[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.]
Things go awry for everyone at some point in the suburbs at the end of the year Our last episode 5. “Endure and Survive” ends with a complex action sequence in which infected people spill out of a sinkhole and overwhelm Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and their Kansas City allies and enemies alike. Lots of people died. But few have had a brutal death like Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), who was torn to pieces by a bloated person.
Even out of focus in the background as Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) escape, it was a particularly creepy murder. And Pierce, who also voices Tommy, Joel’s brother in Our last game, there wouldn’t be any other way – and not just because it’s an easter egg.
“Craig [Mazin, co-showrunner] said, ‘Look, you’re going to get the best death of the whole season,’ Pierce told Polygon in an interview. “And for me – he is a man who lives by the code of honor. And the idea that he received the honorable death he had to choose, and sacrificed himself in the hope that Kathleen might escape, is truly an act of heroism and selflessness that you might hope for. .
That power is what Pierce wants in every moment Perry is on screen. From his point of view, Perry was a former soldier who had no interest in join the FedRA and their death squad, and moved around until he found Kathleen and her brother and joined their cause. Pierce describes going back and forth with the props department, assembling the look he wanted for the character he envisioned: a tactical aircraft carrier vest, a personal weapon, and a gun FEDRA Beretta pistol, three separate knives (“In the game lore, your knives run out,” notes Pierce), and a medical kit on his back. The goal was for him to feel serious and professional, in keeping with the “myth of cowboys and samurai”.
“So yeah, I like that it’s the way he chose to end things, despite the fact that she didn’t quite take advantage of the opportunity he bought her,” Pierce said with a laugh. “Maybe someone escaped because he sacrificed himself!”
In the end, Kansas City’s dead end wasn’t big enough to contain Cordyceps network below the city. And Perry becomes another special zombie extermination in a world full of them. However, Pierce will always cherish his memories of sacrificing himself on such a mission.
“We did everything until we got hold of the inflated suit, while also noting that there was a real guy in the inflated suit,” says Pierce. “He’s hilarious. Like a 6-foot-5 rugby player from Australia, and he’ll do, like Michael Jackson dancing in his jumpsuit between plays, it’s hilarious. But other than that, when a big guy like that runs across the street with you, it’s a bit scary. […] Are not [the acting there] it’s hard.”
