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| “ | When Michael and I were little, this room seemed so big. I was really scared of thunder so when there was a storm, Michael told me that this wasn't a room at all. This was actually, just a big wooden box. A big wooden box that nothing could get inside of and it didn't matter that there was lightning or tornadoes or gunfire. He said as long as we were together in our perfect box, we would be safe. He did that for me. He did stuff like that all the time. | „ |
| ~ Kathleen Coghlan. |
| “ | Well kids die Henry. They die all the time. You think this whole world revolves around him? That he's worth everything? Well, this is what happens when you fuck with fate. | „ |
| ~ Kathleen to Henry Burrell. |
Kathleen Coghlan is a major antagonist in the 2023 HBO series, The Last of Us, based on the video game series. She is the ruthless leader of Kansas City's resistance group and the younger sister of Michael Coghlan. Kathleen lost her brother when Henry Burrell sold him out to FEDRA and vowed to get revenge on the same man who sold him away in exchange for his younger brother's treatment.
Upon driving FEDRA away in Kansas City, she ended up ruling the area with an iron fist, having her newly promoted members torture or kill off FEDRA members, including collaborators, across the city, as well as having them permitted to kill off any survivors to steal their supplies and needs. Even then, she would still try to go after Henry and his brother in order to get even with him.
She was portrayed by Melanie Lynskey, who also played Rose in Two and a Half Man, Aunt Helen in Perks of Being a Wallflower and Shauna Shipman in Yellowjackets.
Personality[]
| “ | You know Perry, I used to be so scared of these people. Now look at them. Did it feel good? Betraying your neighbours to FEDRA? Watching us get thrown in prison? Watching us hang, so that you could get medicine, alcohol, fucking apples? Did it make you feel better? Did it make you feel safe? How does it make you feel now? | „ |
| ~ Kathleen to Perry. |
Kathleen is a ruthless woman with a twisted, brutal worldview to where she would go this far to achieve her goals and vengeance for her brother. While originally meant to fight back against FEDRA for their methods and being the ones behind her brother's death, Kathleen let her own hatred for Henry's betrayal get to the better of her to where, instead of caring for the very people Michael fought for, she would eventually grow into a tyrannical, power-hungry individual whose main priority is her position and authority rather than providing the very support and freedom her people needed.
Even when she despised FEDRA for their questionable, vile methods of torturing and murdering people whilst running their respective quarantine zones with an iron fist, Kathleen has proven herself to be a hypocrite given she ended up ruling Kansas City with the same exact actions from the very governmental agency she hated for Michael's death, whether it was bad or just as equally worse. Even when seemingly reasonable when interrogating numerous FEDRA members and collaborators, she dismissed any chance of letting them have a fair trial and instead has her men quickly kill them off and their bodies burnt; this also displayed her hypocrisy, as despite them answering her interrogations, she still ordered them dead out of spite, betraying her promise to spare them if they answered.
Another example is when she quickly proceeds to kill her doctor, Edelstein, simply because he never gave out any info of Henry's whereabouts, which is also an example of her irrational- borderline psychotic - lack of foresight, because being told Bryan couldn't be helped even with a doctor made her murder Edelstein, even though medical practitioners are invaluable, especially in the post-apocalyptic world. She also abandons sentiment or even mercy, as despite Edelstein being the doctor who delivered her and knew her for her whole life, she showed no hesitation in the execution.
She also doesn't seem to think things through when vengeance is her main priority over anything else more important, instead of warning her subordinates of the dangers of an underground Clicker infestation, as well as a wide horde of them, she rather had the manhunt for Henry continue while having the building sealed. She's also not above being willing to kill children, as she makes it clear by having Sam killed simply because he's the reason for Henry betraying her brother and to where she coldly states he's "supposed" to die, alongside Ellie, simply because both were involved with events beyond their control; her indicating a belief in fate also showed her inconsistency, as she believed purely in self-determination, hence why she hated the FEDRA collaborators so much for choosing themselves or their families over the community at large.
Despite this, Kathleen truly cared about her brother, even admiring him for all he's done for taking care of her, and was genuinely affected by his death to the point her hatred for Henry drove her to what little remained of her humanity in exchange for revenge. While Michael wanted her to forgive Henry for his reasons involving his brother Sam, Kathleen eventually let her desire for vengeance consume her to the brink of getting back at Henry, even though she knew this is not what Michael would've wanted and would have been horrified of her actions. She also seems to be on friendly terms with her right-hand Perry as she was willing to open up to him about Michael's death and she at least cares for one of her subordinates, notably Bryan, where she was going to find and kill Joel for his death. It's also implied that she's on good terms with her mother.
Though by the end of the day, Kathleen's vengeful motivations were her downfall as her decisions and actions took hold of greater consequences, and tries desperately to kill off her targets at her last moments.
Biography[]
Background[]
Back as a child, Kathleen lived in Kansas City with her mother and her older brother, Michael, whom she admired and cared for a rather long time as the latter comforts her whenever she had nightmares and often comforted her when she needed it the most. However, as adults in their life, when the Cordyceps outbreak began, the two survived before FEDRA started a quarantine zone in Kansas City, which they dictate under martial law and oppressed the surviving population with an iron fist. At that time, her brother Michael formed a resistance group and tried to fight against FEDRA's totalitarian methods, unfortunately, Henry Burrell ended up betraying and sold out Michael to the latter in exchange for getting the treatment needed to cure his little brother, Sam, when he had leukemia.
