‘The Last Of Us’ Episode 4 Recap And Review: ‘Please Hold My Hand’

The Last Of Us

Credit: HBO

After last week’s tragically beautiful diversion from the main plotline of HBO’s The Last Of Us, we’re back on the road with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as the pair of survivors continues their journey out west to find Tommy and the Fireflies.

Episode 3—Long, Long Time—stirred up plenty of controversy thanks to its focus on Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) and their serendipitous post-apocalyptic love story. While I agree that it would have been nice to have Bill and Ellie meet so that we could have gotten some of their banter from the game, overall I loved the episode. I think the most controversial thing about it was portraying ‘ten miles west of Boston’ as the Rocky Mountains.

At least one missing piece from the game was rectified in tonight’s episode: As I suspected, Ellie still found the gay porn magazine in Bill’s truck. Many complained that the humorous moment from the game was axed for the show, and I suggested that perhaps she would find it in the truck later. Sure enough, as the pair drives west she finds the porno and the ensuing moments are quite hilarious.

In fact, this episode was filled with a great blend of human connection, comic relief and tense encounters. It was much shorter than last week’s episode, which made for a brisker pace with a lot more action. We also see Joel soften considerably toward Ellie. When he tells her that she’s just “cargo” and not family, it sounds forced. By the end, when he’s telling her that it’s not fair that she has to deal with so much violence and pain so young, it’s obvious that he really does think of her as family already—or if not quite family, then something close.

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The humor takes the form of a book of jokes that Ellie has happened upon. There’s some pretty funny ones, too. At first, Joel is irritated by them. Then, when they’re laying down to sleep while camping under the stars, she asks him “Why did the scarecrow get an award?”

He think about it and replies: “Because he was out standing in his field.” Get it? Outstanding in his field. She’s shocked. “You dick!” she says, laughing. He grins.

By the end of the episode, they’re both laughing hysterically at the latest of these zingers, as Joel’s walls come crashing good and fully to the ground. It probably didn’t hurt that during an encounter with three bandits, Ellie saves his life with the gun she spirited off from Bill and Frank’s.

The bandit encounter reminded me so much of the game, where you spend a lot more time shooting at bad guys than Joel and Ellie do in the show. Still, it was a very similar encounter with a similar enough outcome. Joel is just a better shot than the mooks he goes toe-to-toe with. Even the hollering and swearing from the bandits reminded me of how enemies interact with our heroes in the game. It’s . . . almost generic feeling? I guess I’m curious how people will respond to it who haven’t played the games. To me, it was almost nostalgic but it was also definitely a little cheesy.

Kathleen

Credit: HBO

The leader of this bandit (or perhaps rebel?) group is Kathleen, played by Melanie Lynskey who I know mostly from Yellowjackets (a truly wonderful show, by the way; her character is terrific). We know very little about Kathleen other than she was against FEDRA and it appears her group won that war. Her brother was killed after being ratted out by someone named Henry who she’s so hellbent on finding, she’s willing to kill her own doctor—the man who delivered her as a baby—when he won’t give up Henry’s location.

We know very little about Henry other than that he’s in charge of someone named Sam who appears to be a child given all the superhero drawings Kathleen and her thugs find when they discover their former hideout. “He wouldn’t let Sam starve,” Kathleen says, indicating that Sam is likely Henry’s child.

At the end of the episode, Ellie wakes up Joel who had put glass on the floor to hear anyone approaching, though Ellie didn’t think it would wake him up given his lousy hearing. She was right, apparently, as they have uninvited guests pointing guns at them. A man and a boy are standing above them. The boy puts his finger to his mouth, hushing them. The credits roll.

Verdict

Joel and Ellie

Credit: HBO

This was yet another terrific episode of The Last Of Us. I love the attention to detail that’s gone into this show. The moss and lichen growing on everything, even old rusty cars. The vast, post-apocalyptic set-pieces that make the world feel—if not lived in, then still very real, very much like what you might expect civilization to look like twenty years after the fall.

I also love that we’re getting so much humor and all these little personal moments. I often compare The Last Of Us to The Walking Dead, simply because that was the last major zombie show that captured the hearts of audiences and because I wrote about it for so long. That show started off really strong, but what it rarely got right was the way human beings are funny and sentimental. It was always so damn serious. All the characters in that show were serious. There was rarely humor, rarely affection, rarely moments where two characters would lie on the floor laughing over some stupid joke.

I think it would have been a better show with more of that. And certainly The Lat Of Us is a better show because of all the little moments that make you smile, whether it’s a silly joke or Joel being a big ol’ softy and worrying over Ellie or it’s a surprising love story between a gruff libertarian survivalist and a man who is his polar opposite in almost every imaginable way.

In any case, I loved watching Joel and Ellie grow closer this episode. I loved the Hank Williams song. I adore the soundtrack in general and the haunting guitar melodies that game and show composer Gustavo Santaolalla sprinkles throughout. And I’m excited to see what happens next, as our heroes find themselves many flights of stairs up in a high-rise building in Kansas City, stuck between what appears to be a rock and a hard place.

What did you think of this episode, dearest readers?

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Watch my video review of the episode below:

Further Last Of Us Reading From Yours Truly:

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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/02/05/the-last-of-us-episode-4-recap-and-review-please-hold-my-hand/