'The Last of Us' Episode 4 Recap: We'll Get Through This

The fourth episode of ‘The Last of Us’ strengthens the bond between Joel and Ellie, while introducing us to a new threat: Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen.

Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 4 of The Last of Us.

After last week’s exquisite 1/3 episode, “Long, Long Time,” the fourth episode of The Last of Us eventually receives us to the middle of what makes this story so special: Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). For the primary time, we get to spend quite a bit of time with this pair with the aid of themselves, as they make their way to Wyoming to locate Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna).

While not almost as tragic as any of the previous three, this week’s episode is doing plenty of essential work in constructing the connection between Joel and Ellie, as they learn to believe every different, begin accepting every different, and start to understand how critical having someone else looking their backs may be. So much of The Last of Us as a tale is ready this bond, and this fourth episode is the primary time we definitely start to see this connection flourish.

Joel and Ellie on the Road

We start the episode with Ellie, on my own in a fuel station toilet, admiring the gun she took from Bill and Frank’s place with out Joel knowing. Ellie appears interested in the gun, pulling the trigger with an empty barrel, and smelling the weapon before she places it away. We’ve already seen Ellie’s interest in relation to violence, as she regarded intrigued by Joel in the first episode when he killed the FEDRA officer, and in last week’s episode, “Long, Long Time,” she stabbed a trapped infected, seemingly to see what it was like. Ellie became born on this international of violence, and out of doors the walls of the Boston quarantine sector, she seems to be accepting the sector’s severity.

As she leaves, we find Joel siphoning fuel for the truck that additionally they got from Bill and Frank’s domestic. While Ellie waits, she pulls out her joke book, “No Pun Intended Volume Too,” and starts offevolved reading them to an unwilling Joel. Later on, as they hold on in the truck, Ellie rags on Joel a piece extra, as she reveals a Hank Williams cassette that Joel places on, after which after finding a homosexual porn magazine, she jokes about how all the pages are caught together. Much like the sport, these moments with the mag and the joke e book display that the barrier between these two is cracking. Ellie is already establishing herself as much as her protector, whilst Joel is beginning to slowly but virtually be given Ellie and her eccentricities, step by step.

While they pressure down the road, we see that the sector of guy has lost to nature. Buffalo nevertheless roam in herds, while we see plenty of cars and military motors left on the aspect of the street, abandoned, with even a large bridge giving out in the middle. Joel and Ellie pull off the street and into the woods to spend the night, and Joel cooks a meal of 20-12 months-vintage Chef Boyardee ravioli. Ellie likes the pasta, and Joel even concurs together with her. As they devour, they talk their plans, that they have to attain Wyoming in only some days, and Joel tells Ellie that notwithstanding the bloodless, they can’t make a fire, as it can entice different humans. Ellie asks if these different humans would rob them, to which Joel says they’d have greater on their minds than that.

As the two lie down in their dozing luggage for the night, Ellie receives out her shaggy dog story e book and asks Joel a severe query: “why did the scarecrow win an award?” To which Joel replies, “due to the fact he became tremendous in his discipline.” Ellie appears greatly surprised, amazed by this lighthearted aspect of Joel. As Joel goes returned to mattress, we see a unprecedented smile on his face for only a 2d. Ellie then concernedly asks about the ones people, ensuring they gained’t locate them. Joel assures her they won’t locate them, which Ellie accepts—every other signal that there may be already agree with growing between those two. Almost as though he is second-guessing himself, or maybe simply to ensure, we see that Joel stays up all night time along with his gun, protective Ellie from strangers who may also or won’t be lurking obtainable.

Tommy and Joel’s History

The next morning, the two pack up the truck and head back on the road—Joel manning the wheel with Ellie keeping an eye on the map. The topic of conversation heads toward Tommy, and Joel opens up, saying that Tommy used to be what he called a “joiner,” and that he dreamed of becoming a hero. Tommy enlisted in the Army after high school and then was shipped out in Operation Desert Storm, but that didn’t make him feel like a hero.

