The Part of Us Part I: A Narrative Analysis

The Last of Us Part I has seen a renewed surge in sales since the release of its sequel. Does this story still hold up as a masterpiece nearly eight years later?

The following article will contain full spoilers for The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us: Left Behind and The Last of Us Part II. If you wish to avoid these spoilers, click away now.

After taking a look at Jin Sakai’s harrowing journey through his home island of Tsushima, I wanted to take a real critical look at my favorite video game series of all time: The Last of Us. I’ve decided to go in order, so today I will be taking an in-depth look into 2013’s The Last of Us Part I. I wholeheartedly believe that this narrative is an absolute masterpiece, but I’ve never played this game with a real critical eye. I want to see if this story still holds up as a masterpiece in my eyes.

This will be long, much longer than my analysis for Ghost of Tsushima, so for easier reading, I’m going to head each section with the chapter (Prologue, Summer, etc.) and the locations. This way, if there’s a specific part you want to read my analysis on, you can scroll right to it instead of trying to wade through everything. My analysis for Part II will do something similar, but instead of locations as subheadings, I’ll indicate when a flashback happens.

Anyway, without any further ado, let’s get on with it…

Prologue (2013)

Austin, Texas

The game opens on September 26, 2013. Sarah Miller is asleep on the couch, and her father, Joel, is having a bit of a tense conversation with his brother Tommy. Eventually, he gets off the phone, and Sarah presents Joel with a new watch. It’s a birthday gift. The two banter back and forth and Sarah eventually falls asleep. Joel carries her to her bedroom, and whispers “goodnight, baby girl.” This is the last moment of levity before everything goes to shit.

This is something I’ve noticed in both games: the prologue has very vital pieces of information in it that you overlook at the moment, but are beautifully tied together with the narrative later on. In Part I, it’s that wristwatch Sarah gifts him, and the term “baby girl,” that are so powerful as this game progresses.

Sarah gets a call from Tommy, who’s looking for Joel. She tries to find her father and eventually finds him running back into their home from the neighbors. He starts loading his revolver and tells Sarah to keep away from the door. The glass door is shattered, and Joel kills his infected neighbor. It’s the first time Joel has had to kill, and he’s shaken by it.

Tommy comes and the Miller family tries to escape the city of Austin, Texas. However, they get into an accident, in which Sarah suffers a leg injury. Joel gives his revolver to his brother and carries his injured daughter as they run through the streets dodging scared citizens, bloodthirsty infected, and raging infernos. Tommy and Joel get separated, and Joel makes a break for the highway. They come across a soldier who is incredibly standoffish. After radioing into his command, Joel realizes what’s about to happen. He tries to throw him and Sarah out of the way, but it’s too late. Tommy saves Joel from the soldier, but Sarah is wounded. Joel does everything he can, but his daughter dies in his arms. He cries over Sarah’s body as the prologue ends.

An exposition scene plays and we see that governments have fallen around the world as vaccine tests failed. The military, under the name FEDRA, has assumed control and created quarantine zones across major cities in the United States. A militia group calling themselves the Fireflies have risen to combat the dictatorial rule of FEDRA. This scene ends with Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, pleading with the people. “When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light.”

Summer (2033)

Boston, Massachusetts

Joel awakes in the Boston Quarantine Zone 20 years later from a nightmare of that traumatic September night. There’s a knock on his door, and he opens it to find his companion, Tess. The two have a very tense conversation about a drop involving pills they were supposed to make when Joel notices that Tess was attacked. He starts prodding her for information when she reveals that “Robert fucking sent them.” Joel’s interest is further peaked when Tess reveals that she knows where he’s hiding out: an old warehouse in Area 5. Joel says he can go follow the lead now, Tess agrees, and they leave.

Our first look at a post-apocalyptic Boston shows a world devoid of hope. Trash litters the streets, people are wearing dirty clothes, and the city just gives off a very bleak and dreadful feel. Tess and Joel try to make their way to Area 5 through a FEDRA checkpoint, but a truck bombing thwarts their advance. The two then decide to go outside the walls of the QZ, and they eventually learn that they aren’t the only ones looking for Robert. Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, is also looking for him. A fact that is very off-putting to our two smugglers.

The two make their way outside the walls and run into a spore infested area. This is our first look at the first class of infected, Runners. It’s a tutorial sequence, so there’s nothing special about it. Joel and Tess deal with the infected and move on about their day. They eventually make their way through the city and encounter some of Robert’s men. A firefight breaks out, and those men are killed.

They fight through more of Robert’s men before coming to the old warehouse in Area 5. They find Robert in an office, and he takes off running. They corner him in an alleyway and basically torture him for information on their shipment of guns. He eventually reveals that he sold their guns to the Fireflies. Tess kills Robert, and before she and Joel can come up with a backup plan, a wounded Marlene shows up.

She needed Robert alive, and she refuses to just give them their guns back. Marlene needs something smuggled out of the city, and if Tess and Joel do it, she’ll give them double what Robert sold her. The two want to see the weapons first, and with an incoming FEDRA patrol, they need to move quickly. They make it back to Marlene’s hideout and it is revealed that they aren’t smuggling something, rather someone, out of the city. This is our introduction to Ellie. Marlene needs Joel and Tess to get Ellie to the Capitol Building. We also learn that Tommy, who’s conspicuously absent from Joel’s life, used to run with the Fireflies but ultimately left the group.

Joel and Ellie make their way to a smuggling tunnel while Tess travels back with Marlene to check out the weapons. Joel and Ellie don’t like each other at all. In the scene where we first see Ellie, Joel never looks at her until he absolutely has to. On their way to this tunnel, Joel is standoffish and Ellie isn’t comfortable around him. Once they reach the tunnel, Ellie acknowledges the now broken watch Joel is wearing, earning a scoff.

At this point in the story, we see these two characters at the beginning of their arcs. Joel is broken and has built these walls around him emotionally to prevent any further pain. I know “distrusting” is a term used to describe Joel, and I definitely see why, but I think it goes a bit deeper. I think Joel really does want to trust people and let them in. In his heart, he’s the caring and loving father we saw in the prologue. And he desperately wants to be that again. So it isn’t that he doesn’t want to trust people, it’s that he’s broken to a point that he’s unable to trust people.

On the flip side, Ellie is a bit awkward around Joel. She also doesn’t trust him, but she has a bit of a hopeful attitude. She hasn’t seen the horrors outside the quarantine zone. She’s caught glimpses of it, as evidenced by the Left Behind DLC and the American Dreams comic, but she hasn’t truly been outside the walls. So, she’s excited, in a way. She’s full of wonder and hope that it starts to eventually chip away at Joel’s barriers.

Ellie confides in Joel after he wakes up from a nightmare. She reveals that she’s a bit anxious about life outside the walls. “It can’t be any worse out there…can it?” Joel is about to prod further into why the Fireflies even care about this 14-year-old girl, but he’s interrupted by Tess. She confirms that the payment is as described, and Joel agrees. The trio set off for the Capitol Building.

The three make their way through the tunnel, but don’t make it far at all before being stopped by a FEDRA patrol. Backup is called as the three are scanned for infection. Ellie attacks the soldier who scans her, and Joel and Tess kill the two soldiers. Ellie is shaken, and Tess grabs the scanner. Both Joel and Tess are stunned: Ellie is infected with the Cordyceps Brain Infection (CBI). Ellie says that she isn’t infected, but she shows the bite mark on her forearm. According to her, she was bitten three weeks ago. Tess calls bullshit, saying people turn within two days. They don’t have time to argue, however, as the FEDRA backup is arriving.

Joel, Tess, and Ellie sneak around numerous FEDRA soldiers until they come to a clearing just outside of Downtown Boston. Tess asks what the Fireflies plan to do with Ellie, assuming the girl is actually immune. Ellie says that the Fireflies apparently have their own QZ, and they still have doctors still trying to develop a cure. Joel doesn’t buy into it at all and acts very dismissive towards Ellie, but Tess seems interested in at least following this lead and seeing where it goes.

For the first time, we see a parallel between Joel and Tess. Joel is still being a hardass, but Tess sees an opportunity. She might not be completely on board with it yet, but she’s…hopeful. She is hoping that this is real. She is hoping that everything will be okay. And this parallel only grows as we go on. She also hints at the fact that Joel may not want to do this job due to him still not being over the loss of his daughter.

They make their way through a very dilapidated office building, and we encounter Clickers for the first time. The trio battle through waves of infected before leaving the building and heading further into downtown. They get into a massive fight with a group of infected in a museum that seems to be unimportant at the time. However, Tess's demeanor starts to change after this encounter. Whenever doubt arises that the Fireflies will even be at the Capitol, she’s assertive in her dismissal of those doubts. She seems almost desperate for this immunity thing to actually be real.

