"I'm sorry."
As promised, HBO Max debuted this week's episode of The Last of Us two days early to avoid clashing with the Super Bowl on Sunday and it was arguably the show's most impactful hour yet as Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) met Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard), who played a critical part in their escape from Kansas City... until tragedy struck.
Spoilers to follow, but the episode picked up with a quick flashback as we met Henry and Sam as they started to run from Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) before ultimately running out of food and being forced to go back on the streets, where, as fate would have it, they witnessed Joel and Ellie crashing into Kansas City. We then move back to the moment from the end of last week's episode where they confront the pair and the four decide to form an alliance to get out of this city alive.
They bond throughout the episode and plot their uncertain futures together as everything seems to be going according to plan too, until they run into a sniper, who Joel manages to take out, but not before he was able to alert Kathleen and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) of their presence. All hell breaks loose shortly thereafter as all of Kathleen's forces come gunning for Henry's head and things really take a turn for the worst when a downed truck falls into the ground and unleashes a horde of infected - including one nasty bloater - who promptly decimate the population in horrific fashion.
While Kathleen and Perry get killed pretty brutally, all four of our heroes manage to escape, but not unscathed. In a touching scene between Ellie and Sam, we learn that the youngest member of their new group has been bitten and in a last-ditch effort, Ellie attempts to save him by using her own immune blood, believing she is the cure. However, fate is a fickle mistress, and Sam still turned, forcing Henry to make the heartbreaking decision to take his brother's life... before tragically taking his own.
Joel and Ellie bury their friends and leave a simple note, "I'm sorry," before moving on to the next leg of their journey: Wyoming.
Check out the new preview for season one, episode six, titled "Kin," below:
Plus, check out the featurette for episode five:
The Last of Us features Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, Elaine Miles as Florence, and Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.
THE LAST OF US story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.