"Endure and Survive" is the fifth episode of the first season, and the fifth episode overall, of HBO's The Last of Us. The episode was directed by Jeremy Webb and written by series creator Craig Mazin. The episode was released on HBO Max on February 10, 2023 in advance of its February 12 airdate on HBO.
Synopsis[]
On the streets of a newly free Kansas City, Henry fights to protect his brother Sam from rebel soldiers who will stop at nothing to appease their ruthless leader. As her manhunt continues, Kathleen doubles down on her quest for revenge, while Ellie forms a meaningful friendship.
Cast and characters[]
Main cast
Guest starring
- Lamar Johnson as Henry Burrell
- Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen Coghlan
- Keivonn Montreal Woodard as Sam Burrell
- Jeffrey Pierce as Perry
- John Getz as Edelstein
Co-starring
- Craig Haas as informer
- Ron J. Anderson as Anthony
- Adam Basil as the bloater
- Skye Belle Cowton as child clicker
- Samuel Hoeksema as clicker
- Oliver Ross-Parent as clicker
Uncredited
- Jace Bews as stalker
- C. Stephen Campbell as rebel soldier
- Jason Ritter as clicker
Plot[]
Revolution in Kansas City[]
The people of Kansas City celebrate the overthrow of FEDRA, taking to the streets, killing and torturing the former soldiers and seeking out "collaborators" of FEDRA for prosecution. Two such collaborators, Henry Burrell and his brother Sam, evade capture by the revolutionaries. The leader Kathleen Coghlan and her lieutenant Perry interrogate several captive collaborators regarding the whereabouts of Henry, claiming she will give them a fair trial if they tell her. One of the collaborators eventually reveals he is meeting with Edelstein, whom Kathleen had not even realized was a collaborator. She orders her men to seek out Henry, despite Perry's objections that there are more important matters, and then orders Perry to kill the informants anyway. Meanwhile, Henry and Sam meet Edelstein and hide out in the attic of an abandoned building, though they recognize the situation will have to be temporary due to a lack of food and ammunition. To help Sam pass the time, Henry gives him some art supplies to decorate the room.
Ten days pass, and both Henry and Sam have nearly run out of food. Henry eventually realizes Edelstein has been captured and most likely killed, and decides they will have to make their own way. As they are leaving the building, however, they witness a truck crash into a nearby laundromat. Henry watches as the driver (Joel) summarily takes out his attackers with ease. Intrigued, he tells Sam he has a new plan.
Keeping an eye on the man and his companion (Ellie), Henry and Sam follow them into an abandoned high rise, making sure to avoid making noise on the trail of glass he had left. They proceed to wake the two up at gunpoint, with Henry telling a bewildered Joel they only wish to help. After brief confusion over Joel's instinctively threatening tone of voice, which Ellie assures them is just how he talks, they lower their weapons. The group share some food that Joel and Ellie got from Bill's house, taking the time to introduce themselves before Henry explains he can help Joel find a way out of the city.
Escape the city[]
In the morning, Henry fills Joel in on what happened in Kansas City: ten days ago, after years of mistreating the residents of the QZ, the people rose up and overthrew FEDRA. Joel quickly figures out that Henry is neither FEDRA nor a revolutionary: Henry admits he was a collaborator, someone who exchanged information with FEDRA for better living conditions. Joel refuses to work with a "rat", but Henry points out he knows the city and thus is Joel's safest bet to get out, noting he and Sam in turn need Joel's weapons expertise to clear out any dangers in their path. Henry admits he is not violent, having never killed anyone before, and that the guns they aimed at Joel and Ellie were in fact unloaded. Noticing Ellie and Sam bonding over her joke book, Joel agrees to work with them. Sam and Henry reveal the highways are completely controlled by Kathleen, but they can evade the revolutionaries by taking maintenance tunnels that run underneath the city, emerging in a residential area and using a pedestrian bridge to get to safety. He admits there is potential danger in the tunnels: FEDRA forces drove the infected underground fifteen years ago, and while a soldier told Henry they eventually cleared out the tunnels, there is a slight risk of some still being underground. At the very least they will not run into Kathleen's people because they all think the tunnels are too dangerous. Joel and Ellie are doubtful, but when Henry hears they survived a clicker encounter, he insists they are the right people for the task. Besides, they do not have any other options.
