How does Tess die in The Last of Us game?

Things got intense on the latest episode of The Last of Us. After finding out that Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was immune to the cordyceps fungus that caused the global zombie plague, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) double down on their efforts to sneak her out of Boston. Yet once the group is out of the quarantine zone, they have to contend with the hordes of infected that still roam the ruined city.

They don’t make it out without casualties. While trying to sneak through an abandoned museum, the group is attacked by clickers — more advanced, blind zombies that use echolocation to see. Despite killing them, it’s later revealed that both Tess and Ellie were bitten during the fight. For Ellie, it’s further proof of her immunity to the fungus, but for Tess it’s a death sentence.

Tess hides the fact that she was bitten right up until she, Joel, and Ellie make it to the capital building where they were meant to hand the teenage girl off to a group of Firefly revolutionaries. Yet after discovering that all the Fireflies are dead, the truth about Tess’ injury finally comes out.

The sequence that follows is tragic. Convincing Joel to “save who he can save,” Tess stays behind to hold off a mob of infected alerted to their presence. Despite being hit by even more infected tendrils, Tess manages to set off an explosion that kills her and all the zombies in the building, buying Joel and Ellie time to escape. It’s an epic scene which drives home that this is a story where no one is safe.

If you haven’t played The Last of Us game or played it back when it first came out in 2013, you might be wondering how Tess’ death was different. Let’s break it down.

How was Tess’ death different in The Last of Us game?

For the most part, Tess’ death sequence is faithful to the game. She still gets bitten during a scuffle with infected, hides it until after discovering she won’t be handing Ellie off to the Fireflies, and then stays behind to sacrifice herself. The scene in the capital building where Joel confronts her about the infection even has a lot of the exact same lines of dialogue from the game.

There is one major difference though, and that’s that Tess isn’t killed by infected; she’s killed by militia. This change stems back to the end of Episode 1, where Joel kills a FEDRA soldier to protect Ellie. In the game, the militia pursues the group out into the ruins of Boston. When Tess and Joel discover the dead Fireflies, it’s the militia which becomes alerted to their presence and closes in on them instead of a horde of infected.

Tess’ final sacrifice is also much less helpful. Instead of blowing up the building, she stands her ground and has a shootout with the militia. She’s quickly gunned down, and the soldiers continue pursuing Joel and Ellie until the pair are able to shake them and escape into the wilderness.

The Last of Us airs new episodes on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. CT / 9:00 p.m. ET.

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