The Last Of Us has been pretty loyal to the game all season. So it should be no surprise that the finale also stayed true to the source material. There was actually quite a bit of story left to squeeze into the last episode, so it was a bit jarring to see that the runtime was the shortest yet, at 43 minutes long.
However, the creators once again prove they know exactly what they are doing. Episode 9 of The Last Of Us perfectly wraps up the season in line with Part I of the video games, and fans everywhere will be thrilled with the outcome – but not so thrilled to have to wait for season 2.
Ellie’s Mother Revealed
Just as we saw the video game voice of Joel make an appearance in the series, we now get the voice of Ellie. Ashley Johnson kicks off this episode pregnant and running through a forest, clearly trying to escape an infected. Thankfully she makes it inside a house, but it seems the people she was hoping would be there to help her are not, and she is all alone. She makes it up to a room where she tries to barricade the door, but the infected person enters. The two struggle, and it bites her before she can kill it.
This stress sends her into labor, and Ellie is born moments later. The woman immediately cuts the umbilical cord, hoping to stop the infection from spreading to her baby. Viewers now see Marlene and a few other fireflies arrive at the house. They are calling out for Anna, who is revealed to be Ellie’s mother.
When Marlene makes it to the room, she finds her, unturned, with her child. Anna tells her right away that she cut the cord before she was bit (a lie) and has not nursed her for fear of spreading the infection. She begs Marlene to kill her, take Ellie, and find someone good to raise her. It isn’t easy for her, as she explains that she has known her since she was a kid, but she abides by Anna’s wishes.
The Journey to the Hospital
The Last Of Us episode 9 brings us back to the present, where Ellie is sitting on a truck bed on the highway, and Joel is yelling for her. He tells her that he found some food in the RV he was digging through and that they are getting close to the hospital where the fireflies are stationed. He also mentions that he found a guitar in there, which got him thinking. It was broken, but now he might want to find a working one to teach her to play. Ellie half smiles but is clearly distracted, knowing they are nearing their journey’s end.
Ellie must drop down a ladder inside a building they are passing through so that Joel can get up to the second floor. This is another major reference to the game, and players will recall the many ladders they had to drop to Joel as Ellie. While up on the ledge, she hears something and immediately takes off. She comes face to face with a giraffe, and the two have a lovely moment feeding it and laughing, just being in awe of nature. When the giraffe walks away, Ellie runs after it – ending up in a clearing with a whole group of them. Can’t deny that view, Ellie says.
Joel knows that Ellie is distracted because they are about to get to the fireflies, who want to run tests on her and hopefully make a cure. He offers up a suggestion that she likely never saw coming. They simply don’t have to go. They don’t have to do this. He explains they can just go back to Jackson and live there. Ellie says that after everything they’ve been through, and everything she has done, it can’t be for nothing, and she wants to press on. She adds that she will follow him wherever he goes after this is all said and done.
A Confession From Joel
As Joel and Ellie journey on, they happen to walk by a medical camp. Ellie has not seen one before, so Joel explains that they popped up right after the outbreak and were a place where the Army could treat those injured. He recalls the gunshot scar Ellie asked him about at the start of the season and tells her that he was in a medical camp to treat that. She says oh yes, the shot that missed. This is when he decides to confess the truth to her – it was Joel that shot himself and missed.
He explains that Sarah was dead at that point, and he was ready to die. He did not feel like there was anything left to live for. He went to pull the trigger and flinched. He doesn’t know why, but he did. This is an extremely emotional conversation, and then Ellie tells him that he seems to have moved on now and that time heals all wounds. Joel tells her that it isn’t time, indicating that she has healed him.
A Possible Cure That Comes With Consequences
The two walk on, laughing at the puns in Ellie’s book, when a smoke grenade is thrown, and the two are knocked out. Ellie is dragged away. We then see Joel waking up in a hospital room with Marlene. She thanks him for getting Ellie there and really does not understand how he did it. She confesses that she didn’t ever want to be in debt to him, but here they are. He tells her he only needs to see Ellie and Marlene’s face drops. She says Ellie is fine but is being prepped for surgery.
Their doctor thinks that the fungi has been growing with Ellie since she was born, which allows her to be immune. Her body must be producing a chemical response to it, which they can use to make a cure if they remove it from Ellie and study it. Joel points out that it grows in the brain, and Marlene assures him that they didn’t tell Ellie she would die, so there is no fear, and it will be a painless death.
Joel yells at Marlene, clearly upset by this. He tells her that she doesn’t understand. He has grown to love Ellie, to which Marlene replies that she does understand. She has been with Ellie since Ellie was born, and she promised her mother, Anna, that she would keep her safe. However, some sacrifices must be made for the greater good of humanity. She points out that Ellie would choose death, given a choice, and Joel knows it.
Unable to handle the thought of Ellie’s death, Joel attacks his escorts out of the hospital. He plows through all the fireflies that try to stop him as he makes his way to the surgery room. When he busts through the door, he demands the nurses unhook her, but they freeze. He shoots and kills the doctor without a second thought and carries an unconscious Ellie to the garage, where he gets a truck.
Marlene is there waiting for him, and she has a gun. She tells Joel that he can’t keep Ellie safe. She might be immune, but she will eventually be torn apart by infected or killed by raiders. All because she lives in a broken world that he could have saved.
A Little Lie Never Hurt Anyone
We then cut to Joel driving, seemingly alone, when Ellie mumbles and wakes up in the backseat. Joel tells her to take it easy because the drugs are still wearing off, and she seems confused. He explains that the fireflies ran tests on her and about a dozen others that are immune (a lie), but that ultimately, the doctors couldn’t make it work and gave up on finding a cure. Finally, he tells her that raiders attacked, and he barely got her out of there, adding that many of the people there were killed (but leaving out the part where he did the killing).
In a flashback, we see that he shot Marlene. She begged to be saved, but he said that she would just come after Ellie, and he couldn’t let that happen. As they head towards Jackson, the truck eventually breaks down. Joel says they have just a five-hour hike ahead of them, and they start to walk.
The two talk about Sarah, and Joel tells Ellie how much she would have liked her. He thinks Sarah would have enjoyed Ellie’s company because she is funny. As they come up to the settlement, they stop. Ellie decides to tell Joel about Riley and how they got bit; the plan was to lose their minds together. But then Riley lost her mind, and Ellie never did, forcing Ellie to shoot her.
She then looks Joel dead in the eye and asks if he is telling the truth about the fireflies. He says yes, to which Ellie nods and says ok.
Overall Thoughts
The Last Of Us episode 9 is the perfect ending to the season as it completes the story that fans got in the video game. Newcomers to the series will likely be shocked at how it all plays out but in a good way.
The biggest issue with The Last Of us season one is that there are not a lot of infected. However, that makes sense as it needed to focus on the story. While they look really cool, they should only come into the plot when necessary. There is a difference between fighting them off repeatedly in a game to keep it entertaining and watching a show. If Joel and Ellie stopped every ten minutes to battle clickers and bloaters, it would get repetitive and redundant and detract from what the series needs to focus on.
Considering that the story told in season one is exactly the story of The Last Of Us Part I – from beginning to end – it is clear that the second season will play out just as Part II did. This series has been extremely loyal to the source material, so we cannot wait to see what happens next.
Rating: 10/10
