The Last of Us Recap With Spoilers: "Please Hold My Hand"
Spoiler Warning: This article will contain major spoilers for HBO's The Last of Us and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us video game from 2013.
After taking the truck from Bill and Frank's, Joel and Ellie stop at an abandoned rest stop. Ellie sits in the bathroom and quietly fiddles with Frank's gun, unbeknownst to Joel. She practices aiming at herself in the mirror, loading and unloading the gun, and so on. Outside, Joel siphons gas from abandoned cars while Ellie reads puns from a joke book, much to Joel's annoyance. The two hit the road again, passing through various states that are totally desolate. After a long day of traveling, they park the truck in the woods and enjoy a 20 year old can of Chef Boyardee. Ellie asks Joel to light a fire, but he denies the request and warns her of humans who would want to do much more than just rob them for their truck and belongings.
As they lay down to sleep, Ellie reads another joke to Joel who correctly guesses the punchline, much to her dismay. After Ellie falls asleep, Joel gets out of his sleeping bag and spends the night watching over Ellie with a loaded rifle. The next morning, Ellie offers directions via a map and begins questioning Joel about his brother, Tommy. Joel talks about how Tommy is a veteran and convinced him to join a group to go up to Boston. Once they were there, Marlene convinced Tommy to join the Fireflies, thinking he could "save the world." He eventually moved west, quit the Fireflies, and now Joel feels obligated to go get him and save him from being all on his own. Ellie asks why he keeps going on and Joel notes that family is the driving factor, but Ellie is just cargo to him.
Kansas City
A few hours later, the two hit a roadblock on the highway just outside Kansas City. Not wanting to lose any time, Joel decides to cut through the city where they quickly get lost and discover a QZ has been destroyed. An "injured" man stumbles out in front of their truck and begs for help, but Joel quickly realizes it's a trap and slams on the gas pedal. A spike strip pops the truck's tires and a cinderblock destroys the windshield, causing them to crash into a laundromat where they get pinned down by armed men.
Ellie and Joel scramble out of the truck as gunfire lights up the laundromat. Ellie's in a state of panic, but Joel gets her to focus up and tells her to crawl across the chaos and squeeze through a hole in the wall while he lays down covering fire. Ellie quickly makes her way across while Joel fires the rifle at the men outside of the laundry mat, allowing Ellie the opportunity to get to safety. Joel kills all of the shooters, but is ambushed by another attacker who comes in through the back door. The man pins Joel to the ground by burying a shotgun into his throat, prompting Ellie to leave the room with Frank's gun. She shoots the attacker, who appears to be just a young adult.
He sits on the ground, bleeding out, begging for mercy from Ellie. Joel takes Frank's gun from her and steals a knife from the man on the ground. He commands Ellie to go back into the other room. She obliges, quietly crying to herself while hearing Joel stab the man to death. The duo head out to the streets as trucks and men with assault rifles swarm the city.
Not Fireflies, Not FEDRA, Just People
Elsewhere, a soft-spoken, but unhinged woman named Kathleen interrogates an old man in search of someone named Henry. The interrogation is interrupted as a truck brings back the bodies of the men Joel killed. They all speculate that Henry is responsible for the violence, prompting Kathleen to return to the old man where she shoots him with no hesitation. She commands an army of armored up civilians to spread out around the city to find and kill Henry and any collaborators.
This army begins kicking down doors as Joel and Ellie hide out in an abandoned building, waiting for an opportunity to move. Joel reflects on the battle in the laundromat, feeling genuinely guilty for Ellie having to shoot someone. Despite being a man who tries to bottle up his emotions, he holds back tears and apologizes for letting his guard down. Ellie responds by noting it's not the first time she's had to shoot someone, though. He pulls out Frank's gun and teaches Ellie how to hold it. The two prepare to leave and Ellie slips the gun into her coat pocket, despite Joel instructing her to put it in her backpack.
In another part of the city, a soldier named Perry brings Kathleen to an attic that's filled with old food cans and drawings of two superheroes. Kathleen tells Perry that Henry is out of food and won't let another person named Sam starve, so they're likely on the move to find some. Perry then shows Kathleen a room with a floor that's caving in and also moving... as if something is about to burst out of the ground. Kathleen tells Perry to keep this a secret from the others until they've dealt with Sam and Henry.
As night begins to fall, Ellie and Joel enter an office building with over 40 floors. The two climb the stairs and Joel reveals to Ellie that he did bad things to survive, including killing innocent people, which is how he knew they were about to be ambushed in the truck. The two enter one of the offices and find a place to rest for the night. In the office, Ellie makes a spot to sleep on and Joel sprinkles broken glass on the floor in case anyone tries to sneak up on them.
For the first time, Joel tries to get Ellie to open up about the other time she has had to use a gun, but she quickly shuts it down. As Joel closes his eyes, Ellie cracks yet another joke, but this time Joel has a fit of laughter. The two fall asleep laughing with each other, but are awoken by a man and a little boy with guns.
Differences Between Game and Show
After episode 3 deviated from the game in such a significant way, episode 4 is a lot more faithful, though there are a handful of notable changes. In the game, Joel and Ellie are forced to cut through Pittsburgh instead of Kansas City, resulting in the laundromat battle. This is a pretty gameplay-heavy section of the game, so Ellie and Joel are forced to fight their way through the city while being chased by a group called "hunters". Kathleen and Perry are not characters seen in the game, so their larger role remains unclear at this time even for those who played the game. Henry and Sam are also introduced in a slightly different way, as Joel and Ellie climb into an apartment building and are attacked by the two brothers. The two groups decide it would be more beneficial to partner up and try and stealth/fight their way out of the city. Things like the joke book, the big laundromat battle, and Joel's shady history are also featured in the game similarly to the show.
The Last of Us will continue to air every Sunday on HBO at 9PM ET. What did you think of the fourth episode? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder. For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight's new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more. The podcast will release after every episode of the show on Sunday nights.