After the fight, we see Joel and Ellie have a semi-decent moment for the first time. As the two watch the sunrise from behind the Capitol, Joel asks Ellie a simple question. “So, is this everything you were hoping for?” There’s a great deal of sarcasm and cynicism behind this question, but Ellie ignores it. “Jury’s still out, but man, you can’t deny that view.” This is another moment that seems insignificant at the moment but comes up again later as the story progresses. Joel looks down at his watch for the first time, remembering his daughter, before continuing.

The trio reaches the Capitol, but to their shock and horror, they find dead Fireflies. Tess immediately begins searching the corpses in a panicked frenzy. Joel starts questioning what she’s doing, but Tess is adamant. The two start fighting. Joel says she’s smarter than this, but Tess fights back. And she says one of the most important lines in the entire game, in my opinion. “Guess what? We’re shitty people Joel, it’s been that way for a long time.” He maintains that no, they’re just survivors, and eventually he blows up. “It is over Tess! Now we tried…let’s just go home.” However, Tess says that this is her last stop. And Ellie realizes why she’s been acting this way.

Tess is infected.

She grabs Ellie’s arm and points out that her hour-old bite is worse than Ellie’s bite. She in a sense guilt trips Joel into getting Ellie to wherever Tommy is. The military shows up, and Tess says she’ll buy the two enough time to escape. Joel wants to stay, he wants to fight, but ultimately he relents. For the first time, he addresses Ellie by name and tells her to get a move on. The two leave through the back door, and as they escape the Capitol, Tess is killed by the FEDRA patrol.

This section shows a very important parallel. When faced with the potential cure for humanity, Joel and Tess react very differently. Joel seems uninterested in the prospect of a cure. Several different interpretations could be had here. Maybe the pain Joel feels over the loss of Sarah is clouding his judgment, so he feels that a world that would take his young daughter away is undeserving of a cure. Maybe it’s the violence he’s committed in the 20 years since the outbreak. It’s not so much that he feels that humanity is undeserving, but that humanity just can’t go back to the way it was before the outbreak. There’s too much pain, too much lawlessness, too much death and destruction to reel in civilly.

Tess, however, uses this opportunity to reflect. She recognizes that she’s not a good person. And that while she could justify her use of violence as a means to an end to survive, she still recognizes that she isn’t a good person deep down. So, she wants to try and correct this. She is willing to follow this through until the bitter end. She sees this as an opportunity to redeem herself, whether that be in her own eyes or the eyes of a God. She just wants peace of mind and to know that she isn’t a bad person.

Joel and Ellie end up escaping the military through a spore infested subway station. The sight of Ellie breathing these spores lets both Joel and the player know that, as Tess put it earlier, “this is fucking real.” After they find a way out of the subway station, Ellie attempts to offer condolences over Tess, but Joel lays down some ground rules. Ellie is to not bring up Tess, keep her history to herself, tell no one about her “condition,” and do what Joel says when Joel says it. He asks her to repeat it, and she does to a satisfactory extent. Joel then says that he has a friend in a town a few miles north of them that could get them a car. And with that, Ellie and Joel set off for Bill’s Town.

Bill’s Town (Lincoln, Mass.)

The two walk through the woods and have an interesting back and forth. Ellie wonders why Joel doesn’t just take her back to Marlene, to which Joel responds that Marlene’s chances of survival weren’t too high to begin with, at least in his mind. He also doubts that he could get them back into the Boston QZ in one piece. I think this is interesting for a few reasons. It establishes that Joel definitely still has reservations about all this. However, it also establishes that Joel feels stuck. He doesn’t see any other way around this mission. He certainly isn’t going to leave this little girl to die, especially given how much she’s reminded him of Sarah. So, he moves forward, although the two of them are less than thrilled about it at the time.

The two enter Bill’s Town and another interesting moment happens. Ellie can tell immediately that Joel has never actually been to Bill’s Town. This is another one of those moments that becomes rather important as the game progresses. Anyway, they go through Bill’s Town and we see a few cute little character moments. Ellie trying to learn how to whistle, Joel being hesitant to boost Ellie up over a door that could potentially see Ellie get caught in barbed wire, Ellie talking about her art book full of gnomes, etc. These moments serve to show that Joel has some sort of a soft spot for Ellie and that he at least cares a little bit. He doesn’t love her yet by any means, but he’s not as standoffish. Joel also reveals that they need the car because Tommy lives “pretty far,” but doesn’t specify where exactly.

They set off a few of Bill’s traps, and we come to see that Bill is very paranoid. He has rigged the entire town up, even though he’s the only one living in it. Eventually, Joel finds Bill’s bow, and another interesting moment happens. Joel refuses to let Ellie be armed. He’s very much still wary of Ellie. It’s not that he thinks she’d kill him intentionally, but he sees her as a child. And children can make massive mistakes.

Eventually, they break into an old warehouse, and Joel gets caught up in one of Bill’s traps. He is hanging upside down and needs Ellie to cut off the counterweight. However, waves of infected start to swarm the warehouse and Joel has to shoot these infested while hanging upside down. Ellie cuts Joel down after some time, and Joel is tackled by a Runner. Joel is saved by Bill, and the three escape the warehouse and the infected.

Ellie introduces herself to Bill, but Bill handcuffs her to a pipe. He forces Joel to get on his knees so Bill can check to see if Joel is bitten. As this is happening, Ellie breaks the pipe off the wall and strikes Bill. Bill is incredulous, and wants to know “who the fuck is this punk and what is she doing here.” Ellie says that Bill owes Joel some favors, to which Bill initially scoffs. Joel cuts to the chase and says that he needs a car. Bill finds the idea ridiculous and ponders why he doesn’t just give Joel all his food too. Ellie makes a sarcastic quip, and Joel has to intervene. The two adults agree: while there isn’t a running car, there are parts. If Joel and Ellie help him gather these parts, Bill might be able to fix up this car. After this, the two agree, Bill’s debts to Joel are absolved.

The two make their way to Bill’s armory, which confuses Ellie. Bill says that the side of town that has the parts he needs is filled with infected, so he needs more weapons and ammunition to combat those infected. On their way, we start to peel back the layers a bit on what Joel did for those 20 years. The most telling quote comes from Bill. When Joel remarks on where Bill decided to hole up, Bill responds with, “As bad as those things are, at least they’re predictable. It’s the normal people that scare me. You of all people should understand that.”

They get to Bill’s armory, and Bill warns Joel. He tells a story about a partner that Bill “had to look after,” and he “wisend the fuck up.” He tells Joel to take Ellie back or send her packing because if he keeps “babysitting for long enough” it’ll get Joel killed. Bill then reveals his plan: recover a car battery from a military truck that crashed into a local high school and put it in a new car. Joel thinks the plan might actually work, and they start moving.

They take down waves of infected as they cut through a neighborhood. Eventually, they find themselves in a house right in front of the school. There’s an optional moment where Joel can go upstairs and read a little boy’s journal, after which Ellie will as Joel if he has a minute. Ellie breaks one of Joel’s rules, and brings up Tess again, offering condolences. He says that Ellie doesn’t need to worry about him. He doesn’t lash out like he did the last time. Slowly, Joel becoming comfortable around Ellie. Again, he doesn’t necessarily love Ellie, but he’s getting there.

They clear out some infected, but as they’re trying to get into the school, a horde descends upon them. They’re able to make it into the school, but they find that the battery is missing from the truck. Panicking, they move further into the school and fight through more infected. They find their way to the gym, and we get a mini-boss fight with the most advanced infected class: the Bloater. After this boss fight, the three escape the school and find refuge in a house nearby. Bill and Joel get into a shouting match but stop when Bill sees a body hanging in the living room. Bill recognizes this person as Frank, the partner he mentioned earlier. And for the first time, we see Bill’s mask slip. He gets emotional as he points out the bites on Frank’s body. However, he notices Joel looking at him, and the mask comes back on.

They’re interrupted by the sound of an engine revving. The two go investigate and find Ellie sitting in the driver’s seat of a truck. Bill realizes that Frank stole his battery and was attempting to flee. He concludes that the battery is dead but the cells are alive, so it’s possible to kickstart the battery back to life. Before they leave, you can go back into the house for more supplies. One of the things you’ll find is a note from Frank to Bill. It’s a scathing note, that talks about how much Frank hates Bill. And the most fucked up part about it is that you can actually give Bill this note.

