Quick Links
HBO’s adaptation ofThe Last of Usreached its climactic finale with Joel and Ellie reaching the hospital in Salt Lake City. Over the nine-episode season, Joel has been escorting Ellie across the country to find this hospital for doctors to study her immunity to Cordyceps and develop a cure.
RELATED:The Last Of Us: Characters In the Show That Weren’t In The Game
The season finale, Look For The Light, is theshortest episode of the season, clocking in at 43 minutes. The first season of the HBO show covers the entirety of Naughty Dog’s game with the streaming service planning on adapting the second part. We analyze the ending of The Last of Us and break down the impact of Joel’s decision.
The following post contains spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us.
Beginning Of The End
The final episode begins with a flashback showing a young pregnant woman running from an infected. The woman turns out to beEllie’s mother, as we watch her fight off an infected but get bit in the process. Marlene arrives and the woman gives her Ellie before she turns infected. This scene explains how Marlene and Ellie’s mother knew each other fornearly all their livesand how Marlene knew about Ellie in the first place.
When the flashback ends,Joel and Ellie are just outside Salt Lake Citywhere the hospital is located. The closer they get to the hospital, the more distant Ellie is becoming. Joel notices this and asks if she’d like tolearn how to play guitar one day, foreshadowing her playing the instrument in The Last of Us Part 2.
Joel tells Ellie there might be some risk involved with developing the cure. He suggeststhey could just go back to Tommy’s settlementand forget the whole thing. But Ellie tells him after all they’ve been through and after everything she’s done that itcan’t all be for nothing.
While walking through an army medical camp, Joel tells Ellie howhe tried to kill himself. He didn’t see the point of anything anymore after his daughter Sarah died but when he pulled the trigger he flinched and the bullet grazed his head. Ellie says “time heals all wounds I guess” but Joel says it wasn’t time that healed his wounds, implying that it wasEllie that helped him heal over the loss of Sarah.
Protecting Ellie
As Joel and Ellie are reading shitty puns, a stun grenade explodes near them and they’recaptured by the Fireflies. Joel wakes up in Saint Mary’s Hospital and Marlene apologizes for Joel getting hit. He asks to see Ellie but Marlene refuses. She explains that the doctor believes theCordyceps has grown in Ellie since birth and produced some type of chemical messagethat makes it seem like she’s infected by other Cordyceps. Marlene says Ellie is being prepped for surgery to have it removed so the doctor can multiply the cells and create a cure.
Joel realizes the operation would kill Ellie because the Cordycepsgrows inside the brain. He pleads to her to find someone else but Marlene tells him there is no one else. Marlene orders two of her men to escort Joel back to the highway but he overpowers them in the stairwell.
After killing nearly all the Fireflies in the hospital, Joel finds Ellie’s room and orders the doctor to unhook her. The doctor refuses andJoel shoots him in the head. The nurses unhook her and Joel takes her down to the garage to find a vehicle. Marlene stops them and pleads for Joel to reconsider, telling him that he can’t keep her safe forever. She also asks himto think about what Ellie would decide. But Joel kills Marlene and leaves the hospital with Ellie.
Joel’s Decision
When Ellie wakes up in the car, Joel tells her that there wereother people who are immunebut the doctors couldn’t make anything work. He says they’vestopped looking for a cureand the hospital was attacked by raiders. Joel and Ellie make their way back to Tommy’s settlement but Ellie asks Joel toswear to herthat everything he said about the hospital is true. Joel commits to his lie and Ellie accepts the answer.
The impact of Joel’s decision not only impacts Ellie butpotentially the rest of humanity. Yes, Joel saved Ellie’s life but condemned everyone else to continue living “in a broken world” as Marlene described it. Joel’s question if Ellie knew she would die is a valid one for Marlene but Marlene is correct in assumingEllie would’ve sacrificed herself. Ellie made that clear earlier in the episode when she told Joeleverything she went through can’t have been for nothing. Joel’s decision was ultimately a selfish one that will have ripple effects in the next season of The Last of Us.
NEXT:Hidden Details And Easter Eggs In The Last Of Us Show
