The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Feel Her Love

Five episodes in, it really feels like The Last of Us Season 2 finally found its footing with getting Ellie going. With The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 “Feel Her Love”, Ellie’s ruthlessness reveals itself at last as her rage reaches a new height it’s never seen.

Though The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4 “Day One” felt more like a slow burn to a more optimistic note, “Feel Her Love” is the complete opposite. Here, with all of the dangers that Ellie and Dina face, the road to retribution keeps up enough energy to keep you hooked and all tensed up.

Although, it may feel like “Feel Her Love” might move a bit too quickly for some. Fortunately, its opening scene keeps things relatively focused while building in some needed exposition.

We’re treated to Ellie and Dina planning their next steps to stopping Abby and her team that took Joel out back on The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 “Through the Valley”. While it’s heavily focused on keeping the narrative moving forward, we are treated to a short Ellie moment once again.

When Ellie gets on the guitar, you can’t help but feel hopeful for both of them and Dina’s baby. However, when Ellie sings the first line of Pearl Jam’s Future Days, there’s this sadness to it that Ellie holds back in that moment.

Ellie doesn’t want to lose Dina the same way she lost Joel; she’s sacrificed too much with Joel and now, even more with Dina.

In this self-reflective moment, there’s this feeling that Ellie might be too narrow-minded in her quest for “justice”.  This gets validated when the two begin their trek towards a hospital that serves as the WLF’s forward base.

As Ellie and Dina make their way, they discover a vandalized Scars mural with a pile of dead corpses that leads to this brief moment of conflict. This is done as Dina gives a backstory about her upbringing and how her mother and sister died at a raider’s hands.

It provides the right amount of emotion in establishing this crossroad choice for Ellie. She doesn’t want to put Dina in harms way, but Dina wants to support her mission by moving forward with her.

This scene really feels like the turning point in Ellie’s arc. Throughout The Last of Us Season 2, Ellie has mostly been passive, albeit building that rage. Now, with Dina even giving her this slight warning, Ellie’s fully indulged herself into her emotions.

This continues to be felt when Jesse eventually finds both Ellie and Dina when he saves them from a bunch of Stalkers.

As the three of them escape the warehouse, Ellie, Dina, and Jesse find themselves sneaking through both the WLF and Scars’ territories. However, Jesse believes that Ellie is becoming somewhat arrogant and irresponsible with her mission to stop Abby. 

In a way, it does seem like Ellie is following exactly in Joel’s footsteps before she came into his life. We saw Joel executing his plan way back on The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 9 “Look for the Light”, but that was through Joel’s singular perspective.

Now, with Ellie on her own once she makes her way into the hospital, we get a similar situation that feels all too familiar. Once she sneaks in and confronts Nora, she’s nearly manipulated into thinking Nora’s sympathetic towards her.

However, when Nora makes a sudden move, all bets are off as the two enter a long chase deep into the hospital. In fact, it’s here where everything for Nora goes wrong.

At the start of “Feel Her Love”, it’s revealed that the hospital’s sublevels were closed off due to the virus evolving into spores. Elise, a WLF agent, revealed this to Hanrahan, who sought to understand the situation.

It’s this fact that leads Nora to her demise at the end. However, Nora survives long enough to withstand the spores despite her not making a second escape like she did in The Last of Us: Part II.

This climax on “Feel Her Love” feels brutal in all the right ways. Not only does it reminisce a previous moment where Joel also killed someone with a pipe, but it also brings Ellie down to that level where she’s never been before on the show.

Her anger is pushed to an extreme because Nora withholds Abby’s location from her. In a way, Ellie is viewing herself as this dystopian vigilante, but puts more of her anger into her actions.

The fact we don’t see what happens to Nora suggests that the writers want Ellie to be more aggressive. Though players were given this choice to leave Nora behind instead, The Last of Us wants Ellie to be empowered by this retribution.

Sure, it could feel abrasive, but it does make sense for her emotional journey in the end.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 “Feel Her Love” steadily pushes Ellie’s character arc in the right direction even though it paces itself fairly quickly. Despite all of the action that keeps the narrative flow moving fast, “Feel Her Love” leaves a satisfying taste for things to come for Ellie.

Stray Thoughts:

• This episode felt a lot more action-focused and shorter with its 44 minute runtime. While I thought it made the best of it, it’s making the show somewhat rushed.
• I like how the series finally fixed an ongoing issue with The Last of Us: Part II where Jesse finding Ellie and Dina was unexplained.
• The hospital basement filled with the spores and (somehow) still-living bodies of the WLF team was a cool set piece to bring to life!
• Given how this episode ended, I’m really hoping next episode includes some form of Part II‘s secret epilogue. That seemed to be hinted at already!

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The Last of Us Season 2 releases new episodes at 9 PM EST/PST every Sunday on Max and HBO.

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