Bill and Joel push as Ellie drives. Waves of infected attack as they push, but Ellie gets the truck started, and the three of them drive away from the horde. Bill stops them eventually and hops out. He gives Joel a siphoning hose, and Joel offers condolences for Frank. Bill asks if they’re square, which Joel confirms, and Bill tells him to get the fuck out of town. With that, Bill leaves, and Joel drives off with Ellie.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

One of the lighter moments of the story happens as the two enter Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ellie, reading a comic book she stole from Bill’s, is upset about a cliffhanger. Joel asks what else Ellie stole, and she brings out an old country tape. She then brings out one of Bill’s pornographic magazines and messes with Joel. “Why are these all stuck together?” Ellie asks, leaving Joel speechless. She laughs, assures him that she’s just fucking around, and tosses the magazine out of the window. “Bye-bye dude!”

This shows two things. One, the game confirms that Bill is gay. And I know there are a lot of people who find LGBTQ+ representation in video games to be “pandering” or bad in some way, but I am not one of them. Bill is a really well-written character, and he is vital to Joel’s story. I think he serves two purposes: one is to warn Joel about the danger of getting too close to someone (the pain Bill feels over losing Frank), and the other is to show the danger of closing yourself off too much (the paranoia, talking to yourself, etc.) I know that sounds confusing, but it’s supposed to. Joel is confused at this point. He can feel Ellie chipping away at the walls he built up over the last 20 years. On one hand, it scares him, but on the other hand, he wants to feel that type of connection again. All he’s ever wanted to be is a father, and Ellie represents that possibility. So, Bill serves to show both sides of this coin. And besides, even if all of that isn’t true, there’s nothing wrong with LGBTQ+ characters in video games. If that opinion bothers you, I suggest you stop reading my content right now.

The other thing this moment shows is what I alluded to earlier. Joel is starting to feel Ellie push her way into his heart. He is starting to feel the same type of love for Ellie that he felt for his daughter. And it seems as if, maybe, he’s starting to embrace it.

They make their way further into Pittsburgh but finds the main road blocked off by abandoned cars now frozen in time. Joel considers turning the truck around but takes the open road further into the city. They come across a man, holding his side and pleading for help. Joel tells Ellie to put her seatbelt on because the man isn’t actually hurt. He floors it, and it turns out that he was right. Hunters ambush the truck and the two end up crashing into a convenience store. They fight off the rest of the hunters and escape the area.

Ellie asks Joel how he knew about the ambush, and we finally learn some of Joel’s past before being a smuggler. He tells Ellie that he’s been on both sides. He used to be a hunter. When asked if he’s killed a lot of innocent people, Joel offers a noncommittal grunt. She takes that as a “yes.” “Take it however you want,” he says.

They spot the bridge they need to get out of town, and Joel admonishes Ellie for going ahead of him, to which Ellie shrugs off. This part of the game is also the first time Joel can collect comics for Ellie, showing that he’s starting to care about her more and more. They come across some dead bodies, and Joel lets Ellie in on the motto most people live by nowadays: you sacrifice the few to save the many. Remember this motto.

After clearing out a bookstore full of hunters, Joel and Ellie make their way to a hotel. During their journey to the hotel, they find out that these hunters have stolen a military turret. After cutting through some hunters in the hotel, they enter an elevator shaft. As Joel boosts Ellie up to the next floor, the elevator gives way, and he falls to the flooded basement below. He tells Ellie to stay put as tries to find a way back to her.

Joel ventures into a spore infested basement, and finds a generator. When he attempts to turn the generator on, he is attacked by the second class of infected: Stalkers. After fending off a wave of Stalkers, Joel gets the generator started. He runs to escape another wave of infected, but he realizes that he needs a hotel keycard to get out. He finds the keycard, fights off the infected, and makes his way out of the basement. After fighting off a wave of hunters, Joel finds a ladder that would bring him up to Ellie. However, as he’s climbing up the ladder, another hunter kicks him off. Joel falls into a pool of water on the floor below, and as the hunter is drowning him, someone grabs Joel’s gun and kills the hunter. Joel looks up to see who it was and finds Ellie standing there, gun in hand.

Ellie feels ill over what just happened, as this is seemingly the first person she’s had to kill. Joel, however, is standoffish. He says he’s just glad to not have had his head blown off by a goddamn kid, and berates Ellie for not staying where he told her to stay. She fights back, “you know what? No. How about ‘hey Ellie, I know it wasn’t easy but it was either him or me, thanks for saving my ass.' You got anything like that for me, Joel?” Joel doesn’t answer, saying they need to move.

In the immediate sections after this, Ellie has an attitude. When Joel describes what a backdrop is, Ellie gives a very harsh answer. When Joel asks what’s going on, she tries to explain that she wasn’t trying to disobey him. She thought he was in danger, and she wanted to help. Joel says it doesn’t matter what she thought. He just needs Ellie to listen to him. This is an important part, as it shows that Ellie truly cares for Joel. She wants his acceptance. She wants to know that Joel cares for her back, or at least likes her. And Joel does care. He just doesn’t really show it. He lashes out because he feels Ellie could have gotten hurt, and he doesn’t want to have that happen.

The two come to a balcony and see a group of hunters below. Joel picks up a rifle left behind. He tells Ellie he’s going to go down and clear a path. This upsets Ellie, as she believes they’d “have more of a fucking chance” if she helps. Joel says that he is letting her help, and begins to explain how to fire the rifle. “If I get into trouble down there, you make every shot count,” Joel says. She says she’s got it. Before he heads down, Joel says “and just so we’re clear about back there, it was either him or me.” It’s a thank you for saving his life, which Ellie recognizes.

Joel and Ellie clear the area of the hunters, and she joins him on the ground. She asks how she did, and Joel gives Ellie a pistol from one of the dead hunters. There’s this air of sadness around this moment, as the player comes to realize this is Joel and Ellie’s first real bonding moment. And in a sense, they bonded over killing other people. They bonded over the mere act of surviving. This is just another reminder of the type of life that the world around them has created.

Joel and Ellie make their way out of that area, but don’t advance far before needing to hide from the military turret. They advance through more hunters before reaching an alley, and again running into the turret. It is impossible to sneak past this turret. It will be alerted, and it eventually starts shooting at you. Joel and Ellie escape to an apartment building, and in one of the apartments, Joel is attacked.

Joel and his attacker fight for a minute, but Ellie stops Joel. They look up to see that they’re being held at gunpoint by a kid. Joel’s attacker introduces himself as Henry, and the kid as Sam, his brother. Henry explains that the two were apart of a group that entered the city for more supplies, but the hunters ambushed them. Now, they’re trying to get out of the city. Ellie says they could help each other, and Henry agrees. He says he has a hideout not too far from their current location, and that it’d be safer to talk there. Joel agrees and asks Henry to lead them to the hideout.

Along the way, we learn that Sam and Henry are originally from the Hartford Quarantine Zone. Ellie mentions that she’s heard about some rough things out that way, and I point this out because I want to mention something I noticed in the Left Behind DLC. As you’re going through the mall with Riley, there’s a note that you can find right before the two turn the power back on. The note is from a FEDRA soldier who mentions how the Hartford QZ had collapsed not too long ago. It’s not important to the overall story, but I like how they tied that together when they really didn’t need to.

Our group of four make it to the bottom of the building, and once again have to duck from the military turret. Henry mentions that the turret has hounded them since they entered the city, but he notices Sam picking up a toy robot. He berates him, reminding him of “the rule,” and Sam relents after a minute. Our group of four make their way through some more hunters before making it to Henry’s office. Sam and Ellie share blueberries while Henry and Joel talk. Henry mentions that they’re looking for the Fireflies, which earns a scoff from Joel. “Just seems like there’s a lot of people putting their stock in the Fireflies these days,” he explains. Henry says that there just might be a reason for this. Things get a little tense when Joel asks if Henry’s really going to drag Sam across the country for what basically amounts to a rumor, but they get past it.

Sam says that they can sneak by the hunters at night when they’re a skeleton crew. Then, there’s an old radio tower past the bridge. Whatever is left of Henry’s group is supposed to meet there the next day. Joel says they better rest up then. We see him in restless sleep, but before a nightmare wakes him, Ellie does. The group of four clear out the hunters, and just as they’re opening the FEDRA gate to the next area, the military turret shows up. They’re able to get into the next area and close the gate. However, a hunter reveals their location, and the turret begins banging on the gate. Henry and Sam climb onto a truck, but as Joel is hoisting Ellie up, the already broken ladder breaks off completely. With no way to get Joel up, Henry takes Sam and leaves Joel there. Ellie jumps down, saying that they stick together, and the two escape into an old bar. Fun fact: this bar is also in Uncharted 3.

