‘The Last Of Us’ Season 1 Episode 5 Non-Spoiler Review – “Endure And Survive”

Tonight’s episode of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s post-apocalyptic drama television program, The Last of Us, has the visual effects team creating a horde of Infected, and probably unlike that which we have seen in the second episode. Following last weekend’s fourth episode, the show continues the wild goose chase and develops brothers Henry (guest star Lamar Johnson) and Sam (guest star Keivonn Montreal Woodard) and their lasting dynamic with Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey).

The fifth episode of the series’ premiere season is titled, “Endure and Survive”. It is written for television by Mazin and directed by Jeremy Webb.

In this review, I will be discussing The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 5. There will be no spoilers present, as the title of this article suggests. Nonetheless, please read ahead at your own discretion as I will discuss some character developments and some references to the source material, i.e., the 2013 video game.

Please note that I have seen all nine episodes of this first season ahead of the season’s release.

The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 5 Synopsis

According to WarnerBrothers Discovery, here is the synopsis for The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 5–“Endure and Survive”.

TBA

Discussion

Tonight’s (early) episode of The Last of Us is heavy with visual effects, and all of the credit goes out to Wang, Nowlan, Botteron, Bhatti, and Faulkner. I mean, if you thought the packs of Infected in the second episode were terrifying, we witness a new collective of them terrorize Kansas City, with a Bloater (Adam Basil) amongst them. This debunks the denial of Stalkers, Bloaters, and Shamblers that was mentioned in the second episode and confirms that the worst of the worst has yet to come… Although, maybe not in this season.

What the series gets right about Bloaters is how slow, yet impenetrable they can be, as you will see in this episode. However, due to the presence of tendrils and lack of spores in this season, we do not get to see this episode’s Bloater throw any spore bombs. On the other hand, the showrunner(s) teased the possibility of spores being integrated into the second season of the show, so all we can do is hope.

Paino et al’s set piece of the sniper portion of the game is adapted well. Although, for a 59-minute episode, perhaps we could have gotten more rebel soldiers and just a tad more thrilling exploration through this little neighborhood. The appearance of the sniper (Ron J. Anderson) felt somewhat overwhelming in comparison to the game, but the chaos that followed made up for that really well!

Kansas City Like We’ve Never Seen Before

This portion of the video game and the adapted version for this episode are different. Throughout the course of the season’s run thus far, fans of the 2013 Naughty Dog game are always wondering how much of the game the series is close to. What we have come to learn in these first five episodes is that the major plot points remain, while the smaller minutiae that we are given deviate from what we know.

For one thing, the sneaky run from the rebels was a huge journey. However, in this episode, the protagonists and their allies take a route that is unlike traversing through city buildings. The way that Joel and Ellie meet Henry and Sam is different. In the game, Joel and Ellie enter a building through a window only to be held at gunpoint by Henry and Sam, whereas the two duos meet at an office building–as shown at the end of last weekend’s episode–although they get to this room at a bit later part of this portion of the game.

On another note, the episode depicts the wider scope of the rebels’ impact on the city. With Kathleen (guest star Melanie Lynskey) as their leader and Perry (guest star Jeffrey Pierce) at her side, we are shown a no-nonsense overthrowing of the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA). There is a reason for Kathleen to run the show, and it comes at the cost of a life for a life.

How To Save a Life

The episode involves the continuous development of Joel as he learns that Ellie is more than an object for cargo to be transported. As advised by a couple of close allies in the series, he is told to save who he can save, that it is human beings’ purpose on this planet to save each other and that perhaps it is love that keeps us alive.

From Kathleen’s perspective, in death there is a definite, that “this is what happens when you [tamper] with fate” and that “[i]t ends the way it ends”. In juxtaposition with this, Joel learns that living–not dying–for the sake of life comes at a cost or a risk. If you hurt one person to save another, does that make you a bad person? Does this make us less human? Having been a father in the past, Joel is confronted with the idea that Ellie’s life is worth more than he initially wanted to believe.

The late French philosopher Anne Dufourmantelle’s critical text, In Praise of Risk, tells us that the risk of life opens “an unknown space”, and that it is “an act that pushes ahead of us on the basis of a still unknown knowledge”. In Joel’s case, he does not know how much longer he will have to be with Ellie. He does not know what is on the other side–not just West, but the exterior to life itself–and it may seem that he cannot tell Ellie what that might be like.

