[Ed. note: As you might’ve guessed from the headline, this post contains spoilers for a death at the end of The Last of Us episode 5.]
Every part goes unsuitable for everyone in some unspecified time in the future within the suburb throwdown on the finish of The Final of Us episode 5. “Endure and Survive” ends with an elaborate motion set piece, with contaminated swarming out of a sinkhole and overrunning Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and their Kansas Metropolis allies and enemies alike. Lots of people die. However few get as brutal a demise as Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), who will get torn to items by a bloater.
Even out of focus within the background as Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) escapes, it’s a very gnarly kill. And Pierce, who additionally voiced Joel’s brother Tommy in The Final of Us recreation, wouldn’t have it every other means — and never solely as a result of it’s an Easter egg.
“Craig [Mazin, co-showrunner] mentioned, ‘Look you’re gonna get the very best demise of the whole season,’” Pierce tells Polygon in an interview. “And for me — he’s a person who has lived by a code of honor. And the concept he will get this honorable demise that he will get to decide on, and to sacrifice himself within the hope of Kathleen doubtlessly having the ability to escape, is absolutely as heroic and selfless an act as you’ll be able to hope for.”
That power was one thing Pierce wished in each second that Perry was on display. The way in which he noticed it, Perry was former navy, had no real interest in becoming a member of FEDRA and their demise squads, and had been shifting round till he discovered Kathleen and her brother and joined their trigger. Pierce describes going backwards and forwards with the props division, assembling the look that he wished for the character he envisioned: a plate service tactical vest, a private weapon alongside together with his FEDRA Beretta, three separate knives (“Within the lore of the sport, your knives run out,” Pierce notes), and a med equipment on his again. The purpose was for him to really feel steely {and professional}, in step with the “mythology of cowboys and samurai.”
“So, yeah, I really like that that’s the way in which that he received to decide on to finish issues, even if she doesn’t fairly reap the benefits of the window that he buys her,” Pierce says with fun. “Perhaps any person received away as a result of he sacrificed himself!”
In the end, the Kansas Metropolis cul-de-sac simply wasn’t large enough to include the Cordyceps community beneath the town. And Perry turns into one more distinctive zombie kill in a world stuffed with them. Nonetheless, Pierce will at all times treasure his recollections of sacrificing himself within the line of obligation like that.
“We did all the pieces as much as the bloater grabbing maintain,” Pierce says, noting that there was an actual man within the bloater swimsuit. “He was hilarious. Like a 6-foot-5 rugby participant from Australia, and he would do, like, Michael Jackson dances within the bloater outfit in between takes, it was fucking hilarious. But additionally, when a man that massive is working throughout the road at you, it’s a bit of terrifying. […] None of [the acting there] was arduous.”