They escape the bar, only to find themselves being chased by the military turret. They run on the bridge until they realize that the bridge is broken, and they can’t actually cross it. Joel suggests boosting Ellie up and shooting at the turret, but Ellie has another idea: jump into the waters below. Joel thinks it’s a stupid idea, seeing as Ellie can’t swim and it’s too high. She says he’ll keep her afloat, and jumps into the rushing rapids below. He does end up grabbing her and readjusts their position before they slam into a rock in the water so that he takes most of the blow.

Joel wakes up on a beach near a cliff, and we see Henry and Sam. Henry starts talking about how Sam spotted them, but he’s interrupted as Joel grabs Henry’s gun and pushes him to the ground. Henry says that Joel is pissed but he won’t do anything. Joel says that they left him to die, but Henry says that they had a good chance of making it anyway. Coming back for them would’ve put Sam at risk, and he questions if Joel would have come back for Henry and Sam if they were in the same position. He saved them. Ellie reiterates this as well, saying that they would have drowned. This is what causes Joel to toss the gun back to Henry. He mentions that their radio tower is on the other side of the cliff, and our group sets off to explore the area.

The mention of Ellie being saved is what makes him stop. This is huge, as we’re now seeing signs that this isn’t a job for Joel anymore. He still doesn’t give a damn about the cure, but he does give a damn about Ellie. I’ll talk more about this in a bit, but keep this part in mind.

Henry, Sam, Joel, and Ellie venture into a sewer. They eventually stumble upon an old living quarters that has since been abandoned. They go further into the sewer and find that it is crawling with infected. At one point, Joel and Sam are separated from Ellie and Henry. Joel and Sam fight through a room full of Stalkers and Clickers before reuniting with the other two. They run until they find a room that has a way out, but the door is jammed. Henry and Joel are forced to fight the infected until Ellie and Sam can get the door open.

After escaping the sewer, our group of four explore an abandoned Pittsburgh suburb. This is where some lighter moments come in. Ellie asking about ice cream trucks, her and Sam playing darts, Henry reminiscing about pre-outbreak barbeques. But there’s one very important moment that players often miss. At the end of the neighborhood, you’ll find a red Firefly symbol. Joel mentions to Henry that they’re looking for his brother out in Wyoming. If they find him, they find the Fireflies. Joel then asks if Henry and Sam would like to accompany them to Wyoming, to which Henry agrees.

As the two exit this neighborhood, they’re shot at. They realize there’s a sniper in a house at the end of the neighborhood they just entered. Joel fights through waves of hunters before eventually killing the sniper and gaining control of the rifle. He helps Henry and Ellie fight off the remaining hunters, including destroying the military turret from earlier. Just as everything seems to be okay, a horde of infected descends upon them. Joel can shoot a few of the infected, but eventually, he bails. He rejoins Ellie, Henry, and Sam downstairs. Sam is noticeably dejected, but no one mentions it. They leave the house and reach the radio tower.

Sometime later, Joel and Henry bond over their love for motorcycles. Joel tells a story of Tommy wanting to rent two Harleys for his birthday and riding across the country. Ellie is disinterested in this conversation and goes into the next room to talk to Sam. He’s taking inventory of the food they found, but Ellie tries to keep the conversation lighthearted. She picks up on his mood and attempts to leave him be for the night, but he stops her. “How is it that you’re never scared?” He asks. She asks who said she wasn’t. Sam wants to know what she’s scared of, and she offers a joking answer at first before giving up the true answer: ending up alone. Sam says he’s scared of the infected, and wonders if the people are still inside those infected. He’s scared of it happening to him. Ellie says that the person is not in there anymore. And she doesn’t believe that they’ve moved on to a better place. Ellie then tries to cheer him up by giving him the toy robot from earlier before biding him a good night. Sam throws the robot down, sits down, and lifts his pant leg.

Sam was bitten and is now infected.

The next morning, Ellie asks where Sam is, but Henry says that he’s letting Sam sleep in. If she wants him to join them for breakfast, she can wake his ass up. However, Sam has turned at this point, and he attacks Ellie. Joel goes for his gun, but Henry stops him. “That’s my fucking brother.” Joel attempts to go for his gun again, but another gunshot rings out. Sam goes limp on the floor, and Ellie crawls over to Joel. A distraught Henry has just killed his brother. Joel attempts to get the gun from Henry, but Henry sobs, “It’s all your fault.” Any attempts to get the gun from Henry fail when he suddenly turns the gun on himself, and the screen goes black.

Remember when I said Bill represents both sides of the same coin? How he represents both the dangers of getting too close to someone and the dangers of closing yourself off too much? Joel really only sees the latter of this, so he begins to open up more to Ellie and he starts letting her in. However, Sam and Henry represent what Joel didn’t see: the dangers of getting too close to someone. Joel knows this isn’t a job anymore. He loves Ellie and he wants her to be safe. This is why he didn’t kill Sam and Henry when he woke up on that beach. They saved Ellie. They kept her safe. However, Henry and Sam’s deaths leave him at a crossroads, and we’ll see how he reacts in the next chapter.

Fall (2033)

Jackson, Wyoming

The next time we see Joel and Ellie it is fall, and they’re on the outskirts of Jackson, Wyoming. They advance, and Ellie asks Joel why he’s not with Tommy. Joel reveals they had a pretty big fight. “Tommy saw the world one way, and I saw it the other.” This fight led to Tommy joining the Fireflies. The last thing Tommy said to Joel was “I don’t ever want to see your goddamn face again.” Ellie remains resolute, saying they’ll get to the Fireflies with or without Tommy’s help. Joel is suspiciously noncommittal.

They come across an old FEDRA hydroelectric power plant, and there’s an optional moment that reveals a bit about their mind states: once you make it across the dam, you’ll come across a small grave. Joel will comment on it, and Ellie will mention that she forgot to leave the robot on Sam’s grave. She wants to talk about what happened, but Joel shuts her down. “Things happen, and we move on.” It seems as if the Joel from Boston is still there, fighting with Joel The Father.

They realize they can’t go around the plant, so they try to go through it. As Joel tries to breach the door, they get guns drawn on them. A woman tells them not to make a move, and for Ellie to drop her weapon. Joel tells Ellie to comply and tells the woman that they were just trying to make their way through. Before the woman can question further, a man says that they’re alright. “He’s my goddamn brother.” The man says. It’s Tommy. The Miller brothers embrace, and Tommy introduces the woman as Maria. She reveals that she and Tommy are married. Ellie is introduced to the two of them, and Tommy brings them inside.

Joel asks why he’s at the plant and not in Jackson, to which Tommy replies that they’re trying to get the plant back up and running. They have electricity. And walking through this area, we get a sense that this is an actual community. Not a community like those Joel and Tommy knew pre-outbreak but as close to that as you’ll get. Ellie and Maria split off from Joel and Tommy, much to Ellie’s chagrin. Tommy and Joel stop in a living quarters of sorts. Tommy says that last year, he went back to Texas. And he found something for Joel. It’s a picture of Joel and Sarah, with Sarah holding a soccer trophy. Joel rejects the photo and says he needs to talk to Tommy privately. Tommy agrees but wants to check on his guys first.

Tommy tells Joel that Maria and her father set up Jackson with the idea of being self-sustained through crops and livestock. They have the adults take turns guarding the perimeter, and even have an electrified fence. They make their way into the terminal, and Tommy’s men get the plant back up and running. He and Joel go into a back room to have their talk.

Tommy asks why Joel left Boston, and he reckons that it has “something to do with that little girl.” Joel confirms this and tells Tommy of Ellie’s immunity. Tommy doesn’t believe him, but Joel stands firm. “I’ve seen her breathe enough spores to take down a dozen men, and nothing,” Tommy asks that if this is the case, why to bring her to Jackson. Joel shocks the player by offering Tommy to finish the job for him. To take Ellie off his hands. Tommy asks why Joel thinks he’d do this for him. He has a family now, and this isn’t a walk in the park. Joel pleas to have some of “Maria’s born again friends to do it,” but they’ve got families too. Joel lays it all out on the line at the end and just says that he needs this. Tommy says that Joel can have the gear he wants, but he’s not taking Ellie off his hands. Joel gets angry and attempts to guilt-trip Tommy as Tess did to him, but it fails. The two brothers look like they may come to blows before a siren sounds. Tommy says they’re under attack, and Joel agrees to help them fight off the bandits.

After fighting off the bandits, Tommy sees Joel tend to Ellie, and he decides he needs to talk to Maria. Maria is seen yelling at Tommy, and Ellie asks Joel about it. He says they’ll talk about it later, but Ellie sees right through it. Maria storms off and Tommy tells Joel that he’ll take Ellie to the Fireflies. Joel says he needs to talk to Ellie, and right on cue, Tommy receives news that Ellie stole one of Jackson’s horses and rode off. The two brothers go after her, and after fending off a bandit ambush, find the stolen horse outside of a ranch house. Joel heads upstairs, and this next scene is one of the most important, well-acted, and most emotional scenes of the entire game.

