The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 5 Review: As Ellie’s Luck Starts To Run Out, An Emotional Cliffhanger Sets Up A Cathartic Episode 6

Warning! Spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 5!

The Last of Us season 2, episode 5's cold open demonstrates one of my favorite things about the series, and one of its biggest strengths. In only a few moments, I understood who the characters are in the WLF, what they experienced, and the emotional stakes of the scene. The Last of Us even brings us full circle by the final moments of episode 5, driving the sharp knife of grief that permeates the show even deeper with what could have been a throwaway shot or moment. The show never ignores everyone's humanity, even when they're not acting like it.

However, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) takes another step toward forgetting this about herself in episode 5. The Last of Us season 2, episode 4 gave her something to fight for and believe in with Dina's (Isabela Merced) pregnancy and their sweet love scene. Of course, like most good things in The Last of Us​​​​​​, this happy news has a dark side, as Ellie grapples with her reliance on Dina and the fact that Dina would be well within her rights to let Ellie go alone. The series pushes Ellie down this lonely path, and she's more than willing to keep going.

Though we miss Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, his ominous presence is felt. There have been a lot of narrow escapes so far and the ease of their quest is giving me pause. While there have been some scary moments, and the fight with the horde in episode 4 was far from pleasant, the bumps in the road for Ellie and Dina have been relatively minimal. This straightforward approach to getting revenge has been lulling us, and Ellie, into thinking that what they're doing is right, but right and wrong are relative in The Last of Us​​​​​​.

Ellie Gets Lucky In The Last Of Us Episode 5, Making Us Wonder When This Luck Will Run Out

It Might Sound Strange To Call Ellie Fortunate, But Her Path To Revenge Can Only Get More Treacherous

The echo chamber of Ellie and Dina's journey gets a harsh reality check when Jesse (Young Mazino) swoops in like a white knight, which, of course, Ellie takes terribly. His appearance reminds Dina of what she and Ellie have been dancing around since the pregnancy reveal; Dina should probably go home if this baby is a future she wants to preserve. Coming face to face with the intelligent infected, the WLF, and witnessing the shocking execution in the park would be too much for anyone to deal with. Jesse's arrival is a sharp tug back to Jackson.

However, Dina's speech to Ellie about following this plan through to the end might have been the green light Ellie needed to confront the fact that she knew what Joel did. The father-daughter pair might have been dancing around this truth in Jackson, but Ellie knew from the moment she woke up in Joel's arms at the end of season 1, and there's no hiding this anymore. While it's on-the-nose that Dina suddenly details a backstory featuring the perfect moral compromise Ellie wants to hear, she needed this push, and so did the audience.

The results of Dina's diatribe come quickly, as the trio has to split up, and alone, Ellie feels no scruples about taking out her pain on Nora (Tati Gabrielle). The Last of Us sets up the exciting possibility that Ellie will have to hunt down the members of Abby's (Kaitlyn Dever) party one by one before we finally see Abby again. Though her actions haven't faded from memory, the longer we go without seeing our villain, the more distant and abstract she becomes. Just as Joel was no longer human to Abby, this is what she's becoming in Ellie's mind.

This is what sparks Ellie to mimic this brutality in her confrontation with Nora. However, I wasn't fully convinced by Ramsey when Ellie let this violence out. Something isn't quite right about the way Ramsey lets the intensity of the moment land on Ellie. We also see a new side of the Seraphites in episode 5. Though it never seemed likely that any faction in The Last of Us would be peaceful, the WLF has been the "villain." However, the graphic execution in the park makes us see the Scars for what they are: another spoke of the cycle of violence.

Ellie got lucky in episode 5. If Nora hadn't stumbled into the spore-filled basement, and Jesse hadn't come to save them just in time, things could've easily gotten out of hand. Nora's near-escape forces the audience to confront just how emotionally off-balance and easily distracted Ellie is, and that she isn't ready to become the kind of person who can finish a quest like this. The mere mention of Joel takes her back to that moment, and that's not a luxury she can afford, especially when she inevitably confronts Abby, who will be a much more ruthless fighter than Nora.

The Last Of Us Episode 5 Leaves Us On An Emotional Cliffhanger

After A Long String Of Violent Episodes, The Last Of Us Hints At A Flashback That Will Tear Our Hearts Out

I knew we hadn't seen the last of Pedro Pascal this season. To have Pascal for only two episodes and never bring him back would have been a waste of the actor and perfectly good emotional minefields. The Last of Us has been sad, and Ellie's still reeling from the aftershocks of her grief, but we haven't had a good, ugly cry yet. I wouldn't be surprised if episode 6 delivered the Joel and Ellie time we've been waiting for, made all the more potent by Ellie admitting to herself that she always knew what Joel did in the hospital.

Of course, The Last of Us has been setting up a lot more than flashbacks and Ellie's emotional journey, as the evolution of Cordyceps can't be ignored. More intelligent infected appear in episode 5, and now that an airborne aspect of the virus has entered the equation, there's a new fear that there won't be anything left of humanity to fight for. The slow encroachment of this future creeps at the edges of The Last of Us episode 5, reminding us that these petty human revenge fantasies might ultimately mean nothing.