Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey Reflect on That Final Scene

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Five days after the conclusion of the first season on HBO’s masterful The Last of Us, debate rages on about the morals of the choice Joel (Pedro Pascal) made in the finale – by choosing to massacre a group of Fireflies in the name of saving Ellie (Bella Ramsey), whose death could have provided a cure to the Cordyceps infection that had ravaged the planet.


Ellie, unconscious in surgery, is entirely unaware of Joel’s actions, after he made the decision that he couldn’t lose another daughter – even an adoptive one – after the loss of his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), on the first day of the outbreak some 20 years prior. But when Ellie awakens in the back of an SUV, travelling in the opposite direction to the hospital, still in her gown, she has questions. And Joel chooses to lie, telling her that she wasn’t the only immune human, that nothing could be done to make a vaccine, and that raiders had stormed the hospital. And Ellie doesn’t believe him.

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In the episode’s coda, as Ellie and Joel hike the final miles on their return to Jackson, Wyoming – where Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) is part of a thriving community – something is off. Joel talks freely of his past, and of Sarah, for the first time, while Ellie has become closed off in a way that Joel had done previously. Their survivors’ guilt has swapped sides.

RELATED: ‘The Last of Us’ Season 1 Finale Ending Explained: Why Did Joel Lie to Ellie?

“He’s overcompensating,” says Neil Druckmann, show co-creator and president of Naughty Dog, the studio that created the game upon which the series is based. “He’s being overly friendly because the guilt is weighing on him.” But to Joel, it’s about more than just trying to convince Ellie. In his mind, he has found Sarah again in the shape of Ellie. He has his daughter back, because Ellie has healed his broken heart.

“He’s just riding this unconscious wave of delusion mixed with gratitude,” says Pascal, in an interview with Empire Magazine. “Even though it comes with such a big lie, it doesn’t feel like a lie in his heart, because he has her back and they’re going home. It’s the first time he’s able to share a memory that makes him happy, because he’s with the person that makes him the happiest – his daughter, Ellie. Ellie can smell the sense of what’s in his unconscious, and something’s off. It isn’t until he’s under her lens of truth that it all comes tumbling down. And he has to lie to keep it going.”

And while Marlene (Merle Dandridge) never gave Ellie the choice to sacrifice herself or not, in both of their hearts they know Ellie would have made that choice, which Joel would not have allowed. She is distant and distracted, and torn because she thought her life mattered and now feels aimless and purposeless. The episode’s final moments, where Ellie confesses the truth about her best fried Riley (Storm Reid), who she was forced to kill when both were bitten, culminates in Ellie demanding to know the truth and that Joel swear to her everything he said is true. And Joel swears that it is. Ellie takes a moment to process what she’s heard, and accepts the lie – but doesn’t believe it completely.

“I think Ellie knows,” says Ramsey. “There’s a part of her that knows or fears he’s not telling the truth. But she has to believe it. Because she can’t think about what it would mean if he isn’t telling the truth. She has to believe, because otherwise it would break her heart.” After all, just hours before the incident at the hospital, Ellie has listened to Joel tell her about how close he was to ending his own life, before Joel confesses that Ellie fixed him. Ellie tells him that she will follow him wherever he goes.

But where do they go now? From a position of love and trust, there comes suspicion and doubt, and a dark path of uncertainly awaits our two weary travellers. Will Ellie be able to make peace with the lie? Will Joel admit the truth? How will the rest of the world react if they ever found out? For now, though, the rest of the world doesn’t matter to Joel, because his entire world is Ellie, his baby girl.

The Last of Us is streaming in full on HBO Max now.

 

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