Easter Egg(s)

With past episodes of the season, we have gotten a fictional film, an arcade video game, a handwritten letter, a couple of magazines, and a couple of product placements.

Tonight’s episode title, “Endure And Survive”, comes from another collectible item from the 2013 video game–Savage Starlight, a set of fourteen comic book issues that Joel and Ellie encounter on their trek west to the Fireflies. The fictional graphic novel further solidifies the bond between Ellie and Sam in the same way that the toy robot did in the video game.

The Crew Behind The Last of Us

The Last of Us is created for television by Mazin and Druckmann.

Greg Spence and Cecil O’Connor serve as the producers of the series. Jacqueline Lesko is the co-executive producer. Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Evan Wells (Naughty Dog), Rose Lam (Schmigadoon!), Carolyn Strauss, Druckmann, and Mazin are the executive producers.

Eben Bolter serves as the cinematographer for the episode, while Roger Vernon, Franco Tata, and Adam Wallensten do additional photography. Timothy A. Good and Emily Mendez are the editors. Timothy A. Kuper, Ben Cook, and Andrew McGivney are the assistant editors.

Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain) scores the music for the episode, with David Fleming doing additional scoring. Jake Staley and Juan Luqui do additional music for the episode. Michael J. Benavente is the supervising sound supervisor. Christopher Battaglia and Chris Terhune serve as sound designers.

Evyen J. Klean (Game of Thrones, Watchmen, Euphoria, Scenes from a Marriage, Peacemaker, House of the Dragon) and Ian Broucek (Peacemaker, Orphan: First Kill) are the music supervisors. Maarten Hofmeijer serves as the music editor. From PlayStation Studios, Scott Hanau serves as the score supervisor. Andrew Buresh, Anthony Caruso, and Scott Bergstrom do the music engineering and editing. Evan M. Greenspan does the music licensing for the show.

Victoria Thomas is the casting director for the episode. Corinne Clark and Jennifer Page are the Canadian casting directors for the episode. Megan Bayliss serves as the Canadian casting associate, while Elizabeth Brown is a casting associate. Alyson Lockwood is the extras casting director. Isabel Barker is the cast assistant.

Denton Edge serves as the stunt double for Joel. Taryn Roberts is the stunt double for Ellie.

Shawna Pliva is the stunt double for Kathleen, while Heath Stevenson is the stunt double for Perry. Jesse Miller is the stunt double for Henry, while Lydia Morales is the stunt double for Sam.

Aesthetics

John Paino serves as the production designer. Don Macaulay is the supervising art director.

Callum Webster, Stevo Bedford, and Andrew Li are the art directors for the episode. Hitoshi Okamoto, Nathan Blackie, Matt Vest, and Oshy Parasol serve as the assistant art directors. Paul Healy is the set decorator. Alan McCullagh, Alexandra M. Lingnau, and Jason Coxworthy are the assistant set decorators.

Cynthia Ann Summers is the costume designer for the series. Kelsey Chobotar and Rebecca Toon are the assistant costume designers.

Chris Glimsdale is the head of the hair department. Penny Lea Thompson serves as the key hairstylist. Courtney Ullrich is Pedro Pascal’s personal hairstylist.

Connie Parker is the head of the makeup department, while Joanna Mireau (Peacemaker) is the key makeup artist.

Joel Whist is the special effects supervisor. Alex Wang is the visual effects supervisor, while Sean Nowlan is the VFX producer. Luke Botteron is the VFX editor, while Baljot Bhatti and Ryan Faulkner are the VFX assistant editors.

The Cast of The Last of Us

Bella Ramsey portrays Ellie, the female protagonist of the series. Pedro Pascal portrays Joel Miller, a survivor of the Cordyceps outbreak and the main male protagonist.

Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures, Don’t Look Up, Yellowjackets) guest stars as Kathleen, the leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City. Jeffrey Pierce plays Perry, a member of the rebellion.

Kathleen and Perry are original characters made for the franchise. Pierce previously portrayed Tommy Miller in The Last of Us (2013) and its sequel via voice and motion capture.