The group makes it into the maintenance tunnels, where they find no sign of any infected. However, they come across an unusual sight: the nursery room of an old survivors' bunker, filled with books and toys. They see no sign of its residents (though Joel finds a child's drawing of two "protectors" named Danny and Ish), leading them to assume they were driven out by infected years ago. Ellie and Sam find an issue of the Savage Starlight comics, of which both of them are fans, and Sam teaches Ellie how to say the catchphrase "Endure and Survive" in American Sign Language. Seeing the two kids having fun, Henry suggests they wait out in the nursery as it will be safer to emerge from the tunnels when it is dark. While they watch Ellie and Sam play, Joel apologizes for being rude to Henry earlier, admitting he understands Henry's desire to protect Sam by any means necessary, noting he finds it cruel of Kathleen to send an entire army after them for that. Henry reveals he was not entirely truthful: he had previously come under the wing of Kathleen's brother Michael, who established the resistance movement and was by all accounts a great and compassionate leader. However, when Sam had leukemia, the only drug that could treat it was in the hands of FEDRA, and Henry had to give FEDRA something "big" to obtain it: Michael. He admits that even though it saved his brother, the guilt of his decision continues to haunt him. He then notes he can see in Joel that he was once a father and therefore understands Henry's reasoning. Joel does not respond, declaring it is time for them to continue.
Kathleen stands in her and Michael's childhood room. Perry arrives with no updates on the location of Henry or the man who killed Bryan and asks Kathleen how she is doing. Kathleen reflects on how Michael raised her not to be afraid, and reveals that the day before his death, he asked her to forgive Henry for betraying him. However, she feels she does not have it in her to forgive and expresses doubt that she should even be leading the revolutionaries. Perry reminds her she led them when overthrowing FEDRA, not Michael, and that he and the others have her back.
Sniper ambush[]
Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam emerge from the tunnels that night as planned, with Henry boasting that he was correct about the tunnels being clear. As they venture through a seemingly empty residential area, Ellie suggests the two brothers join them in going to Wyoming. Their conversation is interrupted by gunfire from a sniper, who is shooting at them from a nearby house. Joel takes off alone to deal with the sniper himself, managing to get into the house only to find the sniper is an old man. He pleads for the man at gunpoint to put down his rifle and let them pass, but the man aims at him anyway and gets shot. To Joel's horror, the man, Anthony, was one of Kathleen's soldiers, and had informed them via walkie-talkie of the group's whereabouts. A convoy of armored vehicles arrives, forcing Ellie, Sam, and Henry to make a run for it. Joel uses the sniper rifle to kill the driver of the lead truck, sending it careening into a nearby house, which erupts in flames. As the group hides, Kathleen emerges with her men, telling Henry to surrender. Henry offers to do so in exchange for letting Sam and Ellie escape, but Kathleen refuses, as Ellie was involved in Bryan's death and Sam is his brother, callously telling him that children die all the time. After telling Ellie and Sam to make a run for it anyway, Henry emerges from hiding and prepares to die at Kathleen's hands.
Before she can do so, however, they are all interrupted by a loud rumbling. Turning to look at the burning house, they see the truck fall into a sinkhole that has formed beneath. From the hole emerges an entire horde of infected, the very ones FEDRA had been containing. The revolutionaries are quickly overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of infected. Henry, Sam and Ellie take cover, with Joel providing supporting fire and taking out any infected that try to attack them. They are quickly separated in the chaos, but Ellie spots a car to hide in and Joel sees her plan. As more infected emerge from the hole, a loud roar bellows the air as a heavily armored infected emerges and begins taking out the revolutionaries. Perry, seeing it as a threat, focuses fire on it and orders Kathleen to run and not look back. She complies as Perry fights it, but it easily overwhelms him and rips his head off.
In the car, Ellie finds herself safe before a child clicker climbs in; Joel tries to shoot it, but the clicker's young age allows it to nimbly dodge the attacks as it darts for Ellie. Fortunately, she manages to escape and shut the door on the clicker, who struggles to break the glass due to the host's lack of strength. She soon spots Henry and Sam, underneath a car and being attacked by two more clickers. She manages to kill one and drags the other out, who Joel kills. Joel leaves his spot to catch up with them while the others flee, but are stopped by Kathleen, who still has her gun aimed at Henry. However, she hesitates and Ellie notices the clicker from before, who pounces on Kathleen and mauls her to death. The three are shocked before Joel snaps them back to their senses to flee, while the horde clears up the remaining revolutionaries and chases the survivors back to the city, still emerging from the hole.
