The Last of Us S01E04 Please Hold My Hand Recap

Well, the cryfest that was last week was fun. Check it out before reading The Last of Us S01E04 Please Hold My Hand recap.

Ellie is playing with a gun so this episode may not end well. She loads and unloads and even squeezes the trigger. She seems a bit obsessed. But I guess if fungus people took over the world you might be too. Joel is draining gas from nearby cars as he explains that gasoline is less efficient because it breaks down into water. It is a long process and Ellie is going to read him jokes while he does it. She is having a much better time than he is.

Back on the road, Joel tells her about the truck they are driving. She finds a Hank Williams tape. She also finds a playgirl. It is Frank’s truck after all. The road trip is on as they pass amusement parks and interstates completely abandoned. All signs of the breakdown of civilization. Eventually, Joel decides to pull the truck into the woods and camp for the night. He cooks them chef boyardee. Joel talks about how awful the people are out of the QZ’s. They lay down in sleeping bags and bed in for the night. Ellie stays up reading her joke book. Ellie and Joel share a moment over a joke he knew the punchline to. Scarecrows standing in a field. She is scared about the people and Joel reassures her. Joel secretly keeps watch.

Ellie wakes up to coffee fresh in the pot. Looks good to me. She plots out on the map the route to Wyoming. She wants to know Tommy’s name. She wants to know his story and Joel gives her his whole story. Tommy introduced Tess and Joel after they made their way with a group of survivors to Boston. Tommy then joined the Fireflies. He is a bit of a wild canon so Joel is heading out to Casper to get him out of trouble.

Later on, there is a traffic jam as the truck can’t get by a jackknifed semi. Joel tells her to stay in the car. He grabs his gun and peers through the obstructed tunnel. It is clear on the other side. We also learn we are in Kansas City. Sweet! Get some BBQ. They get off the main road and into the city. Yikes. They end up lost. Ellie thinks she sees the QZ but just then a grubby-looking dude asks them to stop and the trucks is ambushed with concrete blocks and tire strips before careening into a store’s front window. While they are being shot at Joel tells Ellie to hide in a hole in the wall. Joel kills the two who were shooting at him Joel’s gun jams and the third thug pins him to the ground and Ellie shoots him. He begs for his life. Joel puts him out of his misery. They begin to examine the space around them. Ellie grabbed her pack. It has some food and a flashlight. They leave the building and see a group of people with armored trucks pull up in the building they just went to.

Kathleen is a new character who looks like a mom and sounds like a leader warlord. She is questioning someone who by way of the conversation appears to be someone collaborating with a fascist government. Kathleen’s brother appears to be a victim of the government and the doctor who she is now questioning. Fedra appears to be the boogeyman of this group. Henry is the leader of Fedra and she is leading a revenge tour against them. She calls for the heads of all collaborators. There are a lot of people who are team Kathleen and the group she leads seems significant.

Joel and Ellie are trying to figure out if they aren’t Fedra or the Fireflies who they are. Joel tells her they are just desperate people. They hatch a plan to get to a tall apartment building up the road. He has a lot of guilt about Ellie shooting that guy. He tells her it is his fault and he apologizes. She admits it wasn’t her first time. He gives her back her gun and shows her how to properly hold it. He tells her to put it in her pack. They prepare to leave the shop they have been hiding out in.

Kathleen waits to hear about the collaborators that killed her men (It was actually Ellie and Joel). Her second in command leads her up into the attic of a building. In the attic, they find drawings and canned food. Someone has been living up there. Something is bothering Perry as he leads her down into the basement now. Something is moving beneath the cement, liquefying it. I mean that ain’t good. He asks her what they are going to tell the others. She tells him to seal off the building and hold off telling everyone. They need to stay focused

Ellie and Joel break into another building. It is where they will spend the night. They are going way high into the building. They start climbing all of the stairs. They talk more about his time with Tess and the group they were with. He silently admits they killed innocent people when they were all together. Once they bed down in an apartment Joel puts down broken glass to alert him to footsteps. As they fall asleep Joel asks Ellie about her first time hurting someone. She doesn’t want to talk about it. But Joel repeats it isn’t fair for someone so young to go through that. She mentions that she can tell Joel doesn’t hear great out of his right side. They share a laugh over a diarrhea joke. Running in your jeans. Joel wakes up to two kids holding the two of them at gunpoint.