The Last of Us episode 4

Many of us are still recovering from last week's emotional episode, but Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) journey continues! Don't want to miss a ...

The Last of Us episode 4 airs on the HBO network tonight, Sunday, Feb. You can watch the episode on HBO or stream it on HBO Max. Here are all of the details you need to know. [The Last of Us](https://hiddenremote.com/2023/01/30/last-episode-last-us/) continues tonight, Feb. 5, with episode 4, titled “Please Hold My Hand.” Many of us are still recovering from last week’s emotional episode, but Joel ( [Pedro Pascal](https://hiddenremote.com/2023/02/04/pedro-pascal-best-movies-shows-far/)) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) journey continues! [Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett](https://hiddenremote.com/2023/01/30/bill-frank-the-last-of-us-game/) did an amazing job bringing their characters to life.

Ahead of tonight's brand new episode of The Last of Us, HBO has released eleven new promotional stills from episode four, offering plenty of shots of ...

What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. The preview teased that Kathleen will be hellbent on finding someone, but it's hard to tell whether she's looking for Joel or someone else. THE LAST OF US story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed.

How can you watch the fourth episode of The Last of Us on HBO Max? What can you expect going forward? Find out right here.

[the next episode’s official synopsis](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14500890/?ref_=tt_eps_rec), The Last of Us episode 4 won’t have the kind of love that was seen in episode 3. [Episode 3 of The Last of Us was that episode](https://bamsmackpow.com/2023/01/29/the-last-of-us-episode-3-recap-review/). Episode 4 of HBO’s The Last of Us is next! Let us know in the comments below. However, when they’re horrible people trying to kill you, the decision might not be as difficult. [TV](https://bamsmackpow.com/tv/) season, there’s always one episode that stands tall above the rest.

Warning: This story contains The Last of Us spoilers for season 1.] Fans may have become accustomed to lengthier Last of Us episodes after the super-sized ...

The Last of Us episode 4, "Please Hold My Hand," premieres Sunday, February 5th at 9:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm PT on HBO and HBO Max. HBO has revealed episode 4 will run for 51 minutes, marking the shortest episode yet to air. For Sunday's episode 4, titled "Please Hold My Hand," HBO has confirmed a more standard run time — and another two hour-long episodes in the weeks ahead.

Don't miss another heart-racing episode this week on HBO Max.

[HBO Max](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=126006X1587347&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2F&xcust=xid:fr1674272326260hhj Boxing fights, MMA and more](https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2021/02/how-to-watch-dazn-on-your-tv-what-is-it-what-does-it-cost-and-include-boxing-fights-mma-and-more.html) [How to watch ESPN+ on TV: What is it, what does it cost and include?](https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2019/09/how-to-watch-espn-plus-on-your-tv-what-is-it-what-does-it-cost-and-what-does-it-include.html) [The Last of Us](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=126006X1587347&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2F&xcust=xid:fr1674272326258ijf ET](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=126006X1587347&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2F%3Futm_id%3D1011l5669%26utm_source%3Dskimlinks_phg%26utm_medium%3Daffiliate%26clickref%3D1101lwuJxCFY&xcust=xid:fr1674856256772ace [stream The Last of Us Season 1, Episode 4 on HBO Max](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=126006X1587347&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2F%3Futm_id%3D1011l5669%26utm_source%3Dskimlinks_phg%26utm_medium%3Daffiliate%26clickref%3D1101lwuJxCFY&xcust=xid:fr1674856256772caj xid:fr1675320238717hhi) ($9.99/month, or $14.99/month without ads). PT/9 p.m. Death: The Undoctored Story Christopher Duntsch documentary available now on Peacock](https://www.oregonlive.com/tv/2021/07/dr-death-the-undoctored-story-christopher-duntsch-documentary-releases-tonight-live-stream-info-how-to-watch-online-with-peacock.html) [How to watch DAZN on your TV: What is it, what does it cost and include? The story-driven game is set in a zombie-ravaged America that has been taken over by once-human creatures infected with a mushroom-like virus that causes them to become violent cannibals. WHEN: Sunday, February 5 at 6 p.m. The game franchise, originally created by gaming company Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, became an automatic hit and has since been expanded with a sequel. xid:fr1675320238717fcf) is a new TV series based on an action-adventure post-apocalyptic survival horror video game.

