‘The Last Of Us’ Recap: Joel & Ellie Face More Tragedy After Teaming Up With Henry & Sam

There’s mayhem and rioting in the streets of Kansas City when The Last of Us episode 5 begins, and Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) is still determined to find Henry (Lamar Johnson). He’s managed to evade Kathleen so far, but he knows the walls are closing around him and his brother, Sam (Keivonn Woodard).

Kathleen refuses to back down. She confronts a group of informers for “betraying” their neighbors for FEDRA. She tells them all that they don’t have to die, but she wants something in return. She wants to know where Henry is. No one speaks up initially, so she tells Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) to kill them. One man finally says something and claims Henry is with a man named Edelstein. He doesn’t have any more information than that.

Tommy assures Kathleen that there’s already a perimeter around the city, so Henry and Sam will be found sooner or later. Finding Henry is Kathleen’s top priority, for better or worse. As she walks away, she orders Tommy to just burn the bodies of the informers when he’s done killing them.

This Edelstein is the doctor Kathleen killed in episode 4. Before he was captured, he had met up with Henry and Sam, who is deaf. With 11 days worth of food at the time, Henry believed he could come up with a solid plan to get out of the city with Edelstein by the time they ran out. When Edelstein leaves and doesn’t come back after more than a day, Henry knows it’s time to move out with Sam because they have no more food.

Before they leave, Henry paints an orange stripe across Sam’s eyes. It’s time for Sam to be brave, like a superhero. On their way out, Henry watches Joel win the shootout after crashing Bill’s truck. Henry tracks down Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in the night. Despite holding them at gunpoint, Henry doesn’t want to hurt Joel and Ellie.

Henry & Kathleen’s History Is Revealed

Henry says he’s the “most wanted man in Kansas City.” He tells Joel that he knows the city and can help them get out. Henry has a hunch that Joel is the man to stick by after watching him kill those men. Henry knows the way out of the city but doesn’t know how to make it out alive. He says he’s never killed anyone and was never going to kill them. The guns he and Sam had were unloaded.

Henry stresses that they have to use the maintenance tunnels to get out without being noticed. He does warn Joel that FEDRA drove the infected underground 15 years ago, but the tunnels are supposedly clean now. They all head down together. It’s dark and quiet. They stumble upon an abandoned daycare center that was set up after the initial outbreak.

During a candid conversation, Henry reveals the truth to Joel. He has killed someone before, someone he calls a “great man.” It all happened because Sam got sick with leukemia. There was one drug that worked, but it belonged to FEDRA. In order to get the drug, he had to give FEDRA something big. He killed the leader of the resistance movement, who also happened to be Kathleen’s brother.

A Deadly Attack

As they’re walking through the street on the outskirts of town, shots ring out. Joel leaves Ellie, Henry, and Sam behind to track down the shooter. Joel easily takes the guy out, but Kathleen and her men are en route. Joel keeps on firing at the vehicles barreling toward them and manages to shoot one of the truck drivers. The car crashes and bursts into flames.

Kathleen gets out of her car and urges Henry to show himself. Henry tells her that he’ll surrender if she lets the kids go. Kathleen refuses to negotiate. She tells Henry that maybe Sam was just “supposed to die.” Kids die all the time, she says. She adds, “This is what happens when you f**k with fate.” Henry orders Ellie to take Sam and run.

Henry steps out from behind a car to face Kathleen. “It ends the way it ends,” she says to Henry before pointing her gun at him. Suddenly, the burning car collapses into a pit. A swarm of infected emerge and begin to attack. Henry and Sam run for it, while Ellie climbs into a car. A bloater crawls out from the pit and heads straight for Kathleen and Tommy. Tommy sacrifices himself for Kathleen as she makes a run for it.

An infected kid gets in the car with Ellie, who spots Sam and Henry under a car trying to fight off clickers. Ellie and Joel, who is taking out clickers who come close to Ellie, help Henry and Sam get out from under the car. As they’re running away from the chaos, Kathleen stops them. Before she can kill Henry, the young clicker Ellie faced in the car attacks Kathleen. It ends the way it ends, right?

Henry Kills Sam After He Attacks Ellie

Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam find shelter for the night. Henry wonders if Ellie and Sam will be okay. Joel says this is all easier to face when you’re younger. It’s all about enduring and surviving.

In the next room, Ellie is spending time with Sam. “Are you even scared?” Sam writes to Ellie on his notepad. Ellie admits that she’s “scared all the time” and terrified of ending up alone. She asks Sam if he’s scared. “If you turn into a monster, is it still inside you?” he asks. He reveals the bite mark on his leg from a clicker.

Ellie shows Sam her scar. “My blood is medicine,” the hopeful Ellie says. She cuts her hand and puts it on Sam’s bite. “Stay awake with me,” he writes. The next morning, Ellie wakes up to find Sam facing the light. When she goes over to him, he attacks her. He’s already a runner.

Joel and Henry jump to their feet. When Joel tries to go for Ellie, Henry points his gun at Joel. Sam continues to attack Ellie, and Henry ends up killing Sam. Henry is stunned at what he’s done when he looks down at Sam’s body. “What did I do?” a shocked Henry says. He’s killed the only thing that’s ever mattered to him: his beloved brother. Joel begs Henry to give him the gun.

Henry can’t bear to live in a world without Sam, so he takes his own life in front of Joel and Ellie. Joel and Ellie don’t just leave them there. They dig graves for both Henry and Sam. Ellie writes Sam one final message on his notepad before walking away. Joel reads the note: “I’m sorry.” Ellie’s already walking west, ready to move on from this latest nightmare.

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