‘The Last of Us’ episode 5: Who is Ish?

at this point Easter eggs have become synonymous with HBO Last of Us Same with Taylor Swift’s video.

For the acclaimed TV adaptation, co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann expanded the Naughty Dog game universe to strategically include fan-favorite features. This means that both players and newcomers are always on the lookout. And in Episode 5, there’s a very small but important reference to a character in the game called Ish that you may have missed.

Who is depicted in episode 5 of Last of Us?

In a fleeting moment in Episode 5, Joel (Pedro Pascal), Henry (Lamar Johnson), Sam (Kevon Woodard), and Ellie attempt to escape Kathleen’s militia in Kansas City through an underground tunnel. I came across an abandoned kindergarten. From their conversations, it was learned that during the Cordyceps outbreak, some residents instead of living in Quarantine Zones (QZs) moved underground and established settlements, including educational facilities for children.

It’s this gloomy, dilapidated room covered in peeling murals of clouds and rainbows that the series sneaks two elements from the game. savage starlight It’s a moment you can easily miss when Joel examines a hand-drawn drawing of two people who love comics Ellie and Sam with big guns.

The two figures, labeled Danny and Ish, are captioned “Our Guardians.”

The same child’s drawing is in the game, with the same label for these two mysterious figures. Joel found the painting in a settlement founded in the sewers below Pittsburgh (show changed location to Kansas City)(opens in new tab)As in the show, you don’t meet the residents of this camp (well, maybe). But in the game, Joel piece together this tragic story of reconciliation through the objects and notes he finds not just in kindergarten, but in the wider world.

who is ish Last of Us?

The people portrayed by the young villagers have a back story. Last of Us You won’t meet them, but the game. YouTube channel with Midnight Morgan(opens in new tab) swatch game(opens in new tab) There is an excellent breakdown of the tragic story of Ish, one of the characters depicted. He escaped a cordyceps outbreak by escaping the chaos by boat. This is a strong choice given that the infected may or may not be able to swim. In the game, Ish’s boat is found docked on the beach near Pittsburgh, with a handwritten note inside, indicating that Ish has returned to the mainland due to dwindling supplies.

When Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam find the entrance to Pittsburgh’s underground sewers, they come across a rather dilapidated network of tunnels. But there they found another note written by Ish. It explains that he retreated to the star system as a defensible lair to avoid both infected and non-infected. From another note, we learn that while doing a supply outside the sewers, Yish met a group of people who “didn’t want to shoot me because they found me”, and Yish invited them underground. Including children.

One of the settlements mentioned by Joel and Henry in the TV series was established here. Through the notes and various domestic setups explored in the game, we get a glimpse of a functioning and relatively thriving underground community. Settlement “house rules” seen on the walls of the game were included in the show to protect themselves from the infected and hunters, and were discovered by Joel, Sam, Ellie, and Henry in the kindergarten. Encounter booby traps to stop anyone. A hand-drawn drawing reveals that another resident, Ish and Danny, guarded the group with weapons. However, it’s pretty clear to both of them that something went wrong at camp.

What happened to the underground settlement?

The show doesn’t go into this detail, but the game has determined that it was caused by the door being left open, implying that the infected have overran the camp.

A chilling, blood-stained note left by one of the settlement’s first residents named Kyle reveals that he and a group of children were trapped in the Infected. did — and instead of waiting to be attacked, Kyle took matters into his own hands via an implied overdose. This is made clear by the truly upsetting discovery Joel made in the game involving a covered corpse found in a small room, and the words “They didn’t suffer” scrawled on the floor. The remaining settlements appear to have been attacked or proceeded in the same manner.

After the tunnel ordeal, a note found by Joel in a nearby house explains that Ish survived the attack along with his friend Susan and several children from the settlement. Here are his Ish notes in-game:

one open door. That’s all. One of our girlfriends forgot to close the door and a horde of monsters invaded our camp. We locked them in there and wrote a warning on the outside. Susan and some children are with me. As far as I know, we are the only survivors…

Every part of my existence just wants to give up. It would be very easy to surrender to this world. i can’t do that I believe too much in humanity. We have seen that we can still do good. we can do that. I have to stay strong. for her. -H is

It’s a harrowing backstory, not a dialogue, but a reminder of what’s happening in-game by revealing notes, objects, and ultimately gruesome scenes of past violence that Joel, Ellie, Sam, and Henry encounter on their journeys. It’s expertly pieced together by Naughty Dog. But in the show, it’s just one photo that digs up the chilling memories of the player.

The Last of Us is streaming now HBO Max.(opens in new tab) New episodes air every Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO.