‘The Last of Us’ Episode 5 Review – “I Am My Brother’s Keeper”

Last week we saw Joel and Ellie make their way into the Kansas City QZ which was totally unintentional due to them getting lost. Run-ins with raiders pushed them further into the city than they’d hoped for, and in tonight’s episode, we’ll see just how well they fare in their adventure to get out. At the end of episode four, we were briefly introduced to Henry and his little brother Sam; this is their story. The scene opens up with madness and mayhem as we’re shown the citizens of the Kansas City QZ chanting “freedom” while running a muck throughout the streets.

A city that was once controlled by FEDRA is now overrun by citizens who are now taking justice into their own hands. These citizens are filled with excitement, joy, hate, and for some, vindication. These citizens are beating up FEDRA officers and submitting them to all sorts of torture and humiliation while others are being murdered for all to see. As this is happening and the news of this newly achieved freedom is being announced throughout the city like a modern-day Paul Revere, we see Henry and his brother Sam hiding behind some barricades in the shadows.

Sam watches as the truck passes by with a dead body trailing not too far behind, with multiple knives stuck in him like a pin cushion. What we see next is a very intriguing twist – Sam is deaf and his brother communicates with him via American Sign Language (ASL). The reason why I find this intriguing is that Sam wasn’t deaf in the video game. Some would say the creator, Neil Druckmann, is definitely someone who would pull on your heartstrings with the stories he tells through his video games, especially with The Last of Us. As a fan of the games, I have to wonder if this change was made to impact the gamers and fans more heavily than they were while playing this particular chapter with Henry and Sam.

Kathleen has rounded up some prisoners and decides to get some info out of them. Turns out this particular group of individuals has betrayed their own and sold people out to FEDRA in exchange for food and supplies. The thing that I love about Kathleen is that she’s not your average run-of-the-mill leader. Normally we see these roles portrayed by men, and in some instances, we see their cruel nature upfront. With Kathleen, however, we see a mild-mannered and soft-spoken woman who is by no means someone to take lightly. I feel she may appear to most people as unpredictable, with a strong sense of justice but who can also dole out the punishment worse than any man that would be in the same position – Kathleen is a force to be reckoned with.

After getting all of the information she needs, she tells Perry to kill everyone – their fair trial is nonexistent and the justice will be swift. Henry and Sam meet up with Dr. Edelstein (the doctor Kathleen killed in last week’s episode) in a new hideout where they go over their checklist of supplies and try to formulate a new plan. After all is said and done, Henry and Dr. Edelstein come to a conclusion on how much time is left to make their next move, 11 days. 11 days with barely enough food and no ammunition, and being on the run from Kathleen and her small army is going to be one hell of a challenge for them. 11 days go by and there’s no word from Dr. Edelstein, and the boys are running out of food. We saw him get executed in last week’s episode by Kathleen and Henry figures he’s been caught and most likely killed. It’s time for him and sam to move on, and as they prepare to move on without Dr. Edelstein, Henry hears the commotion going on outside with Joel and Kathleen’s goons – Henry’s new plan is to meet up with Joel and Ellie to get out of Kansas City.

This episode does an excellent job of showing the vulnerability of both adults and children. Sam is scared for his life and he looks up to his big brother Henry to guide him through this horrific world. Henry, understandably so, is also scared for his life and is constantly under pressure to not only figure things out but to keep his little brother Sam safe and out of harm’s way. There’s a line that Dr. Edelstein says to Henry that resonates with him. “He’s scared because you’re scared”. Henry has to be brave in order for Sam to feel safe. His way of doing this is lying to his brother about being scared, but also making him into a superhero that he fantasizes about and even draws all over the walls and pictures in the attic.

This brings us to our current situation with Joel and Ellie being held at gunpoint while Henry negotiates a team-up. Henry tells Joel he’s the only one that knows a way out and that they’ll need his help to get out of there. In exchange for the info, Henry and Sam would have to tag along and be under Joel’s protection. An even harder fact to realize is the only way out is through the tunnels which could possibly still have some infected remaining. Later on, they make their way to the tunnel entrance and discover an underground safe haven that’s decorated with childlike drawings and paint all over. After getting inside, they decide to wait until it gets dark enough for them to continue their escape without being seen. In this scene we find out exactly why Henry is the most wanted man in Kansas City – he’s a rat. That’s right folks, our guy Henry was a FEDRA informant.

