‘Endure and Survive’: Spoiler-free photos from ‘The Last of Us’ episode 5

It sure looks like we’re going to get another cold open in episode 5.

“Endure and Survive” is the second part of the Hunters’ arc in the season and is also directed by the previous episode’s director, Jeremy Webb.

HBO dropped the promo photos for the episode and they heavily feature Henry and Sam actors Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Montreal Woodard. I will be discussing some minor spoilers from episode 4, “Please Hold To My Hand,” so read at your own risk.

In the previous episode, we were introduced to the Hunters, a group kind of like the Fireflies in that they were a resistance group against the Federal Disaster Response Agency (Fedra), but more ruthless. In Kansas City, they are led by Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and her second in command, Perry (Jeffrey Pierce). The Hunters have successfully ousted Fedra, so they are the new government. Kathleen is looking for people who ratted out her brother to the Fedra and one of her suspects is Henry.

In the first photo above, he is shown in what we can almost be certain is the attic that the Hunters found in episode 4. This attic was clearly abandoned by Henry and Sam (I offer a theory as to why below). The second photo may be a scene after Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) encountered the two.

Here are photos of Sam. The first photo is also clearly from a scene in the attic, so this could be a flashback. The second photo may be from the present because in the last shot in the previous episode, Sam was shown with this face paint. The face paint may be in reference to the superhero illustrations left in the attic.

THEORY TIME: I suspect that in this adaption, Sam is deaf and mute. In the promo for the next episode, Henry and Sam were shown communicating in sign language, but my hunch is that it wasn’t just because they wanted to stay silent to be safe from the infected.

There are also photos of the duo taken from flashback scenes, which I believe will be the cold open for the episode. Let’s start with this:

This is a scene from the attic once again. THEORY TIME AGAIN! Sam is too afraid to go outside. After all, the Hunters are so ruthless, they’re ready to kill children. I don’t know if you noticed it, but in the pile of burnt dead bodies, there were skeletal remains of humans the size of children. The attic offers him comfort a la Linus’ security blanket. To make him feel braver, Henry will draw a superhero mask over Sam’s face

Judging from the background, this is just below the attic where they were hiding. This may be from a scene showing the first time the brothers discovered the attic.

Here are the two hiding from someone or something. Since the Hunters are hunting them down after Kathleen put the blame on them when three of their own were killed by Joel, they must be stealthy to survive.

The two again at the attic. Are they talking to someone in this scene? Perhaps an informant who told them the Kathleen has put a target on Henry’s head? Whoever this person is (raise your hand if you think it’s Perry), he or she wants them alive.

The episode’s baddies are Perry and Kathleen, but I still have this hunch that Perry will betray Kathleen because he is not convinced that she is still capable of thinking clearly.

This is after Joel and Ellie were woken up by Henry and Sam, probably. They are listening intently to Henry’s story. (It’s just Henry telling their story because remember my theory about Sam’s disability?)

And finally, here’s a photo of Joel and Henry. They may be at the basement where the cracked floor was in the previous episode. FINAL THEORY TIME! Henry and Sam may have already learned or heard about the problem brewing underneath that building. Joel, Henry, Ellie, and Sam devised a plan to use that to their advantage.

Here’s my complete theory for the episode:

1. After Kathleen told the Hunters to hunt down Henry, Perry told the brothers to leave the attic.
2. Perry needs both Sam and Henry to stay alive not because he cares, but because they know someone or something outside Kansas City.
3. Henry and Sam knows about the problem in the basement and they will use it to their advantage when needed.

Episode 5, “Endure and Survive,” will air early on HBO Max in the United States, but so far, HBO GO has no announcement regarding the schedule. So we can only assume that the episode will still air on Monday, 10 a.m. in the Philippines.