The Last of Us, Episode 6 Review – Kin
If there’s one thing The Last Of Us knows how to do, it’s upset me. It’s not too violent or too vulgar, too boring or too predictable. Perhaps it’s just too…unconventional? Episode 6 of The Last Of Us was possibly the most jarring bit of television of I’ve seen.
In my review of the previous episode I voiced my excitement over the story potential of adding two new characters, Henry and Sam to the mix. It felt as if this brotherly duo and the test of Ellie’s miracle blood would add some dramatic tensions to the next leg of the journey through the freaky fields of fungus. Let’s just say that I was very confident in who would be on screen during the episode titled “Kin” and was suddenly humbled when I pushed play on my HBO Max app.
Technically Henry was was in the episode, but as the picture continuously flickered between a black screen and scenes of Lamar Johnson wielding a gun as Joel tries to calm him down, it was almost as if Pedro Pascal was trying to prepare me for the fact that I was about to be very confused for the next 59 minutes. As far as I could tell, HBO Max uploaded an incomplete file to their servers that cut out some essential parts of the plot. Unfortunately, going back to watch it again, this theory was proven incorrect.
Henry and Sam are not in the episode after the first 10 seconds. Instead there is a time jump to months later where Ellie and Joel are wandering through a snowy wilderness, with only the briefest mention of the two young men they had invited to join their journey. Whether this is some tease for a flashback to the fate of Henry and Sam in a future episode or the actors had other obligations, I have no idea. All I know now, is that I can never count on The Last Of Us to follow any kind of logic. Fittingly enough, shattered expectations are the theme of this episode, so perhaps there is a higher level of storytelling at play (fingers crossed).
Since they were so prominent in the trailer for the series, I was convinced that the couple played by Elaine Miles and Graham Greene would be important characters in Joel’s life. As someone who grew up in the 90’s seeing Greene play every prominent Indigenous American character in movies, it was surprising that he was nothing more than an unwilling human GPS, being forced to give directions at gunpoint by Ellie and Joel. Though I will admit to getting a chuckle out of Miles’ nonchalant line delivery in the face of danger.
Since the beginning of the series, Joel has had one goal in mind, to find his brother in Wyoming and “save him”. Delivering Ellie to the Fireflies was merely fulfilling Tess’ dying wish, but finding Tommy was his heart’s desire. Gabriel Luna as Tommy didn’t make much of an impression on me in the first episode flashback. He just seemed like a more jovial, casual character, compared to Pedro Pascal’s uptight portrayal of Joel, but nothing outstanding. Seeing the brothers finally reunited had me wondering if the series would lose its steam. But when Joel and Ellie are taken on horseback to the compound, the episode really gets interesting.
In previous episodes Joel described Tommy as an idealist, foolishly trying to save the world, but believed Tommy was actually the one in need of saving. Arriving at a fully functioning town, inhabited by a happy group of “communists”, who were the complete opposite of the militant citizens of the Kansas City QZ seems to damage Joel’s pride and his sense of purpose.
The contrast of Pascal’s grizzled, beaten down demeanor against Luna’s calm contentment makes for interesting conversation, especially as Joel tries to recruit his brother for the journey to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies. When he is turned down because Tommy is expecting a child with his wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley), so may emotions come to the surface for Joel, building on all we know about the loss of his daughter Sarah. At one point he even thinks he sees her in the crowd of locals.
After reconciling with his brother, Joel admits that his body is failing him or more accurately, he has lost his nerve and panic attacks are preventing him from protecting Ellie. Out of brotherly commitment, Tommy agrees to finish out the journey to deliver Ellie. However, Joel’s sense of self has been damaged further by accepting his limitations, while not confronting their true origins, which boils over into a confrontation with Ellie.
Based on a behind the scenes featurette following the episode, this scene is lifted directly from the video game and it appears that in any format it is very effective. Joel tries to emotionally cut ties with Ellie and pass her off to Tommy as cargo, while the teenager boldly stands up for herself, forcing the reluctant caretaker to admit that he now cares about her too. The emotional battle between the pair makes for great drama, performed by actors who have earned every inch of emotional investment from the audience since the series began.
It’s great to see the Joel character experience a catharsis of sorts, coming to terms with the fact that his brother is not as helpless or foolish as he had built him up to be and accepting the trust of the young girl who actually wants to be saved. Joel’s expectations may have been shattered, but he’s reassembled the pieces in a way that give him new perspective.
The same can be said for my expectations of the episode. Though I am still profoundly bewildered by the opening moment of this installment of The Last Of Us and what it may or may not mean for the stories to come, by the end, the emotional resonance of this episode rang true and warmed my heart.
The cliffhanger of this The Last of US episode leaves us questioning just what happened to the Fireflies who were doing medical testing to find a cure and leaves Joel in dire straits, but given the track record of this series, I wouldn’t rule out seeing Joel completely healed and singing show tunes by the start of the next episode.
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