Tragically, she came to visit her brother in FEDRA, bloodied and beaten, once the latter wished for her to forgive Henry for everything and that FEDRA were the true criminals, which only then would he be executed later on. Affected by his death and giving into rage, Kathleen swore vengeance for her brother and completely disregarded any of his wishes to bring "justice" to him. In order to drive FEDRA out of the zone, she gathered all of Michael's closest allies, including Perry being the most notable, as she led the resistance into fighting against FEDRA's rule in warfare. After having the long battle and with FEDRA driven out, Kathleen ended up establishing a dictatorship over Kansas City and ruled the population under an iron fist. From there, she had her group and Perry's militia go about hunting down and abducting FEDRA members and collaborators alike, from which it ranges from public lynchings, setting them on fire, dragging corpses around, violent beatings, and shootings. She eventually took over a former FEDRA detention center to become her personal headquarters.
Wanting vengeance for her brother's death and never subsided, she continues the hunt for Henry. After driving FEDRA out, she would have known FEDRA collaborators abducted and brought into the detention center to be interrogated. Kathleen then taunts them of how their actions of selling out the people they knew in exchange for supplies, mocking them if it made them feel "safe" before questioning the whereabouts of Henry Burrell. When she gave the call to execute them, one of them blurts out that Henry is currently with Dr. Edelstein, the doctor who helped her mother gave birth to her and her brother, much to her surprise. When the collaborator didn't know the specific location, Kathleen calls him a "rat" before seemingly leaving them be, then she orders her men to go about searching the entire city for Henry while ordering Perry to execute the captured collaborators and have their bodies burnt to a crisp.
Other than executions, recently she also enabled raiding other survivors whom entered her territory in the city, having them murdered and stealing their supplies to further the group's resourcefulness.
The Hunt for Henry Burrell[]
By the present, Kathleen is seen interrogating Dr. Edelstein in the detention center, questioning the whereabouts of other FEDRA members but more importantly, Henry Burrell himself. When Edelstein tries to apologize and reason with Kathleen regarding her late brother's demise and calling out how far she's come for vengeance, she brushed it off and continues to question for Henry's whereabouts still, to the point she held him at gunpoint. Just before she could prove Edelstein wrong on her bluff of shooting him, Kathleen is then alerted of one of her men being shot down.
Kathleen and her group would witness the corpses of Bryan and his friends, whom were killed by Joel and Ellie. Speculating from Perry that it might've been outsiders or mercenaries, though confirmed they weren't with FEDRA, Kathleen suspects that they were called upon by Henry for protection. She questions if it is still possible to save Bryan and the rest of her men, though it was later reaffirmed no such chance of their survival in this state, which Kathleen then returns back to the detention center to personally shoot Dr. Edelstein. She soon initiates a manhunt for every potential FEDRA collaborators throughout the city, having her men raid and kill a remainder of the population at hand, not intending to stop until she's caught Henry where she wants him. Eventually, they found no luck in finding them and head into an apartment, infiltrating an attic upstairs where Henry and his younger brother, Sam, were taking refuge in.
She discovered several drawings of the Burrell brothers and leftover, empty cans on the floor, deducing Henry and Sam left the city to find more food outside. She then ordered Perry to double the guards in the provisions and continue with the manhunt, only then Perry later reports her about a sinkhole underneath the city, showing her that the infected are beneath the surface and suggests reporting it back to the rest of their group, only for Kathleen to prioritize hunting down Henry instead rather than properly handle the situation with the underground infected below them, trying to assuring him it'll be resolved later on, much to Perry's concerns.
As the search continued, Kathleen is seen back at her apartment complex and in her and her brother's childhood room, reminiscing before Perry came into inform her regarding the search. Questioning how he found her, Perry responds that he talked to her mother and learnt she was in this very room. Kathleen then opens up to Perry about her past and childhood with Michael and how he died at the hands of FEDRA thanks to Henry, especially knowing how it would hurt him deeply if he saw what she has done, then she starts ranting of how her brother wanted her to forgive Henry despite what he did and questions the justice in it. After venting out, Kathleen joins up with her men to hunt down Henry and his brother.
Receiving a transmission from Anthony that Henry and Sam are accompanied by Joel and Ellie on the night they tried to escape Kansas, she and her men went on chasing after them and once cornered, she demands he comes out and face her. When Henry requested that Sam and Ellie are to be left alone, she denies this, knowing Ellie is connected to Joe and Sam is his brother, simply to put in her view. She claims she understood why Henry sold out Michael but went about rebuking the idea of how kids die all the time and that the whole world doesn't revolve around them. Just as Henry came out and prepares to shoot him, little did she the infected eventually escaped underneath the grounds and rose up, attacking and eating her men.
Death[]
Eventually, the decision to prioritize vengeance over the safety of her people became her downfall. As her men are attacked by the infected, Kathleen sees herself saved by Perry when an even bigger, fungal-armored infected emerged and overwhelmed everyone, sacrificing himself as Kathleen ran. She manages to catch up to the group, preparing to single-handedly shoot them and finally avenge her brother, not before she finds herself killed and attacked by an child clicker. Thus, her reign over Kansas and the massacre of her men was all for naught.
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 Villains
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