After a long day's drive, the pair sleep in the woods, where Joel says that none of the infected with bother them. Ellie tries to lighten the mood by reading ...

They start by bashing in his windshield with a cement block, so destroying the car is a weird first move if they planned to take it. [Nick Offerman](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42757456/the-last-of-us-nick-offerman-bill-video-game/)), Joel ( [Pedro Pascal](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42744061/pedro-pascal-snl-clicker-the-last-of-us/)) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have finally completed the “acquire a car battery” quest needed to find Tommy (Gabriel Luna)—Joel’s brother and a member of the Fireflies. “Seal off the building,” she orders, because we certainly haven't seen the last of this thing. As Joel explained [at the end of the last episode](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42687278/the-last-of-us-episode-3-recap/), Tommy’s membership with the rebel outfit may also give them a clue as to the location of the medical outpost that is working on a cure. Entering a city by mistake—since this is only the second time Ellie has ever been in a car or read a highway map in her entire life—the duo comes under fire from city folk looking to kill them. Kathleen guesses that this is Henry and Sam’s hideout. One henchman tells Kathleen that he believes the attack this morning was from an outside assailant (he's right!), but Kathleen is hellbent on this Henry guy. He tells Ellie that he’s not too fond of these Firefly fighters, calling them “delusional.” Ellie worries that Joel has lost faith in the world and its inhabitants—at least, those who still haven’t turned into dangerous, fungus-infected monsters. Ellie tries to lighten the mood by reading some silly puns from a little bathroom reader she found. [helped inspire the entire last episode](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42691787/how-do-bill-and-frank-die-in-the-last-of-us/) also get the Easter egg treatment here. I know little about The Last of Us video game—I'm on this nightmarish ride week by week, alongside you all—but I did not expect to tear up as an old gay couple fell in love during the apocalypse. I’m fully prepared to enter The Last of Us: Fury Road.

(Bill is also alive in the game, but parts ways with Joel and Ellie before this goes down.) The incident takes place in Kansas City, but it happened in ...

The musician was initially uncredited for this use, but game director Neil Druckmann acknowledged this and [apologized in a tweet](https://twitter.com/Neil_Druckmann/status/1270511049586831362). Keshner was [subsequently credited accordingly](https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/10/21280265/the-last-of-us-part-2-lotte-kestner-true-faith-cover-song-ellie-trailer), Polygon reported in 2020. It's like the Kathleen storyline was added to the show so vengeance is a clearer thematic through-line of vengeance between this season and [the second](/culture/entertainment/hbo-hit-the-last-of-us-renewed-for-season-2/). [Melanie Lynskey](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001491/) from Showtime's incredible [Yellowjackets](/culture/entertainment/yellowjackets-episode-10-finale-ending-explained-and-all-our-wtf-questions/)). Despite Joel's safety measures, they wake up to find guns pointed in their faces -- they've been discovered by Henry and Sam ( [similarly to the source material](https://youtu.be/p2rG4p38PAI). In case you feel like breaking them out in your everyday life, here are the jokes she hits Joel with: It's a subtly defining moment in their story in that medium and will prove similar in the show. They're on track to connect Ellie to the Fireflies, since the rebel group wants to replicate her immunity to [the fungal infection](https://www.cnet.com/science/biology/features/the-last-of-us-fungal-pandemic-actually-happen-a-scientific-investigation-hbo-max/) that transformed billions of people into monsters. Seems like Kathleen is letting her grudge distract her from a more immediate problem. Kathleen is shown a loft they'd been hiding in, and it's filled with a kid's art of Superman. Having dealt with Fedra, her group is hunting down people who collaborated with Fedra -- the names Henry and Sam will likely stir memories if you've played the game.

This week, Joel and Ellie's bond deepened during an unplanned stay in Kansas City. They should have tried Des Moines instead.

