(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Lots of characters die on The Last of Us, but Joel (Pedro Pascal) isn’t just anyone, and it doesn’t take a therapist or a fortune-teller to predict Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) next move.
Many Jackson residents met a violent end on New Year’s Day 2029, but only one of them was killed in cold blood by another human. This distinction is the crux of Ellie’s argument during the town council meeting, as she pleads her case to take an armed group to Seattle to seek justice for Joel.
In the third episode, The Last of Us presents several age-old philosophical debates, including justice versus revenge and nature versus nurture. Still, no matter how you frame it or how the vote pans out, Ellie is determined to go to Seattle to kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever)—whether alone or with 15 others.
The Last of Us wastes no time before Ellie gets back on a horse. Or rather, she has to spend three months in the hospital to recover from injuries sustained when she tried to save Joel, because Manny (Danny Ramirez) booted her hard in the ribs. Instead of showing Ellie’s recuperation after the run-in with the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), the episode opens with the immediate aftermath of the siege at Jackson, before skipping ahead after the credits to Ellie’s hospital discharge. Much like Ellie, the town is rebuilding, but still grieving.
Not that Ellie lets anyone see her cry, saving her tears for the shirts in Joel’s closet. She blows off Jackson’s in-demand psychotherapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara), by lacing her “feelings” with sarcasm. She mirrors Joel’s withholding in his last session with Gail. While Ellie doesn’t reveal the meaning behind Joel’s “I saved her” admission, Gail immediately sees through Ellie’s BS, yet doesn’t push beyond a gentle prod. Gail is an observer, constantly gathering information and dishing out helpful advice to those who ask. “You see things others don’t,” says Tommy (Gabriel Luna) later on.
At the town hall, Gail watches from the rafters, clocking the different dynamics playing out in the room as Ellie’s proposal to take a posse to kill Abby in Seattle is considered and ultimately rejected. Is Gail ever off the clock? Clients pay the therapist with alcohol and weed, so it is hardly surprising that she is self-medicating with her wages. A few beers while watching the Jackson kids play T-ball isn’t a red flag, but whisky for breakfast before her last session with Joel is more alarming.
When Tommy asks how Gail is dealing with being the only mental health professional during this brutal time, she is straight to the point: “I’m an alcoholic, and I smoke as much weed as I can. You know, a complete f—ing disaster.”
O’Hara is one of the best on-screen drunks, but this is not Moira Rose levels of slurring her way through a fruit wine commercial on Schitt’s Creek. Instead, Gail is a textbook high-functioning boozer whose big tell is when she stops sugarcoating things, and who can blame her for this professional faux pas (or misconduct)? In the apocalypse, all bets are off, especially when there are not enough qualified shrinks to go around.
Gail also knows that Tommy hasn’t come for the beer and T-ball, or to check on her well-being. Ellie is his cause for concern as he’s afraid she is going to walk the same grief-turned-rage path that Joel did after his daughter died.
Before the town hall, Tommy had already gently rebuked Ellie for Joel-splainng to him about how Joel would have reacted if the roles were reversed. It is easy to see why Tommy thinks Ellie’s anger-fueled and impulsive behaviour is something she learned from her surrogate father, but Gail makes it clear that nurture only has a small impact. Nature does most of the heavy lifting: “If she’s on a path, it’s not one Joel put her on. I think they were walking side by side from the very start.”
Given Gail’s soft and empathetic tone, you might think this off-books session will end on a hopeful note. It is not as clear-cut as that. “Take it from a psychotherapist of 40 years, some people just can’t be saved,” she says. At first, I thought Gail was suggesting that Ellie is doomed to a violent fate. However, after rewatching the scene, I think Gail is (rightly) flexing her experience to tell Tommy he isn’t responsible for what happens to Ellie if (okay, when) she heads down the dangerous road.
It was Dina (Isabela Merced) who was with Joel when Abby enacted her vengeance, and she is equally invested in payback. Dina has been sitting on the information that Abby is a member of the WLF militia and waits until Ellie is out of the hospital before sharing. It was an informed choice as she knows Ellie would have sacrificed her health to hunt Abby down.
Dina also knows Ellie will make the 800-plus-mile journey to Seattle solo, which has disaster written all over it. Dina doesn’t want to dissuade her bestie (and maybe object of affection); she wants to accompany her on this quest. Plus, Dina knows how to plan for a cross-country journey, including convincing Ellie that Chucks are not all-terrain footwear.
Usefully, a Reddit poster has calculated the length of this journey on horseback, which ranges from 24 to 47 days depending on various factors. By the end of the episode, they have made it to Seattle. Talk of their New Year’s Eve smooch has come up, but Ellie downplays the significance of the matter. Dina has slept with Jesse (Young Mazino) since then, but there is still tension bubbling beneath the surface. Surprisingly, nothing happens in this enclosed space beyond teasing about how good the kiss was (Ellie gives it a six out of 10) and Dina worrying that Jesse is sad because of her.
They don’t run into anyone living along the way but do stumble upon the aftermath of a massacre. Earlier in the episode, we see a group of Seraphites (or Scars) who are migrating away from war. The matching cheek scars (hence the name), outfits, and hair (braided for women, shaved for men), along with talk of a prophet, give this group big cult energy. It is this entire group that Ellie and Dina find slaughtered at the hands of humans, and not infected because the Scars’ hammers are no match for guns.
Dina reacts to seeing the dead young girl by throwing up, emphasizing the horror of the scene. Ellie thinks Abby and her friends did this, but it is unclear how accurate this is at this point.
By the closing moments, it is clear the WLF is not a ragtag group with minimal resources, such as hammers. How Ellie and Dina will get to Abby without getting caught (or worse, killed) is unclear. Perhaps Gail was right that Ellie cannot be saved. But you don’t need to be a shrink to understand why Ellie won’t stop until she’s got her justice—or revenge.
