Right now, HBO has released the final episode of the first season of the series The Last of Uswhich follows the events of the traumatizing episode 8, presenting the outcome of Joel and Ellie’s journey and the most controversial decision of this story.
After seeing Troy Baker, the original Joel of the games, play the character of James in the previous episode, now it’s the turn of Ashley Johnson, who captured Ellie’s movements from The Last of Us games, to make a cameo in the series.
Johnson appears in a long scene before the opening, showing a flashback where we meet Anna, Ellie’s mother. Yes, the original Ellie plays Bella Ramsey’s mother Ellie in the series, a nice nod to fans of the games.
We don’t get much context as to why she’s there, but Anna looks very pregnant, in labor, running from an infected. She ends up giving birth as she fights the infected and she eventually kills him, but not before being bitten.
She hastily cuts the umbilical cord and refuses to breastfeed the baby, who we know is Ellie. But somehow, the fact that Anna was bitten while she was attached to Ellie by her umbilical cord seems to have been enough for her to become immune.
After the opening, we continue into the flashback, where we see a familiar face – Marlene, who arrived too late at the house where Anna and the newborn Ellie are. Soon Marlene finds Anna, holding the baby as she holds a knife (yes, Ellie’s knife) to her own neck, ready to take her own life at any sign that the infection is taking hold.
Anna lies to Marlene that she cut the umbilical cord before being bitten, to protect the child and informs her that her name is Ellie, asks Marlene to keep her safe and give her the iconic knife that the young woman carries throughout her life. series. Anna also asks Marlene to kill her, a request which she grants, while Ellie mourns having unknowingly lost her mother.
It is then that we return to the present, with Ellie who seems lost in her own thoughts – probably related to what happened in the previous episode -, disinterested in everything Joel says, while he is more talkative than ever, offering games and teaching her. play guitar in the future.
The path taken by the two finally culminates in one of the most iconic scenes of the series: that of the giraffes. In the first version of the episode we received, the scene was rather unfinished, but the finished one is spectacular, with the duo enjoying the beautiful moment while enjoying nature taking over this destroyed world.
After Joel’s proposal to return to Jackson and live as if the trip to find the Fireflies had never happened, with him offering her a life by his side as father and daughter, Ellie refuses, remembering that everything they’ve been through and done could not’ I was not at all.
At the same time, he promises that he will follow him wherever he wants to go, accepting his implied proposal to live as father and daughter, but not before meeting the fireflies to try to find a cure for the Cordyceps infection and “finish what that we started”. .
Joel then admits to Ellie that his forehead scar, which he said was from someone who shot and missed him in the third episode, was actually his own, in an attempt to take his own life after losing Sarah. When Ellie asks if time heals all wounds, Joel responds intensely, saying that time didn’t heal him, leaving it to his interpretation that Ellie actually did.
As Ellie reads the puns to Joel, the two end up surprised by soldiers, who attack them, leaving Joel unconscious. This version of how the two end up in an ambush is different from the game, but has the same ending: Joel wakes up to find Marlene, who tells him the worst thing she could hear: Ellie has been prepped for surgery and that she will have doctors try to create a vaccine, which they believe will generate a cure.
Joel despairs, as Marlene tells him Ellie hasn’t been told anything and that she won’t feel any pain. Marlene makes the mistake of thinking that Joel will leave without a fight, and she lets him go, but everything already seems drawn in Pedro Pascal’s eyes in the scene. As he walks, Joel looks for ways to attack, until he succeeds, initiating the killing that will reference his relationship with Ellie, with the goal that this relationship still exists, with the girl he sees with her daughter still alive.
One by one, he kills the fireflies, until he reaches the operating room and kills the doctor, saves Ellie and takes her away, until he finds Marlene in the garage, where despite his best efforts, he chooses to save Ellie and kill the leader of the fireflies . .
Ellie eventually wakes up from the anesthesia in the backseat of a car, with Joel lying to her that the fireflies have run all the tests, found more people as immune as she is, and that the attempt to find a cure has been in vain.
Later, as they walk through the woods and Joel talks about Sarah, Ellie tells Joel about Riley and asks if what he told her about fireflies was true, and Joel again chooses to lie to Ellie.
While small, The Last of Us’ season finale delivered a worthy series finale. The game discussion of Joel’s decision now carries over to the series.
While many believe Joel did what any father would do and that there is no guarantee that the fireflies will get a cure, others point out the selfishness of the decision and how he squandered a chance to save the whole world, as well as not giving it a chance. for Ellie to make the decision herself, which even the fireflies failed to do.
This decision will certainly affect the future of their relationship in the future of the series, which already has a guaranteed second season.
Now all episodes of The Last of Us are available on HBO Max.
The post The Last of Us: Final Episode features Joel’s decision first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
