It’s finally here. The journey of almost three months comes to a close in a few more hours as Ellie and Joel enter the last lap of their race through the post-apocalyptic world to find a cure for the hell that’s been unleashed on the human race. In the previous episode, we saw Ellie being taken away by Joel after he called her “baby girl” and recognized her as his daughter. In the final episode of “The Last of Us” by HBO, we get to see how the entire series shall end, and honestly, we can’t wait. With both Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey giving phenomenal performances in each episode right up until the penultimate, along with a string of brilliant episodes, Episode 9 might be everything that the viewers could’ve asked for—and more. With HBO releasing the teaser to give us a taste of what’s to follow, here’s a detailed breakdown of the teaser with some added theories and Easter eggs to help you go in prepared when you sit down for the “The Last Of Us” finale in a matter of hours.
For a change, let’s not proceed chronologically with the finale’s teaser and instead hash out the biggest areas at the start. We hear Ellie’s voice-over, where she says that all the pain and extreme conditions they’ve persevered through have to mean something, and they need to finish the journey they’ve started. The scene where she says that she wants to see an end to the whole fiasco is where we get one of the most wholesome and beautiful moments in the game. In-game, Ellie squeals in joy after seeing several giraffes feeding off of the plants growing on the dilapidated buildings. The teaser shows Joel and Ellie on the road with a signboard pointing the way to Salt Lake City, which acts as the backdrop for all the carnage and mayhem that comes to pass in the finale. Ever since Joel brought Ellie back from death’s door in Episode 8, he has been completely attached to her as if she were his own daughter, so it makes sense that he’ll go to any length possible to ensure no harm ever befalls the girl again. While on their way to St. Mary’s Hospital, where the Fireflies had made their base camp, the game saw the pair having to make their way through several zombies until they tried crossing a stream, using a bus as the bridge. The bridge then slipped, and Joel sank, so Ellie had to save him, but not being a swimmer in the slightest, she passed out in the water, and as Joel frantically tried resuscitating her, the Fireflies surrounded him and knocked him out. The show seems to be taking an alternate route to this, as is hinted at by the scene where Joel and Ellie are surprised by a sudden smoke grenade. It seems HBO wants to have the Fireflies snatch Ellie away from Joel without having her almost drown in a dangerous tunnel.
What followed next in the game after Joel woke up might ruin the entire finale for those who aren’t familiar with the game, but he drove Ellie away from the Fireflies after something transpired and proceeded to justify his actions with a heap of lies. This left Ellie questioning everything she’d believed in until now, and we see her sitting in a car, staring at the bite mark on her hand, exactly how it had been presented in the game towards the very end. In at least two ways, though, the showrunners presented Joel in moments of severe tension, with one being where he’s shown pacing through an area with a reddish hue all around. It’s probably one of the moments where Ellie had run ahead, and Joel was carefully tracking her down. This could be the moment leading up to the beautiful discovery of the giraffes as Joel walked out into the open to find Ellie looking at the majestic animals. Another scene that hints at something much more sinister underway is where we see him running through a corridor of what seems totally like a hospital with a gun in hand. This is the climax of the entire first season as Joel takes on the enormous challenge of bringing Ellie back because the conditions were less-than-acceptable for him.
We get to see two clips of an unknown woman sprinting through the woods and then pinned against the wall as a zombie swoops in on her. If the reports are to be believed, then this woman is to be Anna, who was none other than Ellie’s mother. If that’s not enough, the role of Anna shall be played by Ashley Johnson, the voice actor for Ellie in “The Last Of Us” Part 1. We didn’t know much about Anna other than what was revealed to us from “The Last of Us” comic book, “American Dreams.” A friend of Marlene’s, Anna had been a nurse in life before the world came to an end, and the switchblade that Ellie cherishes as deeply as her friendship with Joel is what her mother left behind for her. The comics also inform us that Anna died only a day after she became a mother to Ellie, and the infected rushing at her could lead to her getting bitten before childbirth, so it’s possible that the special ability that doesn’t let Ellie get infected has something to do with the circumstances of her mother’s death. The backstory of Ellie’s mother shall be the final answer key to everything that’s been left unknown about her, and it’s really fantastic that HBO is bringing in every possible medium with a connection to the characters to give us the entire story. With Anna’s story, the areas that were left unknown about her firecracker of a daughter will finally be revealed as we await Season 2.
Of course, the teaser shows nothing related to what goes down inside St. Mary’s hospital during the climax and for good measure, but based on the bits and pieces of scenes from the teaser, it won’t be difficult to piece together the story. With the whole season resting on how the finale is executed, Episode 9 is undoubtedly the most highly anticipated episode in recent TV history.
