The Last of Us- Why did Joel do That?

I played Naughty Dog's amazing and emotionally fraught video game The Last of Us about 7 years ago and ever since I've been fascinated to watch people's reactions to the unusual direction the story takes in its last act. It will be even more interesting to see how audiences react to the show if it follows the game story closely. For the moment let's just say that characters do things which run counter to pretty much every trope in all narrative media. I've seldom encountered anyone who sees clearly what motivates Joel in particular to behave so "antisocially". Okay, assuming the HBO production sticks closely to the game the spoilers are about to begin- bail now if you don't know where the story's going over the last episodes and don't want to find out till it's happening.

Most people are certainly pretty clear that Joel has shaken off the ghost of Sarah and accepted that he can love Ellie unconditionally after the suffering the two of them endure over the long winter. Ellie has kept Joel alive under the most harrowing conditions a 14-year-old kid should ever be asked to face and the emotional and physical strain the two characters have been through (and the game player as well) are genuinely exhausting. Ellie has become a desiccated shadow of the sassy, vibrant kid she was only a few months ago and even in his rough state Joel can't help noticing how taciturn Ellie has become. Then Salt Lake City happens.

Ellie gets a boost from Joel up to a higher level in a destroyed medical center the pair are moving through. She's supposed to drop a ladder for Joel to climb up (he's still recovering and has a hard time climbing by himself) but instead Ellie looks over her shoulder and suddenly gasps. Joel can't see what Ellie's seeing. She stands up and runs out of view as Joel frantically tries to get himself up to the next level and prepares for what he suspects is a new threat. When Joel finally hauls himself up Ellie has run off and Joel follows in frantic pursuit. Is it a clicker..., a bloater..., worse? When he manages to catch up to her, she's standing in awe and wonder and Joel himself is stopped short in surprise. Voice actor Troy Baker does a marvelous job as we hear the catch in Joel's breathing; something precious and significant has changed everything for them.

The moment has become apocryphal for almost all who have played The Last of Us, yet few seem to realize just why this quiet little moment in a frantic, powerful experience sticks with them long after they've finished playing the game. Ellie and Joel are staring at point blank range at a beautiful, full-grown giraffe reaching in through a hole in the wall of the building and helping herself to some succulent vines which have grown there over the last two decades. Joel steps softly up to the animal and reaches up to stroke her face. I will forever recall the tingle of that few seconds as we get to watch this emotionally damaged and hardened middle-aged ex-construction contractor face an epiphany that will change his life for good.

Ellie too has her own epiphany; so much easier in one so young. She has seen a taste of hope in this wild animal, probably escaped or freed from the local zoo to live a good life with its family in the remains of the destroyed city. Remember, the infected aren't interested in other creatures, fungi aren't carnivores! She's never before seen anything like a giraffe as she grew up in the Boston QZ. Her sense of wonder has reawakened after her nightmare experiences in the horrible winter drove it away. She begins to find a way out of her darkness and we can feel her starting to return to herself.

Joel's own epiphany is a powerful one which requires a hard road to achieve, but in its honesty and clarity he finds the route he will follow when the most difficult of choices presents itself in the near future. As the giraffe returns to her family in an overgrown baseball diamond beyond the medical center Joel accepts the realization that "it" is not all about us. The world has gone on comfortably without humanity and, if anything and despite it still being "red in tooth and claw" the natural world has begun to thrive again.

The realization that maybe it's a good thing that this could be literally the last of us; that humanity might simply slip away into that dark night of time, is particularly moving in someone like Joel who has been through what he's experienced. He's suffered and he's learned and when the time comes to make a decision about Ellie for him and all of us Joel knows the right thing to do, not just for himself but for all life on our little blue and white ball hanging in the infinite, empty dark. Yes, his choice comes from his love, but it's also strongly informed by his new understanding of the way the pandemic has changed the balance of natural order and put the brakes on a species which has turned itself into a sort of virus infecting the world. Joel wants Ellie to have a decent kid's life in Wyoming, but he also realizes that it's probably time for a complete reset in our relationship to the rest of life. The giraffe has opened Joel's eyes to a world he'd forgotten long before Sarah was even born. The Last of Us presents a hope that maybe we as a species can still remember what every little kid understands; all living things matter.

I'd love to hear your thoughts