Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: HBO, Keivonn Woodard, Lamar Johnson, Melanie Lynskey, the last of us

The Last of Us: Lynskey, Johnson & Woodard Discuss THAT Horde Scene

The Last of Us stars Melanie Lynskey, Lamar Johnson & Keivonn Woodard discuss the infested horde overrun in the episode "Endure and Survive."

HBO's The Last of Us wrapped one of the game's most important arcs in the episode "Endure and Survive," which saw a Kansas City suburb overrun by infested while introducing one of the franchise's most menacing threats in the bloater, an unstoppable hulking beast. The scene in question involves Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Henry (Lamar Johnson), and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) trying to evade a snipe while on the run from Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and her anti-FEDRA forces on hot pursuit. Lynskey, Johnson, and Woodard opened up about being part of arguably the show's biggest sequence to date. The following contains major spoilers.

The major reveal about Kathleen and Henry is that Henry confessed to Joel that he turned Kathleen's brother to FEDRA so that he could have access to Leukemia medication for his brother Sam. After FEDRA killed Kathleen's brother, she led her forces to overthrow them, blamed Henry and dedicated her efforts to find him. "It just becomes this sort of shifting alliance throughout the episode where you're like, 'Oh, God, nobody's the bad guy. Everybody's just in so much pain and trying to survive,'" Lynskey told Variety. "It's just done so beautifully." The actress also channeled her personal experience in guiding her to play Kathleen so coldly. "It makes [Kathleen] lose all perspective. I'm so in love with my siblings. I'm the oldest of five, and they're just the world to me. They're everything. If I think too long about something happening to one of my siblings, I would crumble."

Johnson recalled meeting Woodard on set. The Last of Us creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann changed Sam to becoming deaf to reflect on the actor. "The first day we met, we were running around the production offices playing tag. That is how organic and easy it was to connect with Kevionn," Johnson said. "He has such a great spirit, great energy, that it was very easy to make that connection. He's just so talented. Considering that this is his first role — I'm so proud of him. He did such a great job." "I really like trying new things," Woodard added. "I thought I would just give it a shot and get an idea of what it's like. I just wanted to get it right."

Lynskey talked about how filming the infested horde was using practical effects. "Everybody coming out of that hole, the speed with which they came out — it was really overwhelming. There's things exploding around you," she said. "There's fire in the streets. There's stunt people doing backflips, flying through the air. I've just never been part of something that huge. It was incredible." For more, including how Lynskey and Woodard's contrasting opinions felt about the bloater and how each actor felt about their characters' ends, you can check out the interview here. The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO.

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