Let’s Break Down the Emotional ‘The Last of Us’ Season 1 Finale

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All good things must come to an end. And while we already know that The Last of Us will be returning for a second season, we’re still not ready to say goodbye to Joel and Ellie’s current story. If you’ve already played the video game, then you know what is coming up next. But so much is revealed in The Last of Us season 1 finale that you’ll definitely be surprised by all the new info that might change how you view some of the show’s story. Ready to find out how it all comes down?

Here’s the ultimate breakdown of the season 1 finale of The Last of Us.

Let’s Start With a Flashback

The episode gets your heart pumping within the first second as we immediately start off in a forest with a chase scene, except we quickly realize that the person who is running is not Joel or Ellie. It’s actually Ellie’s mother, Anna, who is pregnant and about to give birth. And in a special easter egg moment from the video game, she is played by the original Ellie actress, Ashley Johnson, in a big cameo moment.

Anna finds an abandoned cabin and tries to buy herself some time by locking the door. But that still wasn’t enough to keep away an infected who immediately bursts through the door and starts to attack her. Anna uses her knife to take it down and then starts to give birth. In the middle of it, she realizes that she actually got bit and soon her baby arrives.

She quickly uses her knife to cut the umbilical cord in the hopes that the infection doesn’t pass to Ellie. She holds her and keeps her close as the opening credits start. We then return to the flashback where it’s officially nightfall and Marlene enters the home with some other members of the Fireflies.

They head up where they see Anna. She says that she doesn’t blame them for what happened but points out that Ellie is hungry since she has tried not to breastfeed her due to the infection. Marlene notices Anna’s bite and Anna lies to save Ellie. Anna tells Marlene to take Ellie back to Boston and find someone to raise her while also passing over her knife.

Anna also begs her to kill her before the infection takes over, but Marlene walks away and tells her that she can’t do it. She continues to call out to Marlene, who passes the baby to someone. She returns back to the room and shoots her. The show immediately goes back to Joel and Ellie in the present.

Where are they now?

Joel and Ellie are still on their way over to the Fireflies, but they made a quick stop to see if they can find some supplies. Joel points out that they’re getting close to the hospital, so they start walking again.

As they make their way through the city, Joel says that he found a guitar, but it was too beat up to take. He asks Ellie if she ever wanted to learn how to play and that he’d want to teach her someday. Joel notices that Ellie is distracted as they walk through Salt Lake City. The two try to come up with a plan to make it safely to the hospital and run inside a building to reach higher ground to get a better look at their surroundings.

Ellie makes it up to the second floor but is distracted by something and accidentally drops the ladder as she passes it to Joel. He finds a staircase and reaches Ellie who stares at a giraffe who is feeding on some leaves nearby. The two take in the city and they immediately have a heart-to-heart.

He points out that they keep risking themselves to try to find the Fireflies and that it might be better to head back to Tommy’s. Ellie notes that they’ve been through too much to just give up now. Ellie tells him that she knows that he just wants to protect her, but that they need to finish what they started. However, she also tells them that once everything is done, “I’ll follow you anywhere you go.”

They pass by old army emergency medical camps and Joel lets her know that it was normal to see those around cities, especially right after the outbreak. Joel reveals that he was in one of these camps after the outbreak and Ellie believes it was because he was shot by someone else. Joel tells her that he actually tried to shoot himself after losing Sarah, but he flinched and missed.

After chatting for a moment, the two continue on their walk but are immediately attacked by a random group who use a grenade to take them down. Ellie is taken and Joel is knocked out as the scene fades to white....

Wait, what happened to them?!

Suddenly, Joel wakes up in a hospital where he realizes that they were captured by the Fireflies. He sees Marlene waiting for him who tells them that the patrol didn’t know who they were, which is why they were attacked. She is surprised to see that they both survived and reveals to him that she is being prepped for surgery.

Joel is surprised to hear about it and Marlene says that the doctor believes that Ellie has been infected with Cordyceps since birth, which allows her to be immune. She notes that the Cordyceps will be removed from Ellie and turned into a cure. Joel remembers that Cordyceps grows in the brain, which means Ellie would die in the removal process.

He insists that she takes him to her and she reveals her connection to Ellie and says that she is the only other person who understands his pain. Marlene tells her guards to take him out of the hospital and to shoot him if he tries anything. She also gives him Ellie and Anna’s knife.

On their way out of the hospital, Joel tries to take note of the floors to see where Ellie could possibly be. As they head down some stairs, Joel immediately kills the guards and takes their guns. They refuse to tell him where she is and he starts going on a rampage to get to Ellie, killing several other guards and Fireflies in the process.

Does he make it to her?!

After taking down dozens of people, Joel makes his way to the surgery room where he sees a doctor and several of his assistants getting ready to start the surgery on Ellie. As they see him come in, the doctor takes a scalpel to try to fight off Joel, but Joel immediately shoots kills him.

Joel shows mercy to the doctor’s assistants but tells them to unhook her from the machines. He takes her body away safely as he makes his way to the garage. He is confronted by Marlene again who tells him that Ellie can help them change the world and that by taking her away, he’s just guaranteeing that she would die in a world where infection and raiders run rampant.

He immediately says it’s not up to Marlene to decide, who then in turn immediately tells Joel that it’s not up to him either and that Ellie would want to do what is right.

The scene immediately jumps to Joel in a car where Ellie is waking up in the backseat. She asks him what happened and he lies to her and says that there are other immune people like her, but that they ran some tests and couldn’t find a cure. All of a sudden, it flashes back to him in the garage and we see Joel shoot Marlene so he could leave with Ellie.

Ellie questions his story by asking where her clothes are, but he tells her that raiders came and attacked the hospital. She asked if anyone got hurt and he confirms that some didn’t survive. She asks about Marlene and Joel just replies that he’s taking them home.

We jump back to the garage scene, where we see that Marlene actually survives the initial shot from Joel and she begs him to keep her alive. Joel, however, points out that she would just come after them and shoots her in the head, officially killing her.

Wait, do Joel and Ellie make it back safe???

The pair make it to Wyoming, but their car breaks down part of the way. Joel notes that they will have to walk about five hours to make it back to Tommy’s.

Joel brings up Sarah and how much they used to hike together. Joel says that although Sarah would’ve liked her, they are very different from each other. They make it to an overlook where they take a second to take everything in. Joel insists that they keep walking, but Ellie stops him.

Ellie reveals to him what happened between her and Riley back in Boston. She says that the first time she killed someone was when she had to kill Riley after she got infected at the mall. Ellie starts to list out other people who have lost their lives after being with Ellie. Joel says it’s not her fault and that she will find something new to fight for if she keeps going.

Ellie asks him to swear to her that everything he had told her about what happened back in the Fireflies hospital was true. He swears that it is and she takes a moment before accepting it. She tells him, “Okay,” and the scene fades to black as the season comes to an end.

What can we expect next?!

It’s going to be a while until the show comes back, but at least you can already find out what happens next thanks to The Last of Us Part II. The video game takes place several years later and shows another part of Joel and Ellie’s journey. Since the first season was a very close adaptation of the first game, we can probably expect the same for the show’s second season.

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