We’ve been wondering for weeks when Ellie’s switch was going to flip. When we would see revenge consume her and anger pave the way. Delivered in a deep and decisive way, episode 5, “Feel Her Love,” flips that switch in one distinct moment, finally initializing Ellie’s rage-consuming pursuit. Ellie is at the center of most of this week’s action-driven episode, but we also begin to get a deeper look into the war between the Scars and the W.L.F., story-altering decisions as they pertain to Dina, and a huge decision to include what the game always had and the show never did: airborne spores.
“Feel Her Love” opens with a fantastic parallel for the entire series and everything that is The Last of Us. The introduction of spores into the outbreak is told through a debrief of sorts between W.L.F. leaders. Once we learn that a team of soldiers was sealed away in a second-level basement when clearing the hospital because of a new airborne transmission, we also learn that the commander of the group granted the order from her own son, sacrificing him for the good of others. It’s a choice that Joel did not make when he saved Ellie, and the striking comparison is chilling as the door closes on the scene.
After foreshadowing a new, horrifying way to succumb to the outbreak, we spend the next forty-ish minutes on Ellie’s hip. It’s Seattle: Day Two and like in the game, Dina’s street smarts prove to be an extremely useful half of the duo. Through the stolen walkie, she is able to locate where the W.L.F. is patrolling and where, as well as the location of specific people, setting up the episode’s final encounter with the murder-present Nora. Ellie leaves her to devise the plan and goes off to explore the theater…and her brewing revenge.
For people who have played the game, the theater was a beautiful sight. The show did a tremendous job in its recreation, presenting a space where the old world still seems somewhat alive. The scene is brought over from the game beautifully, and as Ellie sits down with the guitar and sings the first line of the song that Joel taught her, we have our moment. Bella Ramsey nails the instant that the rage consumes Ellie, pouring out her revenge right into our living rooms without a single line of dialogue. This moment sets a clear course for the episode and acts as a reminder of the intentions of our main character. The buildup to this moment probably could’ve been better crafted through a more driven Ellie, but the show definitely grounds the plot here in an impactful way.
Right after the show sticks with the game, it deviates from it. In the game, Dina never left the theater to head through the hospital to get behind patrol and find Nora. Ellie did this alone. It’s a pretty substantial change, but it does add a new layer to Ellie and Dina’s relationship. Isabela Merced once again shines in a meaningful exchange shortly after heading out to see the repercussions of the unfamiliar war and our episode’s title, “Feel Her Love” painted on a building above yet another massacre. Through the memory of the first person she killed, Dina confides in Ellie’s revenge and partnership, strongly affirming that she is by her side. Ellie decides to bring the pregnant Dina along, and we head straight into the episode’s main infected encounter.
Once they move into the hospital, Ellie and Dina horrifyingly discover that they’re surrounded by the new “smart” stalkers. This is where we really thought that the show was playing like action sections of the game. An intense scene finds Ellie as the action hero and leader, as she guns down infected after telling Dina to get to safety. The claustrophobia of Dina’s situation in the small, gated area is fantastically mimicked in the limited area where Ellie is fighting off the swarm of stalkers. The entire situation is uncomfortable for an action sequence, and the feeling of despair in their outcome is real. Thankfully Jesse heroically shows up in your standard last-minute scenario and saves them both. What did make Jesse’s arrival more satisfying than the standard was how he was presented. For a second there, from Ellie’s perspective, is that…Joel? Further foundation into her consumption.
The three escape plenty of inaccurate fire and find themselves in the forest. Through the sequence, we really didn’t get time to realize the dynamic of Jesse along with Ellie and Dina. Although not explored in the episode, this new layer is apparent on sight, and it will be interesting to see where the show decides to stick with the script and where it decides to go in other directions.
It turns out that the Scar whistles from the game are just as haunting in the show. Or maybe they’re the same ones. Either way, the reintroduction of the cult group is a chilling one, from whistles stinging through the air to one brutal execution. The Scars continue to be presented as a technologically deficient, yet extremely dangerous and mysterious group. The execution further proves, like the TV station before it, that the Scars are capable foes to the W.L.F.
In the game, Ellie takes an arrow to the shoulder after being spotted, but the show turns this fate onto Dina instead. With the tease of spores in the episode’s open, you can be anxiously led to think that Dina may be the one to encounter the new transmission, but an arrow to the knee forces her and Jesse back to safety while Ellie creates a diversion. After her escape into the hospital, the spores find their way into the episode.
Slowing down for the first time in around twenty minutes, the episode comes to a halt and presents one of the best setpieces of the season. Ellie infiltrates the aforementioned bottom sections of the hospital to find the group mentioned in the episode’s open. Infected and covered in cordyceps, they slowly breathe out the airborne spores. The attention to detail is astronomical, and it makes it hard to imagine that something so terrifying could be so beautiful. After once again grounding the plot, Ellie’s immunity drives her forward and into the episode’s finale.
The encounter with Nora stays true to the game, from its intense dialogue and traded hate to Nora’s red light demise. This sequence begins to show the range of Bella Ramsey in how they portray Ellie. A chilling performance reassures us that Bella can indeed pull this off, and the uneasy feeling they give throughout the scene builds an uncomfortable tension between Ellie and the viewer. Once Nora is chased down to the lower levels where she is exposed to the spores, we see one more series parallel and one big piece of information. The information we never knew all along is if Ellie ever truly knew what Joel did. As Nora tells her as she begins to fall ill, Ellie’s face remains unchanged, and simply says, “I know.” This is a big reveal to the audience, since the show hadn’t yet addressed this. As for the parallel, as Nora will not give up Abby’s whereabouts, and as Ellie grows more frustrated, she inflicts the same torture on Nora that Abby did on Joel. Although we don’t see the end of this sequence, the visual of a pipe to the knee solidifies us in Ellie’s revenge in that haunting red light. There’s a lot to unpack here, and it’s a great place to end an episode, right?
Almost acting like a post-credits scene, right when we’re ready to see the credits roll, we get an extremely brief scene of Ellie waking up in her bedroom back in Jackson as a very alive Joel walks in. He gives his classic “Hey’a kiddo”, to where Ellie replies, “Hi.” It’s an interesting way to close the episode and might even be a bit confusing. Coming off of the reveal that Ellie seemingly knows what Joel did to save her, we could be jumping into a flashback that explores that. The Last of Us has proven through its brief run that it will have off-the-path episodes, many times focusing on the past, and from what we saw of the episode 6 preview, that looks like exactly where we’re heading.
The Birdict
Season 2’s fifth episode, “Feel Her Love” once again speeds through a shorter runtime but delivers on triggering Ellie’s path, developing a new layer of her relationship with Dina, a claustrophobic infected sequence, a risky new airborne spores transmission, and two absolutely gorgeous setpieces. It was the right time in the season to turn all character focus to Ellie while still slowly building knowledge of the world around her. The action of the episode plays out like a video game, and Ellie’s ignition of revenge screams in between. Although we still think that some of these episodes could be a bit longer, “Feel Her Love” makes great use of its time.
The Barn 