The closest we get to returning to the past is when Joel tells Ellie about Tommy, explaining that his brother — a “joiner” by nature — has spent the plague years connecting with anyone who claims to have a plan to fix the world, while sometimes dragging Joel along. (Example this week: a collapsed train trestle on the horizon, with railroad cars dangling.) But I must also tip a cap to the production designer John Paino, whose team built the crumbling physical spaces that Joel and Ellie move through — from the trashed gas stations to the wreckage-strewn Kansas City streets. When Ellie takes a whiff of Joel’s percolated campfire coffee, she recoils, then later asks, “That’s seriously what those Starbucks in the Q.Z. So naturally, this is when they get awakened in the middle of the night by two new characters wielding guns, one who appears to be in his 20s, the other just a boy. As for himself, he must be honest that he obviously needs her — and her willingness to pull a trigger — more than he wanted to. This is what makes Ellie — and Bella Ramsey’s multilayered performance — so pivotal to this story. We know that Henry and Sam were recently hiding out in a building where the concrete foundation is breaking up and rippling, perhaps because of some cordyceps/infected activity going on underground. His dying offer to take them to his mom was probably a pretty good indication that his mother was Kathleen. Joel teaches Ellie how to siphon gas from parked cars — though when he fumblingly tries to explain the physics behind it, she flashes a wicked smile and says, “You don’t know.” When the attacker hands over his knife and pleads for his life — his name is Brian, he tells Ellie in a clear attempt to humanize himself, adding: “We can trade with you! That’s one cat out of the bag. We know that the K.C.

If they're going to survive Melanie Lynskey's Kansas City, Joel will need to trust Ellie more. A recap of “Please Hold My Hand,” episode 4 of HBO's “The ...

They’re less a focus of the show than the characters and the human elements of the ruined world they inhabit. • Hank Williams never recorded a finished studio version of “Alone and Forsaken.” The recording used in the episode — which was released as a single in 1955, two years after the singer’s death — is from a late-’40s radio performance. The episode ends as it began, with a kid hovering over Ellie with a gun. [Tess fall victim to a fatal Cordyceps kiss](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-last-of-us-tess-infected-ending-explained.html) and other gruesome images, but they’re awful in a different way from Brian trying to talk his way out of his doom. Then, perhaps understanding there’s no going back for her, perhaps sensing she could be an asset in future conflicts, Joel shows her the proper way to hold a gun. After Joel crashes the car into an abandoned laundromat, a firefight breaks out — one Joel hopes to spare Ellie from by telling her to hide in a hole in the wall. The Infected can be blamed for the current state of the world, but much of the destruction and cruelty within it predates the Cordyceps making the leap to humans. Where it was once ruled by FEDRA, it’s now ruled by Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), the apparent leader of a recent insurgency. As they drive, Joel tells her she’ll most likely see tanks and helicopters at some point, machines designed to “fight the wrong enemy,” and describes Hank Williams as a “winner” when Ellie finds a tape of his greatest hits. Ellie tosses it out the window after getting a glimpse of “what the fuss is all about.”) When we last saw the two making a stop, it was part of a plan, a visit to a convenience store that Joel used to stash weaponry and other supplies. They have the whole of the Midwest’s highway system to themselves and plenty of time on their hands.

Anyone who experienced the first season of Lynskey's cannibalistic survival horror drama knows not to underestimate Shauna Shipman, slayer of lovers, killer of ...

As much as it’s a joy to see Lynskey’s Last of Us debut, “Please Hold My Hand” accomplishes something just as great, and indeed, something even more important: Joel and Ellie as a pair, the defining duo at the heart of this story. Her debut comes after a whole lot of before with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), road-tripping away from the late Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) in search of someone else: Joel’s estranged brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna). It’s a hallmark of so much human history (perhaps not the cordyceps part; While she has her eyes so firmly focused on a vengeful vendetta against this enigmatic Henry, Kathleen willingly averts her gaze from a more pressing concern: the fungus among us, as some form of horrid creature lurks beneath the surface of the Kansas City QZ. We know very little about Kathleen other than what’s implied: she and her allies in Kansas City were once under the thumb of the military-government known as FEDRA, but now, she’s the one with all the firepower. Anyone who experienced the first season of Lynskey’s cannibalistic survival horror drama knows not to underestimate Shauna Shipman, slayer of lovers, killer of rabbits, and taker of mushrooms.

The Last of Us seriously ups the stakes as Joel and Ellie head into Kansas City and meet one very pissed off Melanie Lynskey.

