‘The Last Of Us’ Episode 4 Review – Joel And Ellie Face A New Threat

These last three weeks have been nothing short of amazing as each episode airs every Sunday. It has been a hell of a ride so far with so much happening and us learning more and more about this outbreak than what we gamers know from the actual games! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this show is the best video game adaptation out there that doesn’t go along with every story beat from the games, but gives us a renewed perspective on the franchise – it feels like it’s own thing while still sticking to the source material. This week’s episode is no different, and you’re about to find out why, so keep reading! This week’s episode has an interesting opener with Ellie in the bathroom at a gas station playing with the gun she swiped from Bill and Frank’s place in episode three.

This show has slowly built up a curiosity in Ellie that’s steeped in violence and from being barred from holding a gun. What’s ironic is not only is she playing with the gun, but she’s also teaching herself how to use it. We can see Ellie unloading the gun completely (you always have to empty the chamber, not just remove the magazine) and aiming down the sights properly. After she’s done playing Dirty Harry in the mirror, she goes out to see what Joel’s up to. The gaming fans will love what follows – Ellie’s famous book of puns, No Pun Intended Vol. Too (get it…volume two?). As a fan of the games, I have to say I was waiting for this moment for quite some time.

As Ellie reads from her book of puns, she demonstrates these jokes to Joel who doesn’t look pleased. Honestly speaking here, she could’ve opened up with some better puns but the mermaid joke did make me laugh a little. There’s one question that fans have been dying to know since episode two, and that’s when are we going to see the development of Joel and Ellie’s relationship reflect what we know of in the game? Well, my friends, this is the start of it. Another video game moment that the show included is when Ellie finds one of Bill’s dirty magazines in the backseat of the truck, and of course, since she’s a little kid, Joel tries to forbid her from looking at it. After she’s done teasing Joel and poking fun at him, she tosses the magazine out onto the open road.

This episode maintains a good balance of delivering some comedic moments that demonstrate Ellie’s child-like innocence and playfulness while also reminding not only the characters but the audience of the hell they’re living through as we see an open road of devastation and remnants of death. Although the pastures may be green, we’re shown many vehicles including military tanks on the side of the highway that are broken down and decaying. After driving for miles, Joel takes a quick look at Ellie and sees that the aftermath of the outbreak is starting to wear on her, so he decides to pull over into the woods to take a break and camp out for the night. Something that we haven’t seen a lot of over the last three episodes is Joel teaching Ellie the ways of the world now.

Periodically we saw him dropping some knowledge on our girl, but at this moment he gives her some key information that would aid in her survival going forward. Ellie asks if she can make a fire because of the cold, and the answer, simply put, is no. Joel takes her through a simple process of elimination – the infected aren’t smart enough to see the campfire smoke, but people are. He warns her that people that see the smoke wouldn’t just want to rob them of their supplies but to also kill them. After all, it IS that kind of world now. Ellie gives another disappointing joke from her book of puns, and surprisingly enough Joel knows the punchline. After the joke, he reassures Ellie no one’s going to find them and decides to take the night watch as she sleeps.

The next morning Joel and Ellie prepare to continue their journey west, and what’s funny is Ellie’s comment about the coffee Joel made smelling like burnt shit – I’ve honestly held this same sentiment about coffee in my days as a kid, and look at me now, siding with Joel as he drinks his coffee, while I’m drinking mine – full circle. This is the beginning of a much more relaxed relationship between the two as Joel proceeds to drink his coffee and opens up a little bit about his past as well as going into his relationship with his brother Tommy. There are some similarities with the game here but there are also some differences. The similarities are Joel making the decision to go find his brother Tommy, and his last known affiliation is being with the Fireflies. What’s different is the need to find his brother to make sure he’s alright – to save him. This need to save his brother and thinking he’s alone in the world is more akin to a sidequest in a game that happens to line up with the main goal, rather than the goal itself being the main focus.

