Who Is Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen in ‘The Last of Us’?

We got our first look at Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen in The Last of Us with Episode 4 and it was fascinating to finally get an idea of who she is. There are so many elements of the series that we know because of playing the game but this was the first time we really didn’t know what was actually going to happen.

Having Melanie Lynskey in the series is just a win for everyone because she’s such a fascinating performer. Whoever they wanted her to play, there would be fans (like myself) ready to watch what she had in store for us. But this character is an interesting one to unpack in general so let’s talk a bit about Kathleen! Spoilers for Episode 4 of The Last of Us lie ahead.

Kathleen is the leader of a rebel base in Kanas City. When Joel and Ellie are on the journey to try and find Tommy, they get to a stop in the road that forces them to take a different road and in the midst of it come into Kansas City where they are met with gunfire and attacks. While neither has met Kathleen yet, we have and she’s someone who wants to find Henry.

Fans of the game know what Henry means (which is a spoiler so I’ll not get into Henry’s arc right now). But we can see from the brief moments we have with her that she is ruthless. She’s not afraid to do the heavy lifting if it means getting to where she needs to go. But is she someone we know anything about?

Is she in the game?

No, actually! Kathleen is one of the first characters in the series to be written just for it. But Kathleen does fit into the fabric of the world so well that if she were from the game, it’d fit. Her ruthless nature and search for Henry is new to us all, game players or not.

That means that this is a character that is going to bring an element of surprise to the show. And given what we just saw? It’s going to be a fascinating one.

(Featured image: HBO)