12 years later, after the outbreak, Tommy convinced Joel to join a group heading to Boston—which Joel did primarily in order to keep Tommy safe and alive. There, they met Tess, and they formed a crew. But then, Tommy met Marlene, who talked him into joining the Fireflies, with dreams that he could save the world. Joel says that Tommy and the Fireflies’ hopes of saving the world are a pipe dream and that they’re delusional. But last Joel heard, Tommy also left the Fireflies, and now he’s on his own, which means Joel has to go get him. Ellie questions Joel’s lack of hope, saying that we have to try, but Joel rebuts that she hasn’t seen the world yet, so she doesn’t know. But, Joel says you keep going for family, and that’s about it. When Ellie says that she’s not family, Joel says, “No, you’re cargo. I made a promise to Tess, and she was like family.”

Trouble in Kansas City

Further down the road in Kansas City, the interstate goes through a tunnel that is blocked by wrecked trucks and cars. Instead of backtracking further, they take an exit off the highway with plans to get on at the next exit. As they drive through the city, we see piles of bodies that they manage to miss, and they see a quarantine zone that has been deserted. Soon after, they see a man walking in the street doubled over, calling for help. Joel tells Ellie to put her seatbelt on and the two drive towards the man, with Joel saying they’re not going to help him. As they pass the man, another man drops a cinder block on their windshield, their tires are popped by a spike strip, and another man appears with a gun. Joel and Ellie crash the truck into a laundromat as they’re shot as from the street.

Joel tells Ellie to crawl into a hole in a nearby wall and to stay there until he gets her, promising her that she won’t get hurt. Once she’s there, Joel hides behind the useless truck and shoots at their attackers. Joel believes all the men to be dead, but then another man sneaks up behind him, knocking Joel to the ground, and pressing his gun up to his neck, slowly killing him. Knowing she has no other choice, Ellie sneaks up on the man and shoots him with her secret gun. But the man isn’t dead, crying and begging Ellie not to shoot again. Joel takes the gun from Ellie, takes the begging man’s knife, and tells Ellie to get back into the wall. From her hiding spot, we hear Joel stabs the man to death. With all the men gone, Joel and Ellie leave the laundromat, and head to the streets, hoping to find higher ground and a path out of danger.

Kathleen and the Hunt for Henry

We then depart Joel and Ellie and meet Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), who is interrogating an older guy in a FEDRA lockup, asking him where she will be able to locate the people she’s looking for. The listing ends with the name Henry, and Kathleen can inform the man is lying about no longer knowing Henry’s whereabouts. Kathleen then looks at the cellular they’re in, and questions whether this become the FEDRA lockup wherein her brother turned into beaten to loss of life. The man says that Kathleen become wronged and that he’s sorry, however she’s long past too a long way and this has to stop. But Kathleen factors out that of route, it has to prevent, now that the person doesn’t experience secure and guarded, but it didn’t depend while he become secure and ratting people out to FEDRA. As Kathleen holds a gun to the person’s head, we study that he become the medical doctor that added her, and the medical doctor promises that he in no way advised FEDRA anything approximately her brother. But Kathleen states that Henry did and they know he’s nonetheless within the city, and she or he believes the health practitioner knows in which he is. She holds the gun as much as his head, and the person once again reiterates that he become her health practitioner. Even although Kathleen says, “You do not assume I will do it?,” we are able to see that this bond does keep a few weight with her. When she hears a truck horn from the streets, she leaves the mobile and the medical doctor unhurt.

On the road, her crew has found the men that Joel killed. The chief of the squad, Perry (Jeffrey Pierce, who plays Tommy in The Last of Us video video games) says that the those who did this were outsiders, heavily supplied and not from FEDRA—but they may be mercenaries. Kathleen posits that maybe Henry known as these mercs in, and then asks if any of the men could live with the assist of a health practitioner, to which the men respond there may be no chance. Kathleen turns round and immediately returns to the health practitioner’s cellular with purpose, pulling out her gun and capturing the medical doctor useless. Kathleen returns to the street and claims that the demise of these men is Henry’s paintings, and that he may not prevent till they discover him. Her humans must find Henry’s collaborators and kill all of them. As they go on their challenge, we see Kathleen’s crew is closely armed, with weapons, vehicles, and masses of guys to enact a building-by means of-building search simply.