Despite Joel opening up about his brother Tommy, he does something that’s very…Joel’ish. Ellie asks him a particular question, which is “if you don’t think there’s hope for the world, why bother going on?”. His response is you go on in the name of family, and here he makes it very clear to Ellie that she’s not family, she’s cargo. As hurtful as this sounds, I can’t really blame him. The only family Joel has is Tess, which he recently lost and is still grieving for, and his brother Tommy. This interaction is similar in the games because Joel’s objective is to bring Ellie to where she needs to be, but he struggles with himself because the time spent with Ellie is indeed forming a bond, and yet Joel fights that by keeping this simple fact in the forefront of his mind.

Later on, Joel and Ellie hit their first roadblock on the highway in Kansas City. With their way forward being blocked off, Joel tells Ellie they’ll have to backtrack and go around. As one would expect, they wind up getting lost and find themselves in the inner city of Kansas. As they continue to try and find their way back to the highway, the camera quickly pans to a pile of bones and ashes, things aren’t looking good. They come across another QZ that doesn’t seem to be occupied by FEDRA, as Ellie clearly points out. Immediately following her question, they hear someone shouting for their attention. Someone that appears to be in distress, and Joel’s survivalist instincts kick in. He knows this is a trap so he tells Ellie to buckle up because they’re about to have their first run-in with raiders. Avoiding one trap after another, Joel and Ellie crash into a convenience store narrowingly surviving, and are now in a full-fledged fight for their lives.

Bullets are flying everywhere and things are shattering right above their heads and in front of their very eyes. Joel’s ready for war, but first, he needs Ellie to get out of harm’s way, so he tells her to make her way to a hole in the wall and hide so he can handle these goons. As soon as she’s clear, Joel starts to pick them off one by one. However, Joel doesn’t know there’s one more person in the group he was fighting and so the young man bursts through the door as Joel’s reloading his rifle and the two immediately get into a tussle. Things aren’t going well for Joel as the young man is winning this fight – but Ellie sees all of this and quickly decides to seize the opportunity to help Joel. Instead of using her switchblade, she pulls out the gun she stole and creeps up behind the young man, and fires off a round saving Joel’s life.

Joel appears to be disappointed in Ellie since he’s the one that consistently refused to teach her how to use a gun, and forbade her from using one. Although disappointed, he’s grateful for the save and tells her to go back to her hiding spot – presumably to shield her from seeing any more bloodshed. The young man, now wounded, surrenders his knife to Joel and then is immediately killed once Ellie is out of sight. The fascination and intrigue for violence that was once slowly building up inside of Ellie for three episodes seem to now have vanished after seeing it up close, and by her own hand. Furthermore, we see Ellie cry once she’s back in her hiding spot, but not from shooting a man and ultimately being the reason for his demise, but out of sadness due to the lack of approval from Joel. After all is said and done, Ellie quickly bounces back and assures Joel that she’s fine and she managed to grab a few supplies from the truck including his flashlight.

Another key difference between the show and the game in this particular episode is the inclusion of another character named Kathleen, who is wonderfully played by Melanie Lynskey. In the game, Kathleen’s character doesn’t exist. During this particular point in the game, our duo has to maneuver their way through raiders’ territory, which only seems like a cohesive group only on the surface level. As we’re introduced to Kathleen, we find out she’s the leader of this particular group. I really love how the writers decided to put someone in charge of them to give the show more nuance and make it stand out from the game in its own right. What’s also interesting is the fact that this group, under Kathleen’s leadership, has taken over the Kansas City QZ and overthrew FEDRA, with her followers even taking up their armor and weapons. She literally has her own little army!

Kathleen is introduced in the next scene as she’s interrogating an older gentleman who is also a doctor, on the whereabouts of a few people. One of those people is a man named Henry, that we’ll see later. Kathleen is interrupted by the outside noise of a truck honking its horn – some of her men have returned and she quickly goes to see what all the commotion is. After moving through the crowd, she finds the men that Joel killed on the floor, and a man named Perry(played by Jeffrey Pierce) tells her that it could be outsiders or it could be mercenaries. After realizing one of the men is severely injured and won’t survive, Kathleen realizes there’s no longer a need to keep the good doctor around and makes her way back to the cell to kill him. Kathleen speaks to the crowd with false information and a new purpose – to kill these new invaders that murdered their own people. As the crowd gets riled up, we see several army trucks go out into the neighborhood to inspect every house, and we also see a truck with a metal ram attached to it that says “RUN”. This is also an added touch from the game which makes this entire scene feel more dangerous.

