The Last Of Us: Ellie And Dina And Truth Bombs Aplenty — Read Episode 4 Recap
The Last of Us is gripping, hard-hitting and gutting. But one thing it is not, or at least not often, is joyful. That's why this week's episode stands out. OK, yeah, there's a barely escaped clicker attack and torture in an industrial kitchen. But there's also a beautiful acoustic cover and a long-brewing hookup, and both of those moments of light are sorely needed as Season 2 continues on its dark path.
Read on for the highlights of Episode 4.
MEET ISAAC | We start with a flashback to the Seattle Quarantine Zone, circa 2018. In the back of a FEDRA transport, a soldier (played by Drake & Josh's Josh Peck) tells a gross and violent story for laughs. He talks about some "voters" disseminating information; he thought they were Western Liberation Front, but instead they were "some religious group." Another soldier asks why they refer to the citizens as "voters," and a serious-looking man called Sarge (played by Westworld's Jeffrey Wright) in the corner clarifies that the term is a derogatory one that mocks how FEDRA took away people's right to vote. His tone implies he disapproves of the other soldiers' jocularity, and the laughter abruptly stops after he speaks.
The vehicle approaches a blockade; there are a lot of people outside on the street. Sarge says he's going to go talk to the people and instructs the other soldiers not to "lock and load." Then he orders the soldier who asked about the voters term to come with him and "learn something."
A woman named Hanrahan (Euphoria's Alanna Ubach) comes up to Sarge and asks if his name is Issac. It is. Once they've established that, Isaac throws a lit grenade into the back of the transport, which is still full of FEDRA soldiers, and locks the door. It goes off. He shoots the driver when he tries to escape. Then Isaac and Hanrahan shake hands. "Welcome to the fight," she says.
Isaac turns to the younger soldier, who now is the only other survivor from his group. "Now make your choice," the older man demands.
I'LL BE GONE IN A DAY OR TWO | Eleven years later, in the present, Dina and Ellie are poking about in the remains of a drugstore. They're in separate rooms, so Ellie isn't there when Dina finds an something — we can't see what it is — and yells that she's going to pee, and she'll meet her outside. "SEATTLE: DAY ONE" an onscreen title informs us.
Ellie notices something is off about her friend when Dina comes out and climbs up on Shimmer with her, but Dina shrugs it off. They meander through Capitol Hill, musing about how they thought Seattle had been bombed, but this part is still intact. They arrive at the area we saw in the flashback, which is now covered with long-rotten corpses. The girls see the FEDRA bodies inside the transport and guess that the two groups were fighting each other. Then Dina uses her binoculars to look around and finds "WLF" painted on a satellite dish on top of a tall building.
Ellie, unsurprisingly, is ready to charge in first, make plans later. But Dina convinces her to wait until dark and approach on foot. While they're killing time, they hole up in a music shop. It's as ravaged as the rest of the city is, but in a pretty way — lots of plants growing in and a giant, sunny hole where windows used to be. Ellie ventures upstairs and finds a guitar that, by virtue of being sealed up in a case, is in very good condition. She tunes it and starts playing A-Ha's "Take On Me," though she pauses when she sees Dina at the top of the stairs. "Go on!" Dina whispers, so she does.
Ellie's performance is quiet and sweet (and quite good). Dina, beaming, sits crosslegged on the floor in front of her, eyes full of tears. When Ellie finishes, Dina wipers her face and compliments her friend, who credits "all those lessons from Joel." Dina smiles. "He taught you well." Ellie agrees that he did.
KITCHEN NIGHTMARE | Now for something completely different — and totally disturbing. In an industrial kitchen elsewhere in Seattle, Isaac lights a stove's burner and talks to someone out of frame about how — in the pre-Cordyceps times — he loved cooking and used to dream about owning a fancy saucepan. "And I was right, just now how I planned. The strange benefits of the apocalypse," he says, heating a pan that we quickly realize is going to be used in an interrogation.
A naked, badly beaten and bald man is chained to a wall in the kitchen. He appears to be a member of the Seraphites, the religious group we saw walking in the woods in the previous episode. As the man prays, Isaac mocks him, calling him and his fellow believers "scars." Isaac wants to know where they're attacking next, but the man won't spill. So Isaac has the man hold out his hand, and Isaac places the hot pan directly on it. The man screams so loudly and awfully that a guard outside blanches. Another man tells him to chill, because Isaac knows what he's doing.
