ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 BREAKDOWN - Easter Eggs You Missed!

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Dive deep into episode 5 of The Last of Us with this breakdown! We explore all the Easter eggs, hidden details, and subtle moments you might have missed. From the eerie Lakehill hospital and its terrifying history to the tense confrontations with the Seraphites, we unpack it all. Discover the significance of the changed spore mechanics, analyze character decisions, and discuss the parallels between Ellie's journey and past events. Join us as we dissect this pivotal episode and its implications for what’s to come. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for more breakdowns!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Mian girl, you're real. Yeah? Where's happy? Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and this is all of the Easter eggs references and little things you might have missed in episode five of the Last of Us season two. And before we get rolling, don't forget, you can now listen to Screen Crush on Spotify, Apple, and anywhere you get your podcast and check out our merch store links for our Last of Us parody merch. More on that later. This episode is all about returning to where things started, which is fitting for an episode that ends where it begins.

Now, we start with Hanrahan getting the rundown from Elise Park about why she's welded shut the only entrance to the basement of the Seattle Hospital. The scene is yet another one of HBO's additions to the story, and it's incredibly well written. As soon as Elise mentions that Liam was one of the soldiers lost, Hanrahan immediately grabs a cigarette to smoke alongside her and become a lot less hostile. Now, of course, we learn why as she's leaving.

I'm sorry about your son. But keeping the significance of the relationship from the audience during the rest of the conversation works really well here. Elise breaks down a recent expedition to the bottom floor of the Lake Hill Hospital, which, as we mentioned earlier, is one of the most terrifying parts of the game. As she explains, this is where some of the very first corticeps patients were held, making it the area with the oldest, most mature stages of the fungus that we see in both the game and the show thus far. We learned from notes throughout the game that it was one of the first places that Fedra lost control of in the early days of the outbreak, and that infected people were piled on top of one another.

This created the rat king, a massive monstrosity made up of multiple infected combined together based on the rare, real-life phenomenon that happens when a group of rats become tangled together by their tails, and they all died together in one really gross ball. Gross. We're more than likely to see him later, but Elise makes a subtle hint that we may see him in the future when she says, Nothing. The whole floor was empty, not even rats.

However, they still give the hospital basement its own unique threat by unretconning the cordyceps airborne spore. What do you mean on retconning? Well, the biggest change that HBO had made to the cordyceps outbreak was the airborne spores. They're a major hurdle in the game, and Ellie's ability to breathe normally around those spores provided a convenient way to prove her immunity within the confines of the game. The show has gone out of the way to readjust the story to facilitate the lack of airborne spores in the show, and they fleshed out other details like their collective hive mind.

But now, all of a sudden, they've made it an aspect of the corticeps when it's in its most advanced stage. Why'd they take this long to change it back then? Well, plot-wise, it makes sense. Having the spores filling the halls of B-2 gives Ellie an easy way to show her immunity to Nora in the end. Still, it certainly feels weird to make this change now, given how many times they adapted the story in the past around the need for cordyceps to be airborne. For instance, when Ellie proved her immunity to Dina in the game, she did it by breathing the spores. But in the show, she had to let a zombie bite her to appear that she was,

sacrificing herself for Dina. And the main reason they did away with airborne spores in the show was because it's not very cinematic to see characters' faces hidden by gas masks. A person, do you ever have the feeling that you are being watched? No, why would I... Oh my God! So this takes us back to Ellie and Dina, who are trying to triangulate the hospital's position with the protractor, which, if you don't remember from geometry class, is a fun thing you used to draw circles and fight with. The show makes a point of establishing Dina as the brains and Ellie as the brawn the two. Now, when Ellie mentions

the generator, she says, The biggest generator down there, natural gas, baby. Which is actually a part of the story that you play through in the game. The theater itself is a pretty solid recreation from what we see in game. It's even equipped with their fancy chandelier hanging above. However, the show's version is much more detailed with the painting of the heavens. Now, seeing these angelic figures not only reminds Ellie of Joel, but also allows her to continue expressing herself in the way that she has with Dina,

