HBO’s The last of us ends its fourth episode on a cliffhanger – Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) wake up with guns in their faces, one of which is being held by a kid with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-style eye mask on.
It’s the continuation of a violent welcome to Kansas City: you’re only there a few minutes and everyone immediately tries to kill you. No longer controlled by the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA), the city is being overrun by a ruthless group of rebels known as the Hunters, who shoot on sight. But the hunters aren’t just after Ellie and Joel – in fact, they don’t even know they’re there. The Hunters, led by Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen, are desperately searching for a mysterious person named Henry (Lamar Johnson) who she believes killed her brother.
The episode doesn’t give much context to who this mysterious Henry is, and doesn’t even mention Sam (Keivonn Woodard), though The last of us Players will recognize the name immediately.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us game and potentially the show.]
Henry and Sam are the beloved brother duo dating The last of us, which originally appeared in the Pittsburgh section for one of the most heartbreaking stories in the game. Ellie and Joel skip Pittsburgh directly on their westbound trip and head to Kansas City, Missouri instead. The series creators reimagined most of the Pittsburgh parts in the Kansas City episode, including Henry and Sam. Surely we’ll learn more about this in Episode 5, but thanks to the game we already have some context for what might happen.
In the game, Ellie and Joel are ambushed by Henry and Sam in an apartment building in Pittsburgh. Joel slips through a window and is grabbed by Henry. Henry attacks, thinking that Joel might be a hunter. Joel takes a few punches (and Ellie tries to slash him with her knife) before they realize Sam is pointing a gun at them. Henry quickly realizes they are not with the hunters; The Hunters don’t keep children with them because it’s “survival of the fittest,” says Henry.
They quickly agree to join and make their way to Henry and Sam’s hideout, where we learn a lot more about their background. On the way to their hiding place – an office building – the group of four has to hide in a toy shop. It’s a poignant moment; Ellie and Sam are children and have been deprived of a normal childhood. It’s still new to her to even be in a toy store. There’s a particularly heartbreaking moment when Sam looks at a Transformer toy and Henry tells him to stop – they can only take what they need.
There’s a lot of action and fighting throughout the city, both with humans and infected. But more importantly, we learn a lot about Henry and Sam – two characters who quickly became fan favorites. They are from Hartford, Connecticut and have been traveling since leaving the Hartford quarantine zone after things collapsed there. Like Ellie and Joel, they were mugged entering Pittsburgh. With their group scattered, Henry and Sam are alone and have been dodging the hunters to get out of town ever since.
back in hiding, The last of us slows down and lets the group linger in conversation and hilarity. Henry and Joel talk about motorcycles. Ellie and Sam talk about their fear. Their relationships reflect each other. Ellie gives Sam the toy he was looking at and his reaction is shocking: he throws it, revealing that he was bitten. The next morning he turns around – and attacks Ellie. When Joel tries to shoot him, Henry stops him and does it himself. He points the gun at Joel and blames him before shooting himself.
It’s a shocking moment that comes so quickly after the lightness of the previous night. There’s no denying the scene is heartbreaking, and developer Naughty Dog was criticized afterwards The last of us‘ Permission for repeated use of black characters in this way. It happens in several times The last of us And The Last of Us Part 2, and the developer never thinks about how the story reflects on the viewer living in a world where black lives are systemically devalued. Some argue so The last of us is a tragic story in which many people die, including marginalized groups — that the representation as a whole is a win. But it comes back to that cruelty, like marginalized people, especially black characters in the games, are killed: Henry and Sam spend a lot of time as heroes and save Ellie and Joel a few times. But in order for Ellie and Joel to survive, Naughty Dog determined that Henry and Sam had to die.
HBO’s The last of us can adapt this plot, as was the case with the Bill and Frank episode. However, we won’t know until the fifth episode airs next week.