The closing moments of the episode give a bit of insight into both Joel and Ellie’s pasts. Joel and Ellie getting ambushed in Kansas City (changed from Pittsburgh in the game) and crashing their truck into a laundromat is a nod to a memorable encounter from the PlayStation classic, but what ensues in the aftermath is new. One ominous sign of things to come is the gurgling sinkhole Kathleen and her right hand man Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) find in the storage room of the abandoned building Henry and Sam have been holed up in. So far, the developments surrounding Kathleen and her group haven’t been nearly as compelling an addition to the story as Bill and Frank’s were, but there’s still time to see how Kathleen impacts events moving forward. The other object that acts as a symbolic through line is Ellie’s joke book, which underlines the fact that she’s growing on Joel, and that he definitely doesn’t see her as “cargo” anymore—he’s beginning to truly care about her. Back in episode 2, Tess’ last stand was changed from the game to involve infected as opposed to soldiers.

CAST ; Pedro Pascal. Joel Miller ; Bella Ramsey. Ellie Williams ; Gabriel Luna. Tommy Miller ; Anna Torv. Theresa 'Tess' Servopoulos ; Merle Dandridge. Marlene.

Wersching voiced Tess in The Last Of Us Naughty Dog game (not to mention 37 episodes of the show 24). [The Last Of Us](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/the-last-of-us-2023) on a poop joke, so in the closing moments, Ellie tells Joel to wake up. A third (Juan Magana) surprises him and pins him to the ground, choking him with his rifle. In the morning, they’ll get to the roof and scan for the way out of the city. Still: sick action, a blossoming Pascal, and killer fungus on the way. Joel and Ellie break into a building and climb 33 flights to find an abandoned office to sleep on couch cushions. Joel pops it in and the doleful “ In “Long Long Time,” they’re shown in a lunch meeting with Bill and Frank in Lincoln, having slipped out of Boston Q.Z. He visibly relaxes as they share bits of their past, Joel assuming the role of surrogate father, explaining trucks or the physics of siphoning or, eventually, how to hold a gun. Half of Episode 4 was a road trip, which fit nicely with the task-based nature of the gaming source. Let them take in the scenery, drive past remnants of civilization, maybe whack a funghoul or two as they get to know each other. Craig Mazin’s script was a marvel of condensed storytelling, creating a layered, private history of two bearded gents and the gated world that was their own personal Eden.

'The Last of Us' Episode 4 brings Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to Kansas City. The episode introduces a new character played by Melanie ...

We'll find out more next week, but it's Henry and Sam who Joel and Ellie so pleasantly encounter at the end of the episode. Kathleen and Perry (some sort of armed rebel leader) are searching for Henry and someone named Sam, and find in an attic a bunch of open canned food and some superhero drawings; it's clear that she's searching for a man and a child, but we don't know her relation, or why, exactly, she's looking for them. Joel is about to be overpowered, strangled to death, by this guy, until Ellie—holding Frank's gun that she took from the drawer in Bill's house—shoots him and takes him out. She returns straight back to the storage unit, and shoots and kills the doctor. Joel tells Ellie to go back to the other room; we don't know what, exactly, he does to Brian in this moment, but Brian's wailing stops. A man and a boy are holding a gun to her head. This doctor claims whatever he did—some kind of informing to FEDRA—is something he had to do, as he was held at gunpoint. Ellie asks Joel why he and Tommy aren't together, and Joel shares that Tommy has always, essentially, wanted to be a hero. Ellie seems eager to assist, but Joel knows better, veering off the road, as traps ruin his truck's tires and coming under gunfire from people in the streets. When Joel tells Ellie (in a very psuedo-fatherly kind of way) that she got up early and maybe should get some more sleep while he's driving, she responds as most young teenagers would: "I'm not even tired!" Ellie says aloud, as Joel cracks the slightest of smiles, one he desperately wants to reveal. The traveling segment of the show—both in the car and once they take a break for the day to set up camp—includes a lot of character building and expositional monologues.

The next chapter of Joel and Ellie's journey introduces a fearsome villain and two mysterious new characters.

Henry assumes that Joel is a hunter, but they reluctantly work together to get out of the city alive. It’s not even because of her history in the Last of Us fandom. They settle down for the night after Ellie tells Joel a barnburner of a terrible dad joke, but are awoken suddenly when two strangers hold them at gunpoint — a boy and his grown-up caretaker. She holds her family doctor, the man who delivered her, in a cell for ratting on other revolutionaries to Fedra. It’s because of her lack of one. But in Episode 4, the action is brought back to the classic game story with one big addition.

In the fourth episode of HBO's "The Last of Us," Ellie's true character shines through as her connection with Joel deepens.