which has been working out pretty well for her thus far. Now, the guitar gives her a chance to connect with herself in the chaos, but this one takes her by surprise. As soon as she starts playing the song that Joel taught her, future days by Pearl Jam, she stops at the lyric, I'd surely lose myself. Now, it's hard for her to even say the words out loud because they resonate with her so much in this moment. After losing Joel, she too has already lost herself, and she proves it true by the end of the episode. Dina and Ellie find a shortcut through an abandoned building full of clickers, and they chart a course there. As they make their way through Seattle, we see the aftermath of the war between the WLF and the Seraphites,

including this separate mural with the Feel Her Love written underneath, followed by the WLF's response. Yeah, what's that all about? Well, as we've said in previous videos, the seraphites worship the prophet, a woman who claims to have seen the Cordyceps outbreak coming, and she created a cult around the idea that it was God's punishment for humanity, which should also explain their handmaid's tale-like responses that we see later on. Now, it's enough to make Ellie do something she never did in-game, asking Dina to turn back.

This prompts Dina to counter with the story about her first kill and how she was orphaned. Now, in the game, she immediately tells Ellie this story in response to hers when they were on horseback en route to Seattle. But the show decided to make a much more powerful moment out of it that brings their characters together. And then she says, Would it make a difference if my family had heard his people first?

Which is a valid point and a perfect reframing of Dina's views on their mission. She ultimately gives Ellie the choice on whether or not they should move forward, which feels like a massive shift for her, her. Up until this point, she seemed to be doing this for Joel, not Ellie. But in this moment, she puts that responsibility back onto Ellie. They enter the Membronics Lab at night, and the set is perfect, just like the others, featuring printers, phones, and fax machines, all from 2003.

And as they enter the building, they still can't tell why the WLF avoids the area. And Dina suggests that they go and check out the next room for infected. Ellie says, Yeah, you should do that, because you're the one who can't get infected. And this moment continues to show how these versions of Dina and Ellie are different, given that they never really mentioned Ellie's immunity much at all after the initial reveal in the game. Before they enter, Dina tries to convince Ellie not to go in guns blazing, and that if they hit treble, they run rather than shoot, which feels like a call out to gamers who suck at stealth, like me. And me, I don't even got thumbs. Nevertheless, they do go down through the hallway in what

looks like the bottom of the hospital, only for Jesse to come to their rescue after they get cornered by stalkers. Now, while this isn't the exact spot they initially ran into each other, Jesse later reveals that he found them by the map they left in the theater, which is the spot he initially met them in game. Now, when Jesse asks if they have any bites, Dina keeps Ellie's secret without hesitation. Jesse helps them escape both clickers and the WLF, but they manage to shake them as they enter a courtyard, which they don't realize is Sephardite territory. As they cross the courtyard, Jesse reveals that he initially set out on this mission with Tommy, but they split up to cover more ground. Now, this makes Tommy the one sent after Ellie versus the

game, which had those roles reversed. This is when they start to realize, that they're in serified territory when they start hearing the whistles that serifites use to communicate over long distances. In the game, this made them uniquely challenging, as they could check in on nearby allies and went into high alert when their whistles weren't answered. And thanks to the amazing video from Wolf of Thorns, we can actually decode some of those whistles too. For example, this whistle here is a high alert whistle, followed by engaging the enemy. However, it looks like that serifite was taken down. Then we hear this one next. which is the call and response whistle we saw used in episode 3.

