After last week’sgroundbreaking story of queer love enduringin a Cordyceps-ravaged world,The Last of Usreturned to the story at its center: Joel (Pedro Pascal) continues his cross-country trek with his so-called “cargo,” Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in tow. Although a return to the familiar in some ways, Episode 4 ofHBO’s adaptationcontinued to deviate from Naughty Dog’s source material. Namely, “Please Hold My Hand” introducesThe Last of Usviewers to a new, created-for-TV character played by Melanie Lynskey.
Likely, the thing viewers remember most about “Long Long Time,” the series’ third episode, isn’t what bookended Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett)decades-spanning love story. But those other scenes, the ones of Joel and Ellie, do lead into the fifth episode in an important way. In Episode 4’s first few minutes, Joel and Ellie head into an abandoned Cumberland Farms, looking for supplies Joel stashed there years earlier. After wandering off, Ellie comes face-to-face with an Infected. It’s trapped under rubble, posing no real threat.
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Ellie approaches the Infected slowly, more mesmerized than anything, and cuts a line across its forehead —just to watch it bleed— before knifing it in the brain. The moment sits heavily, even though it’s brief. It’s the first time viewers have seen Ellie kill something — and, throughout this episode and the next, Joel’s keen on denying her a firearm. It’s not surprising that Joel wants to shield Ellie from the violence that lurks everywhere in this broken world. Even though she’s still just “cargo” — Joel’s words in Episode 4 —there’s a bond forming between the two characters.
What Happens In The Last of Us Episode 4?
In “Please Hold My Hand,” the duo travel through Missouri, about a day from Wyoming. When the highway is impassable thanks to a wayward Sara Lee truck, Joel decides to cut through the ruins of Kansas City. Pretty quickly, bandits ambush the truck; tire spikes cause Joel to veer off the road and into a laundromat. From there,things devolve into a shootout. While Ellie hides behind a crumbled wall, Joel takes out two of the three assailants, but the third almost strangles him to death. Thankfully, Ellie does have a handgun on her. Nervously, she approaches the fight and shoots the bandit, immobilizing him so that Joel can finish the job.
Who Does Melanie Lynskey Play In The Last of Us?
That’s when viewers meet a new character. Known for her roles in acclaimed projects like Showtime’sYellowjackets(2022–) and the feature filmHello I Must Be Going(2012),Melanie Lynskey plays Kathleen, the leader of the group of Kansas City-based bandits. Kathleen and her crew find the bodies Joel and Ellie left in their wake, mere moments after the duo flee the scene. To complicate matters, Lynskey’s Kathleen thinks Joel and Ellie are in contact with Henry (Lamar Johnson), someone she’s already hunting down.
In addition to having a now three-person manhunt on her hands, Kathleen is also dealing with some new information. Her second-in-command, Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), shares that Infected are borrowing their way into the city. The bandit leader is convinced that hiding this information from the rest of the group is the right move. For Kathleen, the hunt for Henry takes precedence.
Is Kathleen From The Video Game?
Although they’re portrayed as bandits in Episode 4, Kathleen, Perry, and the rest of their group are described as “rebels” by folks who worked onThe Last of Usshow. In fact, Kathleen herself is dubbed “the leader of a revolutionary movement” based in Kansas City, the site of a formerly FEDRA-controlled Quarantine Zone (QZ). Regardless of her true intentions,Kathleen is not from the video game. Not directly, anyway.
In an interview withScreenRant, Neil Druckmann — co-creator of HBO’sThe Last of Usand co-director and writer of the show’s source material — provided some insights on the creation of the character. Druckmann noted that Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), his fellow series co-creator, came up with Kathleen. Even so, the character has some connections to the game. According to Druckmann, Episode 4’s bandits/revolutionaries are based on a group of hunters from the source material.
In the show, Kathleen and co. may take on a slightly different role, but, for Druckmann, a similarity remains. “I love the idea that there aren’t just good guys and bad guys. Everybody’s trying to survive, everybody’s trying to live life to the fullest way they can,” Druckmann toldScreenRant. “But often, the goals are competing with each other, and that’s where the interesting things happen and the different philosophies of how to survive or do the ends justify the means, speak to what the story is really about in new ways [as compared to the game].”
For now, viewers will have to wait and see howthese moral gray areasthat Druckmann references pan out in relation to Kathleen and her revolutionary group in “Endure and Survive,” next week’s episode ofThe Last of Us.
New episodes ofThe Last of Uspremiere on HBO and HBO Max every Sunday through March 12.
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