As the prisoner cradles his mangled hand, he repeatedly chants "She watches over me, she fills my soul" to himself. Isaac asks if "she" also told the man to kill children. They argue about who broke the truce between their two factions, but the man will not give Isaac what he wants. He taunts Isaac that, despite having better resources, the Wolves (WLF) are going to lose: "Every days, one of your Wolves comes to see the truth and takes her into their heart... and none of us ever leave to become a Wolf."
This angers Isaac greatly, and he reaches for the pan once more. But the man doesn't flinch and merely holds out his hand before being asked; instead, Isaac shoots and kills him. "Good guy. Got what he deserved," says the soldier whom we hadn't seen before, and we realize it's the younger guy from the flashback, the one Isaac saved from his colleagues' fate. The intervening years seem to have, uh, changed him. "F—king animal," he sneers.
WOLVES ATTACK | Night falls. Ellie and Dina make their way into the WLF building and quickly realize they've stumbled upon the scene of a massacre: There are a bunch of dead bodies, a few hanging from the ceiling, disemboweled, with their hands bound. Dina immediately pukes. And if you don't know what's coming later after two female vomit sessions in two episodes, I wonder: Have you ever watched a TV show, bro?
But back to the matter at hand. "FEEL HER LOVE" and the fish symbol is scrawled on a wall, leading the girls to realize that the group they saw in the woods are responsible for the killings. "What the f—k is wrong with Seattle?" Dina asks. (Ha!) All of the carnage is incredibly fresh, as we learn when WLF soldiers run in and Ellie and Dina quickly hide. The soldiers are looking to kill any Seraphites they find, despite Issac's orders to keep them alive for questioning, and it's not long before one discovers Ellie.
She jumps on him and chokes him, ultimately killing him as Dina shoots a second soldier who runs to his aid. Dina and Ellie escape into the pouring rain outside, winding up in an old transit tunnel. The WLF know where they are and toss lit flares into the tunnels, which rile up all the infected that are creeping around down there.
The clickers chase Ellie and Dina until the pair drops into a subway car full of skeletons (who have experienced a Top 10 fear of mine: enduring my last moments on public transportation somewhere)... and the infected FOLLOW THEM. The undead rock the car and break through the glass, and it's looking really bad until the women open an emergency exit in the roof. Apparently dead men can't jump, because once Ellie boosts Dina up, then Dina pulls Ellie out, they are able to get away. Barely.
Thought the infected danger was done? Nope! When Ellie and Dina get stuck in some turnstiles that won't move, a clicker is all up in Dina's business and getting ever closer. So Ellie shoves her arm between the creature and her friend, and shoots the infected as it's biting her. She saves Dina's life, but Dina is incredibly freaked out as she looks at the bloody gash on Ellie's arm.
TIME FOR THE TRUTH X2 | They get back to the concert hall where they're holing up, and Ellie turns around from barring the door to find Dina crying and holding a gun on her. "I would die for you, I would!" Ellie says. "But that is not what just happened." It's time to tell Dina the truth: "I'm immune. I can't get infected," Ellie says. And when Dina is not convinced, Ellie gets her to agree to hold a gun on her all night long, promising that "I'm going to wake up just as I am right now."
Later, when Ellie is awake and definitively not a mushroom, she shows Dina the bite — which looks incredibly average — and the moment of vulnerability seems to seal something for Dina. "I'm pregnant," she says, crying. "What?" Ellie replies, shocked. Then Dina drops the lamp she's holding and kisses her. Ellie eagerly reciprocates. They start taking each other's clothes off, and Ellie slips her hands into Dina's pants. Then we cut to the next morning, where they snuggle on the floor. Ellie is the big spoon.
In the morning light, Dina looks at Ellie's old bite; Ellie clarifies that now, it's mostly a burn. They're cute, tentative, cuddly. Dina realizes she doesn't even know if Ellie wants a kid. "I want it with you," Ellie says quietly. Dina says that the barfing clued her in to the fact that something was up; she also took four pregnancy tests after their visit to the pharmacy. "Sp, we're having a baby. I mean, we and also I guess Jesse," she adds. "Holy s—t, I'm gonna be a dad!" Ellie says.
The cuteness ends when the WLF radio that Dina stole crackles with some voices. There's fighting, and they hear Nora's name and reason that she'll know where Abby is. Up on the roof, they see bombs going off in the city — that's where they have to go. But Ellie suddenly realizes everything that's at stake and tells Dina she doesn't have to rush into danger with her. But the mom-to-be thinks for a moment, then holds out her hand. Ellie takes it.
"Together," Dina says.
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!