Editor’s Note: The following are spoilers for Episode 5 of The Last of Us.Whether organic or man-made, the world Last of us filled with terrifying entities that any of us would be afraid to learn about in real life. First, there are, of course, the infected: aggressive, dangerous and connected to each other by a fungal collective mind that thinks of nothing but its own reproduction. Then there is FEDRA, or the Federal Disaster Response Administration, an institutional form of a dictatorial regime that kills and oppresses more than it protects any of its citizens. Finally, behind the walls of the quarantine zones, there are many rogue groups of thieves, rapists and even slave traders. In such a universe, a nice middle-aged woman from Kansas City certainly doesn’t seem like a threat. Until you meet KathleenMelanie Lynskey).
Warm, kind, and quiet, Kathleen is the leader of the Kansas City resistance and a force to be reckoned with. From the moment she first appears on screen, it’s clear to any observer that she’s a formidable leader, beloved by her followers and not afraid to get her hands dirty. It is also clear that she is one of the cutest people to ever grace the world of Cordyceps. Last of ussecond only to Frank from Episode 3 (Murray Bartlett). And, contrary to most opinion, her cuteness is not a fault, but a feature: despite her apparent softness, Kathleen is not such a strong, intimidating figure, but because this. Her cuteness not only makes her charismatic, but also hides rage like no other.
Who is Kathleen in The Last of Us?
When we first meet Kathleen, in Episode 4, she questions an older man about the whereabouts of some people we don’t know. Chief among them is a man named Henry Burrell.Lamar Johnson). Throughout the scene, Kathleen speaks in a calm, gentle voice. Her face is calm, albeit sad. At first glance, she and the person we later learn are named Edelstein (John Goetz) seem almost friendly with each other. However, there are a few things in the scene that suggest there is a violent power dynamic going on between them. First, the man sits inside a secure container, a makeshift prison cell. He is chained and bruised and begs Kathleen to stop what she is doing. Though he pleads and claims to have known her since birth, she will not hesitate to put a gun to his head. A few minutes later, she kills him.
It’s not until episode five that we fully understand what’s going on in Kansas City and who Kathleen really is. Just ten days before, a particularly brutal FEDRA unit had ruled the city. However, under the leadership of Kathleen, the military administration was suppressed, and people took over the city. Kathleen’s new, still somewhat vague regime is seen as an improvement for all of Kansas City’s QZ residents, except, of course, for the now-dead FEDRA soldiers and their staff. It is in order to find those who have been privileged by turning their friends and neighbors into FEDRA that Kathleen interrogates people like Edelstein. Her main target is Henry, the man behind her brother’s death and former Kansas City resistance leader Michael.
The show does not make it clear if Kathleen was an active member of the resistance during her brother’s time, or if she only joined the group after he was killed. However, she has become a ruthless commander who has no time to waste and no sympathy for traitors. Unlike Michael, who was always ready to forgive, Kathleen doesn’t care if you partnered with FEDRA out of ideological alignment with the government or to provide medical care to your sick son. If you are a rat, then you must die. However, you would never guess that Kathleen can be so pragmatic and cold just by looking at her.
Kathleen doesn’t rule by force alone
But Kathleen’s cute appearance isn’t a lie. Like her brother, she can actually be warm and kind to the people she leads. The only difference between them comes down to how they treat their enemies. For example, Kathleen is genuinely shocked and angry when she sees Brian (Juan Magana) body in Episode 4. In Episode 5, during her conversation with Perry (Geoffrey Pierce) in her children’s room, she is not afraid to be vulnerable in front of a subordinate. When she tells Henry she can’t let EllieBella Ramsey) and little Sam (Keyvonne Woodard) to go free, her face and voice betray the pain in her heart.
From what we know, Kathleen is a really good person whose compassionate side was destroyed by circumstances. And while this may make her a terrible adversary, it doesn’t affect how her friends and followers see her. Unlike FEDRA, Kathleen doesn’t rule by force alone, torturing and killing those who don’t agree with her even on the smallest things. She leads by showing her human side and thus gaining favor with her community. This means that, unlike the subjects of FEDRA, the people who surround her are not just waiting for the perfect opportunity to outflank her or defeat her. For two strangers just looking for a safe passage, like Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie, which means fewer people to bribe or team up with.
Unlike FEDRA, Kathleen doesn’t bark, she bites.
Another key difference between FEDRA and Kathleen’s approach to power is that the Kansas City resistance leader is not interested in empty threats. She doesn’t try to force you to follow any rules. She just wants you to be happy and free from authoritarian submission. That is, of course, unless you’re a FEDRA employee or an outsider who just killed one of her henchmen. In this case, you can see two sides of Kathleen, both equally covered in sugar.
First, her duplicity. In the first few scenes of Episode 5, we see Kathleen use her grace to trick a group of captured FEDRA employees. Always in a calm and friendly voice, she tells them that she will give them a fair trial if they help her find the people she is looking for. However, once she gets the information she needs, she tells her people that there will be no trial. From the looks of her prisoners, she orders her soldiers to burn the bodies as soon as they are done to speed up the process. Former collaborators never know what awaits them.
The other side of Kathleen that you can see is her sugary rage. This is what she shows Henry, such as when she tells him that he should have let Sam die, that maybe everyone has their time, and that no, she just can’t leave the little boy alone. Although she says terribly heartless things to him, she does so in the kindest of voices, giving the impression that she still cares about Henry and Sam, it’s just that she did something completely unforgivable. There is something maternal about Kathleen’s anger: she is like a mother whose children have misbehaved and therefore should be punished, but she still feels bad about it. Or at least she behaves the way she does.
In the world of The Last of Us, Kathleen’s tenderness is a constant reminder of a bygone time.
It’s hard to tell if Kathleen is acting against her own compassion or if she doesn’t have it. In the aforementioned scene in which she is talking to Perry in her children’s room, she reminisces about her brother and says that she knows that Michael would like her to forgive Henry, Edelstein and the other employees. However, she is unable to do so. If ever there was any mercy in Kathleen’s heart, it died with Michael. His philanthropy wasn’t enough to change the lives of people in Kansas City, so now it’s time for ruthlessness.
When we look at Kathleen from this angle, her cuteness takes on a whole new, terrifying depth: it becomes a kind of reminder of a world that no longer exists. Unlike Joel, Tess (Anna Torv) and other survivors, Kathleen did not allow herself to be hardened by the infection and the military dictatorship that followed. She still retains some of the joy, gentleness, and hope she had before her world was turned upside down. In that sense, she’s a bit of a Frank. However, unlike Frank, she does not use these remnants of her former self to create a kinder and more comfortable world. Instead, her sweetness simply lingers behind the harshness of her words and the cruelty of her actions. In a way, the sweet Kathleen she once was, a zombie herself, is just a shadow of her former self, just half-living under the relentless infection that will one day swallow her hole. Or he might, if the infected hadn’t gotten to Kathleen.
Source: Collider
I have worked as a journalist for over 7 years and have written for many different publications. I currently work as an author at Daily News Hack, where I mostly cover entertainment news. I have a great deal of experience in the industry and am always looking to learn more. I am a highly motivated individual who is always looking to improve my skills. I am also a very friendly and personable person, which makes me easy to work with.