“We’ll Get Through This”

We cut back to Joel and Ellie who are hiding out in a bar, watching as Kathleen’s men search the apartments for Henry and his “collaborators.” They also see a tall building a few blocks away, which they plan to head to once things die down. In a moment of quiet, they both ask each other if they’re all right. Joel then confides that he feels bad that Ellie had to save him from the man who snuck up on him, getting choked up by the idea that a kid had to do that to protect him. Joel says he knows what it’s like, the first time you have to hurt someone like that, and that it was Joel’s fault, that Ellie shouldn’t have had to shoot the guy, and Joel apologizes to Ellie. But Ellie confesses that it wasn’t her first time, without delving into details. After that, Joel gives Ellie the gun back, making sure she knows how to use it, and tells her to put it in her bag, but instead, Ellie puts the gun in her jacket. It’s a touching moment of compassion between the two, showing that maybe Joel is starting to care for Ellie, and maybe even consider her more than just cargo. As they get ready to leave the bar, Joel promises “we’ll get through this,” to which Ellie replies, “I know.”

Back to Kathleen, Perry says that they found signs of Henry. Perry takes Kathleen to a crawlspace in a nearby building. Inside, they find crayon drawings of superheroes, empty cans of food, and a place where people were clearly sleeping. As they leave the space, Kathleen points out that they’re out of food and that Henry won’t let Sam starve, and that they must be close. Perry then takes Kathleen to another room where it looks like a crater has hit the ground. The caved-in ground starts to move, and they both leave the room, frightened by what’s underneath. Kathleen says that they should seal off the building and not tell people what is going on down there until after they’ve found Henry.

To the Childhood I Lost, Replaced by Fear

We rejoin Joel and Ellie entering the tall building, with plans to climb as many of the 45 floors as they can to get a better look at the city. As they climb floor after floor, Ellie asks Joel how she knew the guy with fake injury was going to ambush them. Joel admits that he’s been on both sides and that a long time ago, they did what they needed to survive—the “they” meaning Joel, Tess, Tommy, and the people they were with. Ellie asks if Joel killed innocent people, and Joel ignores the question, yet the silence answers the question nonetheless.

The pair makes it up 33 floors before Joel is too exhausted to keep going. Ellie calls Joel a lazy ass, and Joel jokes that he’s “56 years old, you little shit.” The two find a room to stay in for the night, with Ellie creating a makeshift bed out of cushions, while Joel breaks glass and spreads it near the door, so they’ll know if anyone tries to come in. Ellie asks if he’ll hear the glass, to which Joel says of course he will, that’s the point.

The two lay down for the night, but before they go to sleep, Joel asks Ellie what she meant that it wasn’t her first time hurting people. But this time, it’s Ellie who doesn’t want to talk about her past. Joel accepts it, saying she doesn’t have to talk about it, but it isn’t fair at her age to have to deal with this. Ellie asks if it gets easier when you’re older, to which Joel says it doesn’t, but still. Ellie follows up on the glass, saying she asked because she noticed Joel doesn’t hear too well on his right side. Ellie asks if it’s because that’s where he was shot, and Joel says it’s probably more from him shooting. To lighten the mood, Ellie tells another one of her bad jokes, and the two laugh with each other, overcome by the ridiculousness of a terrible joke about diarrhea. In the matter of one episode, we can already see how much closer this pair has gotten to each other, both trusting in each other, knowing that they have each other’s back, and feeling a camaraderie that neither of them has felt in quite some time.

But Ellie was right to worry about Joel not hearing the glass, as in the middle of the night, Ellie wakes up Joel with a start, as she is being held at gunpoint by a young man, and Joel discovers that a child with a drawn-on superhero mask is holding a gun on him as well. As the credits roll, we hear a cover of New Order’s “True Faith,” which was used in promotional material for The Last of Us Part II, with the game’s Ellie, Ashley Johnson, singing a version based on Lotte Kestner’s own cover. While it’s a nice reference to the game, the song is also from 1987 — which, once again, like Tess and Frank’s radio code, means trouble.