The Last of Us Episode 4: Are Sam and Henry in the game?

The Last of Us Episode 4 introduced us to a few new characters. Henry and Sam were two of them, threatening Joel and Ellie. Are the two in the game?

Caution: There are some potential spoilers for The Last of Us Episodes 4 and 5 in this post.

The Last of Us Episode 4 is one of those we highly anticipated. It meant the arrival of Kathleen, played by Yellowjackets‘s Melanie Lynskey. Kathleen isn’t a character in the original game, so including her as the one who helped liberate the Kansas City QZ is everything and suggests the first major deviation from the game play.

Henry and Sam were also introduced, and these two brought their own storyline that seems to connect to Kathleen. We won’t get into too many show details as we don’t know how many spoilers it could lead to. What we will look at is whether Henry and Sam were in the game and how their storylines may have changed.

Henry and Sam in The Last of Us game

The two characters in, in fact, part of the game. They are major characters, and they are on the run from something. Sam is Henry’s little brother, and the show included a small deviation in making Sam deaf. This furthers the topic of how a post-apocalyptic world is dangerous for many people. We had the fact that Frank had Parkinson’s in Episode 3, and now we have a deaf boy who needs his brother’s help to survive.

How will Henry and Sam be part of the series, though? The two characters were introduced in a similar way to the game. Henry assumes Joel is a hunter and attacks him. Eventually, Joel and Ellie are able to prove they’re on the same side. It turns out that Henry and Sam are looking for the Fireflies, which is exactly who Joel and Ellie are looking for.

In the show, Kathleen seems to have a personal vendetta against Henry and Sam. This is where there’s the opportunity for deviation from the book. It could also just be to add a face to the group that was after Henry and Sam in the game.

It is a heartbreaking end for Henry and Sam in the game. Will the series follow that?

What did you think of the introduction of Henry and Sam in The Last of Us? What do you hope to see from the game play out in the series? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.