The Last of US: Theories for next week’s season 1 finale
Episode eight of the post-apocalytic action series has left fans eager to learn of Ellie and Joel’s fate in the upcoming season finale.
Post-apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us has captured the public attention in recent weeks to become one of the most widely-watched television shows of the year.
The penultimate episode, number eight in the first season, aired on Sunday night with an action-packed ending that has left fans guessing about where the story goes next. We’ll be running through some theories for what could unfold in the season finale next weekend, so be warned that there are spoilers beyond this point…
What happened in The Last of Us episode eight?
The series, based on the action-adventure computer game of the same name, follows a smuggler, Joel, tasked with escorting Ellie across the country in the aftermath of an apocalyptic fungal pandemic.
In episode six Joel collapses and he is forced to spend the majority of episode seven hiding out in an abandoned house while he recovers. This leaves Ellie to go out and source food and suppliers for the pair, eventually killing James and David as they try to hunt her and Joel down. At the end of episode eight Ellie and Joel are reunited, but their chance of survival looks increasingly slim.
Fan theories for The Last of Us finale
In an interview with Vogue Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie in the show, confirmed that there is a major surprise coming for fans in the season finale. She said: “It’s going to divide people massively – massively.”
So what could be in store? The fate of Joel is the main question mark as the first season comes to an end, with some suggesting that the character could be killed off in an explosive season finale.
In the game on which the series is based Joel lives through the entirety of the first instalment, before dying at the very start of the second game. It would therefore go against expectations if Joel were to die in episode nine, leaving Ellie to fend for herself.
But one fan, writing on CBR.com, said of a potential major death in the finale: “This is the perfect place to subvert expectations and kill Joel.”
“While it might be unfathomable to kill off a major character like this, it would also keep the show unpredictable, nodding to when non-readers of Game of Thrones saw Ned Stark die early on.”
If the series stays true to the game’s storyline the season would end with both Joel and Ellie alive, but with the former killing a number of his old friends to ensure their safety. In the morally ambiguous world of The Last of Us, this sort of positive-but-bleak ending would be in line with what has gone before.