Why Does Kathleen Want Henry In ‘The Last Of Us?’

The most recent episode of HBO’s The Last of Us introduced fans to the show’s newest villain — Melanie Lynskey. We kid, we kid. Melanie Lynskey is an icon and a hilarious sh*t poster on Twitter, but the character she plays in Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin’s big-budget videogame adaptation is villainous … terrifyingly so.

In episode four’s “Please Hold My Hand,” Lynskey’s Kathleen took control of the narrative after Joel and Ellie made a poorly-timed detour in Kansas City. Though the character doesn’t exist in the game, Kathleen and her group seem to be modeled after the Hunters, a vicious, take-no-prisoners band of scavengers controlling Pittsburgh post-outbreak. The location has changed but Kathleen and company are still out for blood on the show, having overthrown FEDRA in their local QZ and currently hunting traitors who may have helped the government when they were still in power.

But there’s one name in particular that keeps popping up during the episode, a man that Kathleen is willing to do almost anything to find. Who is Henry and why is he so important to the group’s de-facto leader We still don’t know, but the episode does hint that Henry, like the doctor Kathleen holds at gunpoint when we first meet her, is a QZ resident who aided FEDRA, ratting on his neighbors in exchange for certain perks. In fact, Kathleen seems to think it was Henry who gave FEDRA the ammo they needed to find her brother, imprison him, and beat him to death in his cell.

Lynskey told EW that it’s his death that’s fueling her current quest for vengeance.

“Imagine growing up as the sibling of Jesus and being like, ‘My brother’s the greatest human being. He’s leading the world. He’s the kindest, most decent person. I don’t think I’m that great of a person. I don’t really need to be anything in particular because I have this person by my side,'” she said. “And then somebody brutally kills him and it’s so unfair. Who are you after that”

A war criminal That’s how the role was pitched to the actress by the showrunners and she said fans should expect her to do even more terrible things before Henry is found.

“[Mazin] said to me, ‘I hope you’re not offended, but I would love for you to play a war criminal,'” Lynskey said of her initial call with the creator before diving into her character’s villainous transformation in episode four. “She found out that she was quite heartless and so she was able to be pretty effective in a way that maybe wasn’t because she didn’t care about people. That’s a very interesting dynamic.”