Deviations Continued…
Ep. 4 + 5
Another big location change was featured in episodes four and five as we’re introduced to Kathleen and her recently freed Kansas City. Kansas City in the game was Pittsburg and Kathleen’s rebel group is just another obstacle in the way of your end goal. Kathleen and her story aren’t in the game at all. This new story line is added as an opportunity to explore a different FEDRA run quarantine zone and in this case explore how corruption affects the people and their environment.
Comparing this extremely oppressive FEDRA group to the Boston FEDRA group where Joel, Tess, and Ellie were living, is so stark in contrast. In Boston, Joel and Tess haggle with the FEDRA soldiers and guards showing that they have status among the civilians in the zone and they can smuggle things in and out to make “money,” or ration cards. They at least have some power over their lives. The Kansas City quarantine zone is the opposite of this. The people in Kansas City have no power, they are abused by the soldiers, and rat each other out to survive. Eventually the citizens of the city decide to fight back. They gain enough support and band together to fight back with Kathleen’s brother who is the forefront of this resistance. But some people fought against the fall of FEDRA and here is where we meet Henry and Sam.
Henry kills Kathleen’s brother to save Sam. It’s a life for a life, brother for a brother. Henry then has to go into hiding with plans to escape the city and his death because Kathleen is exacting her revenge on him. She’s livid that Henry treated Sam’s life with more regard than her own brother. In these storylines we see the themes of the show again and more parallels to Joel and Ellie. Henry’s love for Sam drove him to murder the leader of the resistance and Kathleen’s love for her brother pushed her to her own death, chasing revenge. It’s Kathleen’s tribe vs. Henry’s.
Henry and Sam have a few character differences from the game that serve as better storytelling devices, include more representation, and give them a uniqueness from Joel and Ellie as a family unit. First, Sam is deaf in the show and this change gives his and Henry’s relationship something new and stronger in the show. Their ability to speak ASL as a language isolates them from everyone else and you really get the sense that these two are inseparable. Wherever Henry goes, Sam goes and vice versa. It’s the safest and surest way to keep Sam alive. Sam’s need of protection is demonstrated by his age. He is much younger in the show than in the game and his childlike innocence is still somewhat intact. In the show Henry tries to nurture his youth, drawing all over the walls of their hideout with crayons and paint, and with the superhero mask painted on his face.
Compared to Henry in the the game; expecting Sam to grow up faster and instilling rules for him to follow. He doesn’t let Sam take a toy robot, stating their rule that they only take what is necessary. The relationship is more I speak, you listen. In the game they work together. The persona Henry builds in the game to make himself seem invincible and strong for Sam doesn’t exist in the show. Henry doesn’t lie when Sam asks if Kathleen and her people killed the doctor they were hiding with. Sam comforts him because he knows it makes Henry sad because it makes him sad. Their relationship is more tender, and you can feel how much these two care for one another. Which makes their inevitable separation so heart-breaking.
Sam and Ellie’s relationship is different in the show as well. Ellie is more someone he looks up to rather than a little crush that is featured in the game. After a long night of being chased by infected, the two stay up together and share their fears. Ellie is scared of ending up alone and Sam is scared of being infected and trapped inside a body he can’t control. In the game they just go to bed but in the show Sam tells Ellie he was infected. He shows Ellie his bite mark and she thinks if anyone or anything can save him, she can with her immunity. Her desperation is so devastating to see. Up to this point she is being protected just because of the chance she can save the world. She has been promised that she is the cure to this virus and here we see her start to believe it. Here she finds what she can live and fight for: saving people. She couldn’t save Riley or Tess; she wants to be able to save Sam, but in the end she can’t.
The infection takes over his body throughout the night and when she wakes up, he’s already turned. The horrible thing is we know Sam is still in there because he can’t hear Ellie walk up to him. He’s still deaf, he’s still him but he doesn’t have control anymore. His fear has come true and Ellie has failed to protect someone she cared for, again. After everything her immunity meant nothing.
In this sense she’s not unlike Joel, with his failures to protect those he cares for. Sam looked up to Ellie in the way that Ellie looks up to Joel. Sam viewed her as this cooler, older, braver, protector. And Sam brought out Ellie’s child.
Right before Sam shows Ellie his bite we hear Joel and Henry talking about how it’s easier to be a kid because you have no one counting on you. But here we see Sam counting on Ellie and Ellie failing. She writes “I’m sorry” on his grave and everyone cried because clearly, it’s not easier as a kid and she’ll carry another death on her shoulders.
The graves are a new addition as well. In the game they mention that they buried Sam and Henry, but here we see them mourning in their own ways. I feel Joel buries them for Ellie. If it was him alone, he would have left them inside the motel. But he is starting to let Ellie in and realizing that somewhere along the way he started to care for her. He sees what happened to Sam and Henry and knows that the same thing will happen to him if he loses Ellie. He can not handle losing another daughter and he is terrified of ending just like Henry.