Joel tells Ellie that they’re leaving but Ellie says no. Joel asks her if she knows what her life means, and how goddamn stupid all of this was. Ellie says that it seems they’re both disappointed in each other then. Joel asks what she wants from him, and Ellie demands that he admit that she’s wanted to get rid of her the entire time. Joel starts to deny it, but again, Ellie sees through it. He says he trusts Tommy more than himself, but Ellie doesn’t buy that either. “Stop with the bullshit. What are you so afraid of?” She mentions that she can’t end up like Sam, she can’t get infected. Joel brings up the close calls they’ve had, Ellie points out that they’ve been doing fine, and Joel says that now she’ll be doing even better with Tommy. He turns away from her, and Ellie quietly says, “I’m not her, you know?” She brings up Sarah, and Joel cuts her off. “You’re treading on some mighty thin ice here,” Ellie says she’s sorry about his daughter, but she’s lost people too. And then, we get this exchange:

Joel: You have no idea what loss is.

Ellie: Everyone I’ve cared for has either died or left me. Everyone *shoves Joel* fucking except for you you. So don’t tell me I’d be safer with someone else when the truth is I’d just be more scared.

Joel: You’re right. You’re not my daughter. And I sure as hell ain’t your Dad. And we are going our separate ways. *Tommy interrupts*

I bring up this scene because it’s when our two main characters realize what we’ve known for a minute: this isn’t a job anymore. Ellie isn’t Joel’s cargo, and Joel isn’t Ellie’s smuggler. They’re connected. They have a bond. They are, for lack of a better word, family. I don’t think Ellie and Joel explicitly see each other as father and daughter or parent and child, but they do see each other as family. They recognize that the other fills a void they never thought they’d see fixed. And the player, too, recognizes that this game is so much deeper than just saving humanity.

Tommy interrupted to alert them of bandits that had entered the house. After Joel kills them, they go back to the horses. Ellie is dejected, and Joel is contemplative. The trio ride to an overlook near Jackson. Tommy talks about how kids will be watching movies tonight when Joel asks where the Firefly lookout is. Tommy says that it’s at the University of Eastern Colorado. He tells Ellie to get off her horse and give it back to Tommy, which confuses the younger brother. Joel says that Maria scares him, and he doesn’t want her coming after him. He asks how to find the lab, and Tommy says that it’s in the science building. “It looks like a giant mirror, you can’t miss it,” Tommy says there’s a place for Joel in Jackson, but Joel and Ellie ride off for Colorado.

At this moment, Joel is committed to taking Ellie to the Fireflies. Not necessarily committing to her entirely, but he’s going to see this thing through.

University of Eastern Colorado (Boulder, CO)

This section opens with Joel and Ellie approaching the University as Joel explains the rules of American Football. We see these cute little moments a few times when Joel dismounts where they bicker about the name Ellie chose for the horse, Callus. Joel also finds a sniper's nest, and he explains what colleges such as UEC worked. Ellie remarks how pre-outbreak people were “idol worshipers,” which Joel confirms, at least when it came to sports. These moments are nice to see as the familial bond between these two grows further and further, and it highlights their progression as the game has moved along.

They ride through a building, and as Joel opens a gate, Callus becomes spooked. They hear Runners upstairs, and Joel goes to clear them out. He starts a generator and comes back down. Ellie tells him about how she would have wanted to be an astronaut, and Joel confides that he wanted to be a singer as a kid. She begs him to sing something, but to no avail.

They ride to an old dormitory, and we see a Firefly logo on the outside of the building. Joel enters the dormitory to try and come out the other side of a gate they can’t open. He drops into a spore infested basement and has to fight his way thought Clickers and a Bloater, but he makes it out to the other side. He opens the gate for Ellie, and they ride the rest of the way to the science building. Once they make their way inside, they notice just how absent and empty it all feels. They come across infected monkeys and learn that a Firefly doctor who ran tests on these monkeys was also bitten by one. They find this doctor’s skeleton and his final voice recording. Joel plays the recording, and according to this doctor, the Fireflies have relocated to St. Mary’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ellie starts asking a few questions, but Joel is distracted. He sees a group of men advancing through the building. One of them notices the two, and fires a shot, causing them to duck for cover.

Joel and Ellie make their way through these men, as they attempt to leave the University for Utah. At one point, however, Joel and one of these men fall off a balcony, and Joel is impaled by a piece of rebar. Ellie pulls him off the rebar, and now she is the one who has to get them out of harm’s way. While there are a few close calls, she does eventually get them out of the University. A cool moment as they’re leaving: Ellie tells Joel that if she gets him out of this, “you’re so singing for me.” It’s a nice set up for the beginning of Part II.

They get on Callus and ride off. Once they’ve put some distance between them and the school, Joel passes out due to blood loss. Ellie starts panicking, pleading with Joel to get up. “You’ve gotta tell me what to do!” She yells. However, the screen goes black, and we transition to the next chapter.

Winter (2033)

Silver Lake, Colorado

We see shots of the now snow-capped landscape of the Eastern Colorado wilderness. Unlike other locations, it isn’t really clear as to where we are until the end of the chapter. The University of Eastern Colorado is located in Boulder, CO according to an in-game map. However, towards the end of the chapter, we see a sign welcoming the player to Silver Lake, Colorado. The camera pans to a rabbit popping out of the glistening snow. It’s a cute little moment as the animal sniffs around a bit. That is until an arrow comes and kills the rabbit, and we see canvas sneakers enter the frame. We see Ellie pick up the rabbit, and comment on how it won’t last long. She then spots a deer and decides to hunt it.

The player assumes control of Ellie for the first time. She hunts the deer for a while before finding it dead near a town. She hears a twig snap and calls out to see who’s there. Two men come out from behind a tree. One of the men introduces himself as David, and his friend as James. They’re from a group with women and children, who are all very hungry. Ellie says she too, women and children, all very hungry too. David offers a trade of weapons, ammo, or clothes for some of the meat. Ellie, however, requests medicine, antibiotics. David says they have it, and Ellie can follow them back to the camp, but she refuses. She says if James can go get it, and if he comes back with what she needs, the deer is theirs. David requests that his friend go grab two bottles of penicillin and a syringe. James seems taken aback but heads off for the medicine.

We know now, even though we haven’t seen him, that Joel is alive.

Ellie takes David’s rifle, and the two take shelter from the cold nearby. David tries to ask Ellie a few questions, like what her name is, but Ellie is standoffish. Much like Joel was back in Boston. They’re interrupted by a Clicker. The Clicker uses its echolocation to search for anyone around. Ellie’s foot bumps into the deer, alerting the Clicker. As it charges her, David shoots and kills the Clicker. Ellie is shocked that he’s had a gun the entire time, but they can’t dwell on it, as a horde of infected are descending upon the warehouse they took shelter in.

The infected force them to go deeper into the warehouse, where they’re eventually cornered. Without an escape route, Ellie and David decide to hold their location and fight off the horde. After a while, they are able to fight off the horde. They decide to head back and check on the deer. David says they make a pretty good team, but Ellie says they just got lucky. David scoffs at the idea. He doesn’t believe in luck. He says that everything happens for a reason. He can prove it, too. He tells Ellie that a few weeks back, he sent a group of men out to a nearby town to look for food. Only a few came back, and they told David that the rest of their group were “slaughtered by a crazy man traveling with a little girl.” It dawns on both the player and Ellie that the men from the University were David’s men.

Ellie points her rifle at David, but he remains calm. He says it’s not her fault. She’s just a kid. He tells James to lower the gun, and Ellie turns around to see that she’s being held at gunpoint. James argues, but David says to lower the gun and give Ellie the medication. He reluctantly complies, saying that “the others won’t be happy about this.” Ellie takes the medicine and begins to make her leave when David stops her. He offers her protection, which Ellie refuses. She runs back to Callus and rides away from the area.

She brings the horse to a lakeside neighborhood and enters an abandoned house. She heads downstairs to the basement, and we see a motionless Joel on an old mattress, covered in some kind of blanket. Ellie fears he might be dead, so she calls out to him, and he stirs. She goes to his side, moves the blanket back, and we see his now stitched up wound. If you recall from The Last of Us: Left Behind, you know that Ellie stitched Joel up after finding a First Aid Kit in a crash-landed military helicopter. Ellie then gives Joel a shot of penicillin near the injured area, reapplies the blanket, and falls asleep next to him on the floor.

