Kin

I had never heard of director Jasmila Zbanic until I watched this episode, and I would like to congratulate her, because for me this episode was so far the one that made me feel the most back to what I felt when I played The Last of Us for the first time .

It's impressive how the director finally managed to transmit everything that this wonderful game conveyed, something that I missed a little in all the previous episodes. Not that I didn't like the other episodes, I did, but none had been as special as this one.

Now I hope the next episodes maintain this quality, which was what I expected from this series.

This episode was the opposite of the previous episode that was action packed and full of life-threatening tension and excitement. This episode, conversely, has very little action, and it has tension of a different kind--emotional tension. It focuses on character development rather than fast paced adventure, and I think it's a good contrast to the previous episode. The good thing is that you can expect to get back to action in the next episode. It is not as good as the previous episode in terms of how much fun it is, but when the bar is set so high, then you can't expect every episode to be the bomb.

After a pretty good start, the last two episodes -- this one in particular -- have officially won me over.

The best thing about The Last of Us is people having believably like people actually would in these situations. In this episode, Joel reveals his fears and his weaknesses. This is no wooden action hero, this is a three-dimensional human being. The drama over whether he and Ellie would part ways was not overplayed, but just as it needed to be, with realistic emotions, reactions, and changes of heart.

The next best thing about the show: there is real suspense. And this doesn't come from zombies popping up around every corner, a la The Walking Dead, this comes from precisely the opposite. Six episodes in, there have only been a few choice scenes of infected attacks. That actually *enhances* the dread when you're watching the show. My wife and I cringed the whole way as Joel and Ellie took their five day ride to find the Fireflies, watching through our fingers at the same time we laughed with them and enjoyed watching as their ersatz father/daughter bond deepened.

As a reviewer for The Verge put it, "Sometimes you don't need violence and zombies. Sometimes you just need human beings hanging out at the end of the world."

The Last of Us is the first series -- or movie -- that I'm aware of, brave enough to do this. It took some risks at the beginning, and there was some necessary set up. But once Joel and Ellie got rolling, it's only gotten better with each episode.

(Not so much for the people Joel and Ellie encounter, though, who tend to almost always wind up dead.)

Great show, can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Kin is another incredible episode of The Last of Us that further develops it's characters and the world they inhabit with plenty of important and emotional character beats whilst ending on a superb cliffhanger that's only let down slightly by a rushed final few minutes that seems like it was desperate to get to a certain point from the game.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are still perfect and in this episode they bring the vulnerability of their characters to the forefront in spectacular fashion, especially Pedro who gets a true standout moment where all of his pain and fear can't be contained anymore.

Gabriel Luna is great as Tommy and his scenes with Pedro are terrific, the history between them has clearly left it's scars but you can tell they still care fo each other and the scene where they discuss Ellie's fate is probably actually better and more nuanced than the corresponding scene in the game.

Jasmila Zbanic's direction is excellent, it maintains the harsh look to the world whilst swapping the overall aesthetic as it heads into winter and has some really nice western homages. One very interesting choice present is to use the specific piece of music that was originally used in the final moments of the game and surprisingly it really worked.

Some great character moments and an intense conclusion is the best way to sum up this episode! We explore Ellie and Joels character more as well as their relationship!

This episode shows us Joel from a much more vulnerable side as we see how his actions and what he has been through have shapped him! Pedro Pascal gave his best performance as Joel in this episode! I got emotional in some of the scenes!

This episode was also more slow at times cause it was more character focused, until the end where things suddenly picked up and you are reminded what kind of world it is! I am very excited for the next episode.