The enemy factions of HBO’s The Last of Us in Episode 5, explained

to live in The last of us is harsh, to put it extremely, extremely mildly. Traveling everywhere is tough and involves dumping 20-year-old gasoline from abandoned cars. Zombies are everywhere, in increasingly terrifying forms. Nobody will laugh at your pun book. Perhaps worst of all is the feeling that danger is everywhere, even from the other people around you.

The Last of Us universe is filled with factions, all crying out for dominance in one form or another. Pretty much everywhere Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) go, they find groups that pose a threat, either trying to recruit them, threatening them, or worse. In a world with so many quotas, one might ask: What is the difference between all these factions? What do they all want? And what’s even to argue about in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?

The short answer is power. They all want it, most are willing to kill to get it, and the difference is who has it or how much they can use it. as a collective, The last of us‘ Factions further the show’s (and game’s) goals, each their own exploration of how connections to others pose their own threat in this world. But the actual goal of each group within the story is a little different, hence the whole division.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for episode 5 of The Last of Us.]

FEDRA

What you want: Supposed to be a government agency and also to rule the people (possibly by brutal means; see below).

The Federal Disaster Response Agency is the dominant decision-making authority in The last of us‘ United States. It is a militarized government that oversees the quarantine zones and rules with punitive powers over cities across the United States. FEDRA clearly has some sort of unifying structure, but it seems that individual chapters have a lot of wiggle room like they do in Kansas City (again, more on that later).

Despite being rumored to be the supreme authority on the show (or at least the characters with the most organized power, including the manufacture of necessary goods), The last of us does not show them prominently. Mostly they are a force in the narrative, with soldiers lining the streets of Boston in the early episodes, sometimes attacking or haggling with Joel as part of his smuggling job. Still, we’ve heard how tough they are: Neither Ellie nor Joel seem to speak very highly of their educational work, and when Frank (Murray Bartlett) laments that Bill (Nick Offerman) thinks the government is all Nazis, Bill screams : “The government Are all Nazis!”

Frank’s rebuttal – “Well, Now! But not Then!” – does not paint a rosy picture of what FEDRA is doing in the industry last of us‘ 2023.

Firefly

What you want: To overthrow FEDRA and restore something closer to government authority before the outbreak.

While at this point in the season we think of the Fireflies mostly as a small faction rebelling against FEDRA’s rule, the guerrilla network has groups across the country. Labeled terrorists by the federal government, the Fireflies have been largely unsuccessful, although there have been a few cities where they have seen victories. They also have graffiti everywhere – “If you get lost in the dark, look for the light” – and possibly the strongest trump card in the world: a person immune to zombie bites.

It’s unclear why the Fireflies are keeping this a secret and not wanting to use it immediately to raise their profile with FEDRA. But it provides the reason to throw Joel and Ellie together and bring them to Colorado. Plus, we know they have better connections than FEDRA, at least sometimes — at least, as Ellie seems to splurge on when she eats the chicken Boston Firefly leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge) gave her.

Hunter

What you want: To bring down Kansas City FEDRA (specifically, at least for starters).

In Episode 4 we are introduced to the Hunters (as they are called in-game), a group that drove FEDRA out of their town. Though Kansas City is now freshly docked, the Hunters already master a host of fearsome machines – like the “RUN” plow – and are quick to resort to violence to exercise their dominance. They are led by Kathleen (Yellow jackets‘ Melanie Lynskey), who eagerly pursues Henry (Lamar Johnson).

According to Joel and Henry’s conversation in Episode 5, Kansas City FEDRA was bad for even what was considered an authoritarian governing body. “Monster? savages? Yes, you heard that right,” completes Henry Joel’s thoughts on KC’s FEDRA chapter. “Raped, tortured and murdered people for 20 years. And do you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get a chance, they do it right back to you.”

And indeed, Kathleen seems to be acting brutally. Episode 5 begins with the hunters overthrowing FEDRA, dragging corpses through the street, and beating people. Kathleen questions FEDRA informants about Henry’s whereabouts before telling Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) to shoot them all and burn the bodies. At the end of the episode, Kathleen has said that she is willing to kill Ellie and Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard) just because they are associated with Joel and Henry.

It’s a particularly toxic villain twist, but when a little clicker girl comes out of nowhere to kill Kathleen – while the rest of her men are torn apart by a horde behind her – it seems like the Hunter’s inner circle has been turned off been. Whatever fills the power vacuum left behind — well, Joel and Ellie aren’t staying to find out.