The following review contains spoilers for Episode 9 of The Last of Us.
The much-awaited finale of The Last of Us has arrived, and it perfectly wraps up the stressful nine-episode season. The long journey that Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie took off on when the season premiered concludes with a rather emotional episode that will leave viewers feeling moved, shocked, and sad at the same time. With this flurry of emotion, there is obviously the hope that the duo’s story will continue in the second season.
The Last of Us finale finally answers the burning question that many viewers have had since the show premiered, which is how is Ellie immune to the Cordyceps virus? She has clearly been bitten by multiple Infected, but somehow manages to continue living like any other human being. Not only does the episode explain how she is able to do this, but also makes her character a little more humane, with the viewers wanting to root for her till the end.
The finale episode introduces viewers to Anna, Ellie’s mother, who is poetically portrayed by Ashley Johnson, the award-winning actor who played Ellie in The Last of Us games. Turns out that Anna had to fight an Infected while she was pregnant with Ellie. While she manages to kill her attacker, unfortunately she gets bitten while the baby’s umbilical cord is still attached. The stress-inducing sequence implies that the infection was transferred to Ellie the instant she was born, growing inside her since she was an infant.
This little bit of backstory sets a flawless foundation for the entire The Last of Us series, as Ellie’s immunity has been at the crux of the story. If she wasn’t immune, Marlene wouldn’t have asked Joel to take her across the country, him and Ellie wouldn’t have faced severe hardships and grown closer over time, and viewers wouldn’t have been able to witness the beautiful relationship that blossomed between the surrogate father-daughter duo. While it might not seem like a convincing reason to some, leading to heated conversations on social media, the HBO series at least offered a compelling explanation.
Speaking of the duo’s relationship, this week’s episode of The Last of Us beautifully brings the story full circle. Ellie was handed off to Joel by Marlene in the premiere episode, and they finally reach the hospital run by the Fireflies in the finale, where they meet the commander once again. However, their dynamic has changed entirely. When the HBO series premiered, Joel wasn’t happy about taking Ellie along, and reluctantly did so because of Tess. Nine episodes and a lot of hardships later, Joel isn’t ready to let go of Ellie and refuses to hand her off to Marlene, who happens to be her mother’s closest friend. Seeing the change in Joel’s character is absolutely endearing, and watching them slowly walk towards what they thought was their final destination over the course of the episode makes the ending that much more shocking, yet understandable.
The pace at which the episode moves perfectly encapsulates the viewers’ anticipation. While everyone wants to know how Joel and Ellie’s journey will end, there is also a bittersweet feeling knowing that all the events of the previous eight episodes have led up to this moment. The scriptwriters took their time bringing viewers to the climax of the season, stopping along the way for Ellie to meet a giraffe, read out some punny jokes, and have a heart-to-heart conversation with Joel about how he tried to kill himself after his daughter Sarah’s death. Once they meet the Fireflies though, the pace picks up a few notches, and the climax is worth the wait.
The moment where Joel finds out of the procedure that Ellie has to go through, and how things will end for her, his range of emotions is almost palpable. Pascal puts on a great performance as the surrogate father who is about to lose his second child in this post-apocalyptic world. The way he first pleads for her life and then turns into a barbaric killer represents his character development within one scene. He used to be a loving father, but turned into a killer, a gun for hire, after his daughter was killed. He changes his ways once again when Ellie comes into his life, and his fatherly instincts begin to show. But, having lost one child already, he will go to any means, no matter how brutal, to save the other one. The way this entire sequence is filmed and edited reminds viewers of how cinematic this series has been throughout its run.
The Last of Us finale is the most powerful and divisive episode of the series so far. The final scene in the episode is something that will have viewers debating whether Joel’s actions were truly justifiable. To make sure that Ellie, his surrogate daughter, lives, Joel goes on a rampage. Killing all Fireflies that come in his way, he finally makes it to the pediatric surgery room. Seeing the doctor and nurses preparing Ellie for the procedure, he first asks them to “unhook her.” When the doctor refuses, he shoots him in the head, and forces the nurse to comply. Was this truly necessary? Couldn’t he have taken Ellie without killing those who could potentially be saving lives in the future?
Things get worse when he manages to carry Ellie all the way to the parking lot because this is when Marlene finally intervenes. This is a character who is clearly close to Ellie, considering the epilogue in the episode that places her as the girl’s official guardian. But, over the course of his journey, Joel seems to have taken over that role, and isn’t ready to let go. This scene is something that will cause a bit of a rift among viewers and fans, because the series almost turns Marlene into an antagonist who wants to see Ellie die. However, it is for the hope that she will be able to provide a cure or vaccine for the Cordyceps virus and save all of humanity. So, are her motives justified? Is Joel in the wrong for brutally murdering her and her crew to save Ellie? Those are questions that will have fans debating for days. Either way, The Last of Us finale will have fans wondering how Joel's decision to save Ellie will impact their future.
The Last of Us is streaming on HBO Max.