Episode Review: The Last of Us 2x5 - "Feel Her Love"

Welcome back to the blog readers. The Last of Us (2023-) is my favorite show on television right now, no questions asked. Everything has been firing on all cylinders for me so far this season, and last week's episode had so much physical (and sexual) tension. I went as far as to call it the second best episode of the season thus far. With three episodes left, would we be able to keep up the momentum with this episode, titled "Feel Her Love," written by Craig Mazin, and directed by Stephen Williams? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode. I also will not be spoiling the events of the video game The Last of Us Part II (2020) on which the season is based.

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I cannot believe we already have two episodes of this show left before we go on another hiatus. This second season has only reinforced the notion that this is the best show on television right now, and nothing has come close yet (although Daredevil: Born Again (2025-) is giving it a run for its money). With this being the official start of Ellie's revenge tour (akin to one Liv Morgan in 2024), I thought this episode was gripping from start to finish. The performance of Bella Ramsey was maybe the second best of the season for me, and the beginning of the revenge tour is a marvel to watch on every end.

Bella Ramsey to me has been perfect casting as Ellie, as they are able to masterfully embrace and take on the charisma that Ashley Johnson famously brought to this character. I will NOT accept any Bella Ramsey slander on this post, because you clearly are upset they do not look like a supermodel that you can overtly sexualize. One of the things that Part II's Ellie was able to do so well was take on the ruthlessness and cunning of someone hunting down their loved one's killers. And that shit is on full display in this episode. Ellie is laser-focused on her mission to bring Joel's killers to justice and will achieve that goal no matter the cost. The final 15 minutes between Ramsey and Nora's actor Tati Gabrielle was some of the most gripping shit I have seen all year (and I saw Wilson Fisk crush someone's skull into pieces). Ramsey put out that aggression so perfectly that I was left with my hands in my head. May they get a Best Actress in a Drama Series nomination at the Emmys. Noms are out in July and I will be watching closely.

Before I analyze the story of this episode, I want to give a special mention to Tati Gabrielle as Nora. We have not seen much of Gabrielle this season, so it is really hard to judge the performance of the two previous times we have seen her. But in that aforementioned final 15 minutes between Ellie and Nora really turned me around on her performance. Chelsea Tavares played Nora in the game, but I honestly felt it more with Gabrielle in that moment. The taunting she is able to pull off with Ellie makes Nora an easy target for Ellie, and the fear she feels in Nora's final moments make it one of the more shocking things I have seen on television. Also extra credit for the twitching she pulls off near the end. Makes a creepy segment all the more creepy in my opinion.

Now we analyze the story. And I want to start with the cold open because it will inform a lot of the things that we are going to see in this episode. We start on Hanrahan (played by Alanna Ubach) and her Washington Liberation Front (WLF) soldiers guarding a sealed off door at the Lakehill hospital where they are stationed. She interrogates sergeant Elise Park, who led an operation with her son Leon to clear infected from the hospital's basement. When asked why she abandoned her son and their squad, she tells Hanrahan Leon told her to seal them in because the Cordyceps was spreading through the air. Stunned, Hanrahan commends the decision she made citing the hospital's importance to the WLF and tells her only a select few will know about the evolution to airborne.

Meanwhile, it is Ellie and Dina's second day in Seattle, and Dina is triangulating the location of the WLF and charting a path with the least resistance. After some playful banter, the two determine that there is a point directly to the hospital that is not guarded by the WLF and deduce the large building that is there is filled with infected. Before they head out, Ellie finds a guitar in the theater and begins playing a song before abruptly stopping. The two then head out and begin their quest to take down Nora. Along the way, the two encounter dead and rotting Seraphites, with the sight making Dina sick. Ellie regrets bringing Dina along and offers to take her back, but Dina reveals the first person she killed: a raider that killed her mother and sister. She tells Ellie that she will do whatever Ellie wants her to do, and Ellie decides to venture forth.

Night falls, and the two find themselves in a factory that appears to be empty. The two venture forth and figure out a Stalker is in the factory. When they duck behind cover and come back out, they see two more, and then discover about a dozen of them. Ellie formulates a plan to die for Dina so that her and her baby are safe, but Dina rebukes her by saying she loves her, leading to Ellie half-reciprocating before she cuts her off. Dina runs to hide, but Ellie is able to take out a few Stalkers before being overwhelmed. Dina is about to get attacked but someone, revealed to be Jesse, saves the two. The three are able to escape the factory with the WLF hot on their tails and they find themselves in a park that they do not enter.

