HBO’s live-action adaptation of The Last of Us premiered in January and has become a huge hit. I don’t know if the network could’ve predicted just how big the show would become, but they’ve created event television yet again, proving yet again that there’s life beyond Game of Thrones . The first season hasn’t even concluded yet and already The Last of Us is one of HBO’s most successful current shows, seeing numbers comparable to House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, and Euphoria.
We’ve got one episode left of The Last of Us season 1, but fortunately, we already know a second season is happening. If you’re a fan of the video games, you’ll already know how the first season ends considering the show has been pretty faithful to the source material and we don’t expect that to change in the final episode. But if you haven’t played the game and are curious about spoilers, we don’t blame you. It can be difficult to resist when all the information is already out there! While it’ll probably be a better experience to go into the season 1 finale blind if you can, we can also tell you how The Last of Us Part 1 ends, if you really want to know.
Beware that there are SPOILERS ahead for The Last of Us Part 1.
As teased in the preview for The Last of Us season 1 finale, you can expect Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to make it to the Fireflies. In the game, the two characters are reunited with Marlene and her crew, but Joel isn’t ready for the reality of the situation. The whole game is about Joel trying to safely escort Ellie across the country so he can drop her off with the Fireflies, but now that he’s grown close to her, he doesn’t want to let her go.
How does the first The Last of Us game end?
Ellie is immune to the cordyceps infection and the Fireflies want to use her to create a cure. But when Joel finds out that the only way for them to do that is to perform surgery on Ellie to remove the cordyceps that are growing “all over” her brain (in other words, she’ll die in surgery), he won’t allow that to happen. Using various weapons, the player, as Joel, starts to kill the Fireflies one by one, including the doctor who threatens him with a scalpel. Joel even ends up killing Marlene and then steals a car to drive away with an unconscious Ellie.
When Ellie wakes up, she’s confused about the hospital gown she’s wearing and where they’re going. But instead of telling her the truth, Joel makes up a story that they found the Fireflies, who told them that there are actually other people out there who are immune. He says they still couldn’t figure it out, however, and they’ve now stopped looking for a cure. “I’m taking us home,” he tells Ellie, meaning his brother Tommy’s community in Jackson.
You can watch the last 20-ish minutes of The Last of Us Part 1 game here, courtesy of gamer BabyZone:
As Joel and Ellie get close to their destination, they get out of the car and start hiking, and there’s a lot of tension between them. Joel leads, seeming enthusiastic about their future together, while Ellie trails behind, most likely feeling hesitant. He talks about his daughter Sarah, telling Ellie the two of them would’ve been friends, while Ellie just kind of one-words him.
Eventually, they make it to the outskirts of Jackson and Ellie stops. She opens up about her friend Riley in Boston (who we learn more about in the expansion game The Last of Us: Left Behind) and how she died after being bitten. Those who have been watching the show know what happened there, as we were lucky enough to get a whole episode about their relationship a few weeks back.
Joel tells Ellie she can’t blame herself for the deaths happening around her, and Ellie demands that he swear to her he was telling the truth about what happened with the Fireflies. “I swear,” he says, to which Ellie closes out the game with an “okay.”
It’s hard to tell if Ellie actually believes this or not, but I guess for the time being she’s willing to accept it. Now that the two of them have made it to Jackson, that’ll be the starting location for the next game, The Last of Us Part 2. Now, we won’t get into spoilers for the second game here, which The Last of Us season 2 will follow. If you really want to know what happens, we’d recommend you try playing the game. We’ll have a while until the second season comes to HBO, so you’ve got time!
The Last of Us season 1 finale premieres on HBO and HBO Max this Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. EST.
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