When he first told this to Joel, he didn’t give a reason as to why but only said he was on the run from Kathleen and her small army. He dives into his reasoning behind being an informant was to obtain medicine for Sam, since he has leukemia. As one would expect, the exchange of information for medicine was going well until FEDRA was overrun by Kathleen and her army. If you were in Henry’s position, would you do the same? Would you sacrifice freedom for the life of your loved one? It’s a very difficult decision to make, and after hearing his reasons for being a rat, Joel doesn’t blame him. I love Henry and Sam having a backstory in the show and them being linked to Kathleen, it gives more insight as to why they’re on the run that we didn’t necessarily get in the game.

One of the key differences between the game and the show is what happens when Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam go underground. At one point they get overrun by infected and clickers that force them to split up. Henry and Ellie get separated from Joel and Sam, and each group has to maneuver their way through different obstacles to come out safe and sound on the other side. Since the game only allows you to play as Joel for most of it (there’s a part of the game that lets you play as Ellie), you get stuck with Sam and have to traverse your way through the tunnels among different types of infected. The most common being the clickers and the other is a new type of infected called Stalkers. Stalkers are in the second stage of infection and evolution before becoming full-blown clickers. The Stalkers usually run away when spotted and hide behind cover to blend into the darkness, and when they see an opening they’ll attack.

After clearing out the tunnels, Joel and Sam discover the underground safe haven and learn of the community that once lived there, before dying or becoming infected. As intense as this episode is getting, I would have loved to see how Joel got around these life-threatening challenges with Sam especially since he’s deaf and communication would’ve been troublesome for Joel. I feel this would have fleshed out Joel’s role as a protector even more than what’s been shown already. Druckmann and Mazin really know how to tug on the audience’s heartstrings – seeing Sam and Ellie be kids again even for a short moment, as they play with toys and play soccer is heart-warming, and in some ways gives the viewer hope for a better outcome in this dreaded world.

In the next scene, we’re shown Kathleen speaking with Perry in her childhood room. It’s here that we learn Kathleen wasn’t always this ruthless leader that she is today, and it was her brother that was really the leader of their group. Kathleen’s brother was given a trial by FEDRA and later executed for his crimes, all because of Henry. Although her brother was a pacifist and didn’t want to cause Henry any harm, Kathleen disagrees. The death of her brother is what put her on the path to being feared and respected by her organization, and chooses to do things differently from her brother regardless of how drastic they may be. Meanwhile, our group has made their move out of the tunnels and back outside for the home stretch.

They’re not out of the woods quite yet, as they come across a sniper perched in the top window of a house directly across from them. Joel’s game plan now is to work his way around to the back of the house and sneak up on our sniper, while the rest of the group stays out of sight. As he sneaks into the house and upstairs to the room with the sniper, we see that it’s an old man, and even though Joel asks him to not fight him, he tries to put up a fight and is immediately put down. The old man clearly relayed this new discovery to Kathleen because Joel hears her over the radio, and she’s on her way with all of her people. This is almost a 1:1 scenario in the game because it’s very similar – after killing the sniper Joel has to help save Henry, Sam, and Ellie from raiders.

As Kathleen’s group approaches, we see the armored truck from the previous episode ramming its way through all of the cars on the street toward the group. Joel makes a hail mary play by taking out the driver at the very last minute causing it to crash and burn into a nearby house. With the street and house on fire, we can see just how large Kathleen’s group is while panic starts to set in with Joel and the others. Figuring it’s their only way out, Henry decides to give himself up in order to save the others but Kathleen has something else in mind – everyone has to die. As Kathleen draws her sidearm and gets ready to kill Henry, we see a dramatic change of events take place. That burning house and truck begin to collapse into the ground, increasing the size of the crater. Hordes of infected and clickers alike rise from the ground as if they were demons from hell with one of the biggest, most terrifying of infected emerging right after. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to a well-known headache from the games, The Bloater.

