Joel and Ellie find themselves in big trouble.
**Warning: Spoilers for The Last of Us episode 4 ahead.**
After The Last of Us episode 3, you’d be forgiven for thinking we might be in for an easier ride for episode 4. But nope, not on this show.
Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) get themselves into quite a sticky situation to say the least in the latest instalment of the HBO show, leaving us on the biggest cliffhanger to date.
We’re almost halfway through the series and, while it’s still a brilliant instalment, episode 4 could be seen as one of the weaker episodes of the lot. Being sandwiched between what are potentially the two best episodes of the series doesn’t help.
We’ve got a lot of introductions to get through, and a lot to learn about Joel and Ellie, so there’s a bit less action than you might expect (although definitely still plenty to keep us going).
During the course of the 50 minutes (the shortest episode to date), we meet the terrifying Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce, who also featured in the game) as well as two new characters at the very end. We’ll learn more about them in episode 5.
We hear more about Joel’s past, and we get some hints about the trauma that Ellie’s been through, as well as some incredibly creepy teases about what’s to come in episode 5 – so there’s definitely some essential stuff.
All we’ll say is, stick with it. It’s worth it.
The Last of Us episode 4 recap
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Following Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett) story, we catch back up with Ellie and Joel on their way to Wyoming to reunite with Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna).
With Ellie using the map to navigate – and annoying Joel with some terrible puns from a book she found – Joel drives the pair of them and they stop off to camp in the forest. Making sure Ellie knows the dangers surrounding them, he warns her not to light a fire as people could find them.
“So what are they gonna do, rob us?” Ellie asks.
“They’ll have way more in mind than that,” Joel tells her.
The pair continue their journey but they hit a pile-up of cars on the freeway which is impassable. Joel decides to take a detour and the pair end up in Kansas City – possibly the worst decision they could have made.
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They see a man pleading for help and, thanks to his, erm, dubious past, Joel immediately senses it’s a trap. By then, though, it’s too late. Their windscreen is smashed and they run over a spike strip, causing them to crash into a shop.
With bullets raining down on them, Joel urges a terrified Ellie to hide in a hole in the wall, as he attempts to fight off their attackers. He manages to kill a few of them, but doesn’t hear one more sneaking up behind him.
As Ellie sees Joel being strangled by the attacker, she grabs her gun and shoots him in the back. The attacker, a teenager, pleads for his life. Joel tells Ellie to go back behind the wall and kills him, before the pair of them manage to hide in a darkened room.
Elsewhere, we’re introduced to the terrifying Kathleen. She’s didn’t appear in the games, but she’s the leader of a violent revolutionary movement, along with right-hand man Perry. Immediately, we find out she’s on the hunt for a character named Henry – and she won’t stop until he’s dead.
As we meet her, she’s pointing a gun at an older man, who reveals he’s a doctor. Before Kathleen can shoot him, she’s shown the body of the teenager Joel killed, who we find out was her brother. While she’s told it was the work of “outsiders”, she’s left convinced it’s down to the mysterious Henry.
Kathleen’s told there’s no chance her brother will survive – even if she had a doctor – and she returns to shoot the older man, before telling her group of followers: “This is Henry’s work, you understand? And he won’t stop until we stop him. Find who did this, find every collaborator, and kill them all.”
Armed with guns, battering rams, and even tanks, the group forces their way into every building they can find on the hunt for Henry – and Joel and Ellie’s position is suddenly starting to look very precarious.
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The pair of them devise a plan to get to a skyscraper opposite to scope out the situation and Joel attempts to talk to Ellie about shooting the attacker. Trying to hide her tears, she reveals it wasn’t her first time, with Joel deciding it’s high time to give Ellie a gun.
Joel and Ellie make their move, and we see Perry, Kathleen’s right-hand man, telling her they have a lead on Henry’s whereabouts. He’s not there, but it looks like he could have been recently. We get our first clue as to who Henry is – and who he might be with – as the wall is covered in children’s drawings and there are cans on the floor.
Kathleen tells Perry that “Henry won’t let Sam starve,” and insists he must be close by.
However, it’s quickly revealed that Kathleen and Perry have more pressing issues to worry about. Perry takes Kathleen to the ground floor of the building, which has sunken in and, very creepily, we see it’s moving and shifting about. The pair flee the building, with Kathleen ordering it to be sealed and insisting they’ll worry about it later – something that definitely won’t come back to haunt her. Right?
Joel and Ellie make it into an abandoned building, and start to head to the top to have a look around to find a way out of the city.
Exhausted by the climb (relatable), they stop for the night and Joel spreads glass across the floor so as he can hear anyone who might try to creep up on them. Ellie asks if he’s sure he’ll hear it, pointing out that he doesn’t hear well out of one of his ears – another thing that definitely won’t come back to haunt them. Right?
Joel decides to use his not-so-developed people skills to ask Ellie about what she meant when she said it wasn’t her first time hurting someone, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. She asks if it gets easier as you get older and he says it doesn’t. Dubious past, remember?
Ellie being Ellie, enlists the help of her books of puns, leaving Joel reluctantly giggling as he falls asleep. Are we given more than a moment’s joy though? Of course we’re not.
When Joel wakes up, he hears Ellie calling him. Opening his eyes, he’s horrified to see her holding her hands in the air, with a gun to her head. Looking round, he sees a young boy pointing a gun at him and lifting a finger to his lips to tell him to be quiet.
Clearly, things are only about to get worse for our heroes.
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