User Reviews

I have to say, after watching this episode, that this is by far one of the best episodes this show will have.

Through out the whole episode, i just sat there, silent, with tears in my eyes, thinking about what I just saw. Speechless and touched.

So emotional, so dark, so intense and so brilliantly directed. Highly recommended. Cast in the series is awesome and it's not hard to "feel" the characters.

I loved every bit of this episode. Music was beautiful, characters were beautifully portrayed, there were funny and sad moments, I just can't describe my feelings while watching this episode and even now, after a watching it again.

You would be hard press to find a more emotionally wrenching episode in television than this one.

Ever since the beginning of the series it has been clear that in this world you need to make sacrifices to survive, but sacrifices are not very easy to make, and they can have irreparable consequences.

Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen that we met in the last episode is thirsty for revenge, her brother was executed by FEDRA because he was betrayed by a man named Henry, and now she wants vengeance. But when vengeance consumes someone they might be willing to do unspeakable things to quench that thirst.

The writers of this episode understood the task of letting the audience understand where she comes from, and what were the circumstances that led Henry to betray Kathleen's brother, but they were unafraid and unapologetic when it came time to the reckoning.

This is the kind of gut-wrenching episode that will stay with you for a long time after the credits roll. It will also give a new meaning to the series' motto "Save who you can save."

Endure and Survive packs an emotional punch of massive proportions. By moments, it portrays action extravaganza, and then you feel the weight of the world on the protagonists' shoulders by sheer force of silence.

We get to witness Henry and Sam's story and observe their point of view before they meet Joel and Ellie. Kathleen's motives are also explored, in memoriam of Michael. Nothing is really black and white, and all the nuances are felt. For those who criticized Melanie Lynskey's casting in the last episode, you get to see her blow everything out of the park in this one. Her anger pierces the screen like a knife.

The music and cinematography are still perfect. It's awesome to watch the relation between Joel and Henry grow here, as caretakers of another human being. They get to bond, so are Ellie and Sam. The action piece near the end of the episode is the best yet and it shines in all of its glory. It's kinda poetic that Kathleen, Henry and Sam all died, as the world isn't really merciful when people tend to not band together and fight each other.

And boy, if the ¨Stay Awake with Me¨ moment didn't generate some sort of emotional response out of you, you're probably infected already... Nearly damn ended me. Love the writing and all of the themes presented. Just keep walking then. Wyoming it is !

When I started watching this series, it was more because of the game than because of the actors, and from the beginning I wanted to feel what I only managed to feel in this episode. EMOTION. I wanted to feel emotion, I wanted to care about what was going on or what was going to happen. I wanted to feel every death, every decision, everything. And it finally happened thanks to one of the best segments in the game, Endure and Survive was EVERYTHING I wanted this show to be at the beginning of everything, but mostly, that it had what I'm now seeing, love for these characters, love for this universe, love for this story. This is The Last of Us, a story where there are no happy endings, it's not Disney, but small moments of happiness.

I thought it was interesting what they did with Sam, making him deaf, completely changing what was established in the game to not be the same thing; providing more density in the relationship with Henry who now needs to verbalize, not just talk. A Henry who, unlike the game, allows Sam to be a kid, is the only thing left for him to be. A Henry who, just like in the game, did, and would do, everything for his brother, including not living in this world without him anymore. I could talk about how good Joel and Ellie were in this ep, the infected, the freaking Bloater, but I just can't, these characters, just like it was almost 10 years ago, impacted me emotionally.

One of the best episodes of this season so far, without a doubt.

I am writing this while holding back my tears. This episode was fun, adventurous and devastating.

Great storytelling and acting.

The characterizations of Henry and Sam were so great that I did not realize how much I connected with their characters while watching this episode.

I don't usually cry while watching movies and series, but the scene where Henry kills himself after killing his zombie brother, I could hardly hold back my tears.

Also, I think it's very difficult to make the storyline of the series similar to the storyline of the game.

The feeling conveyed to the person while watching the episode is the same as playing this part of game.

1. Nearly perfect episode.

2. The occasional humor really grabs you by surprise sometimes. In the middle of all this horror and drama, when a joke slips through, it really is funnier because it's so out of place, yet it's perfectly placed.

3. Very exciting and quickly progressing episode. They did not waste any time between transitions to the important events. For example, in the beginning, it didn't take long for the four protagonists to meet. It was straight to the point. Great flow, never boring at any point.

4. It was tense. There was a lot of talk with guns pointed at each other, and it made you sit on the edge of your seat. I was worried for the characters.

5. Antagonists all died. There is no plot armour because the other characters died. This is actually a truly amazing feature of the episode. I actually was foolish enough to believe that the antagonist characters were going to survive the whole season because the actors were great. Yet, they get killed in such "casual" ways, like a completely irrelevant character would.

6. Protagonists all died (except Ellie and the guy, but that's because the main player in a video game can never die, or the game simply ends). The entire lives of the deaf kid and his brother were told in this episode and it was very surprising how it ended for them. No one expected that.

7. The show managed to f with me. I was surprised by many things. I thought for sure there would be infected in the tunnels. There weren't. I thought maybe Ellie really can cure people by rubbing her infection-resistant blood on their wounds. She can't. I thought the evil characters would surely survive and come back the next episode. They didn't. I thought the little kid would at least survive. He didn't. It was just brutal, full of surprises, and great.

8. By the way, the imprisoned people in the beginning ended up being killed I think. I just remembered that.

9. One criticism I can offer is that it sometimes feels like a video game, and my gamer intuition kicks in and I already know what to expect. But this can be also viewed as a positive thing because my logic is similar to the characters' logic. Never played the game though.

Easily... by far and away... the most heartbreaking part of The Last of Us game, is the storyline of Henry and Sam. When I saw the end result in the game, it shook me to my core, I cried, and felt like crap for awhile.

The Last of Us show, on the other hand, already gave us episode 3 -- which anyone with a soul -- will admit, made, and still makes me cry to this day.

I couldn't take another heartbreaker of an episode like that. And even though, yes, this episode absolutely made me cry. It could have been WAY worse.

First off, I figured (like in the game), Sam and Henry would have stuck around for a little while. At least a couple of full episodes.

Instead, after last week's fantastic, and very necessary, build up episode to this week. They essentially crammed a fair amount of storyline into one VERY VERY excellent episode.

At first, I hoped they filmed what happened to all the people who lived in the underground school, in what could have been, an amazing standalone episode. Which I always wanted to see after playing the game.

But... they explained right away, why they didn't do that. When, the most insane part of this (or any other episode of a show featuring the undead for that matter) happened.

The scene with the run of clickers coming out of the ground was absolutely terrifying; more terrifying than ANYTHING The Walking Dead has ever done, and even more terrifying than the white walkers in Game of Thrones.

For the first time ever you see these monsters, and realize just how helpless you are against them in this world. They don't feel like they can be inevitably beat like on other shows, or somehow weak against our main characters.

Joel and Ellie get away because they're lucky, and because they know clickers are an ABSOLUTE last option. It's an amazing change of pace.

When, the inevitable happens with Sam and Henry, it's just as sad as it was in the game, and if you've never played the game, it's probably just as heartbreaking.

However, they also ripped the band aid off almost immediately, and for that I am eternally grateful. They could have dragged it out (something I probably would have done, especially with how wonderfully cast and amazing the actors were portraying Sam and Henry), thus making us more attached to them, but they used them as more or less another cautionary tale for Joel and Ellie on their journey.

Ultimately, The Last of Us, is about them, and the show never forgets that, even if they take us on a few side paths.

Again, somehow... this episode was done better than the game. I don't know how they keep doing it, I don't know how they keep threading the line so well between keeping it the same, and enhancing it. But they do.

From the amazing acting, cinematography, writing, directing, music, tone... etc. It proves time and time again, to be the best show on t.v. And yet again, proves, it's already my favorite show of all time.

The last of us really does love to jump from greatness to weakness with the drop of a hat. Cathleen as a character is terrible, but Henry and Sam are fantastic. The action sequences are great for some part and terrible for others. Endless bullets in a sniper lead to a well shot and tense car exchange between Ellie and a kid clicker. An excellent bloater is shockingly introduced to be then used in a blurry 5 second series of shots. It's so hit and miss the show is like a yo-yo. I'm loving it and hating it at the same time. Consistency is key here people, I really want you people to sort this out ! So much potential!

When i see an episode has a 9.5/10 i expect greatness. Greatness as in Breaking Bad's Chicanery, The last season of Better Call saul, Season 3 of the Walking Dead and certain iconic episodes of GoT.

My expectations were not met. I am a longtime fan of the franchise, played all the games multiple times and really love the world that Naughty Dog & Neil Druckmann created.

This episode is good in terms of production value, lighting, Pedro Pascal and Sam & Henry but it has some major flaws.

Let me elaborate;

• The main antagonist is not convincing at all,Kathleen never comes across as scary or unpredictable.

• At a certain point, Joel is in a sniper's nest and multiple cars with villains arrive. The first thing Kathleen does, is to sent 4 men around to take out Joel. Somehow these 4 men never reach Joel and Joel made his way out and is outside of the house after the zombie horde slaughters it's way through the baddies.

• About this zombie horde; somehow they are triggered by a car sliding down into a basement? But not by the big trucking plowing it's way through car wrecks or the multiple shots fired before?

In the game the Pittsburgh chapter on which this and the previous episode are based has some truly iconic scenes.

Think about the humvee chasing Joel & Ellie, the sneaking out while avoiding the search light and in general the whole flooded and desolate apocalyptic city with the occasional hunter encounter.

This epsiode basically shows an entire city taken over by hunters who have an arsenal and multiple cars and trucks. The feel is just different. There is no feeling of an unknwon threat looming.

Sam & Henry were convincing, it was nice to hear more about Henry's backstory. However some iconic scenes from the game were missing completely (Toy store robot, suburbs exploration)

Overall this had a Game of Thrones season 8 vibe. When the writers try to be creative and stray away too far from the brilliant source material, this is the result. Like the night king and the ex machina's in the long night episode, visually stunning but it leaves no lasting impression.

Will continue watching this show. But a 9.5? Not even close.

Just amaaazing... Game fan here and I can't be more satisfied of how everything went through in this episode.. Just amazing, from the story, the acting, the horde surprise, and the whole action was just perfection.

I expected it to be different but they truly made it different and still not different, but I enjoyed every bit of it, and the attack scene was just a big surprise that made this scene looks even better than the games.. Just wished they would have made it a bit longer in the tunnels but at the end it was fair enough and it was just the right amount of time together to feel sorry for them at the end.

The irony scattered across this episode was startling. Spoilers so please beware.

Kathleen ignoring the obvious lump in the ground from the last episode as she prioritizes finding Henry turned out to be the wrong move. Rage and vengeance will only make things worse, as players of the second game will understand.

"Kids die all the time", but look who got killed by a kid clicker

And worst of all, worst of all, was the fact that Henry never directly killed anyone before, yet the first person he kills is his own brother. I played the game but I still wasn't prepared for this. Ellie's horrified gasp as Henry took his own life was haunting. They were gonna go to Wyoming together for god's sake.

Tears..

"Endure and survive", but at what cost? At what limit? When you kill your own brother, do you still try to endure and survive? Don't ask me, ask Henry. Ask Ellie and Joel too on what they have to endure.

Bring on the next episode. Why do I keep doing this to myself?

This is the second episode of the last of us that gets you attached to two characters in the span of one episode, only to brutally and mercilessly kill them off within that same episode. This show is too cruel, man. The worst part is that I got my hopes up, too. At least in long, long time, you knew what was coming, and plus bill and Frank got to spend one last happy day together. However, because of that, long long time was not nearly as emotionally effective as "endure and survive" (brilliant title btw). So although I hate this show for completely crushing my hopes, I am grateful that in exchange, we were delivered this absolute masterpiece of an episode.

First of all, I want to applaud the character development in this episode. Even though this episode is completely action packed, it still took lots of time to breathe and gave us some development to the three major characters that are killed off. First, I'll start with Henry. We only knew him for an hour, and already he was given so many layers and so much complexity. His story is so tragic, as he was forced to essentially sell his soul in order to keep what was most important to him alive, his brother. But at the cost of keeping his brother alive, he has to live as a tortured man, unable to forgive himself for his sins. Henry's moral dilemma is the perfect representation of just how cruel this world is. There is no right or wrong anymore. It's either wrong, or wronger. When you're faced with such a truly impossible decision- let your brother die, or kill a pure and honest man- it's hard to blame Henry for what he did. After all, if his brother is the only thing Henry is living for, then why is it wrong for him to keep Sam alive no matter what it costs? Wow, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing how incredible this show is since it literally made me empathize with a snitch and a murderer. But he's not the only one the show made me empathize with...

Kathleen. Unlike some reviewers, I actually liked the casting choice for her. She wasn't great the last episode, but she killed her role in this one. Again, much like Henry, it's impossible to say whether she is "right" or "wrong." In her mind, no amount of civilians she murders will make up for Henry's murder of her brother, much like no amount of snitching is enough for Henry to stop protecting his own brother. They are very similar in a way, however Kathleen is more motivated by rage and hate rather than love, which is Henry's motivation. She even said it herself: her brother would not approve of her murdering endlessly to seek revenge for his death. But that's what makes her even more complex in my opinion. She's not doing it to make him happy. She knows what she's doing is wrong. She simply recognizes that the world is a cruel and unjust place for taking the life of such a pure man. This one scene made me empathize with her so much and already makes her an extremely well written villain in just 2 episodes. I really wish we could've seen more of her.

Not really much to say about Sam but he was still a great character. He is just the embodiment of innocence, which makes it all the more heartbreaking as his innocence slowly fades away by the end of the episode. All of his scenes with Ellie were heartwarming and sweet. The scene underground where they bond, read comics and play soccer were especially beautiful. When I say that I mean it's beautiful that two children are able to hold onto their innocence and actually have fun in such an ugly and miserable world. Unfortunately I think this is probably the last time we will see ellie this way, as she keeps going through more and more traumatizing events each episode.

Now that I've talked about the characters, I need to talk about the zombie scene... I mean, wow! The zombies in episode 2 were scary, but this takes it to a whole new level. Never have I been so terrified of zombies before. In the walking dead, it often felt like they were just a useless obstacle, and even when they did pose a threat, it was never even close to this scary. But it's not just the zombies themselves that made this scene great, it's everything. The intense buildup where you can see the ground shaking was perfect, until all of a sudden the zombies appear out of nowhere, not even giving the viewer (or the characters) time to breathe. This moment was utter chaos, and I loved every single second of it. I honestly wish it could've gone on longer.

Kathleen also gets a gruesome but somewhat satisfying death by the same baby zombie that almost killed Ellie. After that, you think it's over... right? At least that's what I thought, but the episode doesn't stop there. We get to the dreadful cabin scene. Sam reveals that he's been bit, and we get one last touching moment between him and Ellie. Then of course, the show tries to get my hopes up, and I held on the smallest possibility that Ellie's blood would cure him. I thought to myself that even if her blood didn't work, at least Sam would get a proper, harmless death... I was so wrong. Possibly the worst scenario possible happens: he turns into a zombie. When I watched this I was in utter shock. I knew what was coming, but I couldn't accept what was happening on my screen. I knew Henry would have to shoot his own brother and then take his own life, yet it was still so hard to watch. If the end of this episode doesn't leave you in awe, I pity you. This whole episode was an experience like no other. A haunting, beautiful masterpiece of television, and the easiest 10 out of 10 I've given in a while. Thank you, the last of us.

I'm very confused by all these glowing reviews.

This is my first review on IMDB so I'll cut to the chase: the episode was a huge dissapointment.

My GF and I had been loving the show, and the post-apocalyptic tension, unique storylines, and brooding crawl of each episode. Each week, this is the thing we look forward to.

This episode had so many issues and we finished it deflated. The script and dialogue were wonky.

The deaf kid side story didn't make sense: Namely, why the kid needed to be deaf. I have no problem with deafness per se, and even studied ASL in college, but what was the reasoning behind it? It was so random and reminded me of the Chekhov's gun (~"If you describe a gun hanging above the fireplace, it should be shot. If it isn't going to be shot, it shouldn't be there.") I also didn't know enough about him and his father be as invested in them as the show wants you to be.

Kathleen continued being wholly unbelievable as the leader of her warring faction. Her sing-songy librarian voice and persona just doesn't check out with her violent nature and status with her group. You have all these intimidating special op soldiers falling in line behind her? It was tough to believe.

The actions sequences were the only decent part of this episode but outside of that, eh. We are losing interest in the show, sadly.

I mean wow!!!!! Could this be the best episode yet? The acting from everyone was amazing, truly amazing, the action and sets were again top notch, and the back story for Henry and Sam was very good too.

The episode slowly built up to the battle where all hell broke loose and we got to finally see the bloater, and it was remarkable, and once again very much like the game.

I sat wondering whether this is the best TV show I've ever seen, is it better than Game of Thrones? Hmmm probably, is it as good as Band of Brothers? Not sure about that one. And is it as good as The Walking Dead? Possibly yes.

My only problem is I have to wait so long for the next episode.