The Last of Us: Jeffrey Pierce Explains Perry’s History With Kathleen

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode 4.] Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) road trip to Wyoming hit a roadblock — literally — in the fourth episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. A detour to post-apocalyptic Kansas City, Missouri, found the dysfunctional duo in the crosshairs of Kathleen’s (Melanie Lynskey) rebel faction, who violently seized control of the KC QZ from FEDRA. With the help of her heavily-armed enforcer, Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), Kathleen is hellbent on tracking down Henry Burrell (Lamar Johnson) — a “collaborator” who ratted out her leader brother, causing his death at the hands of FEDRA forces.

Like Kathleen, who does not appear in The Last of Us game, Perry is an original character created for the live-action series. And like Kathleen, who has her own as-yet-unrevealed history, Pierce says “there’s a lot that remains to be revealed in terms of who he is.” 

“I think that he meshes a lot with the themes that exist in the show, as seen in the relationship between Joel and Ellie, the relationship between Bill and Frank, and the idea of having found your purpose within this new world,” Pierce, who played the video game’s Tommy, told Vulture. “One of the things that was described in [writer and showerunner Craig Mazin’s] script was that maybe he was in the military, so I just kind of ran with that: This guy was a professional before the outbreak, and then was able to use those skills as he sort of wandered, and then found his purpose with Kathleen and the fight against FEDRA.”

Perry is a Kathleen loyalist, even if he sometimes side-eyes her. (Like the decision to hold off telling their people what’s beneath that creaking storage room floor.) 

“I think that he’s the one person who’s in any position to question her because he’s an expert at what he does,” Pierce explained. “But that loyalty is also covered by his love and affection for her. We can make some bad decisions when love is involved, and I think that’s one of the themes of The Last of Us.”

Episode 3 expanded on the source material with an entirely new story for Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), the latter having only appeared in the game as a corpse. While Perry and Kathleen aren’t in the video game, the complex characters have a rich backstory that expands upon the territorial Hunters that inspired the show’s rebels. 

“You’d have to do 12 more hours of gameplay to fit in Perry and Kathleen’s story. The opportunity to drop into that world and to give context to everything else that’s happening is really great,” Pierce said. “In the game, you don’t get any sense of what’s happening for the other key characters in that journey; you just know to escape. But exploring that can only be done in this sort of short-story-telling method.” 

The Last of Us episode 5, “Endure and Survive,” is streaming early Friday on HBO Max. New episodes air Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.