A bloater is the fourth stage of the cordyceps infection making it the biggest (so far) not only in size but mass. The fungal growths on its body are everywhere which in some ways provide a sort of armor that allows it to withstand almost anything you can throw its way. This is a fungal juggernaut that you never want to come across unless you’re well-equipped with loads of bullets, a molotov cocktail, and a homemade bomb just for good measure. This thing is the very source of my nightmares, right next to having popeye’s biscuits with no drink. Anyhoo – all hell literally breaks loose and everyone is in for the fight of their lives, while Joel provides some cover fire for his group, hoping to save them. Henry, Sam, and Ellie get separated once again and Ellie finds herself fending off a child-clicker, and man is this thing persistent!

As Ellie escapes from the car with the zombie-tumbellina trapped inside, she spots Henry and Sam trapped underneath a car fighting for their lives from a bunch of infected. What’s surprising to me during all of this is the near telekinetic synchronization between Joel and Ellie – she looks their way, signaling Joel to provide more cover fire as she bobs and weaves her way through the crowd of death. Their teamwork is impeccable because they both save Henry and Sam and make their escape to regroup with Joel, but before that happens Kathleen is their last hurdle to get through. The same child-clicker that Ellie escaped from just moments ago makes quick work of Kathleen and the group manages to make their escape. As the camera pans out to give a view of the neighborhood, we see it quickly becoming overrun with infected – leaving Kansas City to once again become a danger zone.

The group decides to hole up in an abandoned motel to recover from what transpired and get some much-needed rest. During their conversation, Joel invites Henry and Sam to join him and Ellie on their journey to Wyoming, which makes sense. A group of four would fare much better than two, and I’m sure the extra hands are appreciated – teamwork is needed to survive in this world and it seems like Joel and Ellie may get just that. After Henry tells Sam to go to bed, the focus now shifts to the kids. Ellie continues to read from a comic they found in the safe haven to help keep Sam calm. However, Sam quickly changes the topic from reading comics to confiding in Ellie by asking if she’s ever scared. She doesn’t hide the truth from him but instead chooses to be candid with him. His line of questioning is quite curious to Ellie, not only does he ask her about being afraid but he also asks if you’re still the same person even with the monster inside.

He then reveals to Ellie that he’s been bitten and Ellie decides to tell Sam that she’s immune and shows off her bite. Right after she tells Sam that her blood is medicine and cuts her hand. She places her open wound onto his with hopes of saving him from turning and agrees to stay up all night with him as comfort. I believe Sam already knew his time was coming and it’s so sad to see it happen. Ellie wakes up the next morning to an already-turned Sam. As she approaches to check on him, things quickly go left as she tries to run out of the room, falling onto the floor with Sam viciously attacking her. Of course, Joel and Henry are startled by this and they both go for the gun on the floor. Henry gets to it first and stops Joel from helping Ellie as she cries for help, by firing a round into the floor. Henry then kills Sam and immediately goes into a deep grieving and almost insane state of mind. Realizing what he’s done, he repeatedly asks Joel what did he do while pointing the gun at him.

Realizing he killed his little brother, the one he has protected all this time, he decides to kill himself as well. Moments later we see Joel and Ellie burying Henry and Sam and Ellie puts the sketch pad onto Sam’s grave, with a written note saying “I’m sorry”. This is a very emotionally deep and heavy moment because Joel keeps coming to the realization that he can’t stop Ellie from going through these experiences. The same experiences he referenced in episode four, with preventing a child from seeing all of the ugliness of this world. No child should have to go through this and yet, Ellie goes through them nonetheless.

These experiences are what shape a person to be who they are. Dire situations drive people to do what they do with conviction and sometimes regret. Kathleen said something to Henry the night before when he tried to surrender himself. “…maybe he was supposed to die…kids die all the time. This is what happens when you f–k with fate!”. After seeing tonight’s episode, can we really say she was wrong? As twisted as this may sound, I believe she was right. Henry tried his hardest to keep Sam alive just for him to ultimately die in the end, bringing tons of innocent people with him. “What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide”. – William Shakespeare