Ellie awakes the next morning to noise outside the house. She looks out the window to see that some of David’s men tracked Callus’ tracks back to their location. She tells Joel, who’s still out of it, that she’s going to draw them away from the house. She gets on Callus and rides off. David’s men open fire once they spot her, and a few try to climb onto the horse. Eventually, David’s men turn their attention to the horse, and Callus is shot and killed. Ellie and Callus fall down an embankment, and Ellie is forced to flee into a nearby resort. However, some of David’s men are searching the buildings there too. Ellie eventually kills these men and takes the nature track to advance further into the resort. After killing a few more of David’s men, Ellie finds a way into a lodge but is spotted by more of David’s men shortly after entering the lodge. Two of David’s men charge at her, but Ellie fights them off too. As she attempts to escape the lodge, however, David finds her and traps Ellie in a sleeper hold of sorts. Ellie fights but eventually passes out.

When Ellie awakes, she is in some sort of jail cell or cage. She looks around and eventually sees James, David’s friend, chopping something on a table. Ellie, and the player, realize that James is chopping off a limb from a human being. David’s men are cannibals. James gives Ellie a cold stare before walking out of the room. Shortly thereafter, David enters with a tray of food for Ellie. He asks how she’s feeling, and Ellie is very sarcastic and standoffish. When he slides the food under the cage door for her, she makes a few quips about whether or not there’s human meat in the meal. David assures her that it’s just the deer meat, and while Ellie doesn’t entirely believe him, she devours the food. David mentions that Ellie is awfully quick to judge his group, considering she and Joel killed a bunch of his men. Ellie says that his men left them no choice, and David asks if Ellie believes his group has a choice. They kill to survive, just like Ellie and Joel. Ellie asks what’s next, will she be chopped up into tiny pieces? David says he’d prefer not to, and wants to know Ellie’s name.

She says he’s full of shit, and David says that he’s actually been truthful the entire time. And he needs to convince the others in his town that she can come around to what they’re about. He says that she’s loyal, full of heart, and special. He puts his hand on top of hers, and Ellie recognizes what David means. She breaks his fingers and grabs at the keys to the cage, but David slams her face-first into the door. He checks his fingers and says she’s making it very difficult to keep her alive. He asks what he’s going to tell the others now. Ellie says her name, and tells David to tell the others that “Ellie is the little girl that broke your fucking fingers.” David asks how she put it earlier, “tiny pieces? See ya in the morning, Ellie.” She watches him leave as the scene ends.

We cut to Joel, who has woken up in the cold basement of an empty house. He is still in pain from his injury and is calling out to Ellie, receiving no response. He goes upstairs, and still finds no Ellie. He leaves the house and makes it a little further away from the home before he is shot at by David’s men. Joel chases off the group before two men ambushed him. As one of them goes to stab him, Joel kicks them both in the dick and slams one up against the side of a house. He kicks the other in the face and drags him off to a nearby house. We see him beating a man who’s situated up against a wall. There’s another man who is tied to a chair not far from them. He stops beating the first guy, goes and grabs a map, a knife, and a chair. He sits down in front of the guy tied up in the chair and demands to know if the girl is alive. The guy at first denies knowing about a girl, but after being stabbed in the knee, he admits that she’s alive. “She’s David’s newest pet.” Joel twists the knife, and the man says that she’s “in the town.” Joel puts the knife handle into the guy's mouth and makes him mark the location on the map, “and it better be the same exact spot your buddy points to.” The man marks it on the map and swears he’s not lying. Joel strangles the man until his neck snaps. He then grabs a pipe from the floor. The guy who’s up against the wall says that he’s not saying shit. Joel says that that’s okay, and he believes the other guy. Joel then bashes this dude’s skull in as the screen cuts to black.

This scene here is kind of important in my opinion. It shows that Joel really, really cares about Ellie. And I think it also shows that Joel actually somewhat enjoys inflicting pain on other people. He enjoys the violence of the world, and it brings him a weird sense of comfort. Of course, his motivations behind committing that violence are different. At the beginning of the game, he did it out of anger and hatred. Now, he’s doing it out of the love he feels for Ellie.

Speaking of, she is awakened by James, who drags her out of the cage and over to David. She bites David, and he drives a knee into her gut. They lift Ellie onto the butcher’s table, and right before David chops off Ellie’s arm, she reveals that she is infected. This causes the two men to pause, David especially given that he’s been bitten. She asks that he roll up her sleeve, and he decides to play along. He drives the butcher’s knife into the table right by Ellie’s head and rolls up her sleeve to reveal the scabbed bite mark. James freaks out while David says that it can’t be real. During the commotion, Ellie grabs the knife and plunges it into James’ neck. She rolls off the table and ducks a couple of gunshots as she runs into the other room. She grabs her switchblade and jumps out a window into a raging blizzard outside.

She escapes further into town under the cover of the intense snowfall. David meets up with some of the men outside a store, alerting them that she got out. He orders that they find and kill Ellie. She now has to get by these men with nothing but a switchblade and a revolver she can pick up from an enemy she stealth kills. She fights her way through to an abandoned restaurant. David has tracked her down, and a scuffle ensues. The restaurant catches fire as they fight, and after three attempts at stabbing David, both of them are knocked unconscious as the inferno grows and the screen cuts to black.

We move to Joel, who’s making his way through the blizzard towards the town. He makes his way past a few patrols of David’s men before fleeing into a nearby building. In this building, he finds Ellie’s backpack. He wonders to himself why her things are here, and when he walks into the next room, he sees three bodies hanging upside down with their feet tied together and throats slit. Joel panics and realizes he needs to find Ellie now. He leaves this building and comes out right in front of the burning restaurant. We go inside the restaurant to see Ellie and David still on the floor. Ellie begins to stir and spots David’s machete across the room. She begins to crawl over towards the blade, but she’s kicked in the ribs by David. He tells her to stay down, and that it’s okay to give up. She continues crawling towards the weapon, and David strikes her again.

He shoves Ellie’s head into the floor and tells her that she can try begging her way out of this. She tells him to fuck off, and David says that she has no idea what he’s capable of. He begins strangling her, but Ellie had shimmied her way towards the machete, and grabs. She swings and slices David’s wrist. He falls to the ground, and she starts hacking away at his face. She strikes his face again and again and again. After a while, Joel comes in and pulls Ellie off of David’s corpse. She reacts violently, screaming for this person not to fucking touch her, but she calms down once she realizes that it’s Joel. “He tried to…” Ellie sobs and Joel immediately pulls Ellie into an embrace, calling her baby girl as she cries in his arms. After a moment, the music takes over and they break the embrace. Joel says something to Ellie that isn’t audible over the music, but if you read his lips it looks like he says “I am never leaving you again, do you understand?” Ellie nods, and they leave the restaurant.

I cannot stress this enough: the Winter chapter in The Last of Us Part I is the most important chapter in the entire game. This chapter shows the culmination of both Joel and Ellie’s character arcs. Joel in this moment commits to Ellie completely. He becomes that caring and loving father we haven’t seen since the prologue. He will be there for Ellie, no matter what happens. On the flip side, Ellie now faces a fear she expressed in the Summer chapter: the world is just as horrifying outside the QZ as it is inside, if not more so. And she now as to face everything she’s done and the people that she has lost along the way. She becomes more jaded and distant, and it sets up the survivor’s guilt we see her express later in the game.

And we see a beautiful tie in with the beginning of the game: Joel calls Ellie “baby girl,” the same term he used for Sarah. This shows even further that Joel is committing to Ellie because she fills the void that was left in his heart when Sarah died. Ellie has given him a new lease on life, and Joel will do anything he can to make sure that she lives the life he knows she deserves.

Simply put, this next chapter doesn’t work without this chapter.

Spring (2034)

Salt Lake City, Utah

We cut to Ellie staring at a scene of a deer on a cement wall. Eventually, Joel’s voice cuts in. Quiet at first, but it gets louder and breaks Ellie out of the trance she was in. She turns to him, and we can see that they are on a highway leading into Salt Lake City. He asks if she heard him, to which she responds that she did not. He points out that the exit towards the hospital is just ahead, and that this is where they need to get off. Joel is much lighter in this chapter, referring to Ellie as “kiddo” and genuinely seeming like he is carefree, or that a weight has been lifted off of his chest. Ellie, in contrast, is distant and distracted. When walking, she keeps her head down and doesn’t really hear Joel the first few times he tries to address her.

For example, Joel talks about how on a day like this, he’d be sitting on his porch and picking away at his six-string. And how after they’re done with this Firefly business, he’s going to teach her how to play guitar. He reckons she’d really like that and asks what she thinks. She doesn’t answer right away, and the player has to trigger the optional conversation prompt for her to give a very distracted “Yeah, that sounds great.” We also see an interesting look into Ellie’s mental state following the events of the Winter chapter. She tells Joel about a dream she had the other night, where she was on a plane that had no pilot, and how everyone was freaking out because they were going to crash. After recalling the dream, she asks, “I’ve never been on a plane. Isn’t that weird?”