But it's left unanswered, which is when we hear... What the fuck is that? Which signals moving forward and engaging the enemy, followed by this final whistle... ...which is a code for your mom. Now, I know we're all excited for the last of us to return, but we should also take a moment to remember the Fallen with these new designs that we just made for our merch store. We have this Firefly look for the like graffiti shirt and this broken watch to commemorate Outbreak Day 2003, where were you when that happened? Or you can choose your faction in the war between

Ellie and Abbey. You can become a member of the Alpine Clicker Patrol or a member of the WLF. Links for all of these are below and now you can also become a store member to earn rewards and get free stuff. So we see the unfortunate soul they found as the crew pulls up to another brutal scene pulled straight from the game, where we witnessed the seraphites bloody ritual firsthand. As we discussed in last week's episode, they believe that in doing so, they are removing the sin nested inside their victims and they see it as an act of mercy. IDK person, seems like they're just the one sinning to me. Well, yeah, Doug, the seraphites are meant to show the depths of extremism when the world falls apart.

Now, we know from the last episode that only 11 years ago, these guys were just a bunch of weirdos handing out pamphlets, but now they're a sadistic murder cult. They went through the same kind of radicalization that the WLF did, and are equally xenophobic, which shows that despite the never-ending conflict between the two, they have much more in common than they think. Right before the arrow hits her knee, we hear a sharp whistle from the

seraphites signaling shots fired. This specific whistle is actually a common trick among hunters to get prey to pause and look toward the hunter before taking the shot. We hear a few more whistles in the background signaling to separate and move forward and alerting the others nearby. In the game, this was a really frustrating stealth mission, especially for newer players of the series. Now while there are ways around it, the game pretty much forces you to wipe out all the seraphites in the courtyard. However, the show continues to do what it can to lower the kill count, having her hide in a tree

until they finally give the all-clear whistle. This forces Abby to take the rest of the episode solo as she heads into the Lake Hill Hospital to take out Nora. Outside, we see a dog that spots Ellie before the guard does. Now, in the games, dogs could be used to root you out if you're hiding in a certain area, and they were a new mechanic for the second game, which is why we've seen them so much this season.

However, if you're able to escape through a hole, the way Ellie does here, the guards will dismiss it and go about their business, which is exactly how things play out in this episode. This is where Ellie finally ambushes Nora in the hospital from behind. And, line for line, the scene plays out just like it did in the game. You remember me? You remember me?

Yeah. You remember me. What do you want? Where's Abby? What do you want? Abby was here earlier. When'd she go? Now, as we mentioned in our episode 2 breakdown,

Nora is played by naughty dog veteran Tati Gabrielle, who stars in both The Uncharted Movie, and in Nottie Dog's upcoming game in her Galactic Heretic Prophet. She's trained under Abby's father, Jerry, as a medical surgeon, hence why Ellie finds her here tending to the wounded. After Nora confirms to Ellie that she has absolutely no remorse for helping Abby, she makes a break for it just like she does in the game.

Now, the show does a fantastic job of bringing the game to life here, while still maintaining reasonable creative differences that benefit the unique aspects of the characters in the show. The chase plays out roughly the same as it does in the game, with only a few less mandatory force combat scenes to ensure the show's version of Ellie maintains a lower kill count. The scene itself also draws massive parallels from Joel's attack in Utah. Because they're both gunfights in a hospital?

Well, yeah, but also because of both Joel and Ellie's mindset. Both of these moments center around either Joel or Ellie acting on their emotions with unbreakable conviction and enough arrogance to take on an entire militia by themselves. In a way, it shows Ellie following in Joel's footsteps, but in the worst way possible. As she's escaping, we see Nora run past the welded door to B2 that we saw at the beginning.

of the episode, which is some not so subtle foreshadowing of what's to come. When she's finally cornered, she tries to escape through the elevator shaft, which we know is stuck one floor above B2 from Elisa's statements earlier. Elevator cars are stuck in their shafts just below ground level. The only way I know that the basement is here is stairwell. So this gives us our first look at the spore-filled basement, the very nightmare fuel that Elise was trying to keep sealed off at the beginning of the episode. The spores in the air here really bring the game's world to life, as it was a core aspect of the game's atmosphere that the show ignored until now. However, the spores are a complete curveball for Nora in the show. But obviously, Ellie has nothing to worry about due to her immunity.

