The Last of Us Season 2: Episode 5 Recap

Dina reveals her past, infecting sports and Ellie showing her true colours? The Last of Us returns for episode 5 of season 2.

Back again on the streets of Seattle, joining Ellie and Dina on their hunt to get revenge for Joel’s, still traumatising, death at the hands of Abby. But first, we open with a interaction within the WLF’s hospital stronghold.

An Airborne Infection

The two characters, Elise and Lieutenant Hanrahan, discuss an operation to clear out the three basement levels within the hospital, with Hanrahan recalling her contact with the squad leader.

During the recon mission, the squad are surprised with what they find on level B1… absolutely nothing. Not a straggler, clicker or bloater in sight. And the same on level B2, however this time there is a completely different threat. Spores.

Hanrahan recalls the soldier coughing and spluttering, suggesting the infection is airborne. She then made the difficult decision to seal the squad in B2, trapping and killing them, her son included.

Dina Reveals Past Truths

The two protagonists are still held up in the theatre planning their route to the hospital. Dina uses her wits and triangulates a safe passage, meanwhile Ellie once again goes and plays the guitar and has a sing-song.

Within Dina’s planned route is a large warehouse building, unmanned by the WLF. This suggests one thing, infected. The two begin their journey and whilst on route, Dina opens up about the first person she killed. At 9-years-old she returned home to find her mother and sister screaming and being beaten to death. She took her gun, pointed and pulled the trigger, killing the intruder, but too late to save her family.

After opening up about her past, she concludes that whatever Joel had done in the past, the brutality of his murder was unjust.

The Zombies Are Getting Smarter

Dina and Ellie break into the large warehouse, surprised to be confronted by silence. Ellie takes lead proceeding through the building. In the open plan space, they hear infected. But not just any infected, the smart ones that Ellie encountered, and was bit by, before.

What begins with one, turns into two, then three, then 10. Ellie acts as distraction, allowing Dina to hide within an electrical cabinet. However, the two begin to get overrun, Ellie gets swarmed, and the infected wear away Dina’s protection.

Just when all seems lost, the two are saved by gunshots from a mysterious figure, later revealed as Jesse. He reveals they have been tracking to two since they left the colony.

Although saved, the newly formed trio have alerted the attention of nearby soldiers, so they make a dash for a nearby park, to which the military refuse to follow.

The Scars Are Brutal

When proceeding through the park, they witness a Scar ritual. They watch on as a captured man is strung up and his stomach sliced, spilling his insides onto the floor below.

After the ritual, the trio are found, with Dina receiving and arrow to the knee. As they flee, arrows and whistles cascade around them. Jesse and Dina go one way, leaving Ellie to be the bait once more.

Once she has evaded the Scars, she looks up to see the hospital in the distance. Torn between going to find her friends and completing her mission, she choices revenge. Perhaps showing Ellie’s true colours all along.

A Familiar Face Returns

As Ellie approaches the hospital, she is tracked by a soldier’s hound. Following the scent, the good boy leads his handler to Ellie, however she makes it inside in the nick of time.

We find Nora, one of Abby’s accomplices in Joel’s murder, attending to injured soldiers in the hospital ward. When she leaves to wash the blood-stained clothes, Ellie appears form the shadows to ask one simple question – Where Is Abby?

Nora refuses, throwing bleach at Ellie and fleeing the scene. Chase ensues, and Nora reaches a dead-end, her only option to go into the elevator shaft. The elevator plummets down, stopping at level B2. Ellie follows.

Spores on Spores on Spores

Ellie makes her way through the darkness of level B2 in an attempt to find Nora. The walls are covered in spores, poisoning the air. She finds the remains of a few soldiers, many of which have become one with the spores on the walls.

In the distance she hears Nora coughing, finding her slowly dying at the end of a corridor. After Nora sees Ellie’s unaffected condition, she realises that the ‘Immune Girl’ is not a myth. She attempts to reason with Ellie, exposing what Joel had done all those years ago. But this is to no avail.

Ellie picks up a rusty pipe, and begins striking it down onto Nora in attempt to get the location of Abby. Ellie’s violence reiterates the revenge theme that hurt people, hurt people.

The episode cuts to a flashback of a young Ellie and Joel at home, with Joel ending the scene saying ‘Hey Kiddo’ – the horrors of the present momentarily forgotten.