When the video game The Last Of Us was released in 2013, the ending caused a massive split of fan opinions. Who was in the right? Was it Joel or was it Marlene and the Fireflies? The debate hasn’t let up over the past decade and with The Last Of Us series finale behind us, it’s undoubtedly about to bring more people and more opinions to either side. Bella Ramsey believes so too; “It’s going to divide people massively – massively.” I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and as I’ve gotten older over the past ten years, I’ve come to realize that neither was 100% right. With that said, considering all options, I still believe that Joel Miller made the best choice.
The Argument of Autonomy
Joel and Marlene were both wrong and it all comes down to one word: autonomy. Both of them stripped Ellie of her autonomy. From the very beginning, Ellie was under the impression that when she got to the hospital, the doctors there would simply take her blood and run tests on it to create a vaccine. A cure. That was what she had been told, that is what she agreed to. She and Joel fought their way across the entire country with this dream that Ellie’s blood was the cure. Ellie believed in it so much that she attempted to save Sam with her blood after he’d been bitten. Even still, neither of them questioned it much until Joel finally asked her if she wanted to go through with it. It’s then that Ellie utters one of her most important lines, “It can’t be for nothing.” And then she promises him that when they’re done, she’ll go anywhere with him.
Not long after, Joel and Ellie are attacked by the Firefly patrol. When he wakes up, he’s in a hospital room with Marlene while Ellie is nowhere to be seen. Marlene then tells Joel that Ellie is being prepped for surgery and explains what the doctor’s plan is. It’s then that Joel realizes that they aren’t just taking her blood. They’re taking her brain. Marlene’s excuse was that they didn’t want her to be scared but that still gives her no right to authorize them to kill Ellie, even if the fate of the world hinges on that decision. She never gave Ellie the choice.
When Marlene sees that Joel opposes, she orders two Fireflies to escort him out of the building and if he tries anything, to shoot him. Ultimately, Joel not only kills those two Fireflies but nearly everyone in the entire hospital, including the doctor who was about to operate on her. He takes her to the lowest level of the hospital as a means to escape when he’s confronted by Marlene. Marlene argues that Ellie would have wanted to go through with it and that this wasn’t the end. He could change his mind and give Ellie over. Marlene could have been right. Ellie may have still wanted to go through with it but she didn’t give her the chance to make that decision and by killing Marlene, Joel took away Ellie’s decision to choose, too. Marlene was presumably the only person who knew how Ellie was immune. Anyone else who may have known likely died in that building. This strips away the chance for them to ever purposefully attempt to replicate the way she became immune.
There is some possible scenario in all this where they’re honest with Ellie, explain what they want to do, and allow her to choose but neither of them wanted to give her that option. They were both afraid of what she would say. There’s also the argument of if it is morally right for them to allow this decision to fall onto the shoulders of a 14-year-old girl. She can choose to save herself or save the world. At least that’s what it is when you look at it but once you step back and think about it all, it’s not that simple.
Joel Miller Saved The World
Despite Joel being wrong for taking away Ellie’s ability to choose, he still made the best choice given the situation. Joel’s only options were to let them kill Ellie, knowing that isn’t what she agreed to or to do what he did. Saving Ellie potentially killed any chance of ever creating a cure and yes, that was a selfish decision but that doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision to make.
In his eyes, Joel Miller saved the world. It just so happens that the world to him is Ellie. Over the season of The Last Of Us, Ellie became a second daughter to Joel. He loved her, cared for her, and protected her as he did with his daughter Sarah. Joel had been unable to save her when she was killed by a soldier and he wasn’t going to let Ellie suffer the same fate. Marlene had tried to convince him that this is what she would have wanted and as mentioned above, maybe she would have but I think that was so desperate to make the Fireflies mean something after failing over and over again that she was willing to sacrifice Ellie. She even tried to compare her being there at Ellie’s birth to Joel’s relationship with her. Anna, Ellie’s mother, asked Marlene to find someone in Boston to take care of Ellie and keep her safe. Instead, she dropped her off at an orphanage to turn her into the same soldiers the Fireflies were trying to kill. Marlene had little interest in Ellie’s well-being until she became useful to her.
Ultimately, I think Joel best fulfilled Ellie’s wish the only way he could. It can’t be for nothing. While the doctor had a plan, there was no guarantee that it would work. It would have been one thing to take her blood and nothing come of it but what would happen if they removed cordyceps from her brain and the experiment failed? It would have been all for nothing and that was the last thing Ellie wanted. Maybe Ellie’s life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things but if you think Joel Miller, a contractor from Texas, gives a damn about the grand scheme of things over the life of his child, you’re wrong. Anyone who says they’d let her die is a liar or emotionally immature.
There is also the argument of if what he had done was right, why did he lie to her? For selfish reasons. Joel didn’t want to run the risk of him being wrong, that it was what she wanted and he took that away from her. He didn’t want to know what any other outcome may have been and he didn’t want her to hate him after everything they’d been through. He didn’t want to lose her. There was now no other choice to be made, she couldn’t go back to the hospital; he’d killed them all. It was better if he lied and laid it to rest so she could have some peace in her life and just be a kid without the weight of the literal world on her shoulders. Joel Miller may not have been right, but he made the right choice.
Check out the trailer for The Last Of Us below. Season 1 is now on HBO Max in its entirety.