I think it’s interesting that she focuses on the fact that she dreamt about something she has never been on as opposed to the fact that the thing she was on was going to crash and kill her. I think it represents that Ellie doesn’t really see death as much of a bad thing. Or at least the idea of her death isn’t something she was worried about. She found the idea of her being on a plane more peculiar than the idea of her dying on that plane. And I think that’s an important insight for some of the events later on in the game.

Ellie and Joel make their way into the abandoned QZ and they cut through an old bus depot. Ellie takes a seat on a nearby bench, and you can have an optional conversation with her. Joel will ask if everything is alright, and she’ll say she’s okay. He says that she’s been “extra quiet” today, and she apologizes, but he assures her that everything is fine. He spots a ladder they can use to get up to the next level of the depot, but when he goes to give Ellie a boost, she doesn’t move. He calls her name out a few more times before she finally ventures over. She grabs the ladder and goes to bring it down for Joel, but a noise distracts her. She drops the ladder and runs off in the direction of the noise.

Joel calls after her and hears nothing. He picks the ladder up and climbs to the next level. There, we see Ellie excitedly runoff while telling Joel that he needs to see this. He follows her down a hallway, and we come to a room that has a wall blown out due to the result of the FEDRA bombing. We see a glimpse of a giraffe walking out of view. They move a little further and come to another room to see that same giraffe eating away at the foliage that has grown on the building due to the fall of civilization. Joel goes up and pets the giraffe, and encourages Ellie to do the same. She does, and as the giraffe leaves, she says that it was “so fucking cool.” Ellie tries to figure out where the animal went off to, and they come to a clearing outdoors. In the field in front of them, they see a group of giraffes walking around. As Ellie watches them roam, we get a call back to a section earlier in the game. Joel asks, “So, is this everything you were hoping for?” Ellie responds with, “It’s got its ups and downs, but you can’t deny the very though. You are then allowed to watch the giraffe roam the Utah landscape for as long as you’d like. There is no prompt to get you to leave, and it isn’t timed. The only way to progress is by you pressing a button, whenever you feel like progressing.

Once you do that, Joel will go over to the door on their left and hesitate. Ellie joins them, and Joel tells Ellie that they don’t have to do this. She wants to know what the other option is, and Joel proposes that they turn around, go back to Tommy’s, and “just be done with this whole damn thing.” And Ellie responds with one of the most recognizable quotes throughout the entire series. “After all we’ve been through, and everything that I’ve done…it can’t be for nothing.” She opens the door and heads down the steps as Joel watches the rest of the giraffe move through the field. He takes a deep breath before following Ellie through the door.

This scene is another vital scene in terms of how the rest of the game unfolds. Everything leading up to this has this air of sadness to it. The player is definitely sad that this journey is coming to an end, but there’s something else that we can’t quite put our fingers on. The Giraffe Scene, as it is affectionately referred to as, feels like the final moment where Joel and Ellie can find respite. It’s the final moment where everything is okay. And, as we find later in the story, it’s the final moment where there is nothing is haunting their relationship.

And I think Joel knows this. Call it a gut feeling, but he knows that something is about to change. And Joel is afraid of ruining what he has built with Ellie. So, he attempts to try and get her to agree to turn around and go back to Jackson. Just go live their lives and be happy. However, Ellie needs this. She needs to see this cure thing through, come hell or high water. Ultimately, Ellie’s need to be the cure haunts not only Joel and Ellie’s relationship, but it also haunts The Last of Us Part II.

Ellie tells Joel that she knows he means well, but they can’t do this halfway. She does agree, however, that once things are done here that they can go wherever Joel wants. Joel says he’s not leaving without her, so let’s go wrap this up. They leave the bus depot and venture into an old triage center. Joel recalls how things were when the outbreak hit. He recalled seeing families torn apart and how it seemed as if the world had just flipped upside down in a blink. Ellie asked if this is when he had lost Sarah, to which Joel confirmed. Ellie tells him that she couldn’t imagine losing someone like that and everything you know and that she’s sorry for his loss. Joel tells her that it’s okay.

Just as they are making their way out of the triage center, Ellie gets Joel’s attention. She says she has something for him. Maria had shown it to her back in Jackson, and Ellie stole it. She reaches into her bag and holds out the photo of Joel and Sarah that Tommy tried to give him back in Jackson that Joel had turned down then. Joel takes the photo this time and is shaken up. He keeps the tears in and says that no matter how hard he tries he guesses that he can’t escape his past. He thanks Ellie, and they leave the triage center. The two approach an underground tunnel, and Ellie says that it’s going to be different this time and that the Fireflies will be there. They move further into the tunnel and are faced with hordes of infected. Clickers, runners, and bloaters stand in their way. However, Joel and Ellie get through them after a while.

They make their way towards the end of this next section, and Joel tells Ellie to watch her step because the water is deep. She points out that, once they’re done, Joel can teach her how to swim. With pride in his voice, he agrees. He swims under a truck and through a bus and comes out the other side. Now, there is a fenced-in room right in front of Joel to the right. If you go over to it, you can see a sleeping clicker in the corner. You can kill it here, or leave it be. If you leave it be, it’ll attack Ellie once you boost her into the room through an opening in the top of the fence wall. Either way, Joel gets Ellie to the other side of that truck, past that room with the sleeping clicker, and into a flooded area with a ladder that needs to be lowered down. We can also see St. Mary’s Hospital is very close to our location. Joel finds another wooden pallet for Ellie and swims her to the stairs leading to the ladder hatch. She lowers the ladder, but as Joel begins climbing, it breaks off the wall it was on. After a bit of platforming, Joel joins Ellie, and the two move on.

They come to another flooded area, but this time instead of calm waters, we find rushing rapids. Using abandoned cars, semi-truck trailers, and other bits undisturbed by the rapids, the two make their way to a bus. Ellie jumps down on it no problem, but when Joel lands on it, the bus gives way and begins to be dragged away by the rapids. Ellie makes her way off the bus, but Joel is thrown into and slammed up against the back of it. Ellie jumps back on to the bus to help free Joel, but the bus hits something and begins to tip over. Joel tries to reach out to Ellie, but it is too late. Both of them are now forced underwater. Joel escapes the bus and finds Ellie floating lifelessly in the water. He grabs her and resurfaces. He begins trying to perform CPR when Fireflies show up. One of them demands Joel to put his hands in the fucking air, but Joel refuses, focusing on Ellie. After a minute, Joel is knocked out, and the screen cuts to black.

Joel wakes up in a hospital bed, and we see Marlene and another Firefly at his bedside. “Welcome to the Fireflies,” Marlene says before apologizing for his being knocked out. The patrol didn’t know who he was. Joel asks about Ellie, and Marlene says that they were able to bring her back, which Joel is relieved by. Marlene seems amazed that they came this far. She wants to know how they did it, and Joel says that it was Ellie. She fought like hell to get here, and that maybe it was meant to be. Joel wants to see Ellie, and Marlene tells him not to worry. He does worry though, and still wants to see her. Marlene says he can’t because Ellie is being prepped for surgery. “What the hell do you mean surgery?” Joel asks. Marlene explains that the doctors say the cordyceps inside her has somehow mutated and that they need to extract it to reverse engineer a vaccine. Joel points out that the growth is located on the brain, and Marlene confirms this.

To create a cure to the Cordyceps Brain Infection, Ellie has to die.

Joel demands that Marlene find someone else and that she show him where the operating room is. The other Firefly in the room drives his knee into the back of Joel’s, sending him to the ground. Marlene orders the Firefly to stop. She says that she gets Joel’s anger, but it is nothing compared to the struggle Marlene went through when making this decision. She’s known Ellie since the time Ellie was born and promised her mother that she’d look after her. Joel asks why she’s letting this happen then, to which Marlene responds that it isn’t about Marlene or Ellie. This is bigger than that, and there’s no other choice here. “Yeah…you keep telling yourself that bullshit,” Joel says. Marlene orders the Firefly in the room to march Joel out of the hospital, and if he tries anything, shoot him. Marlene tells Joel not to “waste this gift,” and leaves.

The Firefly tells Joel to get up, and after a minute, Joel obliges. He moves very slowly out of the room, and the Firefly shoves him into the hallway. The Firefly basically asks Joel to give him an excuse to kill him. Joel asks which way and the Firefly motions to Joel’s left (the player’s right). Joel begins walking down the hall and spots his backpack. He stops dead in his tracks, causing the Firefly to tell Joel to keep walking. The Firefly puts his gun into Joel’s back, but before he can shoot Joel, Joel disarms him and hits the Firefly in the face. Joel demands to know where the operating room is and shoots the Firefly below the belt when he receives no answer. Joel shoots the Firefly once more before it is revealed that the operating room is on “the top floor, the far end.” Joel kills the Firefly before he overhears more Fireflies coming to investigate the scene.

