Please note: there are spoilers for episode 5 of The Last of Us below. Proceed with caution.
We’re already past the halfway mark of the second season of The Last Of Us, which will have seven episodes, but it still feels like we’re just at the beginning. So much of this season has been setting up who the Wolves and Scars are, while transitioning from a Joel-centric story to one led by Ellie that by the time Ellie really gets to do any revenging, we’re already going to wrap up and then we’ll have to wait.
With reports that the following season won’t even begin to film until 2026, will people still care about the show by then? I don’t have the answer to that, but what I do have is a recap of episode 5, “Feel Her Love.” Let’s get into it.
The episode opens with a flash back to earlier days of the WLF occupation in Seattle. Wolf leader Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) sits in a room with another soldier, Sgt. Park (Hettienne Park) and asks her why she reportedly killed some of her own men, including her own son, Leon. Sgt. Park tells her that a group of her best soldiers were tasked with clearing out the basement of the hospital, and while the first level was clear, the second was infested with cordyceps on the walls, the floor…and even in the air. Leon reports to his mother that the air is full of spores and that she must seal off the basement with them in it to prevent the infection from spreading. Faced with an impossible choice, Sgt. Park listens to her son and saves the rest of the WLF by sealing off the basement and leaving her son to die.
Fast forward, and it’s now day two of Ellie and Dina’s Seattle murder adventure. Dina (Isabela Merced) is busy triangulating the locations of the WLF bases by listening to the troop location reports and patrol movements on the radio. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) explores the theater. Onstage, she picks up a guitar and starts to play and sing the opening line of Pearl Jam’s “Future Days.” She sings, “If I ever were to lose you…” and immediately puts the guitar down. Meanwhile, Dina has figured out a plan and relays it to Ellie: they’ll venture to a building that the WLF patrols avoid, cut through it and end up behind enemy lines. The problem is that the Wolves must have a reason for avoiding the building, that reason most likely being the infected.
It’s not the best plan, but it’s the only one they have, so the two start the journey to the mysterious building, intending to reach it by nightfall. On the way, they encounter an execution site with several dead Seraphites. The wall behind them has a mural of their prophet and the words: “Feel her love.” The graffiti tagged below it reads, “Feel this, bitch.” Naturally this terrifies Ellie who now feels that she’s made a mistake taking Dina along, pleading with her to return to the safety of the theater.
In response, Dina tells Ellie about the first person she ever killed. Dina used to live with her mother and sister in Santa Fe. Her mother would say that it was too dangerous to play outside. However, one day Dina did it anyway, taking her gun just to be safe. When she returned home she encountered a lone raider brutalizing her family, and she shot him.
Whatever Joel did to the Wolves didn’t deserve the cruelty that he got when he died, she says. Dina says that she often wonders what would have happened had she stayed inside and been forced to witness her family being beaten to death. “Would it make a difference if my family had hurt his people first?” Dina asks. “No. And if he had gotten away? I promise you, I would have hunted him down forever.”
Dina then presents Ellie with the choice: she can either go back to the theater and let her go on alone or she can continue as planned. Ellie chooses for them to go on and Dina absolves her of any guilt or blame if she dies. Dina is willingly choosing the danger, and all blame for her death will be solely on herself.
Night falls and our heroines sneak past spotlights into the mysterious building, which they quickly discover is inhabited by one of stalkers, the smart infected. No, three stalkers. No, a whole swarm of stalkers. Ellie and Dina are quickly overrun, but when all seems lost, a mysterious figure emerges from the shadows to their rescue, blasting all the infected.
Their mysterious rescuer turns out to be Jesse, who left with Tommy the day after Ellie and Dina and split up when they arrived in Seattle. Jesse found the map at the theater and followed them. The sound of gunfire has alerted the WLF soldiers who chase them into a nearby park, but refuse to enter.
We soon find out that it’s because the park is crawling with Seraphites, some of whom are brutally executing a WLF soldier. Our trio is spotted and an arrow pierces Dina’s leg. Ellie tells Jesse to take Dina back to the theater while she draws the Seraphites away. As she escapes, Ellie notices a door that leads to the hospital.
Ellie manages to sneak past the WLF forces and finally confronts Nora. Rather than give up Abby’s location or begging for her life, Nora instead says that Joel deserved what he got, then throws chemicals at Ellie and makes a break for it. Ellie gives chase and finding herself cornered, Nora’s only option is to go down into the basement, which as we know is full of the cordyceps fungus.
As Ellie wanders the basement searching for Nora, we see the heavy fungus growth and the bodies of WLF soldiers, including Leon, being kept alive by the cordyceps and exhaling out spores with every breath. Eventually Ellie tracks down Nora, who realizes that Ellie is immune. She asks if Ellie knows what Joel did to the Fireflies, that he killed the doctor who could have made a cure for her who happened to be Abby’s father. Ellie tells her that she knows and doesn’t care, taking a pipe and beating Nora with it while demanding to know Abby’s location.
The episode ends with a flashback. Ellie is in bed. Joel comes the the door. “Hey kiddo,” he says. Cut to black.
There’s a lot that goes on in this episode. We see a darker side of both the WLF and the Seraphites, the violence and brutality of the conflict that they have inserted themselves into. We see that the stalker that Ellie encountered in episode one was not just an isolated incident and that the infected are evolving into a much bigger threat. Most importantly, despite the goofiness and meme-worthy lines, we see the dark, vengeful side of Ellie come out. We learn that she knows that Joel lied to her. We see the cycle of revenge roll steadily on.
With only two episodes left in the season and season three likely not airing until at least 2027, I have to wonder where in the story this season will end and if it will find a way to keeps audiences excited over such a long gap.