As Joel and Ellie are hiding out inside a restaurant that’s been boarded up, they come up with a plan on where to go but quickly go into what happened moments ago. Joel wasn’t necessarily disappointed in Ellie’s actions during the fight, but more so disappointed that she had to experience that. He thinks a kid shouldn’t have to go through something that horrific and tries to create a safe space for Ellie to talk about how she feels, and if she wants to talk about anything with him, then she’s free to do so. He blames himself for putting Ellie in that position and apologizes. We can take this as Joel finally taking on the father figure role with Ellie because of how the conversation goes, and the fact that they’re both slowly opening up to each other, which also makes Ellie emotional.

After telling Joel it’s not her first time shooting someone, he then proceeds to show her the proper way to hold and shoot a handgun. We can see Ellie smiling during this brief tutorial because it also serves as an unspoken form of approval and even acceptance of the father figure role that she needed. In true Joel form, he says the most old-mannish thing you could possibly say to a kid as she tries to put the gun on her side, “put it in your pack, you’re gonna shoot your damn ass off”. A kid will do kid things and not do what they’re told, and in this case, Ellie puts the gun in her coat pocket when Joel isn’t looking. While Kathleen’s crew searches Joel’s truck, Perry tells her he founds something and takes her straight to it.

They found Henry’s hideout but he’s long gone. What we see is an attic filled with drawings all over and some recently opened cans of food. Kathleen is slowly closing in on Henry, but Perry has something else he wants to show her. They go downstairs into what seems like a basement with a door that leads into another room with a crater on the floor. This isn’t good at all, it’s a sign of something huge and they quickly get out of the room. Perry asks what should they do about…whatever’s in that room and her solution is to leave it for now and come back to it later – bad decision!

Joel and Ellie manage to sneak inside what appears to be some sort of factory or commercial building. By now we all know what the usual strategy is for seeking out new places to go – get some high ground and plan ahead. With 45 flights of stairs to climb, Joel tells Ellie they’ll go as far as he can make it (the guy’s old and has bad knees, give him a break). During their climb, Ellie asks Joel how he knew they were heading into an ambush earlier, to which Joel explains to her that he’s been on both sides. Her follow-up question is if he killed any innocent people before, and with a long pause and an ashamed look on his face, he deflects after giving her question some thought and proceeds to climb the flight of stairs. Fans of the game know this answer already – yes he has killed innocent people before, and for some reason, he just can’t bring himself to tell Ellie the truth.

After climbing 33 flights, they find a room to rest in for the night. Joel breaks a door window and gathers some glass to spread all over the floor. He explains to Ellie that putting the broken glass down on the floor will help prevent being snuck up on by anyone because he’ll be able to hear their footsteps. Of course, Ellie’s main concern is whether he will be able to hear it. After all, the man is 56 years old and has some hearing issues based on what we’ve seen so far. Before they go to bed, Ellie tells another joke from her book of puns and the two of them laugh about it.

The joke is corny but still funny because of how ridiculous it is, and seeing the two of them laugh together is heartwarming. They’re starting to be more relaxed around each other, and I think this scene has some improvisation to it, it feels like the actors themselves are laughing about the joke because we see them laugh about it longer than I had expected. The episode ends with Ellie waking up Joel because of an unfortunate turn of events. That glass trap didn’t work so well because now our duo is being held at gunpoint by two more beloved characters from the game, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Henry and his little brother Sam. Although this episode wasn’t as action-packed as I’d had hoped it to be, I feel it’s still a good setup for next week’s episode and for what’s to come next week. Stay tuned because next week’s episode is going to be another good one!