There’s a kid pointing a gun at Ellie and Joel at the end of The Last of Us episode 4 on HBO. Who is he? And who’s his brother, Henry? And what might we learn about him in episode 5?
HBO’s The Last of Us ends its fourth episode with a cliffhanger — Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) waking up to guns in their face, one of which is being held by a child with a drawn-on, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-style eye mask.
It’s a continuation of a violent welcome to Kansas City: They’re only there for a few minutes and everyone’s immediately trying to kill them. The city is no longer controlled by the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA), instead overrun by a ruthless group of rebels called the Hunters, and they shoot on sight. But the Hunters aren’t only after Ellie and Joel — in fact, they don’t even know they’re there yet. The Hunters, led by Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen, are desperately searching for a mysterious person named Henry (Lamar Johnson), someone she thinks got her brother killed.
The episode doesn’t give much context as to who this mysterious Henry is, and doesn’t even mention Sam (Keivonn Woodard), but The Last of Us players will immediately recognize the name.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us game and potentially the show.]
Henry and Sam are the beloved brother duo from The Last of Us, originally showing up in the Pittsburgh section for one of the most heartbreaking stories in the game. Ellie and Joel skip right over Pittsburgh in their journey west, heading instead to Kansas City, Missouri. The show’s creators have reimagined most of the Pittsburgh parts into the Kansas City episode, including Henry and Sam. Surely we’ll learn more about them in episode 5, but thanks to the game, we’ve already got context on what could happen.
