Setting the stage for the events of the second season of the show is the episode’s focus on compulsive vengefulness.
The cruel militia leader Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) explains in a pivotal sequence in “Endure and Survive,” the fifth episode of HBO’s The Last of Us TV series, why she is pursuing Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard): she believes Henry is to blame for her brother’s passing. In a moving monologue, Kathleen played by Lynskey explains how her brother Michael has been her emotional guardian since they were young kids. Kathleen’s psychological safety net was taken away by Michael’s passing, which also let loose her dark side and spiteful tendencies. Kathleen freely acknowledges that she lacks the kindness and forgiveness that her brother possessed. She will do whatever it takes to get her retribution.
For those who have played The Last of Us Part II video game, this monologue may feel like foreshadowing, as the obsession with vengeance and justice that Kathleen espouses is also shared by the video game version of Ellie in the 2020 sequel. Kathleen’s desire for revenge serves as a hint at possible events in the show’s second season, as well as a warning to viewers about the destructive power of all-consuming obsession.
Each of Kathleen and Ellie’s revenge goals
In her monologue, Kathleen portrays herself as a lady grieving the loss of a man who gave her a sense of security in a perilous and unpredictable world. The character Joel, who Pedro Pascal plays in the HBO series, is lost to Ellie in The Last of Us Part II, and Ellie finds it difficult to deal with his passing. Both times, the women are heartbroken by the loss of a loved one and embark on vengeance campaigns against individuals they believe are to blame. This requires Kathleen to devote all of the militia’s resources to finding Henry, who betrayed her brother to the FEDRA, the armed force of the occupying government, in exchange for leukemia medication to save his infant brother Sam.
Ellie follows Abby across the country, killing everybody who gets in her path. The second game shows Ellie’s descent into brutality, her desire for vengeance turning her into a hardened killing machine that prioritizes a misguided sense of justice over the possibility of a happy future. The first game depicts Ellie as a wisecracking innocent whose experiences open her eyes and help her transition into maturity. The HBO series The Last of Us portrays Kathleen as the culmination of such obsession, a cautionary tale about what might happen to someone so obsessed with retaliation. In this way, “Endure and Survive” alludes to the show’s second season, which will primarily be devoted to Ellie’s pursuit of retaliation.
On The Last of Us Podcast, showrunner Craig Mazin nods to these similarities. He clarifies, “When we talk about Kathleen’s bond with her brother, “Joel was her brother. Her Joel passed away. And after her Joel died, she kind of lost it and felt compelled to avenge him by killing the perpetrators.” Mazin makes a subtle allusion to the events of The Last of Us Part II by noting, “There might be a reason why this sounds familiar,” without really describing them. The aim of the showrunners was to use the two characters as a benchmark. Mazin and Neil Druckmann have cleverly built a thematic foundation for Ellie’s story in the future between Kathleen’s speech and her fate at the end of this episode. This will enhance the message of the second game’s storyline when it is incorporated into their adaptation.
Ellie must prevent herself from becoming Kathleen
In the gruesome and brutal finale of the television episode “Endure and Survive,” Perry, a militia comrade of Kathleen’s (Jeffrey Pierce), gives his life to buy her time to flee from a horde of ravaging infected. Although Kathleen has a chance to flee, she is so determined to exact revenge on Henry that she pursues him despite the fact that doing so may result in her death. Kathleen (Bella Ramsey) momentarily threatens Henry, Sam, and Ellie with a gun before she is fatally attacked by a horrifying kid clicker.
“I believe it’s vital to highlight that when you are dead focused on using violence to settle the score and win the day, you are going to probably get subsumed [sic] by that yourself,” says Mazin in the companion podcast. Mazin even mentions Moby Dick in reference to Perry while illustrating the devastating nature of retaliation: “He commanded her to go, and she couldn’t help but chase the white whale to the bitter end.” Because of Kathleen’s preoccupation with getting even, she was unable to protect herself and was brutally murdered, which stopped her from carrying out her revenge plan and allowed Henry and the others to escape.
The futility and horrors of revenge are also the central themes in the video game The Last of Us Part II. In a dramatic turn of events, Abby kills Joel in the first act of the game in retaliation for Joel killing her father, a doctor, in the final moments of the first game’s climactic hospital sequence. Ellie sets out on a cross-country quest to track down Abby and kill her, and her obsession with vengeance drives her to the point where she must sacrifice her romantic relationship in order to carry it out. The player is made aware of the savagery of murder as well as how any act of aggression may result in retaliation, leading to a circle of violence where no true justice is ever served. The game’s heartbreaking conclusion features a struggle between Ellie and Abby, who is already broken and on the verge of death. Although some players were stunned by Ellie’s final choice—to let Abby live and sail away—those who understood the game’s narrative premise knew that this was the only way she could stop the cycle of violence and stop losing her soul. Unlike Kathleen, Ellie decides to abandon her vendetta, and while she still has to deal with the choices she made along the way, at least she is able to escape with her life.
Ellie and Kathleen both want justice, but only Ellie is aware that it is impossible to achieve true justice in such a cruel society. Ellie’s search for retribution would only end in more bloodshed and heartache. Myopia makes Kathleen vulnerable to attack, and her need for vengeance consumes her mind and spirit. The Last of Us Part II will be adapted for the show’s upcoming season, as Mazin and Druckmann have already hinted, and Episode 5’s emphasis on obsessive vengefulness lays the tone for those events by predicting the tragic and gruesome ones to follow. In order to show the spectator what can happen to Ellie if she does not recognize the futility of her fixation, Kathleen serves as a philosophical opposition to Ellie. Although Mazin and Druckmann made some alterations to their adaptation, it is obvious that they intend their series to follow the game’s lead in terms of its potent narrative themes.
