Summary: Henry and Sam are being hunted for collaborating with FEDRA and getting Kathleen’s brother killed. They are left alone without food and follow Joel and Ellie. The group makes a deal: Henry leads them out while Joel fights any infected on the way. Joel agrees, and while traveling together, Joel and Ellie grow close to Henry and Sam. On their way out, Kathleen finds them and tries to capture them, but a bunch of infected are released. Everyone in the resistance is killed but Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam escape. Sam has been bit and tells Ellie who tries to heal him. The next morning, Sam turns and Henry kills him before killing himself.
The Good: Henry and Sam are immediately compelling as characters. Even though they are being hunted, we are able to easily connect with them since Henry seems to be doing everything for his younger brother, a justifiable reason for him to rat out others. That this episode endears us to them before we catch up with Joel and Ellie is impressive. The opening scenes also do well to show us how FEDRA was defeated and the horrors that have happened in Kansas City since. The rest of the episode is mostly fantastic. The interactions between Joel, Henry, Ellie, and Sam are terrific and well written. The connections they make with one another feel real, and it’s sweet to see Ellie finding a companion to be a kid with, while Joel is able to begrudgingly respect Henry for all he has done. This makes the episode’s conclusion so much more tragic (see: Best Moment). The scenes in the underground daycare and between Ellie and Sam in the motel are well written and brutally affecting. I really like that the infected didn’t make an appearance until the end of the episode. It would have been easy to include a meaningless action scene in the sewers, but the writers showed restraint, understanding that things would be way more tense if there was only one big action scene at the end. The action was mostly well done, and it gave the episode a suitably cinematic climax. The Bad: There are some weakly written moments in the climax. When the cars arrived, I was very surprised at Ellie, Henry, and Sam all running away in plain sight instead of hiding in the woods. Even in a panic, what they did was massively dumb. Joel having such pinpoint accuracy in his aim was very unrealistic throughout that climax. I also found it a bit convenient how the infected all poured out when they did, and also how the truck happened to hit the single spot where they were all at. Kathleen did not work as a character for me. I just don’t buy her as a leader and I found it hard to believe that people would follow her to do all of this. Surely somebody out there would stand by her brother’s morality and refuse to treat the FEDRA men so barbarically. Sending everyone and everything to kill Henry is such a bizarre decision, there’s no way that nobody disagreed, yet that’s what the episode tries to make us believe. The Unknown: What’s next for Joel and Ellie? Are they going to successfully walk all the way to Wyoming? Best Moment: Henry killing Sam and killing himself was a real tearjerker with outstanding acting. We grew to care quite a bit for these characters throughout the episode so seeing such an awful fate befall both of them is absolutely devastating. Even though it is somewhat predictable that these two would die, the episode did a great job making this heartbreaking. Character of the Episode: Henry. Conclusion: A crushing episode with a devastating ending. This is an emotional high point in the show and you can’t help but feel awful for Henry and Sam. Unfortunately, the weak story surrounding Kathleen and some poor writing drags this down, but the emotional experience is excellent. Score: 74
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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