BEWARE! This post contains significant spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 5!
The Last of Us, HBO’s award-winning adaptation of the hit video game series of the same name, continues its second season this week. Over the next weeks, until May 25th, we at The Beat will deliver episode recaps for the new season, diving into what happens every week, how it reflects the game it’s based on, and how the show is crafted. The fifth episode of season 2, titled “Feel Her Love,” sees Ellie and Dina continue their journey in Seattle to track down members of Abby’s crew. Directed by Stephen Williams (Lost) and written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), the episode falls short of one of the game’s best stretches, seemingly succumbing to the weight of adapting the source material.
“Feel Her Love” begins with a flashback to an unspecified time. A senior W.L.F. officer, Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach), is interviewing Sergeant Elise Park (Hettienne Park) about her decision to let a whole crew of soldiers die on a mission to explore the basement levels of the local W.L.F.-controlled hospital.
Hanrahan and Park’s conversation begins with Park noting that she’s taking comfort in the knowledge that she is unlikely to be executed, otherwise Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) would be there himself. Then, she describes to Hanrahan the process of clearing out the basement levels: the first level lacked any signs of life, even rats, and there were no infected. With the first level deemed safe, a second squad was sent in to investigate the lower levels, where they discovered that an airborne version of the Cordyceps infection was spreading. According to Park, as a result, her son, Leon, succumbed to infection because the spores were “in the air,” and she had to lock the entire squad in the basement, leaving them to die to prevent an outbreak at the hospital.
Hanrahan commends Park for her strength of character and leaves her unpunished, while simultaneously apologizing to her for the loss of her son.
In the present day, Dina (Isabela Merced) listens to W.L.F. radio signals to triangulate a route to the hospital where Abby’s friend Nora (Tati Gabrielle) is stationed. Meanwhile, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) manages to get the electricity in the theatre where they’re hiding. After some banter and conversation with Dina, she enters the theatre’s basement, where she finds various instruments, including a guitar. She retunes it and begins to play “Future Days” by Pearl Jam before stopping. Fans of the game will be happy about this, as the song is a recurring motif throughout The Last of Us Part II video game. However, the dialogue between the two of them feels incongruent with the source material’s tone, which leads to a lack of tension in scenes where the game is overwhelmed by it.
Returning to Dina, the two figure out that the Scars (also known as Seraphites) don’t use advanced technology, which is why the W.L.F. reveals information so recklessly over the radio. The two plan a route involving cutting through a building unpatrolled by the W.L.F., and then head out from the theatre, discussing potential names for Dina’s baby, before seeing a group of murdered Seraphites in front of a defaced mural of their prophet.
After Ellie tries to insist on sending Dina back to the theatre, Dina brings up her first experience with death. As a child, she lived in a small house with her sister and mother and was not allowed outside for her “safety.” One day, she decided to leave her family home to explore the world outside despite her mother’s concerns, only to return to find a raider had killed her family. After learning the raider was still in their house, she killed him, describing to Ellie the shock on his face at being killed by a child. She emphasizes that what Abby and her crew ultimately did to Joel is all that matters: “Would it make a difference if my family hurt his people first? No.”
Getting Ellie to focus on revenge, she asks Dina to stay with her. This is a needless change from the game to make Ellie look more sympathetic, but it also weakens her character arc. At this point in the game, Ellie has become entirely misanthropic and fuelled by cold, bitter hatred, but the show seems unwilling to commit to presenting Ellie in any way that viewers might not like. It’s an odd lack of bravery from a series adapting a game that makes as many bold choices as The Last of Us Part II did.
As nighttime falls, they approach a series of buildings left unpatrolled by the W.L.F.
Here, the show chooses to cut out one of the most visceral, exciting, and incredible sequences of the game, involving Ellie hunting through W.L.F. in the suburbs of Seattle, and is weaker for it. Their replacement is a poorly visible nighttime sequence that, while shot well, lacks the original game’s incredible action design and thrill factor. Whilst it continues to fix the first season’s lack of infected action sequences, it is at the cost of the visceral and incredible sequences that make Part II’s gameplay so special.
Dina and Ellie enter and see no sign of the infected; however, they reckon there must be some reason the W.L.F. avoids this place. Dina and Ellie flirt, and Dina sneakily admits that she loves Ellie, to which Ellie reciprocates. While cute and endearing, the dialogue feels incredibly out of place at this point. Ellie was a one-woman army on bad terms with everyone she knew, and the change to it feels like it’s limiting the show’s ability to convey its central themes properly. Both actors are doing a great job at playing their characters, but are let down by a weaker script for this episode.
As the two sneak through the building, they catch sight of not just one Stalker, but an entire horde of them. Dina runs to hide in a walled-off area, while Ellie desperately tries to protect her, and the two are overwhelmed by the number of infected. Luckily, they are saved by a mysterious figure in the dark, quickly revealed to be Jesse (Young Mazino), who is angry at the two of them for going off on their own. He’s here with Tommy (Gabriel Luna), but the two split up.
The three of them run out of the building, escaping the W.L.F., and into a park that the W.L.F. refuses to enter. Unfortunately, the sequence is very dimly lit and hard to see, but that is a widespread problem in modern media.
They run into a group of Scars, who are lynching and gutting a W.L.F. member they have captured. Ellie watches on in horror, and Dina gets shot with an arrow by one of the Scars. Jesse carries her out and runs, with Ellie stating she will meet back up with them at the theatre.
Now on her own, Ellie arrives at the hospital. We see Nora tending to the injured before heading into a room alone to clean up. Ellie corners her, questioning her on where Abby is. Here, Ramsey does a fantastic job of conveying Ellie’s newfound sense of determination and rage, and it finally feels like it comes together with the game now.
Nora initially fakes remorse but then boldly states that Joel had it coming. She throws cleaning liquid at Ellie and runs, with Ellie chasing after her whilst being shot at by other members of the W.L.F.
They descend an elevator shaft to the second floor of the basement, and Ellie encounters the spores for the first time. Interestingly, the show chooses to introduce spores now after cutting them out until this point; it feels slightly unnecessary, but I am open to being surprised about how they will use them going forward.
Ellie follows the sound of Nora coughing as she breathes in spores. She confronts her, and Nora realises that Ellie is the immune girl captured by the Fireflies. She questions how Ellie can still care for Joel, knowing that he killed the entire hospital to save her, to which Ellie responds that she doesn’t care. At this moment, she is only focused on finding out where Abby is. She picks up a metal pipe and beats Nora, torturing her. The episode ends with a small flashback to Ellie living in Joel’s house, saying hello to each other.
“Feel her Love” continues off the second season of The Last of Us with one of the series’ weakest episodes yet, pulling its major punches and losing momentum for it. Despite the fantastic performances and outstanding technical elements, the episode is let down by an undercooked script that seems at odds with both itself and the game it’s adapting. Game fans will surely be underwhelmed, and show-only viewers will likely be frustrated by the lack of story momentum and weight. Whilst it’s still ultimately a good show, it is difficult for me not to compare it to the source material, particularly when it hesitates to make some of the same bold choices that made the game so great, which result in an undercooked episode.
Join next week for a recap of Episode 6, and check out The Last of Us season 2, now available on Max.
