Joel made a choice in the finale of the Last of us, and that choice was wrong. In this video, we break down the moral ambiguity of the Last fo us, the ending, and why Joel was wrong.

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Written and Edited by Pavel Terehovsky (https://pavel8866.wixsite.com/pavelt) [email protected]
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#LastOfUs #Finale #EndingExplained

After a long journey, Joel and Ellie finally found the fireflies. But the hope for a happy ending with the cure turned into a heartbreaking bloodbath.

Joel chose violence and killed everyone. He saved Ellie, but in doing so he condemned everyone else.

Doug: yeah but Ellie is safe now, so that’s what matters.

Well that’s the question, isn’t it? Was Joel right to do it to protect Ellie? Or was Joel wrong, and in his selfish need to protect his surrogate daughter he robbed humanity of a second chance?

This is a debate that goes back to 2013, when the original game came out. Both the show and the game create this powerful moral debate about Joel’s actions.

Well you saw the title of this video, so you know where we stand. Joel was wrong.
But that doesn't that mean the fireflies were right.

This is the beauty of Last of Us. There’s a complicated moral debate in every aspect of this story. Every perspective is sort of flawed. Nothing is simple, and there are no easy choices.

This is why exploring Joel's decision is so interesting. But as complicated as all of it is, the simple fact is this: Joel was wrong, and this video will explain why.

Alright, first let’s bring everyone up to speed on Ellie’s condition and why she had to die to make the cure.

Ellie’s mother, Anna, was infected with Cordyceps while she was pregnant. It happened mere seconds before Ellie was born, but Cordyceps works fast, and it infected Ellie since birth.

Ellie lived with the infection since she was a baby, and the cordyceps grew with her, producing a chemical messenger that tricks normal cordyceps. And that’s how she’s immune when she’s infected as a teenager.

The fireflies believe that Ellie’s immunity could create a cure.

But to make the cure, they need to remove the cordyceps from Ellie, a process that will kill her.

Doug: why’s that?

That’s because the cordyceps infection grows inside the brain. So the fireflies’ doctor needs to remove the cordyceps from Ellie’s brain, and this procedure would kill her. Joel couldn’t allow the fireflies to take Ellie from him. So he killed all of them.

20 years earlier, he was powerless to save his own daughter. Sarah’s death broke Joel. He even attempted to kill himself. Due to dumb luck, he survived, and after that, he kept on surviving.

Though it was a bleak existence, he was a shell of a man who did some really horrible things. He had no real purpose, nothing to live for. He became a cynical man, a murderer, a monster even.

But he regained his humanity thanks to Ellie.

Joel needs Ellie. She’s his purpose now, he must protect her at all costs. Even if it means killing everyone who threatens his surrogate daughter.

So from Joel’s point of view, there is no choice here at all. Joel is a parent, and what parent wouldn’t do anything to protect their child, cure or no cure?