The Last of Us has become a cultural phenomenon. The first game, launched in 2013, tells the touching story of Joel and Ellie traveling across the country and slowly bonding as they battle humans infected with Corcyceps. Yet it was only when HBO adapted the game into a TV series that their story truly reached mainstream consciousness. Joel's battle to protect Ellie is now at the heart of mainstream consciousness. That's why The Last of Us' ending has become a battleground.
The final episode of The Last of Us Season 1 is a groundbreaking one that fundamentally questions the moral framework of each character. Yet Joel's decision to save Ellie has drawn as much criticism as it has questions. The long-term future of The Last of Us will depend on Season 1's ending. Despite the criticism, Joel and Ellie will both have their lives heavily impacted, and the entire world will continue to suffer from the Cordyceps infections because of Joel's decision.
The Criticism of The Last of Us' Ending
While Joel proves that he is a capable and fascinating character during The Last of Us Season 1's ending, there are some major flaws in the final episode. Even though the compelling element is the moral question that Joel needs to answer — whether he should save Ellie and damn the world or leave her behind and potentially save everyone — that does not fix some of the narrative flaws.
After all, the ending is somewhat rushed and fails to show the kind of devastation that Joel would need to wreak to destroy an entire organization of Fireflies. An entire episode could have been devoted to that level of destruction, rather than a relatively short display of brutality.
Even then, Joel's biggest and most tragic mistake is leaving some of the Fireflies alive. The Fireflies are devoted to stopping the Cordyceps virus by developing an adequate vaccine. In saving Ellie, Joel damned millions of survivors. Vengeance will be inevitable, but more importantly, they will come for Ellie again. Ellie's immunity is known, and her life will always be in danger so long as the Fireflies continue to exist.
In addition, the decisions that the Fireflies made didn't make any sense. They provide Joel with everything that he needs to kill them all, and an unstable man who lost one daughter won't be willing to let another shady organization kill another. The story behind Joel's scar alone explains why he would never allow Ellie to go into surgery.
Marlene had already proven that she was a leader willing to make harsh decisions. She should never have let Joel leave the facility alive, especially knowing what he knew. The fate of the entire world was at stake, and she elected to risk everything just because the plot needed her to make that choice. She gave him everything he could need to butcher them all, and the increasingly erratic Joel should never have been left with such a minuscule number of guards.
The Last of Us's Ending Will Forever Change Ellie and Joel
Ellie and Joel's journey was one of self-discovery and bonding. While they learned more about themselves, they also had the opportunity to get to know and love one another. Ellie discovers that the world is a worse place than she ever expected, but that she could trust Joel — at the very least. Joel, meanwhile, learns that there is still hope in the world, but that it can be found in other people.
To Joel, the Cordyceps virus never stopped the ability of human beings to find love, and, thus, eliminating Cordyceps is not his chief priority. If Bill and Frank could find love in the apocalypse, then he has no reason not to take away his adoptive daughter so that other people can be happy. It betrays his innate selfishness, but it also shows just how much he loves other people.
Ellie, meanwhile, is left at the end of The Last of Us Season 1 in a state of shock. She just lost her sense of purpose, and she is also left to consider the fact that Joel could be lying to her. Considering how suspicious the circumstances were — given that Joel took her away from the Fireflies after only a day with no evidence that anything he was saying was true — Ellie has no reason to believe him. If Joel discovered familial love in the apocalypse, Ellie had her trust shaken. It will take some time before she can recover her sense of wonder after such a devastating turn of events.
The Long-Term Implications of The Last of Us' Ending
Joel and Ellie will never be safe after the season finale. The Fireflies will hunt them to the ends of the Earth in the hopes of stopping the ongoing apocalypse. Joel didn't save Ellie definitively. Instead, he may have just delayed an inevitable death by making her a fugitive from an extremely powerful and influential organization. If the Fireflies can spread the word of Ellie's immunity, then few people would want to turn her over to surviving doctors, who can potentially develop a vaccine.
Additionally, Joel is going to be hunted for the rest of his life. The last episode of The Last of Us sets up Season 2 by indicating that Joel likely left some survivors in the hospital. Those survivors will not be pleased that a random survivor just murdered major members of their organization. Joel will be hunted by Fireflies and other groups that are associated with them.
At the same time, he and Ellie are going to need to work hard to keep each other alive. Yet, with their trust broken, keeping each other alive will be a practically impossible challenge. Ellie was willing to die to save the world, and Joel took that choice from her. Their father-daughter relationship could be shattered, and that could be an issue going forward.
