Why did Joel kill the Fireflies in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us?’

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season one finale, “Look for the Light.”

Nothing but shock and awe awaited audiences tuning in for the season finale of The Last of Us, “Look for the Light.” 

Joel and Ellie finally reached the end of their cross-country, post-apocalyptic journey, arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, things quickly turned ugly. Not only were the pair treated as hostile upon arriving at the Firefly-occupied hospital, but Joel goes on a murderous rampage in order to save Ellie from the very people he was tasked with delivering her to.

Given that Marlene told him outright that there was a solid chance they could save the world with Ellie’s sacrifice, Joel still snaps and kills everyone standing in the way of him and the operating room. Why did he take this course of action? We’re here to break it down.

Joel’s shocking decision

The morality behind Joel refusing to let Ellie die for the greater good is one that continues to be debated ever since the video game released in 2013. The repercussions of his actions are sure to be explored in the inevitable second season of the show, but for now, let’s dig into what was going on in Joel’s mind at the time.

The emotional (and literal) scars which Sarah’s death left on Joel are immeasurable, so much so that he attempted to take his own life in the days following his daughter’s death. He ended up carrying on “surviving” as the merciless cutthroat smuggler we get to know 20 years later. In the years since, Joel has boarded himself up emotionally to the point where pretty much nobody is able to get in. The emotional walls are built around his acute fear of failing those closest to him and for the sake of never having to go through such pain again. Joel famously refers to Ellie as “cargo” back in episode four, clearly putting up a barrier between himself and Ellie. The only reason he is proceeding with this mission is because it was Tess’ dying wish when her hope for a way out of a cordyceps-riddled world was reignited after witnessing Ellie’s immunity firsthand. 

After months of travelling together and facing myriad threats and challenges, Joel’s emotional wall slowly came down. Be it pun books or shared trauma, Joel truly let Ellie into his heart after she nursed him back from the brink of death. It’s most notable when he embraces her at the end of episode eight and calls her “baby girl,” the same pet name that he gave Sarah as she died in his arms. It more or less confirmed that he now thinks of Ellie as a daughter.

In the finale, Joel sat helplessly in a hospital room, having just been given the news that he is about to once again lose his daughter without so much as a chance to say goodbye, in the name of the greater good. However, his words at the end of episode eight rang clear — he wasn’t going to let anything happen to his baby girl again. Despite the fact that the world may well have been saved as a result of Ellie’s sacrifice, Joel wasn’t about to fail his surrogate daughter. He turned on the Fireflies and left their bodies in his wake so that he and Ellie could live when Sarah couldn’t, then ends up lying to her about it later on.