Over the closing credits of “Please Hold to My Hand,” The Last of Us’s wandering fourth hour plays Lotte Kestner’s cover of New Order’s “True Faith” – a song that, though explicitly about lost childhood and the indulgences of fame, is a song about the danger of getting lost in the darkness. In New Order’s version, that metaphor is often around drug use; translated into TLoU‘s macabre world of nihilistic determinism, the song’s lyrics clearly speak to the three characters central to the episode’s narrative: Joel, Ellie, and the new addition to the fray, Kansas City Kathleen.
It begins with a remarkably strong set of scenes tracing Joel and Ellie’s path to Kansas City (replacing Pittsburgh from The Last of Us Part I), their growing familiarity with each other giving voice to the hundreds of miles they’ve driven since we last saw them. Though some of the devices are rather simplistic – Ellie’s book of puns for humor, for example – they’re quite effective when channeled through the performances of Pascal and Ramsay, as she slowly begins to encroach on the many defenses Joel’s built up between his heart and mind.
The scenes are quiet and beautifully paced, letting Gustavo Santaolalla and David Fleming’s score effectively build tone as Joel ponders off in the distance, and Ellie tries to fight off sleep in the passenger seat. It’s peaceful – and when it ends, is appropriately greeted by the sound of deafening rifle fire when Joel and Ellie are ambushed on a seemingly deserted city street (Joel did say two episodes back that traveling through cities was a terrible idea, but we’ll let it slide). The roar of their guns is audible and kicks up the episode’s tension instantly; you can feel Joel’s heart racing as he tells Ellie she won’t get shot trying to run and hide – that ability to shift gears is palpable and sends a shockwave through the episode, one it mostly maintains, even as its story shifts into something a bit unsubtle as it continues.
That shift, of course, is to introduce Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey, who was hot off her amazing work in the first season of Yellowjackets at the time); who, unfortunately, is too vague and meek to really leave an impact as a character in her introduction. It’s not great that the first decision we see her make is to kill one of the most valuable people in her own clan (you can’t kill the doctors; how many times do we have to revisit this?) – but the real issue is that the subtlety of performance doesn’t translate to creating a real sense of danger, especially as she confuses Joel and Ellie’s actions with other people (I’m sure we’ll talk a lot more about Henry in next week’s episode!).
One thing is clear: she’s driven by the death of her brother, somehow enough to ascend a power structure we’re not privy to understand – beyond that, she’s a bit of an amorphous presence that exists only to break up Joel/Ellie scenes, rather than set a new standard for danger or conflict for our protagonists to endure (who seems more dangerous: the woman who shoots doctors after a second thought, or that massive bulge underground she clearly states is Not Going To Be A Problem).
With that emphasis and larger sense of danger lacking, “Please Hold to My Hand” has to lean into the growing sense of dread that our newfound friends will, in fact, not be ok. In an inverse from Kathleen’s presence, everything becomes glaringly explicit textually, from the glass Joel breaks up on the floor before they sleep, to the reveal that this isn’t Ellie’s first time being violent (surprise!). One’s mileage with these scenes will vary; while I really enjoy Joel’s line about shooting Bryan being something she “shouldn’t have had to do” (showing a sense of responsibility and empathy Joel will never express with his actions), I could do without Ellie looking at Joel and asking him if “he’s killed any innocent people”. These moments are all over the spectrum in their effectiveness… and it certainly doesn’t help it’s all tied up with the aforementioned dreary cover of an 80’s pop song.
Of course, subtlety was never The Last of Us‘s strongest tool as a narrative in its original form – and given Druckmann’s close involvement with the television adaptation, makes the rather blunt approach in this medium somewhat expected. But there are much cleaner integrations of these ideas in small pockets of this episode, like when Joel teaches Ellie how to hold a gun so it can’t get ripped from her hands (I’m not saying anything!); but then there’s still the Sticky Gay Porn Magazine problem (and the actual magazine; still can’t believe they kept that) The Last of Us may kind of always struggle with, as it continues to adhere so closely to the tone and tambor of its source material.
Those deviations, however small and infrequent, have been important: but as I discussed with “Long, Long Time”, they also put front and center the limitations in how The Last of Us applies morality and emotion to its story. They are consistent and good at training their viewer – I think we all knew when Joel laughed and Ellie mentioned his hearing that things were going to shit quickly – but that adherence is not really couched in anything beyond “everything fucking sucks, always”, making some of the push-and-pull between good and evil forces in its narrative feel a bit artificial.
Though certainly a step down from “Long, Long Time”, “Please Hold to My Hand” utilizes its emotional palette to great effect early on, which helps smooth over the much-bumpier second half of the episode. Given where it ends up, it is also clear this episode is the first half of a complete thought; with Ellie and Joel trapped in Kansas City with two guns pointed at them, a maniacal leader looking for vengeance, and the Thing Pulsating Underground Thing We Can Totally Just Casually Brush Off, “Please Hold to My Hand” and its loaded ending make it clear we’re just getting started with whatever horrors lie ahead for our not-so-merry band of travelers and paramilitary leaders.