Hold the phone. We’ve always thought that The Last of Us‘ Joel was being just a little bit hard on himself for the rampage that he went on in Salt Lake City. Just a little. He did brutally murder 19 people after all. But did he really prevent a cure for the Cordyceps infection from saving the world? We always thought that was a ridiculous sentiment. How could the Firefly doctors in Salt Lake City possibly have enough medical technology to turn Ellie’s brain into a cure in The Last of Us‘ world? But now we have to rethink that stance, AND our perspectives on Joel’s actions. When asked if the Fireflies could have really made a cure using matter from Ellie’s brain on The Last of Us, the showrunners of the series confirm that YES, the Fireflies could really have made a cure to turn everyone immune to infection.
WOAH. Let’s see what they had to say.
The Fireflies COULD Have Made a Cure on The Last of Us
Neil Druckmann, who created both The Last of Us TV series on HBO AND the Naughty Dog video games, finally gave fans an answer to whether the Fireflies could have made a cure from Ellie’s brain on the Sacred Symbols+ Podcast. He shares, “All I can say is, our intent was that they would have made a cure — that makes the most interesting philosophical question for what Joel does.”
But holy smokes! If Joel hadn’t killed the Fireflies to save Ellie’s life, the nightmare of infection for the whole world would have ended. What a truly incredible weight to add to the already fraught universe.
Did The Last of Us‘ Joel Make the Right Choice When He Killed the Fireflies and Prevented a Cure, But Saved Ellie’s Life?
As a reminder, in The Last of Us season one, Joel takes Ellie across the country at the behest of Firefly called Maureen. He transports her to Salt Lake City for the purposes of making a cure using information gleaned from her immune biology. However, when they arrive, Joel, who has come to love Ellie as his child, realizes that to make the cure, the Fireflies would need to operate on Ellie’s brain, thus killing her.
HBO
Ellie, who believes helping to make a cure is her purpose in life, doesn’t know she would be sacrificing herself, but most likely would have wanted to had she known. However, Joel takes the choice and purpose away from her, murdering all the Firefly soldiers and the doctor at Salt Lake City; essentially killing anyone who knows that Ellie is immune. He saves Ellie’s life, but also crushes her and seals his own gory season two fate in the process.
The question of Joel’s choices and whether they were right has always hung over The Last of Us. But with this confirmation that the Fireflies could have made a cure for infection in the world, everything changes. If Joel was letting Ellie die for a slim chance at a The Last of Us cure, it seems more palatable that he prevented the situation from happening. But given that a cure could have actually existed, his decision reads, as Ellie would say, selfish.
HBO
Personally, when I thought that there was almost no chance the Fireflies could have made a cure, I leaned toward agreeing, or at least, understanding Joel’s actions in The Last of Us season one’s finale. But having lived through a pandemic, the idea that he took away a single chance at a cure for the entire world and everyone in it seems unfathomable to me. I’m not a big believer in the idea that one should sacrifice everything they love for a thankless world, but even from this perspective, it seems staggering.
There Are No Easy Answers on The Last of Us
The idea that the cure could have been made had Joel let Ellie die is one of the many complicated ideas that The Last of Us invites us to wrestle with. The show is filled with explorations of nuanced themes such as revenge, family, grief, and more. And that’s why we love it!
HBO
Joel made his choice. He loved Ellie deeply and couldn’t fathom life without her. Of course, he didn’t know the cure would absolutely get made. But when Joel speaks to Ellie on the porch in their last The Last of Us season two moments together, it seems like, in his heart, he kind of did. Joel made his choice. He lived with it and died for it. And through him, we are pushed to philosophical considerations we’ll hopefully never have to experience in reality. And ultimately, that is what good television is all about.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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