Why Ellie Left The Farm
A lot has been said about the narrative displayed in The Last of Us Part II. Criticisms surrounding events such as Joel’s death, the pacing, the decisions to make the player take control of Joel’s killer, etc have all been thrown about since the game was launched. One criticism I want to focus on in this piece is the claim that the game is too long, and that Ellie leaving Dina, her adoptive son, and their farm life behind didn’t need to happen.
It’s a criticism that I used to agree with. I agreed with it even more when I found out that you could go through the entire Santa Barbara section of the game as Ellie or Abby and not kill a single enemy. It felt like the section was meant to merely extend the game, for whatever reason Naughty Dog felt the need to extend the game. However, this is something that I don’t really believe anymore. I think that Ellie had to leave The Farm, and I wanted to explore the factors that may have played a role in her leaving that farmhouse in Wyoming behind. I feel the story had to continue past the farm because there was just too much going on for it to end there. And I want to examine exactly what was going on, and maybe we can come to understand Ellie’s decision to leave.
Spoiler Warning for The Last of Us Part II
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Life On The Farm
I’ve seen a lot of critics criticize Ellie’s decision to leave because Ellie already had a “happy life” on The Farm with Dina and their child. I’d like to examine the sections on The Farm, and see what their life was like during this point and time.
When we first are introduced to The Farm, we see Ellie sat on the edge of her bed, staring at Joel’s watch. We can hear how shaky Ellie’s breath is when interacting with this watch. We can clearly see that Joel’s death still affects her. It’s something she hasn’t gotten past. She’s interrupted, however, by the cry of a baby. She takes the child, a boy named JJ, around the house. For a second, we can see Ellie is trying to be happy. She jokes with JJ and Dina, her girlfriend, dances with them in the kitchen, etc.
However, this doesn’t last. While attempting to coax a little sheep into their pen in the barn, a loud noise causes Ellie to experience a PTSD-induced flashback of Joel’s death. We see her running down a long flight of stairs, and attempting to save Joel, but she can’t get the door open. When she returns to the present, Dina makes a remark about how they hadn’t “had any excitement in a while,” suggesting that this type of occurrence isn’t a new one.
We cut to Ellie, again with shaky and unsteady breath, splashing creek water on her face. It seems as if she had another attack, and is attempting to steel herself before going back towards her home. She has to take deep, steadying breath before even opening the door to the protective fence that was put up around the perimeter. She sees a horse, and realizes that they have company. That company is Tommy, Joel’s brother.
Tommy has visible scarring on one side of his face after being shot through the eye by Abby in Seattle. He has trouble walking straight due to the arrow he took to the knee. And he has brought with him pretty big news: he managed to find a lead in his search for Abby’s whereabouts. And sense he cannot physically go after he, he came to The Farm to attempt to pass this mission on to Ellie. At first, her and Dina reject this notion, but as Dina and Tommy argue outside, we see Ellie stare at the map marked with Abby’s potential whereabouts.
We cut to later that night, where Ellie can’t sleep. We get the opportunity to see her journal where we can see more of Ellie’s internal struggle. We see her talking about a nice day she shared with her son. We see her question how Dina is able to talk about Jesse, their mutual best friend who was killed by Abby in Seattle. Dina advises Ellie to talk about what happened in Seattle, but the mere idea of that makes her feel sick. She writes about “waiting for dawn, but the light is all gone" and asks whether she can “leave it all behind.” She recounts her experiences with her PTSD episodes, and Jesse’s parents constant requests that they all move back to the Jackson settlement.
We see her play the song that she and Dina danced to the night of their first kiss on her guitar. This makes her remember that night, which we see through a flashback. Up until this point, we’d only heard about this night all the way back in the prologue. We see Ellie and Dina dance, Dina kiss Ellie, and someone call them a homophobic slur. Ellie attempts to confront this person, but Joel steps in and shoves the man away. After the man is removed from the situation, Ellie confronts Joel about his involvement, and leaves off by telling Joel that she doesn’t need his fucking help.
Once we return to The Farm, Dina confronts Ellie, who’s packing her backpack, and fails in her attempts to convince her girlfriend not to go after Abby. The last shot we see is Ellie walking out the door, leaving a heartbroken Dina behind.
Happy Life?
A common talking point I’ve seen among critics of the game is that Ellie shouldn’t have left because she had a “happy life" on The Farm. And I’ll be frank, I’m not sure where people are getting this idea from. Life on this farm for Ellie was anything but happy. Sure, there were a few moments in there that brought some light into her life, but they were few and far between. She suffered from PTSD, which made her constantly relive Joel’s death and the guilt associated with that. Her trauma haunted her throughout her time on The Farm. This wasn’t a happy life.
The idea that this was an idyllic life, in my opinion, seems to be born out of a lack of a true examination of this section. Even a surface-level look at these events show that Ellie was not happy, and was struggling to keep herself together. I think a lack of true examination is the cause for a lot of criticism around The Last of Us Part II, but it’s really evident during sections like this that a lot of people just saw the dance scene in the kitchen and tuned out after that. If you disagree with any of this and believe that their life on the farm was, in fact, a happy one, I’m happy to hear you out.
So, Why Does Ellie Leave?
This is purely my own interpretation, but I believe that Ellie leaves because she ultimately needed to. I don’t think she needed to go after Abby, but she needed to leave that farm. I don’t see any way in which she could have alleviated her trauma and pain while staying on the farm. And I do think part of the reason why is that Seattle fundamentally changed everything.
When specifically talking about Ellie going after Abby, I think the answer is two fold. From a moral standpoint, I don’t think it was the right thing to abandon her girlfriend and son to pursue this quest for closure. However, if we’re strictly talking about what is best for Ellie, then leaving the farm was the right move for her in the context of the story we’re given.
And it’s extremely important to remember that Ellie is not thinking clearly in these last few sections of the game. Ellie is traumatized, and being haunted by her PTSD and Joel’s death to the point of being unable to eat and unable to sleep. While this doesn’t excuse Ellie’s actions, it makes them understandable. This shows that Ellie isn’t a cold psychopath, but a deeply traumatized person with an inability to let go and move forward.
I hope this article answers any questions you may have had regarding Ellie’s leaving the farm. I’ve had this one in the drafts for a long while, but I’m glad I was able to finish this one up today. Happy The Last of Us Day to any and all TLOU fans out there. Remember, when you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light!
Photo Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment/Naughty Dog
