The following article contains spoilers from The Last of Us Episode 5 - “Endure and Survive.”
The fifth episode of HBO’sThe Last of Us, directed by Neil Druckmann andCraig Mazin, has proved itself above and beyond as the show’s first true peak in the storyline. With the introduction of new location Kansas City (replaced Pittsburgh in the original game), and the well-armed militia faction that takes over the city from FEDRA, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are truly thrown into the fire for the first time on their journey while trying to simply make it through the city unscathed.
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New characters Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), the ringleaders of the faction that rules the city with an iron fist while still calling in the first “free” city post-outbreak, are hellbent on tracking down accused collaborator Henry. Wanting revenge moreso than fair justice for her brother’s death, Kathleen seeks to turn over every stone in the city and murder every remotely suspicious citizen until she tracks Henry down. Joel and Ellie eventually bump into Henry and his younger, deaf brother Sam, and the four struggle to remain hidden and find a safe way out of the hellhole. Kathleen ignores Perry’s concerns about a possible resurgence of infected under the city, which Henry firmly believes to have been eradicated by FEDRA. Joel adamantly disagrees, and his intuition is later proven true when a sinkhole of infected swarms the entire faction during a confrontation between Kathleen and Henry. The raiders are ripped to pieces and essentially wiped out, right up to Kathleen herself. However, during the scene one death in particular clearly stood out.
Perry’s Death Was Almost Even More Gruesome
The bloater, the biggest and worst of the infected (in the first game), made its debut appearance in the neighborhood massacre scene. Roaring up from underground, it wreaked havoc on an already chaotic scene, and soon enough Perry tragically fell within its sights. Audiences witnessed Kathleen’s partner get his face literally torn apart, ironically similar to the death animation caused by a bloater in the original game. However, per areportfrom Collider, co-director Mazin disclosed in theLast of Usofficial podcast that his original plan for Perry’s death was even more grisly than what we saw.
I had this thing where I wanted the Bloater to pick Perry up and rip in half at the waist. And Neil [Druckmann]waslike, “Well, okay, I mean is that going to be realistic?" And I’m like, ‘I think so.’ And then like the more Wētā [FX] tried to do the more you realize that people don’t rip along the waist. It’s really hard to do."
As previously revealed, the bloater monster took a whopping 65 prosthetics artists and the talents of a 6'6" British stunt performer named Adam Basil, who had to wear the astounding 88-pound body suit to bring it all together. With Mazin may have wanted to give the bloater as big of a moment as possible in the episode, the final execution of its rampage really couldn’t have gone any better. Or in Perry’s case, any worse.
