Melanie Lynskey’s character in HBO’s The Last Of Us TV adaptation might not be the fully original character she was once thought to be. Melanie Lynskey started her career with Heavenly Creatures and became known for her role in 1999’s But I’m a Cheerleader. Lynskey’s role in Showtime’s Yellowjackets brought the actress huge amounts of attention and she has since been in Don’t Look Up, Candy, and is returning for Yellowjackets season 2.
When The Last of Us character was first announced by HBO, the only information given was that she was called Kathleen and served as “the ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City” (via Polygon). This announcement seemed to suggest a much wider divergence from the original game than HBO’s The Last of Us team had originally suggested. However, other evidence in HBO’s releases and small details in the original game suggests that Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen was, in fact, a character in The Last of Us video game.
Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen Runs A Revolutionary Movement
Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen appears on the surface to not be a character from the game because none of the elements of her description fully line up with people, places, or events in the game. While there are many factions in The Last of Us, none are really known as “revolutionaries.” However, this might be because of a new element of depth in the adaptation that takes a closer look at one of those factions.
In one location, Joel and Ellie come across a group called the Hunters. The Hunters have killed the FEDRA agents that ran a Quarantine Zone in The Last of Us’ post-apocalyptic world, and similarly killed the Fireflies that had opposed FEDRA. The Hunters are certainly a ruthless group and have opposed any group that attempts to inflict strict rules on them, with plenty of infighting. While Joel and Ellie’s point of view of them is provided in the game, HBO’s The Last of Us is likely to take a closer look and Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen is likely running the Hunters, a group that could easily view themselves as self-modeled revolutionaries.
HBO Is Replacing Pittsburg With Kansas City
An additional piece of evidence in favor of Lynskey’s Kathleen being the leader of The Last of Us’ Hunter faction comes from the announcements around other characters. Kansas City does not appear in The Last of Us video game, with the Hunters being found instead in Pittsburg. The original location makes sense as Joel and Ellie are heading from Boston to Wyoming. Maps of their most direct route would leave Kansas City far south of their path, but it seems that Kansas City will fully replace the location of Pittsburg for HBO’s The Last of Us.
It's unclear what would drive Joel and Ellie so far out of their way, but road blockages, a search for supplies and way stations, or simply a weather system could provide the explanation. When HBO released the casting announcement for The Last of Us’ Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard), they noted that the brothers were “in Kansas City hiding from a revolutionary movement seeking vengeance” (via IGN). Like the Hunters, Henry and Sam appear in Pittsburg in the game, so it’s clear that the HBO series will fully swap out the two cities.
Who Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen Is In The Last Of Us
While it is one thing to note that Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen is the leader of the revolutionaries in Kansas City and that that role is the same as the leader of the Hunters from Pittsburg, it leaves a problem. The leader of the Hunters is never seen in The Last of Us video game. However, they are a character that exists and is fleshed out.
While it requires a player to listen carefully to conversations between the Hunters in Pittsburg without just killing them first, The Last of Us faction has a lot of information to share about their boss. They refer to their leader and the instructions given to them throughout the story set in Pittsburg, and despite a direct confrontation, the leader of the Hunters is a very real character in the game. For HBO’s The Last of US TV show to have given that leader a larger part makes a lot of sense and is a great fit for Melanie Lynskey and her Kathleen character.
This, in turn, might tie in to larger parts of The Last of Us’ originally planned story that never made it into the game. Creator of the original game, Neil Druckmann has worked with Craig Mazin for the HBO series and the latter has revealed that they will be including content left out of the original game for pacing reasons including a “jaw drop” moment (via comicbook). This means that The Last of Us might have originally shown Kathleen as the leader of the Hunters and her inclusion in the show is merely fulfilling a scene that was never included in the game.
What Kathleen's Hunters Role Means For The Last Of Us
Melanie Lynskey has been confirmed to be playing Kathleen in more than one episode of The Last of Us. This suggests that the story in Kansas City will span at least two episodes, with Kathleen serving as the menacing human villain at the head of the “revolutionaries” for those episodes. Giving the role to such a skilled actress, might suggest that Kathleen will play a larger part in Joel and Ellie's progression. In The Last of Us video game, Joel had worked with hunters in the past. If that remains the case, Kathleen might know Joel and reveal his past to Ellie for him - this would also explain the choice to relocate this story to Kansas City, as it would be on the path that Joel might have taken from Texas to Boston at the start of the infection.
However, Melanie Lynskey’s role as head of the Hunters suggests a gruesome end for The Last of Us’ Kathleen. One of the most notable things about the Hunters in The Last of Us is not just that they’re ruthless but that they hate each other. Hunters can be heard threatening to kill each other over minor disputes, and this might well extend to their leader. The Hunters do not only refer to their current leader in their in-game conversations, but also to past leaders who have attempted to do things such as expand beyond the Quarantine Zone’s wall. These leaders are clearly not alive anymore, and it’s likely they either died at the hands of the infected, or were killed by disgruntled Hunters. So with Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen serving as the leader of the Hunters in The Last of Us, it’s likely she won’t survive the series and that she may even be killed by her own forces.