This is little bit of a late post because I was too busy recuperating from the feels “Long, Long Time” gave all of us, so my sincerest apologies, dearest blog visitors.
As always, let me share with you all the spoiler-free photos from the upcoming episode, which will air in just a few hours. Episode 4, titled “Please Hold My Hand,” is directed by Jeremy Webb, who has had nominations in the Emmys and the British Academy Film Awards for his work in “Downton Abbey” and “Merlin.”
Marlee Grace Becker, who has appeared in shows like “Riverdale” is listed as one of the actresses appearing in this episode, but she isn’t in any of the promo photos dropped by HBO this week. She might just have a minor role in this episode.
With all those quick details out of the way, let’s start breaking down all the photos from episode 4, “Please Hold My Hand.” There are minor spoilers from the previous episodes.
Two of the biggest characters who will appear in the episode are original, meaning they haven’t appeared in any of the games or the comics miniseries.
Let’s start with the character Perry.
The actor who plays Perry, Jeffrey Pierce, previously portrayed Tommy in the games, so he knows the story well, too. Perry is described as part of the rebel group in Kansas City. In at least two of the photos below, he is seen behind the character portrayed by Melanie Lynskey, Kathleen. This may be because he is her right-hand man, or maybe her body guard.
In the game, this part of the story is supposed to be happening in Pittsburgh, not Kansas City. After leaving Bill’s town in Lincoln, Massachusetts, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) head to Pennsylvania. Since in the show they arrived instead in Kansas City, which is more than twice as far as Pittsburgh from Lincoln, this means that Joel and Ellie have been driving for more or less a day before they encounter the group.
Another original character is Kathleen, who is the leader of the Hunters, a group that’s kinda like the Fireflies. The Hunters are in the games, but their leader Kathleen was created by Craig Mazin, the show’s co-showrunner, for the show. I love how almost each episode, there are new characters introduced in the show. In the first episode, the neighbors. In the second, Ibu Ratna. In the third, although Frank is mentioned in the game, at least the show brought his story into new light.
In the photo above, Kathleen looks like she just entered a facility where they are keeping someone that they’re interrogating. In the trailer for the next episode, she points a gun at someone while asking him or her, “Where is he?” My guess is that “he” here is either her husband or her son. Or maybe a brother.
The photos below may be from the same scene.
My guess is that in this scene, they’re making a deal with another group or with the Federal Disaster Response Agency.
Like I said earlier, there are two photos of Kathleen in which Perry is just standing there behind her, which indicates that they are working together (at least in these scenes). There’s always a possibility that there’s a power struggle within the Hunters group and that he’s planning to take her leadership spot.
THEORY TIME: In this episode, Kathleen is looking for a relative and Perry, as her second in command, thinks she’s too distracted so she cannot fully commit in her role as the leader of the Hunters, so he will try to grab that power by neutralizing her.
Which leaves us with the photos of Joel and Ellie. In the first two of these photos, it seems that they are hiding from something or somebody. It can only be the members of the Hunters.
There are no clues in these photos that the episode will have a cold open just like in the first two episodes, but hopefully we get another one. I don’t care if the cold open is about the characters Kathleen and Perry as long as whatever it is they do has a huge impact throughout the rest of the show.
Enjoy watching the episode later today!
