The Last Of Us episode 4 makes a major change to Joel's character

The fourth episode of HBO’s The Last of Us has finally arrived which means that we’re fast approaching the halfway mark. In this episode, Ellie and Joel journeyed on to Kansas City but this is The Last of Us. The duo were hardly going to have a smooth ride.

In fact, they encountered a pretty big problem. Joel and Ellie were ambushed by a nameless group led by brand new character Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and her second-in-command Perry (Jeffrey Pierce). The episode also teased the arrival of another type of Infected. Let’s focus on Joel for a second though. We were warned that HBO’s TV adaptation would feature much less violence than the game and episode four proves what a change that’s had on Joel as a character.

The Last of Us Part I releases on PC on 28 March. Check out the remake compared to the original game.

Joel is a machine in the game. He will plow through anyone and everyone. We’ve already seen that that’s not the case in the show. Episode one accentuated the fact that Joel suffers from PTSD and during that episode two Clicker encounter, you genuinely worried for Joel as he struggled to load his gun. The show has to create a sense of peril and episode four has finally upped the ante on that idea.

The episode featured a scene we’re all very familiar with. Joel and Ellie’s car ended up crashing into a supermarket after the duo were targeted by a group of Hunters. In the game, this launches straight into a gameplay section where Joel essentially shoots his way through the lot of them. Here though, he demands that Ellie hides while he takes on just a few adversaries.

Joel is almost successful in taking them out but the last man standing eventually catches him off-guard and it’s actually Ellie that wounds the guy, saving Joel. This is a major moment for Ellie but it’s also going to prove to be pretty pivotal for Joel. Warning, game plot spoilers lie ahead. We know that the season will end with the shootout in the Firefly hospital. That moment has to be earned. If Joel is wiping out everyone he encounters now, it’ll have no emotional impact further down the line. We have to believe in that final showdown that it’s purely his drive to protect Ellie that allows him to do such a thing so here, we’re seeing a more vulnerable version of the character. Once again, HBO’s adaptation is proving to be top-tier in its decision making.