The latest episode of The Last of Us had two major surprise returns as viewers were continuing to feel the loss of Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal).
Spoilers from The Last of Us season 2, episode 5 below.
The Sunday, May 11, episode opened with Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) and other members of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) making a major discovery about the cordyceps virus: it’s evolving and has become airborne.
Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced), meanwhile, are still on the hunt for Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). However, they’ve made some progress. Come nightfall, the duo heads out to find the WLF where they are stationed at a Seattle hospital.
Along the way, they come across an abandoned section of the city. Ellie and Dina quickly discover it’s full of Infected — after revealing their love for each other.
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During the struggle with the Infected, Ellie seemingly gets bit again (it’s unclear, but there were multiple on top of her at one point) and Dina is in danger. Eventually, muffled gunshots start to get closer with the Infected being picked off one by one. The mystery shooter is none other than Jesse (Young Mazino), who made it to Seattle from Jackson and was quick to save the girls. (Reminder: Dina is pregnant with Jesse’s baby, but she and Ellie are in love.)
The gunshots get the attention of WLF members, who are chasing the trio. However, when Ellie, Dina and Jesse enter the city’s park, the WLF members refuse to enter. But more on that in a second.
While hiding in the foliage, Jesse tells Ellie and Dina that he and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) followed them to Seattle. It’s at that point, they realized the Seraphites have control of the park, which is why the WLF didn’t enter. (The trio watches the Seraphites disembowel a WLF member.)
Eventually, the Seraphites discover Ellie, Dina and Jesse. Dina gets shot in the leg with an arrow and Jesse carries her out of the park. Ellie, while trying to distract the Seraphites, arrives at the Seattle hospital where she hopes to find Abby. Instead, she finds Nora (Tati Gabrielle), who was present for Joel’s death.
Ellie chases Nora into an elevator shaft which drops them down to the hospital’s basement level. This is where the airborne Cordyceps is located. While Nora is struggling to breathe now that she’s Infected, Ellie is fine.
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“You’re her. The immune girl, you’re real,” Nora realizes. “Don’t you know what he did?”
Ellie continues to ask for Abby’s whereabouts while Nora relives Joel’s hospital massacre from the show’s season 1 finale.
“He killed everyone in that hospital. Including the only f***ing person alive that can make a cure from you,” Nora says. “That was Abby’s father and Joel … Joel shot him in the head. That’s what he did.”
Ellie, unbothered by what she’s hearing, continues to ask for Abby. When she doesn’t get answers, Ellie starts to beat Nora with a pipe — similar to how Abby beat Joel with a golf club. Suddenly, the screen goes black.
A flashback shows Ellie waking up in her and Joel’s Jackson house. Joel (looking better than ever, and very much alive) opens the door to her bedroom.
“Hey, kiddo,” he says.
New episodes of The Last of Us premiere on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
