it in her bag, however as an alternative, Ellie places the gun in her jacket. It is a touching second of compassion between the 2, exhibiting that perhaps Joel is beginning to look after Ellie, and perhaps even take into account her extra than simply cargo. As they prepare to go away the bar, Joel guarantees “we’ll get via this,” to which Ellie replies, “I do know.”
Again to Kathleen, Perry says that they discovered indicators of Henry. Perry takes Kathleen to a crawlspace in a close-by constructing. Inside, they discover crayon drawings of superheroes, empty cans of meals, and a spot the place folks had been clearly sleeping. As they go away the house, Kathleen factors out that they’re out of meals and that Henry gained’t let Sam starve, and that they should be shut. Perry then takes Kathleen to a different room the place it appears like a crater has hit the bottom. The caved-in floor begins to maneuver, they usually each go away the room, frightened by what’s beneath. Kathleen says that they need to seal off the constructing and never inform folks what’s going on down there till after they’ve discovered Henry.
To the Childhood I Misplaced, Changed by Concern
We rejoin Joel and Ellie coming into the tall constructing, with plans to climb as lots of the 45 flooring as they’ll to get a greater take a look at town. As they climb flooring after flooring, Ellie asks Joel how she knew the man with faux harm was going to ambush them. Joel admits that he’s been on either side and that a very long time in the past, they did what they wanted to outlive—the “they” that means Joel, Tess, Tommy, and the folks they had been with. Ellie asks if Joel killed harmless folks, and Joel ignores the query, but the silence solutions the query nonetheless.
The pair makes it up 33 flooring earlier than Joel is simply too exhausted to maintain going. Ellie calls Joel a lazy ass, and Joel jokes that he is “56 years outdated, you little shit.” The 2 discover a room to remain in for the evening, with Ellie making a makeshift mattress out of cushions, whereas Joel breaks glass and spreads it close to the door, so that they’ll know if anybody tries to come back in. Ellie asks if he’ll hear the glass, to which Joel says in fact he’ll, that is the purpose.
The 2 lay down for the evening, however earlier than they fall asleep, Joel asks Ellie what she meant that it wasn’t her first time hurting folks. However this time, it is Ellie who would not need to discuss her previous. Joel accepts it, saying she would not have to speak about it, nevertheless it is not truthful at her age to should take care of this. Ellie asks if it will get simpler whenever you’re older, to which Joel says it doesn’t, however nonetheless. Ellie follows up on the glass, saying she requested as a result of she seen Joel would not hear too nicely on his proper aspect. Ellie asks if it’s as a result of that’s the place he was shot, and Joel says it is in all probability extra from him taking pictures. To lighten the temper, Ellie tells one other one in all her dangerous jokes, and the 2 snigger with one another, overcome by the ridiculousness of a horrible joke about diarrhea. Within the matter of 1 episode, we are able to already see how a lot nearer this pair has gotten to one another, each trusting in one another, realizing that they’ve one another’s again, and feeling a camaraderie that neither of them has felt in fairly a while.
However Ellie was proper to fret about Joel not listening to the glass, as in the midst of the evening, Ellie wakes up Joel with a begin, as she is being held at gunpoint by a younger man, and Joel discovers {that a} baby with a drawn-on superhero masks is holding a gun on him as nicely. Because the credit roll, we hear a canopy of New Order’s “True Religion,” which was utilized in promotional materials for The Final of Us Half II, with the sport’s Ellie, Ashley Johnson, singing a model primarily based on Lotte Kestner’s personal cowl. Whereas it is a good reference to the sport, the music can also be from 1987 — which, as soon as once more, like Tess and Frank’s radio code, means bother.
