The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4, titled “Day One,” begins with an eerie silence that hides an undercurrent of violence waiting to be unleashed. This episode takes place in a city that is being destroyed by a war between factions and infected monsters. It introduces us to Isaac, the cruel leader, the mysterious Seraphites, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina’s growing friendship. As the story speeds up to its climax, the episode alternates between touching and horrifying scenes, leaving viewers gasping for air and wondering: can love last in a world that wants to destroy it?
Here is a full summary of Episode 4, including all the characters, important events, and emotional undercurrents that made this chapter so memorable.
Flashback: The Birth of a Revolution
In 2018, the show starts in the suffocating confines of a FEDRA train rumbling through the Seattle Quarantine Zone. A young soldier, played with smarmy bravado by Josh Peck, tells his fellow soldiers a crude story of violence against “voters,” a derogatory term for civilians who have lost their voting rights. The air is thick with tension. When Sarge (Jeffrey Wright), the serious person in the corner, speaks up, his story, which was meant to make people laugh, doesn’t work. Sarge explains in a gravelly voice where the term came from and how it was used to make fun of someone. His disapproval stops the laughter. People respect him but there’s something darker about him that makes you think he’s on the verge of making a choice.
As the transport gets close to a civilian blockade, Sarge tells his men to stop and won’t let them “lock and load.” He takes the young soldier who was interested and asked what “voters” meant with him to “learn something.” A leader named Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) walks up from outside with purposeful eyes. She asks, “Isaac?” When Sarge nods, he quickly shows who he really supports. He throws a lit grenade into the transport with terrifying accuracy. It locks the door as it goes off, killing the FEDRA soldiers inside. As the driver tries to get away, he shoots him. He then turns to Hanrahan and shakes her hand. “Welcome to the fight,” she tells him, and he joins the Western Liberation Front (WLF).
Isaac looks at the young soldier, who is now the only one of his unit’s survivors left, and says, “Now make your choice.” As the scene ends, we are left to think about what it means to be loyal in a world where you have to betray others to stay alive.
Today: The journey of Ellie and Dina starts
“Day One in Seattle:
Eleven years later, Ellie and Dina are riding their horse Shimmer through the ruins of Seattle, which is not what they expected. They had heard that Seattle had been bombed to pieces, but Capitol Hill seems to be standing strong, with the streets littered with the broken pieces of a long-ago battle. Off-screen, Dina finds something in a run-down drugstore. She tells Ellie she needs to go to the bathroom and will meet her outside, but her voice shakes. Ellie is busy and doesn’t notice that her friend’s mood has changed. We are brought back to the present by the flashing title card that says “SEATTLE: DAY ONE.”
You can feel Dina’s unease as they ride through the city, but she doesn’t seem to care about Ellie’s worries. They happen upon the place where Isaac was betrayed: a rusty FEDRA transport full of bones. Dina and Ellie think that FEDRA and another group got into a fight here without knowing about the WLF’s role. With the help of binoculars, Dina sees the letters “WLF” painted on a satellite dish on top of a faraway building. This tells them where they need to go next. Ellie wants to rush in right away because she wants to get back at Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), but Dina’s common sense wins out. They decide to wait until it gets dark and come up on foot, which will give them time to get together again.
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4: Ellie, Dina Revelations Explained
A SONGS FOR JOEL
“Melody in the Ruins”
The two people look for safety and find it in a music store, which is filled with plants and has light coming in through a broken wall. The room feels like a safe place, a rare break in their dangerous journey. Ellie finds a guitar upstairs, miraculously still in its case. She carefully tunes it and pulls out the first few notes of A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” Ellie hesitates when Dina appears at the top of the stairs, but Dina’s gentle “Go on!” pushes her to keep going.
The performance is really great. The room is filled with Ellie’s soft, soulful voice, and Dina, who is sitting cross-legged in front of her, is crying. She can’t help but cry as she watches her friend. The weight of their shared past and unspoken feelings hangs between them. Dina wipes Ellie’s face and tells her she did a great job, which makes Ellie say that Joel’s lessons helped her. “He taught you well,” Dina says with a sad smile. Ellie nods, and the thought of Joel lingers in the stillness. There is hope in this scene, which is bathed in golden light. It reminds Ellie of the humanity she still holds on to.
ISAAC IN THE PRESENT
The mood quickly changes to a grim industrial kitchen, where Isaac, who is now a tough WLF leader, turns on a stove burner. As he heats a pan for an interrogation, his harmless thoughts about cooking before the end of the world—in which he dreams of having a fancy saucepan—take a creepy turn. A naked, badly beaten Seraphite prisoner —who is chained to the wall prays fervently, not even bothered by Isaac’s jokes. People in the WLF call the Seraphites “scars.” They are a religious group, and this man is completely devoted to them.