Jesse tells the two that he and Tommy figured out they left Jackson and decided to follow them, and Ellie is upset he came to rescue Dina since the two of them are together now. They soon discover the reason the WLF does not enter the park is because it is under Seraphite control. They witness a "ritual" in which a WLF soldier is disemboweled despite being willing to disclose information about the WLF. Dina cannot watch and buries her face in Ellie before getting shot with an arrow. Ellie tells Jesse to take Dina back to the theater while she creates a diversion. She is able to lose the Scars but sees the hospital in the distance, deciding to go after Nora herself. At the hospital, Nora is cleaning up some injured WLF soldiers before being confronted by Ellie.

Ellie points a gun at Nora and demands Abby's location, but she refuses to disclose this to her. She taunts Ellie by telling her she still hears Joel's screams but he deserved what he got, calling him a bitch. She throws a liquid towards Ellie and runs, and Ellie gives chase. Ellie is able to avoid WLF gunfire while Nora breaks open the sealed elevator to the basement and falls. Ellie chases her down the service ladder and discovers Cordyceps all over the walls and the ceiling. She also sees people, including Park, trapped in the fungus structures breathing spores in and out. Nora is cornered with no place to go, and she realizes that Ellie is the immune girl she had heard about. Nora tells Ellie about what Joel did to Abby's father, and she reveals she knows already. When Nora still refuses to disclose Abby's location, she takes a lead pipe and starts smashing Nora's leg. She continues doing it until the screen cuts to black. To end the episode, a flashback is shown of Joel waking Ellie up and she is happier than ever.

The first, and most important, thing I need to talk about is what Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann decided to do with this episode. As we all know in the game, the main source of transmission of the Cordyceps is spores, which make the use of gas masks essential to the gameplay. I have mentioned in the past I liked the switch to tendrils because it makes the fungus a lot more deadly and dangerous. But this episode introduces spores to the show world and I actually really love how they were introduced here. We know from the game (and it was said here too) that the infection in Seattle happened in the basement of this hospital, so it only makes sense that this evolution over 25 years would happen. It again makes the fungus a lot more dangerous and begs the question: is it like this at the epicenter of other cities like New York or Chicago? Definitely something to think about and honestly something I have wanted to see for a long time.

Next up I need to talk about the moment that left my jaw on the floor this episode. And no, it was not the scene in the factory with the Stalkers or Ellie killing Nora. But it was 100% in the theater when Ellie begins to play a song on a guitar she found and then abruptly stops. That song was Pearl Jam's "Future Days," a song that is pivotal in the game because it is something personal between Joel and Ellie. It made sense for this song to be in the game because Outbreak Day is in 2013. Not so much here because Outbreak Day is 2003, therefore making the song an anachronism. But when I heard Ellie sing, "If I ever were to lose you," (the opening line of the song), my jaw was on the floor. If we don't get Joel sing this to Ellie next week I will be very disappointed. As a nice touch, the Pearl Jam song "Present Tense" (a song about letting go of the past) plays over the credits of this episode.

Now I want to talk about Dina and us finally getting some backstory for her. This backstory is something we never really got in the game so getting to see yet another character in this show get a background and character motivations rather than just being there just to be there was really nice. We started getting it in last week's episode when Dina tells Ellie that she always knew she was bisexual but her mother pressured her into not being attracted to girls, so she tried (and tried and tried and tried) to make it work with Jesse, but she fell hard for Ellie. In this episode, we get more backstory for her. We learn that she used to live near Santa Fe with her mother and sister, but both of them were killed by a raider that she wound up killing, all while she was 8. This understanding of pain and vengeance that she is given in this show makes her a more relatable character than Shannon Woodward's portrayal of her in the game and will only make your heart break more when this story ends the way it does.

And I want to end this review by talking about how Ellie finally gave in to the vengeance that she has been keeping down the whole time this season. We all know that Ellie swore to kill Abby and her friends after they murdered Joel, but she has not been showing it at all this season. And I think a big reason why she has been so contained is because of Dina. Dina has been the driving force behind Ellie hiding her true emotions that only Abby and her crew were able to see. But when Ellie was separated from Dina, all bets were off. There was nothing and no one that could stop Ellie from chasing after Nora in that hospital and there was nothing and no one that could stop her from taking that pipe to her leg and eventually her head. Now we go into next week prepared to spend a lot of time with Joel and what led her down this path of vengeance that we are starting to see consume her.

The Last of Us may not reach the uber highs of its second episode, but it still is a gripping look at vengeance and what pain can do to the best of us. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.