Joel and Ellie enter and climb up a taller building to find a route out of the city, and decide to camp inside for the night. Joel may be our driving protagonist, quite literally for the first part of the episode, but Ellie is the audience surrogate in understanding this world. In the game’s Pittsburgh, we knew nothing of the humans organized in that city, other than that they successfully overthrew the federal military. The militia that now rules Kansas City discovers the death left in the wake of Joel and Ellie’s arrival, and report to Kathleen, played by a chilling Melanie Lynskey. In a scene ripped straight from the game, the pair encounter a man pretending to be hurt, and are jumped by the citizens of Kansas City, now freed from federal military rule. In contrast to the game, it seems this Joel is warming up to Ellie a bit quicker. Ellie shooting another man is actually a scene lifted from the game in another sequence. Next it was the Fireflies and the search for a cure. A very bored Ellie decides to bombard Joel with a book of puns, which also featured prominently in the video game. They crash the truck, and a firefight within a laundromat is lifted straight from the game. First, it was the Iraq war of the 1990s. The way Ellie stares at Pedro Pascal’s exasperated Joel in between punchlines is a perfect display of how Ramsey captures Ellie’s insistence on being aggravating, but also very funny.

"Pew-pew," Ellie (Bella Ramsey) mumbles while posing with her new gun in the mirror of some Midwestern gas station bathroom. Like cars and airplanes, ...

He leads her to the basement of the same building. After Joel spreads broken glass near the door and the pair prepare for bed, Ellie treats Joel to a diarrhea pun that, despite being "so goddamned stupid," makes him laugh out loud. He leads her to the attic of an empty building. Later, when he asks her what she meant when she said it wasn't her "first time," she's tight-lipped, saying she doesn't want to talk about it. When she tries to put it in her pocket, he tells her it's safer in her bag. As Kathleen's men raid homes and apartments in search of them, Joel and Ellie take refuge in a bar. He was the doctor who delivered her when she was born. "Wants to save the world," he says dismissively, calling the Fireflies' mission "delusional" and a "pipe dream." Joel loses control of the car, which crashes through the storefront of a laundromat. A highway pileup outside Kansas City blocks their path, so Joel drives into the city to try and get around it. [in a nod to a memorable moment from the game](https://ew.com/tv/the-last-of-us-easter-eggs/), an old porno mag that [once belonged to Bill](https://ew.com/tv/recaps/the-last-of-us-season-1-episode-3/). As Joel ( [Pedro Pascal](https://ew.com/person/pedro-pascal/)) tries (and fails) to explain to her later, it's not that simple.

Season one, episode four of "The Last of Us" returns to following the game closely, while introducing a few new show-only characters.

A similar scene plays out later in the game when Ellie shoots a man in the head to save Joel from drowning. Ellie, more playful in the game, eagerly says, "I'll take that as a yes." He gives a slightly different response in the game. On Sunday's episode, Ellie and Joel get ambushed in Kansas City, which is located on the border of Kansas and Missouri. Ellie climbs through a hole in a wall and Joel kills two people. The ensuing ambush is more violent in the game. "What happened to the characters, and the choices they make in that city, that's what's really important." A hound in the distance is starting to bey I wonder, I wonder what she's thinking of. In the game, Ellie also gives Joel a Hank Williams cassette tape to play. In the game, the lewd joke was meant as a subtle hint toward Bill's sexuality, which the game never directly stated. Some fans may have recognized that the family sign belongs to Love's, a family-owned chain of truck stops across the United States. When she discovers some pages stuck together, implying a sexual act, Ellie asks Joel why the pages won't come apart.

After taking the truck from Bill and Frank's, Joel and Ellie stop at an abandoned rest stop. Ellie sits in the bathroom and quietly fiddles with Frank's gun, ...

This is a pretty gameplay-heavy section of the game, so Ellie and Joel are forced to fight their way through the city while being chased by a group called "hunters". In the game, Joel and Ellie are forced to cut through Pittsburgh instead of Kansas City, resulting in the laundromat battle. For the first time, Joel tries to get Ellie to open up about the other time she has had to use a gun, but she quickly shuts it down. The two enter one of the offices and find a place to rest for the night. Joel takes Frank's gun from her and steals a knife from the man on the ground. Ellie and Joel scramble out of the truck as gunfire lights up the laundromat. Joel reflects on the battle in the laundromat, feeling genuinely guilty for Ellie having to shoot someone. As night begins to fall, Ellie and Joel enter an office building with over 40 floors. Ellie quickly makes her way across while Joel fires the rifle at the men outside of the laundry mat, allowing Ellie the opportunity to get to safety. Ellie's in a state of panic, but Joel gets her to focus up and tells her to crawl across the chaos and squeeze through a hole in the wall while he lays down covering fire. Not wanting to lose any time, Joel decides to cut through the city where they quickly get lost and discover a QZ has been destroyed. After Ellie falls asleep, Joel gets out of his sleeping bag and spends the night watching over Ellie with a loaded rifle.