Lamar Johnson portrays Henry. Keivonn Montreal Woodard portrays Sam, Henry’s younger brother and a deaf, artistic child. John Getz (The Fly, Zodiac, Superhero Movie, The Social Network, Doom Patrol) plays Edelstein, a doctor in Kansas City and Henry and Sam’s collaborator.

Craig Haas co-stars as an informer. Ron J. Anderson appears as a sniper.

Adam Basil plays the Bloater, while Skye Belle Cowton is a child Clicker. Olivier Ross-Parent and Samuel Hoeksema portray Clickers.

Performances and Character Developments

Bella Ramsey continues to portray their role of Ellie magnificently through levity, trepidation, and gloom. Getting used to Joel’s personality–and his inability to hear through one ear–, she understands that her temporary father figure is just a person with flaws. There is a mutual trust between them that stems from the constant scenario of death. Aside from him, she does not have any friends, not even anyone her age. This is due to the fact that she fled her FEDRA military school and lost a long-time friend to the Infected. Ramsey’s looks of glee and of fear are worth the Emmy, and it would be wrong of the Television Academy to dismiss this.

Allies

Johnson and Woodard as Henry and Sam, respectively, are a poignant addition to the season. There is one scene at the beginning noteworthy, and it involves their dynamic as brothers. With Woodard, Sam’s silence–and consequently, his communication through his drawing pad and sign language–speaks volumes. I love the tight hug that they share when they realize that Doctor Edelstein can no longer tell help him. This is probably because Kathleen had killed him in the previous episode.

In juxtaposition with Henry and Sam, we see that Joel and Ellie are no different. Specifically, in the final ten minutes of the episode, we see the heart-felt dynamic between Ellie and Sam. Again, silence can be loud. It is not the fact that he is deaf and communicates through other means that is impactful. With Ellie, we learn that being alone is what frightens her the most. With Sam, there is something about him that has been psychoanalyzed before via the video game. However, in this episode, there may be a distinction.

Sam asks Ellie an important question: “If you turn into a monster, is it still you inside?” Not only does this deal with the fact that they have to deal with the Infected, but like Henry and Joel’s shared lesson, it is a philosophical question to ponder. If you hurt others, then do you still have your humanity or do you lose it? This scene between the two characters is a great one, especially because of how it ends, which is unlike that from the game. I also like Santaolalla’s strumming of a guitar at the very end when they share a hug.

Enemies

Lynskey is ruthless as Kathleen and might be second of the best antagonists of the season. (Wait until David arrives…) She is a woman with no patience in her search for Henry and Sam, and she knows what her priorities are. We do get a moment of development via conversation between her and Perry that is intriguing. She believes that forgiveness is insufficient and that true justice comes through death.

My only issue is that there are not enough of the two actors present in these past two episodes. Although, that scene alone should convince us that they are human beings with cruel mindsets.

Final Thoughts on The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 5

Tonight’s episode of The Last of Us is a great one that doubles down on the themes that we have been getting since the series pilot. It is important to remember that the Cordyceps outbreak occurred in mid-to-late 2003, a time when touchscreen technologies such as iPhones, Androids, and iPads were never invented. Therefore, for Sam to communicate through his drawing pad is more meaningful. The words that he writes signal and evoke emotion and definition that perhaps screens cannot achieve.

Aside from the pilot and the third episode, thus far this is my second-favorite episode of the series. The narrative is pristine from start to finish, and the credit goes to the visual effects team, Bolter’s camera work, and Good and Mendez’s editing.

Next weekend, we see Joel and Ellie finally arrive in Jackson, Wyoming. Here, they will encounter familiar faces, perhaps including one that we are not supposed to be introduced to until next season. One of the two protagonists will also have an encounter with peril itself. Until then, you will have to wait to find out what exactly happens.

The Last of Us is now airing on HBO and streaming via HBO Max!

Have you played The Last of Us or its sequel? If so, what are your thoughts? Let us know! For more drama, horror and science-fiction-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Also, if you want a closer look at Ellie, Joel, and the Infected, then you might want to purchase the Artwork of The Last of Us (2013) via Amazon!