Hey, wait a second person. If this is the first time they've ever seen the spores in the show, then how come Ellie knows she's immune to them? Honestly, Doug, it's a lucky guess, which aligns with what we've seen of Bella Ramsey's version of Ellie. I mean, this is the same girl who tried an emergency blood transfusion to save Sam last season, but you make a valid point. The basement level of Lake Hill shows the fungus at one of its most evolved states, for decades under the most optimal conditions. The walls are lined with fungus-filled corpses, which make it feel like an even more grotesque version of Davy Jones' ship. This area was so contaminated in the game that clickers had become ingrained into the structure, and may leap out at you if you

came close, but the show takes this one step further. Here we can see that the fungus not only integrates the corpses into the walls, but also hijack specific parts of the body to suit its needs. In this case, it's taken over the host's lungs and then uses them to pump spore, into the air. Judging by the fact that the first corpse in the wall is wearing scrubs, we can tell that some of these bodies have been there since the beginning, as this was likely a nurse helping people in the initial outbreak. However, the second corpse is Liam Park, Elisa's son, as you can see from the shared last name on their name tags. Now, since it's only been a few days since Liam's failed expedition to B2, this means that he's become

integrated into the cordyceps in a mere matter of days. Before finding Nora, she flips the switch to the emergency power, which isn't something she has to do in game. However, turning on the emergency power is one of the aspects that leads to the Rat King discovering you in game. In fact, here is an easily missed detail that many gamers missed about Nora and Ellie's final confrontation in the game. The sound designers actually hid the Rat King's roar in the background noises for this level in the game, as you can see here. I'm not giving it my friend. Now, while we don't hear this exact sound in the game, the show does mimic these sounds and the score during the more tense moments of the confrontation. These distant sounds of the cordycepses ultimate horror poetically parallel the monster that we see Ellie is becoming.

The spores give Ellie a convenient way to prove to Nora she's immune, which validates the rumors that she mentioned in the first episode beside the graves in Utah. I heard rumors. Want some candy you took? That was supposedly... That wasn't true. This adds even more insult to injury, as she's the only one of the Salt Lake crew who will know the gravity of what Joel did.

Even so, when Nora confronts her about what Joel did, she responds with, I don't care, showing how she is still willing to play dumb even till the very last minute. Nora refuses to give up her friend, which sends Ellie's searching for a lead pipe. Now, as dark as this moment is, I couldn't help but think of Batman when Ellie yells, Where is she? Where are they? It's no mistake that the pipe is shaped like a golf club in both the show and the game. This is clearly a full circle moment.

full circle moment for Ellie. Now, while her mission thus far was to get revenge for what Abby did to Joel, she is literally reenacting that same moment here with Nora, even striking her on the leg and the show just like Abby did. Her dissent here shows that she is no better than Abby, and they probably have more in common than either of them think. We've spoken a lot this season about who is right and who is wrong. Did Joel deserve it, etc? is Abby justified. Now, as many of you have pointed out in our comments, it is hard to draw such a black and white moral line in situations like the ones that are presented to us and the last of us. The game makes it clear that Ellie would have gladly sacrificed her life in the hopes of a potential cure if Joel had given her that choice.

But the last few moments here seem to paint a much darker truth for HBO's version of Ellie. Given that the final shot of the episode and the previews for the next episode loudly tease the return of Joel through a flashback, it seems like episode is said to clarify the details and nuances of this shift, but we'll have to wait till then to see. Well, guys, that's everything we caught in this episode, but what did you think? Are you excited for the Rat King's debut? Are there any details? tell us that we missed. Let us know in the comments or at me on Twitter at Ryan Erie. And big shout out to Dodds. I too wrote this video. You could find his social and his

YouTube links below. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe. Smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.