New episodes of The Last of Us are premiering on HBO every Sunday night, and Ars' Kyle Orland (who has played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who hasn't) ...

Andrew: By the time she squeezes through her second or third convenient window or hole in the wall, yes, it does start to strain credulity a bit. Speaking of episode whiplash, I think this was the first episode where we really got a good look at Ellie's constant transitions between young teen goofball and potty-mouthed action-hero sidekick. [last week’s episode](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/01/hbos-the-last-of-us-tries-a-little-tenderness-in-a-surprising-episode-3/)at all, it just gave me a little whiplash because it was so far from what the first two episodes had set up.

After last week's bold adaptation, HBO's series gives us an episode packed with moments from the game.

But just as the show’s Ellie is different from the game’s in a few key ways, so too is the show’s Joel different from this game counterpart. [Lotte Kestner’s cover of New Order’s “True Faith.”](https://youtu.be/girKHerKXUg) Interestingly, this cover was the basis for a version of the song that Ellie sang in [a commercial for The Last of Us Part II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzlzA2El6Ps), which prompted Kestner to tweet about the unauthorized use of her cover. (In the game, Joel has supernaturally keen hearing, letting him pinpoint the locations of enemies through walls and at great distances.) His poor hearing in his right ear may be related to the time a bullet grazed him, but if there’s more to that story, we’ll have to wait to hear it. Ellie asks Joel how he knew the guy asking for help wasn’t hurt, and he says he’s been on both sides, that he and Tess and the crew they ran with “did what we needed to survive.” In both cases, Ellie asks Joel if he killed innocent people. You get the feeling that he’d go to the ends of the earth in support of Kathleen’s crusade, regardless of his own feelings, and that makes him dangerous. Hiding out in an old bar, Joel and Ellie get to talking about how she just saved his life, and it plays out very differently from the game. She instantly links the presence of these “mercs” to him, saying maybe he used a radio to “call these guys in.” Driven by the deaths of her own men, she goes back in to kill the doctor, then comes back outside to rile the crowd up by lying through her teeth. But before, people dying was okay, when you were safe and protected and ratting on your neighbors to FEDRA.” When he protests that FEDRA put a gun to his head, she does the same and asks, “Have I satisfied the necessary conditions for you to talk?” In the game, we know that the hunters of Pittsburgh have effectively liberated the city from the local FEDRA branch, which was a cruel and oppressive institution, denying people rations and brutally keeping citizens in line. Ideologically, I’m not a fan of how ubiquitous the idea is in video games and grimdark movies and TV shows that killing is often just a given, a necessity, once the world collapses. “You don’t like coffee?” Joel asks with a hint of understated humor as she recoils in disgust from the bubbling pot. Whereas Ellie in the game is still constantly reacting with shock and horror as Joel offs bad guys at this point, her TV show counterpart still seems excited by it, and perhaps anxious for a chance to prove she can effectively dish it out.

Why does it feel like such a shock when The Last of Us Episode 4 is devoted strictly to Joel and Ellie? Either way, it's a welcome change.

In the game, Joel was more determined and action-driven, knowing that every person he killed equaled one less enemy to fear. Anyway, a solid episode overall, one that added to the mythos without deviating too far off course. In the game, Joel and Ellie brutally murder countless hordes of people without giving them much thought. - There were plenty of nods to the game in Episode 4: Ellie’s joke book chief among them. Instead, Ellie shoots young boys in the back and conceals her feelings over engaging in such atrocities. The show gave her something to do for the first time, and the young actress delivered.

HBO's The Last of Us is a mostly faithful adaptation of the hit PlayStation game. But just how close to its source material does it get? We've gathered images ...

Simon Cardy is reviewing The Last of Us for IGN. But just how close to its source material does it get? HBO's The Last of Us is a mostly faithful adaptation of the hit PlayStation game.