Anyone who has played The Last of Us Part I knows what happens next. Joel rampages through the Fireflies in the hospital, killing everyone in sight. You can also find two recorders and a journal from Marlene throughout the hospital that give us an insight into how Marlene was feeling when she was forced to choose between a cure and the kid. Joel makes his way into the operating room and finds three doctors about to begin the surgery. One of the doctors, who we later learn is Jerry Anderson, grabs a scalpel and tells Joel he won’t let Ellie go. Think of the lives that this procedure will save, Jerry says. But, it’s all for naught, as Joel kills Jerry. The fate of the other two doctors is left up to the player, but the important bit here is that Jerry is killed and Joel takes an unconscious Ellie away. Joel carries Ellie towards pediatrics as more Fireflies chase them down. Joel reaches an elevator as the Fireflies begin shooting, and Joel is able to get the elevator to work just as these Fireflies reach the door.

Joel takes Ellie into an underground car park but is stopped by Marlene, who holds Joel at gunpoint. Marlene says that Joel can’t save Ellie. Even if Joel gets Ellie out of here, what happens? How long until she’s ripped apart by a pack of clickers? Assuming she hasn’t already been murdered before that. Joel says that it isn’t for Marlene to decide, and Marlene points out that it’s what Ellie would want. Joel falters at that, and Marlene can see that he knows, or he at least thinks, that Marlene is right and that Ellie would want to be the cure. He steels himself quickly, but Marlene tries a different approach. She raises her hands and tells Joel that she won’t feel anything. He can still do the right thing here.

He seems to be thinking about it before we cut to Joel driving a truck down the highway on the way out of Salt Lake City. He seems deep in thought about something and takes a deep breath. We hear a groan in the background, and Joel looks towards the backseat. Ellie is now awake, and alive, still dressed in a hospital gown. Joel tells her to take it easy, but she wants to know what happened. As Joel is talking, we cut back to the underground parking lot. Marlene slowly makes her way over to Joel, but she is shot. He puts Ellie into the truck, before going back over to Marlene. She tells him to wait and pleads to be let go, but Joel says that she’d just come after Ellie and kills Marlene.

However, Joel doesn’t tell Ellie any of this. He tells Ellie that there were many more people like her, dozens that are immune. It hasn’t done the Fireflies any good, so they stopped looking for a cure. He apologizes to Ellie and says that he is taking them home.

Jackson, Wyoming

We see Ellie in the driver’s seat examining her bite mark. Joel, who was looking to see what was happening under the hood, says that they now have to walk. The player now controls Ellie as she and Joel make their way through the woods. Joel is carefree at this point, openly discussing Sarah and how he felt that the two of them would have been great friends. However, Ellie’s answers are short and disengaged from the conversation. The two make it to an overlook over Jackson, but before they can go down, Ellie stops Joel. She heaves a frustrated sigh before revealing to Joel that she wasn’t alone when she was bitten in Boston. Her best friend, Riley, was there and was also bitten. Riley suggested that they just “wait it out, we can be all poetic and lose our minds together.” Ellie confides in Joel that she’s waiting for her turn.

Ellie says that Riley was the first to die. Then it was Tess, then Sam. Joel says that none of that is on them, but Ellie says that he doesn't understand. Joel says he struggled for a long time with surviving. He absentmindedly rubs his wristwatch as he tells Ellie that, “no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.” He knows it’s not what she wants to hear right now, but Ellie cuts him off. She demands that Joel swear to her. “Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true,” Joel swears that it’s true, and the camera pans to Ellie’s face. With tears in her eyes, she simply says, “okay,” as the game ends and the credits roll.

The Ending of The Last of Us Part I

There is a lot to unpack with the end of this game, and I won’t be able to get to it all. I will not comment on whether Joel or the Fireflies are “objectively” right, because I don’t think either side is “objectively” right. I think it depends on which perspective you’re viewing this from. If you are in Joel’s shoes, and you have literally nobody else besides Ellie, I think anyone would do exactly what he did. How could you not? And on the flip side, if you’re Jerry, Marlene, or really any Firefly, how could you not go ahead with the surgery? You live in a world where lawlessness and death permeate everything, and you have a chance to change that? I don’t see how you don’t take that chance, even if it involves killing an innocent child.

Earlier in this analysis, I asked you to remember the motto, “you sacrifice the few to save the many.” In what is probably the best showing of Joel’s progression throughout The Last of Us Part I, Joel is faced with this motto at the end of the game. When he said it back in Pittsburgh, he absolutely believed in that motto. However, at the end? He completely abandons it. There have been countless times in Joel’s life where he’s seen the military sacrifice the few to save the many and turned a blind eye. Yet, in this instance, he is unable to do so. And it’s a testament to his development throughout this game.

I also said earlier in the game that Joel really doesn’t care about the cure, and I standby that here at the end. His motivations behind why he doesn’t care about the cure may not be the same, but Joel still doesn’t care about the cure. This is why I find it peculiar when people seem to think that Joel has all these reservations about the cure and that is why he stops the Fireflies from performing the surgery. He doesn’t give a shit about the cure at all. In the moment, Joel stops the Fireflies for selfish reasons. He doesn’t want to relive the pain of losing someone he loves deeply. However, as we see in Part II, Joel says that he’d do what he did all over again, showing that he also did that act out of love for Ellie.

And when it comes to the true ending, Ellie confronting Joel about the lie, I think is the game attempting to show how Ellie feels about not just the cure but also the lie. I do think Part I shows that Ellie would have wanted to have been sacrificed for the cure. Marlene knows it, and Joel seems to think that it’s true. Ellie saying that she’s “waiting for her turn,” seems to be a good indication that she would’ve chosen to die. However, when it comes to Part II, I don’t think the majority of her anger is because she wasn’t the cure. That is certainly apart of it, without question, but I think she is more upset that Joel lied about it even though he had every opportunity to come clean.

Joel In The Last of Us Part II

Speaking of, I’d like to end this analysis with a brief discussion about The Last of Us Part II, because I don’t think I can avoid it when talking about Joel. I’m going to focus on Joel because Part I is mainly Joel’s story more than anything else. I don’t know yet if I’m going to do a long-form analysis like this on Part II, but if I do, obviously you guys will know.

A lot of people have had issues with how Joel dies in The Last of Us Part II. For full disclosure, I do think The Last of Us Part II is an amazing game with a masterful story. And I’ve seen a lot of people say that Joel was “out of character” during the lead up to his death scene because he was a distrustful, hardened survivor. And a lot of people seem to “not buy” what they call the “Going Soft argument,” which is to say that Joel wasn’t out of character because he got soft after reintegrating into the closest thing to society that the world has to offer.

Personally, I feel as if these arguments can only be accurate if you completely ignore Joel’s development through Part I. And even if you ignore Joel’s development, I still feel these arguments are a bit off base. For starters, Joel wasn’t “distrustful.” The first thing he did when it was just him and Ellie was to go to someone else (Bill) for help. Then, there’s Henry. Within about 15 minutes, he goes from being attacked by Henry and trying to kill him, to sleeping in the same room as him. He trusts Henry within hours and even offers Henry and Sam the opportunity to accompany him and Ellie to Wyoming.

People often reference this scene where Joel runs over a hunter and them being ambushed. They reference this scene because Joel knew that the guy wasn’t hurt. However, it seems as if people forget that the only reason he knew the guy wasn’t hurt was that Joel, in his own words, “has been on both sides.” If Joel wasn’t a hunter, do you think he knows that the guy was a hunter trying to ambush them? The answer is no. And Joel would’ve reacted very differently in that situation.

I also find it funny that a lot of people have trouble buying the “Going Soft argument,” when the entire point to The Last of Us Part I was to make Joel into a softer, more caring person. You can point to whatever you want. This game doesn’t work if Joel doesn’t become soft. The ending especially doesn’t work if Joel doesn’t become soft. If Joel isn’t soft, he doesn’t care for Ellie. And if he doesn’t care for Ellie, he drops Ellie off at the hospital, takes his guns, and goes off about his business. A truly hardened Joel would not have saved Ellie, which means there’s no Part II. So, no. I don’t think it was out of character for Joel to save Abby as he did, and I really don’t care if you “buy” the Going Soft argument.

That is it for my analysis of The Last of Us Part I. Is it still a masterpiece? I absolutely believe so. If you made it this far, I really appreciate it! I hope you enjoyed!

Featured Photo Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment