For those who have watched The Last of Us (2023-) and need a refresher on the characters and events of season 1.
**REFRESHERS CONTAIN SPOILERS**
Major Characters
Credit: HBO
Joel Miller
Joel (Pedro Pascal) was a contractor and single father before the apocalypse. During the initial outbreak, he fled with his brother, Tommy, and daughter, Sarah, but she gets killed on their way out of town. Over the next 20 years, it’s implied that Joel did some terrible things to survive, which caused him and Tommy to part ways. He established himself in the Boston QZ with his girlfriend, Tess. Joel and Tess get tasked to escort Ellie, an immune teenager, to a lab where a cure might be developed from Ellie’s immunity. Tess dies early on, so most of the journey is with Joel and Ellie on their own. Although Joel is initially resistant to letting himself care about Ellie, he gradually grows close to her. During their journey, he reconciles with Tommy, who now has a wife and a community in Wyoming.
By the time Joel and Ellie finish their journey, she’s become like a new daughter to him. He’s finally found a reason to live again, and can’t bear the thought of losing her. However, when the time comes to hand her over to the Fireflies developing the cure, he learns that they will need to kill her in order to get the samples needed to produce the cure. Joel cannot let this happen, so he chooses Ellie, even though he knows that doing so will essentially doom the world to the infection with no hope for reprieve. He kills the Fireflies involved, including the doctor who was going to perform the surgery on Ellie, and takes Ellie away with him to build a new life in Tommy’s community. He lies to Ellie about what happened, claiming that she was no longer needed and that a cure is impossible.
Credit: HBO
Ellie Williams
Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is an orphan who was raised at a FEDRA military school, where she became best friends with and developed a crush on Riley. As teenagers, Riley joins the Fireflies, a militia rebel group, and tries to convince Ellie to come with her. The two are attacked by the infected, and each is bitten, but though Riley turns, Ellie ends up being immune due to her mother having been bitten while in the middle of giving birth to her. Ellie is sent by Firefly Marleen to a Firefly lab, where they hope to develop a cure with the aid of Ellie’s immunity. When Marleen is injured and unable to get her there personally, Ellie is instead sent with Joel and his girlfriend, Tess. Tess dies early on, and along the journey with Joel to reach the Fireflies, several other characters are encountered and also die, including a boy named Sam who Ellie had grown fond of. Because of all of this, Ellie becomes very attached to Joel, having lost everyone else she’s ever known or cared about, which breaks through his rough exterior.
Prior to the start of her journey, Ellie lived her life in relative safety with FEDRA, and now, for the first time, she must go to greater lengths to survive than she has before, relying on Joel’s help. At one point, Joel is injured and Ellie must nurse him back to health and survive on her own for a while. During this time, she encounters David, the leader of a community that has resorted to cannibalism to survive. David develops an obsession with Ellie and tries to force her to join him, which leads to Ellie having to kill him.
The cure becomes really important to Ellie, something to give her a sense of purpose and something that will provide meaning to all the deaths of those they lost along the way. They reach the Fireflies, and Ellie is sedated and prepped for surgery. Unbeknownst to her, Joel is told that the only way to develop the cure is to sacrifice Ellie in order to dissect her to get what they need. Joel refuses to allow this, killing the Fireflies and fleeing with Ellie without giving her a chance to decide for herself if this is something she’d be willing to do. When Ellie wakes up, Joel falsely claims that the Fireflies determined that the cure was impossible and that they no longer needed her. She wants to believe him, but a part of her suspects that this isn’t true.
Credit: HBO
Tommy Miller
Tommy (Gabriel Luna) is Joel’s brother. The two were once close, but over the years following the apocalypse, Joel dragged Tommy into some situations that pushed Tommy away. Eventually, Tommy left Joel and joined the Fireflies, though over time Tommy left them as well. By the time Joel and Ellie meet up with Tommy, he is now married to a woman named Maria, who is pregnant, and they’ve established a life in a pleasant community in Wyoming. Joel and Tommy make amends, and Joel meant to leave Ellie with Tommy at this point, but ultimately Joel stays with Ellie to continue on towards their goal, so they leave Tommy in Wyoming with Maria. At the end of the season, Joel and Ellie head back to Wyoming to join Tommy and Maria in their community.
Key Takeaways
Credit: HBO
Main Story
- Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) are survivors of a zombie-like apocalypse in which a fungus infects and takes over humans
- During the initial outbreak, Joel’s daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker) dies, and Joel still grieves her loss
- 20 years after the outbreak, a government agency called FEDRA has established quarantine zones (QZs) to house the survivors
- Survivors aren’t allowed to leave the QZs due to the danger from both infected and bandits
- A militia group called the Fireflies rose up over time to oppose FEDRA’s strict constraints, but the Fireflies have gradually fallen apart
- Joel and his girlfriend, Tess (Anna Torv), get unexpectedly tasked by a Firefly named Marleen (Merle Dandridge) to escort a teenager named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a larger Firefly group
- Although Joel and Tess aren’t, themselves, Fireflies, Tommy spent some time with them so there’s a begrudging trust
- When Joel and Tess realize that Ellie is immune to the infection, having been bit three weeks ago and still not turned, they end up deciding to take Ellie much further than originally agreed
- The Fireflies have a lab in Colorado that may be able to develop a cure
- Since Tommy used to be a Firefly, they intend to take Ellie to him in Wyoming, then send her the rest of the way with him
- On their way out of their home QZ in Boston, Tess sacrifices herself to help Joel and Ellie get away, but Tess first stresses the importance for Joel to see this through
- As they journey to Wyoming, Joel and Ellie struggle to get along at first, largely due to Joel’s hesitance to grow close to anyone after losing Sarah, but over time they develop a father/daughter type relationship anyway
- When they reach Tommy’s community in Wyoming, led by Tommy’s wife Maria (Rutina Wesley), Joel expects to leave Ellie at this point, but Ellie convinces him to go the rest of the way with her
- Joel and Ellie make it to the Firefly lab in Colorado, but the Firefly group has relocated
- Joel and Ellie continue on to Salt Lake City to find them
- By the time they finally reach their goal, Joel has grown very fond of Ellie, only to learn that they cannot develop the cure without killing Ellie in the process
- Unable to let her die, Joel kills the Fireflies there – including Marleen and the doctor (Darren Dolynski) who was going to perform the surgery on Ellie – and takes Ellie back to Wyoming
- Ellie is unconscious during this, and when she wakes up, Joel lies to her about what happened, claiming that the lab had determined there was no way to develop a cure, so Ellie was not needed after all
Side Stories
At various points in their journey, Joel and Ellie encounter some other characters
Credit: HBO
- Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) are a gay couple who have been friends with Joel and Tess for a long time
- Joel and Ellie stop by their place to get supplies, but by the time they arrive, the couple has committed mutual suicide due to Frank’s failing health
Credit: HBO
- Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) are brothers stuck in a hostile community led by Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey)
- When Joel and Ellie get ambushed passing through the community, they cross paths with the brothers
- The two pairs join forces and help each other get out of the community
- Ellie and Sam, being close in age, form a bond
- Sam is bitten by an infected, and despite Ellie’s efforts to save him, he still turns
- Henry puts Sam down, but can’t bear the grief and shoots himself
Credit: HBO
- David (Scott Shepherd) leads his own community that has resorted to cannibalism
- David’s men wound Joel, and Ellie must take care of him
- David becomes obsessed with Ellie and tries to force her to join him, which leads to her having to kill him to get away
Credit: HBO
- In a flashback, we see Ellie’s backstory
- Ellie’s mom, Anna (Ashley Johnson), was a friend of Marleen’s who got bitten while in labor, leading to Ellie’s immunity
- Marleen took baby Ellie to a FEDRA camp for orphans where she grew up with Riley (Storm Reid)
- Not long before the start of the show, Riley defected and joined the Fireflies, but came back to try to convince Ellie to join her
- The pair, who are best friends with unspoken romantic undertones, spend an evening having a last hoorah in an abandoned mall, where they are attacked by infected
- Both Riley and Ellie are bitten, and though Riley turns, Ellie does not and is rescued by Marleen, which leads to the start of the show
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