You Need to Know How 'The Last of Us' Finale Plays Out In the Game
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Are you in shock from The Last of Us's season finale? Me too. For us newcomers to the story, just know that there was one fanbase who saw Joel and Ellie's fates coming the entire time: gamers. Those who played 2013's The Last of Us have been one step ahead the entire way, surely bracing themselves for David the cannibal, that massive bloater of a mushroom monster, and now? Joel's decision to potentially doom all of humanity.
For those who need a recap: after the Firefly doctors capture Joel, he wakes up in a hospital bed—and learns that a surgeon needs to perform brain surgery on Ellie to learn more about why she's immune to the cordyceps infection. Joel realizes that this kind of surgery would end her life, so he murders everyone in the hospital to save her. As Joel drives away from the hospital, Ellie wakes up and asks what the hell happened. He flat-out lies about the whole killing spree. If there's any one episode that's more of a shot-by-shot recreation of the game than any other, the finale is probably it. The scenes play out largely the same in the HBO series as they do in the video game, but with one caveat—you have to do it. Yes, in video games, you're not just merely the spectator. This isn't a cutscene. You are Joel. The game doesn't let you decide if you feel like murdering all those doctors, either.
Sure, there's an oddly moving outtake from the making of the video game, where the actors sing an entire "alternate" ending of the finale, but The Last of Us isn't a choose-your-own-adventure game. Joel wants to kill in this story, and so you must abide.
In the video game, many of the questions regarding why Ellie is immune are mulled over by doctors through tape-recorded messages that Joel finds throughout his manhunt. But in the HBO series, Marlene directly states to our main character what they believe is happening: the cordyceps virus that transferred to Ellie from her mother during birth overrides any new infection. Apparently the mutated virus thinks that she is already infected, so any new bites or scratches don't take effect. None of this—especially Ellie's mom—are from the game. So, the HBO show's Firefly doctors could be totally wrong—or creator Neil Druckmann is revealing something big about Ellie in the television rewrite. Either way, it's left open to interpretation. You may get to decide what you believe, but in the game, you still have to control Joel as he murders his way through the hospital to save Ellie. You also have to lie to her about it after. Brutal.
Imagine this: fans had to wait seven years to find out the fallout from this moment in The Last of Us Part II. It'll be interesting to see what newcomers to the story will think of this ending. It was very controversial when the game released—but that also didn't stop its success. Naughty Dog remastered and repackaged The Last of Us twice before the sequel debuted, where we pick up with the story four years later. But for that, my lucky uninfected readers, we'll have to wait for Season Two.
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