Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Last of Us episode 6, The Last of Us part 1, and The Last of Us part 2.
HBO’s The Last Of Us adapts a video game series with no shortage of brutal moments. For those familiar with The Last of Us video game series, they know that Joel and Ellie have much more grief in their future. The Last of Us episode 6 aired on Sunday, Feb. 19, and depicts Joel obtaining a major injury in the last two minutes of the episode. Joel and Ellie are continuing their journey to meet up with the Fireflies when an aggressive stranger stabs Joel. Earlier in the episode, Joel and Ellie fought because Joel wanted to leave Ellie with Tommy for her safety.
In The Last of Us was renewed for a second season.
David Imprisons Ellie
The Last of Us episode 6 sets up the rest of the game. After Joel is injured in the game, Ellie must take care of him since he cannot take care of himself. In The Last of Us video game, the player then plays as Ellie. Ellie is out hunting when she encounters two men, David and James. The two capture her, and David attempts to recruit her into his cannibal group. Ellie rejects him, which leads to him threatening to eat her.
In The Last of Us game, David becomes obsessed with Ellie and tries to kill her when she tries to escape. Ellie succeeds in killing James and can escape until David corners her. Ellie ends up killing David herself with a machete, which traumatizes her. Luckily for her, Joel had healed from his wounds and came to find her. He comforts her as she is horrified by what she has done. This is a particularly heartbreaking moment because this could be viewed as the moment Ellie loses her innocence. While she may have defended herself up to this point, this is the first time she brutally kills another human being.
Joel Saves Ellie From Fireflies
The Last of Us part one’s twist is revealed when Joel and Ellie meet the Fireflies. Marlene tells Joel that to produce the vaccine, they must remove the infected part of Ellie’s brain, which will kill her. Instead of saving the world, Joel chooses to save Ellie and battles his way into the operating room, killing countless Fireflies. Joel even kills the lead surgeon and takes Ellie’s unconscious body to the parking garage. On the way there, he is confronted by Marlene, who he shoots and kills. When Ellie wakes up, Joel lies to her and tells her they cannot find a cure.
The Last of Us video game fans are likely counting down to this shocking ending. If The Last of Us episode 6 is any indicator, the series only has a few episodes before the season 1 finale. The Last of Us will likely end with Joel saving Ellie. It is hard to fathom the show changing this intense ending. Whether everyone will agree with this ending is not clear, Joel has been through his share of heartbreak, but Ellie was willing to die to save the world. Joel chooses Ellie over a possible cure, which leaves The Last of Us part 1 with a bittersweet ending.
Joel’s Brutal Death
Joel's decision to save Ellie has major consequences. Four years after the events of The Last of Us part 1, Joel and Ellie are living on Tommy's compound, but their relationship is strained. One day on patrol, Joel and Tommy rescue a stranger named Abby Anderson from an infected horde. Joel and Tommy take her back to her temporary hideout with a group of former Fireflies. Little did they know that Abby was the daughter of the Firefly surgeon Joel murdered to save Ellie. Allie and her group, desperately out for revenge, attack Joel and Tommy.
Meanwhile, Ellie and her girlfriend Dina go out searching for the brothers. The two arrive to witness Abby brutally beat Joel to death. Since Joel and Ellie's relationship was integral to the first game, Joel's death so early enraged some gamers. However, Joel's death only sets the story for more horrific violence and Ellie's character arc. Ellie swears revenge on Abby but doesn't realize how this decision will completely consume her in The Last of Us part 2.
Ellie Kills Nora
Joel's death changes Ellie for the worse. Blinded by revenge, Ellie begins to lose her humanity. Tommy, Dina, and Ellie set out to find Abby. In their search, Ellie comes across Abby's friend Nora, who she beats with a pipe to get information on Abby's location. In the gameplay, the player inputs the attacks, making the gamer complicit in Ellie's beating. Like Joel, Nora dies from a brutal beating. While Ellie had killed in self-defense before, this marks the first time Ellie killed an innocent.
depicts Ellie as the optimistic counterpart to Joel's cynical demeanor, so it is hard to imagine how Ellie could so drastically change. It is unlikely that The Last of Us season 2 won't follow The Last of Us part 2 because doing so would alter the entire point of the second game. However, if some gamers hated the second game, then some viewers will hate this dramatic turn. Not only would losing Pedro Pascal's Joel be devastating for audiences to get over, but to see Ellie become a monster only adds insult to injury.
Ellie Kills Mel
In The Last of Us part 2, Ellie searches for Abby and finds two of Abby's friends, Mel and Owen. Ellie tries to interrogate them but ends up killing them both. After murdering them, Ellie realizes that Mel is pregnant. Not only does Ellie feel guilty for taking an unborn baby's life, but she also realizes she is putting her girlfriend, Dina (who is also pregnant), in harm's way. By having Ellie kill a pregnant woman, The Last of Us part 2 has Ellie honestly think over her actions.
Mel's death holds a lot of weight because Ellie wants to keep her pregnant girlfriend safe. This action recovers half of Ellie's humanity, but Ellie is still obsessed with revenge. It is important to note that in the next part of the game, a flashback reveals that Ellie discovered that Joe lied to her in The Last of Us part 1. This caused the strain at the beginning of The Last of Us part 2. Ellie is understandably upset with Joel for killing innocent people and taking away her life's meaning.
Abby Attacks Jesse & Tommy
In The Last of Us part 2, Ellie's group is ambushed by Abby, who kills Jesse (Dina's ex-boyfriend and father of her child). Next, she takes Tommy hostage and shoots him, brutally impairing him. Abby then attacks Ellie and Dina. In a surprising turn, the player controls Abby in this fight. At this point, Ellie is almost unrecognizable from the sweet girl in The Last of Us part 1.
Abby overpowers Ellie and Dina, nearly killing them. Her friend Lev begs Abby to spare them, which she reluctantly does. This is a particularly dramatic moment in The Last of Us part 2 because the player likely doesn't want Ellie or Abby to die. Since the game also follows Abby, the player understands Abby's motivations. After this moment, the game does a time jump to a few months later. Ellie is living with Dina and her son, but Ellie is suffering from post-traumatic stress.
Ellie & Abby Fight Nearly To The Death
Upon learning Abby's whereabouts, Ellie sets out to finish her off, despite Dina begging her to stay. Ellie saves Abby and Lev from a group of slave keepers named Rattlers. She then forces Abby to fight her, which results in the most brutal fight yet. Abby bites off two of Ellie's fingers, and Ellie overpowers her. She nearly drowns Abby, but a flashback of Joel causes her to spare her. Ellie then heads home to find it empty, which ends The Last of Us game with a somber tone. Ellie may have gotten "revenge," but she is now all alone.
With The Last of Us last few episodes , these brutal moments come closer to reaching non-gamer audiences. With Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's commitment to The Last of Us' accuracy, HBO's The Last of Us will likely follow through with these brutal moments. After all, The Last of Us has not strayed from the other heartbreaking moments of the game, so The Last of Us season 2 shouldn't be any different. Until then, audiences can sit in anticipation of the ending of The Last of Us season 1.
