Ellie’s path of vengeance in The Last of Us continues as she tracks Nora to a deadly new threat, uncovers a dark truth, and unleashes her rage.
The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 5, titled “Feel Her Love”, delivers a powerful jolt of horror, heartbreak, and vengeance as Ellie makes good on her promise to avenge Joel’s brutal murder. Directed by Lost and Watchmen alum Stephen Williams, the episode marks a pivotal turning point in Ellie and Dina’s emotional and dangerous journey through Seattle.
More than three months after Abby and her crew killed Joel, Ellie begins checking names off her revenge list, with Nora first in her crosshairs. But The Last of Us doesn’t just push forward Ellie’s mission—it also unveils a terrifying new development in the Cordyceps infection. At a WLF hospital, an officer named Elise Park (played by Hettienne Park) shares a chilling report: spores are now spreading the virus through the air. Her son Leon, sent into the hospital’s second basement level, radios in before his death to warn, “It’s in the air. Seal us in.”
The spore reveal is a major twist. Although spores played a major role in the original Last of Us video games, series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had previously excluded them from the TV adaptation due to realism concerns. But their reintroduction, limited to the depths of the Seattle hospital (the site where Cordyceps patients were first brought in 2003), could drastically reshape the world Ellie is navigating.
Meanwhile, at their theater hideout, Dina uses intercepted WLF radio chatter to chart a course toward the hospital. Ellie, momentarily lost in memory, strums “Future Days” onstage—a callback to Joel and a brief reprieve from her ever-intensifying rage. That same rage is reignited by Dina’s revelation that she’s pregnant, and her haunting childhood story about killing a man who murdered her family. Dina’s message is clear: Ellie must finish what they started, no matter the cost.
The cost becomes apparent quickly. Ellie and Dina encounter a horde of infected stalkers—intelligent, fast-moving threats. With Jesse’s timely arrival, they narrowly escape, only to run into Seraphites. Dina is injured in the chaos, and the trio is split up. Jesse carries her to safety, while Ellie seizes the opportunity to go after Nora alone.
Ellie’s infiltration of the hospital is swift and focused. She corners Nora, who taunts her with chilling words about Joel’s screams and his supposed deserved fate. When Nora attempts to flee, both women tumble into the infected, spore-filled basement. Ellie’s immunity lets her walk untouched through the dangerous air. There, she finds Leon fused to a wall, infected, and finally corners Nora—who quickly realizes Ellie is the immune girl. But when Nora tries to justify Joel’s murder by revealing that he killed the only doctor who could create a cure—Abby’s father—Ellie doesn’t flinch.
“I don’t care,” she tells Nora, before demanding Abby’s location and unleashing brutal, pipe-wielding vengeance.
As blood pools and screams fade, the show delivers a gut-wrenching final scene: a flashback to Joel entering Ellie’s room in Jackson. “Hey, kiddo,” he says, beaming. Ellie smiles back with a gentle “Hi.” It’s a fleeting but crushing reminder of what she’s lost—and why she’s willing to risk everything.
As the episode closes, Ellie, Dina, Jesse, and Tommy are all in deep. Dina’s wounded and pregnant. Jesse’s now a target. Tommy is still somewhere in Seattle. And despite everything, Ellie can’t walk away. Nora’s death is only the beginning. Abby is still out there.
