Episode 5 of The Last of Us has a perfect
blend of deviations and faithfulness to the source material. It does enough new to completely enhance the
original while not going too far to the point of making it unrecognizable. Episode 3 was my favorite, but I can see why
some people may dislike that episode because of how much of a departure it was from the
game, among other reasons too. But episode 5 I feel like will gain the mass
appeal because the changes that were made were absolutely insane. The entire action setpiece that resembles
hardhome from Game of Thrones was basically entirely original. Besides the sniper standoff, that was the
one shared aspect. So first let’s talk about these big changes
and how genius it was overall because I think this episode is an improvement over the game. Action wise the undead massacre is such an
adrenaline fueling moment that I was in shock about how amazing this scene was. From the spectacle of the explosion to then
revealing the sinkhole that is perfectly timed writing-wise to coincide with the encounter
with Henry. The gradual oh shit moment that slowly builds
as we hear the infected thundering footsteps approach our characters was great. Also, I love how the sound drops out just
before they emerge, it gives off this erupting feeling along with having some orgasmic payoff. Then the absolute chaos that ensues when the
infected start to swarm everyone is an action wet dream. Just having dozens of people laying into a
horde of zombies with assault rifles is metal as hell and further throws the excitement
factor of this scene into the heavens. Along with this portraying the infected as
extremely powerful and menacing. That’s something that I love about the show
so far. The writers have been very particular as to
when they have scenes with the infected so that they can preserve their intimidation. Because if you have too many scenes of Joel
killing clickers then you start to lose the impact and scare factor of the undead since
they don’t pose much of a threat anymore. Like the few scenes we have so far with them
have all been terrifying and our characters are always on the verge of death. This feeling of no plot armor is outstanding
and feels rare nowadays. Because it’s really hard to realistically
raise the danger while not compromising the logic in having your characters actually survive
without the intervention of the writer gods. The only aspect within this action setpiece
that relates to this point that partially bothered me was the fact that Joel never missed
the clickers. All of these shots seemed pretty hard to execute,
especially since he was having trouble earlier, but I can buy it because it’s definitely
possible for Joel to succeed here. Going back to some of the things I loved about
this scene is the editing. If you think about it we have 3 different
perspectives running around this moshpit of clickers and at no point does it ever feel
jarring or incoherent. Every shot feels very purposeful as to the
flow of the scene. An example of this is Joel shooting a clicker
that’s approaching Ellie and Henry which then pairs their two perspectives together. Now the edit is primarily focusing on telling
their story until getting to a good stopping point in their micro journey through the scene. Like when Ellie gets into the car and achieves
her temporary goal of getting to shelter. Then we cut to some brief shots of people
getting wrecked to increase the panic, which is followed by the next micro story beat like
with the bloater emerging. Pacing wise this is perfect and I just love
this structure throughout the scene. Then another clever thing is that the editor
chooses to ramp up the number of cuts whenever our characters are in mortal danger. This form of editing increases the anxiety
of the viewer and further makes you relate to the state of panic that our characters
are enduring. It’s nice that the entire scene isn’t
quickly cut though and is primarily reserved for these moments. And then some of the other shots we are allowed
to view for a longer duration. Like I just love this wide shot of the clickers
initially pouring out of the sinkhole and witnessing all of the destruction. It gives you a great grasp as to the insane
scale of the scene and it creates a first impression of being stunned by what’s transpiring. Also while on the subject of editing, there
was this one shot of Perry where it’s his reaction shot to the bloater yelling. The editor here opts to slow down the footage
but since they probably shot it at 24 frames a second, it becomes a quick slideshow and
it is very noticeable. It just seems a little odd to slow it down
here in an otherwise really well-edited scene. Because if they didn’t shoot it at a very
high frame rate that actually allows you to slow down footage given the extra frames,
then it sticks out like a sore thumb. Looking at some other key moments from this
scene, I love how the bloater is introduced here in the show. Because in the game, it was introduced on
completely different terms and also much earlier in the story. I would talk about it a bit, but I feel like
that would just be spoilers for the game at this point. However, the terms in which it’s introduced
in the game I don’t think is as crazy or as grand as it is here in the show. The execution of the bloater was perfect and
the entire essence of him being like a leader of sorts reminded me of the Night King during
Hardhome. The sound design of his basey roars were chilling
and the fact that they brought in the death animations into the show where he ripped Perry’s
head off was a nice touch. Another standout moment to me was the child
clicker in the car with Ellie. Like you think that the scene couldn’t get
even more tense and then we have this little isolated encounter as this demented clicker
is folding over seats like a noodle. Then the fact that this same clicker ends
up killing Kathleen is both a great action and writing moment. It’s deeply ironic how she was threatening
and wanting to kill the kids to then getting killed by one. Along with her ignoring the festering issue
of the clickers in the tunnels in the pursuit of Henry so it ends up biting her in the ass. Narratively I think Kathleen was done great
justice in this episode. She wasn’t very compelling in the one prior
but through her backstory of finding out that her brother was originally the leader and
that responsibility was kind of passed on to her makes sense. Along with her essentially fitting the mold
of being a ruthless leader and not being afraid of killing people. It just made her first scene feel a little
contradictory where she’s breaking up when faced with killing this person she has a minor
connection to, to then condemning all of these people to die. I know she doesn’t have to kill them herself,
but she’s still the one who’s ordering it. Also, this moment where she’s trying to
question these prisoners feels like she’s speaking with the same cadence of a kindergarten
teacher addressing their class when they did something bad. So I still wish they made Kathleen a bit more
intimidating because the writing surrounding her character is really solid in the larger
context. Like giving a perspective to this group was
a great way to have a better action confrontation at the end of this episode, and one that had
significantly more payoff. That’s one of the biggest improvements so
far from the video game. I know some people were annoyed that the last
episode had to do some actual build-up that requires time, but I think it was definitely
worth it in the long run. And the idea that people were floating that
these two episodes should have been combined I don’t think would have worked for two
main reasons. Firstly, the last episode had a great endpoint
for Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and Henry showing up was a good cliffhanger opportunity. The second reason has to do with showing Henry’s
perspective prior to meeting Joel. If you were to jump to this flashback right
after this confrontation it would have felt much more jarring than having it separated
by two different episodes. Because episode 5 is more about Henry and
Sam than it is about Joel and Ellie. Joel and Ellie are still definitely prominent,
but the writers opt to give more development to Henry and Sam so that their depressing
and heartbreaking demise hits even harder. Like you may identify their opening scenes
as not really being integral to the plot, but I think they were necessary in setting
up the bond between these two brothers. The scene in the attic where Henry tries to
brighten up sam’s mood was very wholesome and instantly makes you love them. I adore how the music here is able to flourish
uninterrupted audio-wise because these two characters are communicating via signing. It allows the music to resonate more with
you and deaf characters I feel like have to rely a lot more on facial and bodily performances
which is the root of acting and I love that. Making Sam a deaf character was a brilliant
change and as they said in the behind-the-scenes, this aspect makes Sam even more reliant on
Henry. It’s a quick and efficient way to bring
them closer together and it works with no faults. Although, I wouldn’t have minded if they
leaned a bit more on Sam’s deafness within a zombie apocalypse. Like maybe having a moment where he’s approached
by a clicker without him noticing and having to be saved by Henry or something. But regardless, Sam and Henry were still flawless
throughout the whole episode. Not even in terms of writing because they
both did an incredible job in the acting department. Lamar Johnson as Henry in particular really
blew me away. Every scene he was in he was very charismatic
and he always had this air of innocence to him. He’s very honest and genuine and Lamar Jonson
has a warm factor that exudes from him in almost every moment. He just comes across as so likable and relatable
to the point that you are always sympathizing with what he has to say. Also, the writers even gave Henry more of
a backstory here to further humanize him. Expanding Henry’s backstory and entangling
it with Kathleen’s is much more interesting than what happens in the game because there
it was basically just raiders driving out Henry’s group. However, in the show, the writers make it
to where Henry has to make the choice to either rat out Kathleen’s brother that leads to
his death or choose to get some essential medicine for his brother. This was very smart and doesn’t compromise
his character. Because anyone in this situation would choose
to protect their younger brother and on the flip side, if someone was responsible for
your brother’s death you’d rightfully want them to pay. This makes for a good parallel between these
two characters and is surprising that Craig Mazin basically came up with this on the fly
from how deep this is. I just love how in almost every inside the
episode, Neil Druckman is constantly like ugghhh I wish I wrote that into the game and
is constantly praising Craig. This kind of bond between the original writer
loving the work of the new writer and not being overly protective is a great pairing
that further leads to an unbelievable result so far. Along with giving Neil Druckman the ability
to revisit his past work and make it even better since he’s had a lot of time to reflect
on it and think of what can be improved. Before going into the final scene, I’ll
highlight a few other of my favorite moments to delay the inevitable sadness that comes
with talking about the tragic ending. One moment that made me burst out laughing
was Joel’s asshole voice moment. It really comes out of nowhere with how funny
it is and is even better when Joel says something else that shows the fact that he’s still
really tense. And then one last moment that I’ll highlight
is the gang finding the underground classroom. This scene has a lot to offer because it allows
the innocence of Ellie to briefly resurface because, at the end of the day, she’s still
a kid. This aspect about her character coming out
is really nice to see because Ellie is a naturally tough character and she is able to express
herself from a more whimsical internal perspective. Which this allows some great bonding moments
with Sam to make his death that much more sad for Ellie and him. Along with this whole classroom setting being
interesting. I wonder if this group was initially in the
tunnels but they got royally screwed over by FEDRA bringing the undead down there and
that was the reason for their downfall. This scene also allowed for Joel and Henry
to reach a better status in their brief relationship that was really integral for Joel in being
upset by Henry’s death. This scene does a lot the more you think about
it while also offering a good beat in the pacing to slow down before the crazy action
set piece. So let’s finally get into the emotional
despair of the ending of the episode. Henry reacting to Sam being infected was a
perfect blend of confusion, upset, and utter shock that it would seem impossible to act
out this moment from how complicated the emotional requirement is here. But Lamar Johnson blows this scene out of
the water and so does everyone else. Joel and Ellie equally match this and it just
creates a magnificent scene that guts the audience emotionally. Just this entire plot point is so devastating
because finally Joel and Ellie have found a pairing that they’ve come to enjoy but
is ripped away from them because of the nature of the world. That and Ellie trying to heal Sam was fucking
depressing and you immediately know that’s not how science works and the fate of Sam
is locked in from that point on. Even playing through the game I still feel
floored by what happened because of how amazing the writing and acting is here. Then the contrast between Joel and Ellie is
further explored here in the show where you see Joel expressing more sorrow towards the
two brothers while Ellie is quick to move on. It’s an opposite kind of trajectory for
the two characters as Joel learns to open up more to others and be more caring while
Ellie is learning more from Joel in that she needs to be more resilient to survive in this
hostile world. I think this moment in their relationship
was a great little beat and seeing it expressed through this shot of Joel in the foreground
strucken by grief contrasted by Ellie far away in the background out of focus was a
clever move by the DP. God just every aspect about this show is so
great to the point that watching anything else feels like an immediate downgrade. Thank you for watching and let me know what
you thought about Episode 5 of The Last of Us.
