Following the Sunday night premiere of episode 4, the official “Last of Us” Twitter account announced the early streaming date for episode 5 “Endure and Survive:”
Stream it early.
The next episode of #TheLastOfUs premieres FRIDAY 2/10 at 9PM on @HBOMax. pic.twitter.com/1jgFmxCLol
— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) February 6, 2023
Personally, I’m still reeling from last week’s episode “Long, Long Time,” which took a break from the main action to tell the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), two survivors of the fungal zombie apocalypse who managed to carve out a piece of happiness away from quarantine zones.
On the one hand, the highly-acclaimed episode packed an emotional wallop in its depiction of human mortality, mostly because it had me projecting my relationship with my own spouse onto Bill and Frank. On the other hand, while I’ve read several think pieces arguing that “Long, Long Time” subverted the Bury Your Gays trope, I was left questioning whether it really did subvert that trope or just did an expert job at maneuvering within it.
By the end of the episode, Bill and Frank are effectively buried in a one-and-done fashion, while Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are left to raid their house for supplies and continue their adventures for the rest of the series.
Still, whatever little qualms any of us might have, I think it’s safe to say this series has joined Netflix’s “Arcane” in breaking the video game adaptation curse.
Once more for the road: “The Last of Us” season 1, episode 5 “Endure and Survive” hits HBO Max early on Friday, February 10 at 9 p.m.