Aftermath[]
The group recovers in the safety of a motel room. Joel and Henry watch as Ellie and Sam continue reading their comic books, and joke about the absurdity of the "Endure and survive" motto. Joel repeats Ellie's earlier offer to join them in going to Wyoming, and Henry agrees, remarking that it would be good for Sam. He tells Sam to go to sleep, but Ellie wakes him up to read comic books again. Sam stops her and writes on his Magic Slate asking if Ellie is scared, claiming she seems fearless to him. Ellie explains she is scared all the time "...of scorpions!" before admitting she is scared of ending up alone. Sam asks if people are still alive inside when they are infected, before lifting up his pant leg to reveal he was bitten. Ellie shows him her own bite and claims her blood is medicine. She makes a cut on her hand and rubs some of her blood on his wound, claiming it will cure him, and agrees to stay awake with him that night.
Ellie wakes up in the morning to see Sam sitting up. When she approaches him, however, she discovers he has become infected during the night. Joel and Henry awake to see Sam attacking Ellie. Henry, seeing Joel reach for his gun, grabs it instead, and tells him to stay away, but then fires the gun at Sam himself, killing him and saving Ellie. Despite Joel's pleas for Henry to put down the gun, Henry is overcome with the realization that all the effort he went through to protect Sam was for nothing, and turns the gun on himself as Ellie watches in horror.
As Joel buries Sam and Henry's bodies outside the motel, Ellie dejectedly gives Joel his things before leaving Sam's Magic Slate on the grave and heading off in the direction of Wyoming. Joel looks at the slate to see that Ellie left the words "I'm sorry." He then picks up his items and follows as they leave Kansas City behind.
Reception[]
The fifth episode aired on February 10, 2023 and was watched by 11.6 million viewers in the U.S. overnight. This also marked a distinct rise in viewership, owing to it being released earlier than prior and later episodes because the Super Bowl event was airing that same weekend. Therefore, it is also the most watched episode of the series, when based solely on the overnight figures.[1][fn 1]
High praise was given to the episode's tight focus and pacing was also praised, with particular focus given to the infected horde attack in the suburbs. Sam's change to a deaf character, different from his video game counterpart, was well-liked as was the depiction of his and Henry's relationship. The episode holds a 9.4 rating out of 10 based on 77,000 reviews on IMDB, the highest for the series.[2]
Transcript[]
- Main article: Endure and Survive/Transcript
Behind the scenes[]
Featured music[]
- "Fuel to Fire" by Agnes Obel, plays during the end credits.
Production[]
- HBO Max released the episode two days early on February 10, in advance of its February 12, 2023 airdate on HBO, to avoid conflicting with coverage of Super Bowl LVII. Coincidentally, Kansas City's NFL team, the Chiefs, played in and won the game, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles.
Easter eggs and references[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the quote from the Savage Starlight comic Ellie reads to Sam.
- The issue of Savage Starlight that Sam and Ellie find—#6, Accretion—appears in both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II video games.
- Joel briefly glares at Ellie when she pulls her gun out of her pocket. When Joel gave her the gun in the previous episode, he told her to put it in her backpack.
- Joel spots a child's drawing in the underground playroom that depicts two men wearing military uniforms and writing that says "Danny, Ish. Our protectors." This drawing is an exact copy of one from The Last of Us, wherein the player can collect a drawing depicting Ish and Danny, two survivors who protected an underground community similar to the one depicted in the episode. Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin briefly considered expanding on Danny and Ish's story for the television series, but eventually settled on a brief reference as an Easter egg for players of the game.[3]
- The child clicker wears a Blue's Clues shirt. This was an intentional choice by Craig Mazin, who wanted to contrast innocence with horror.[3]
- This also marks the first time a child at this stage of infection is seen in The Last of Us franchise.
Gallery[]
Promotional images[]
Official stills[]
Behind the scenes[]
Videos[]
External links[]
Watch "Endure and Survive" on HBO Max- Listen to The Last of Us Official Playlist on Spotify
- "Endure and Survive" at IMDb
Listen to Notes[]
- ↑ The viewing figures for episode 5 account for ratings across three days because the episode's scheduling clashed with the 2023 Super Bowl, which serves to further illustrate its inflated rise compared to the rest of the series.
References[]
- ↑ Hailu, Selome (March 6, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Episode 8 Hits Series High of 8.1 Million Viewers, Up 74% From Season Premiere" Variety
- ↑ "The Last of Us" episode 5: Endure and Survive, IMDB, (Accessed 23 October, 2023).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 HBO's The Last of Us Podcast episode 5: "Endure and Survive"
| Season 1 | "When You're Lost in the Darkness" · "Infected" · "Long, Long Time" · "Please Hold to My Hand" · "Endure and Survive" · "Kin" · "Left Behind" · "When We Are in Need" · "Look for the Light" |
|---|---|
| Season 2 | TBA |