The Last of Us – Endure and Survive Review

After five episodes – all stellar, smart, and well-constructed – I think it’s become clear just what makes The Last of Us work as well as it does. Sure, there’s a pre-ordained narrative for the writers to follow (even if they take some liberties from the source material at times, it, thus far, only serves to enhance the story rather than detract from it. But the key to the show’s success is that it’s telling a story with clear borders. We aren’t spending a season in Kansas City, trying to take down Kathleen while teaming up with Henry and Sam. We aren’t spending a season in Boston dealing with FEDRA. We aren’t spending six episodes on the road with Ellie and Joel as they approach their next confrontation, dealing with small skirmishes along the way. The story is set-up in such a way to get us to the meat of the narrative fast and clean, never lingering too long on additional characters, never straying too far from Joel and Ellie’s own development and using vignettes to show us key elements of this world before taking our leads off to their next meeting.

On a lesser series, we would spend countless episodes crafting a plan to take out a leader like Kathleen (imagine this piece of story on something like The Walking Dead – Kathleen would be the Governor and we’d be in Kansas City for literally months trying to escape). But here, we can trust that the writing will tell us all we need to know about the new characters (and it certainly did), we will have the opportunity to become emotionally invested in them (I’m sure you were just as gutted by the end of the episode as I was), and we will be able to recognize the impact this particular moment will have on Joel and Ellie moving forward (a definite yes to that one – I suspect both Joel and Ellie will be feeling the loss of Sam and Henry for the rest of the season). Get in, get out, move on. Endure and survive.

Now, an approach like this one only works if you have the writing and the acting to pull it off. And boy, does The Last of Us have both in spades. It’s one thing to put together a one-off episode like “Long Long Time,” crafting a singular arc with new characters that allows us a window into their lives and then closes it at episode’s end. But to do that again with “Endure and Survive” – providing us with just enough knowledge of Kathleen, Sam, and Henry to make their lives matter (for different reasons) and then close the door on them and move on? That’s talented writing. This episode, like the ones preceding it, was written by co-showrunner Craig Mazin. And he turns out another gem. But the writing only works with the right talent in front of the camera to bring it to life and boy does this series have an embarrassment of riches with its guest actors.

Melanie Lynskey (Kathleen) is a known quantity in front of the camera these days, and audiences likely know she will elevate whatever material she is provided even if they can’t necessarily name her (if you aren’t watching Yellowjackets, I once again implore you to do so, especially if you are a fan of The Last of Us, as I suspect it will be right up your alley). In her hands, Kathleen is a gray character – espousing short-sighted hatred toward Henry, but also letting us in to understand why she has this complex need to see him dead. While I certainly didn’t agree with her (from a leadership standpoint, letting her militia only focus on finding Henry for over a week was not the best move and from a moral standpoint, there was a better option than the one she ended up using), I understood why she was determined to see her vendetta through to the end, even if it meant she wasn’t making it either. And then there were Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard as Henry and Sam, respectively. Wow. Just wow. It’s rare that a series can find a child actor with enough gravitas and charisma to turn out a performance like this one, but Woodard is the real deal. And Johnson was just heartbreaking as a big brother who only wanted to see his little brother safe. Again, while I might not agree with Henry’s actions, I absolutely can understand why he went to the lengths he did to save Sam.

And the choice to cast a deaf actor for Sam was another stroke of genius on the part of Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Having Sam be deaf only deepens the relationship between the brothers. Yes, an 8-year-old would rely on the adult in their life deeply to ensure their safety, but when they cannot effectively communicate with the majority of people in their world due to a disability? Well, then that family member becomes their lifeline. And Henry was that for Sam.

And then there was the heartbreaking moment where Sam conveyed his worry that if he changed, he wouldn’t exist within his body anymore and he would just be a monster? Oof. What a way to sum up a major tenant of the series in a simple sentence. Because so much of what we’ve seen thus far is a riff on that exact question: When the monster within you is unleashed, do you lose yourself? And, of course, it’s not just in reference to the fungus taking over your body. No, it also harkens back to what we’ve seen of the violence committed by the uninfected. From FEDRA agents on power trips, to Kathleen’s vendetta against Henry, to Joel killing the FEDRA soldier back during the escape from Boston. When the monster that lives within each of us gets released, is it possible to put it away and keep living? Or are we doomed to keep making the same mistakes forever thanks to that anger, resentment, and pain leaking through our better judgment? Food for thought as the series keeps moving. But boy, what an episode, what a story, what a commentary on life.