Isaac wants to know who the next target for the Seraphites is, but the prisoner is stubborn and keeps chanting, “She watches over me, she fills my soul.” Isaac gets angry and presses the hot pan on the man’s hand, making him scream so loudly that it fills the room. Outside, one guard jumps, but another tells him, “Isaac knows what he’s doing.” The prisoner, holding his badly hurt hand, makes fun of Isaac by saying that the WLF’s better tools won’t help them. He says, “Every day! one of your Wolves comes to see the truth and takes her into their heart” which means they are willing to join the Seraphites’ side.
Isaac is furious and reaches for the pan again but the prisoner’s brave action of offering his hand without being asked makes him feel uneasy. Isaac kills him instead by shooting him. When it turns out to be the young survivor from the flashback— the soldier sneers, “Good guy.” Got what was coming to him. After all these years, he has become a reflection of Isaac’s cruel nature, a scary reminder of the cycle of violence.
Into the Den of the Wolves
As night falls, Ellie and Dina break into the WLF building and find a terrible scene of violence. There are dead bodies all over the floor. Some of them are gutted and hanging from the ceiling with their hands-tied. On the wall, the words “FEEL HER LOVE” and a fish shape show that the Seraphites made it. Dina is so upset that she throws up and the horrible sight makes her wonder, “What the f—k is wrong with Seattle?” When WLF soldiers burst in, ignoring Isaac’s orders to take Seraphites alive for questioning, it’s clear that the killing was just done.
Ellie is seen by a soldier, and chaos breaks out. She tackles him and chokes him out in a brutal fight, while Dina shoots someone who tries to help him. The women run away into the rainy night and hide in an empty subway tunnel. The WLF is following them closely and throws flares into the tunnels to scare the infected that are hiding there. When clickers swarm, Ellie and Dina have to run like crazy to get away.
The Subway Escape
The chase takes them to an abandoned subway car that is full of skeletons, making a scary scene of the end of human life. The clickers then come after, shaking the car and breaking the glass. Ellie and Dina rush for an emergency roof exit in a heart-pounding sequence. Dina pulls Ellie out of the way just as the infected get closer. The clickers are left behind because they can’t climb, but the danger is still there.
Dina is stuck in a set of stuck turnstiles and has to deal with a clicker’s snapping jaws. Ellie instinctively puts her arm between them and shoots the thing that is biting her. Dina is scared because she knows what happens when someone bites you. Ellie’s reassuring words don’t help her calm down, which sets the stage for a reckoning.
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The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4: Ellie, Dina Revelations
They went to the concert hall as a temporary safe place. When Ellie locked the door, Dina was standing there with a gun to her head and tears were running down her face. “I’d die for you, I would!” Even though Ellie begs, Dina’s fear won’t give in. “I can’t get infected,” Ellie says, showing that she is immune. Dina doesn’t believe it, but she agrees to keep the gun pointed at her all night while she waits for proof.
By morning, Ellie is the same, and her bite scar, which is mostly a burn, is not noticeable. Dina lets down her guard in that moment of weakness and she tells them her own secret: “I’m pregnant.” Ellie is shocked and can barely process what she heard before Dina drops her lamp and kisses her. The kiss, which is full of years of unspoken longing, starts a passionate relationship. As the scene fades to the next morning, they take off their clothes and look around with their hands.
Ellie and Dina are lying together in the soft light, with Ellie as the big spoon. They talk about the pregnancy, and Dina says she thought she might be pregnant because she was feeling sick, and tests at the pharmacy proved it. “Oh, we’re having a child. She refers to her ex-boyfriend as “Jesse”. Ellie is excited about the news and says, “Holy s—t, I’m going to be a dad!” In stark contrast to the earlier violence in the episode, the tenderness is a brief oasis of happiness.
The silence is broken by the crackling of a stolen WLF radio that talks about Nora, who could help find Abby. From the roof of the concert hall, Ellie and Dina see explosions that shake the city and show them where they need to go next. When Ellie realizes how important it is, she tells Dina she doesn’t have to go with her into danger. Dina waits a moment and then puts out her hand. “Together,” she says, and Ellie takes it. As they face an uncertain future, their bond grows stronger.
Season 2 Episode 4 of The Last of Us is a great example of how to balance light and shadow. It shows how harsh Isaac’s world is and how fanatical the Seraphites are next to Ellie and Dina’s fragile, growing love. The episode’s pace, which hints at a faster story to come, lets each character shine: Isaac’s cruel realism, the prisoner’s unwavering faith, and the young soldier’s turn toward cruelty. But Ellie and Dina’s story is what holds the episode together. Their weakness and bravery give us hope in a world that wants to destroy us. The first day of Seattle is almost over, and now the stage is set for a reckoning. People are excited to see what comes next.
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