Does Ellie die in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part I, and The Last of Us Part II.

HBO’s television adaptation of The Last of Us only continues to grow in popularity, with the story of Naughty Dog’s video game franchise casting a much wider net than it ever could have while limited to the video game medium.

What was an already-stellar story has been kept pretty much entirely intact by the showrunners, albeit with some well-done flourishes and embellishments for the sake of making the characters more relatable and fleshed out for a television audience? 

One of the leading characters is Ellie Williams, portrayed on the show by Bella Ramsey, and Ashley Johnson in the game. She is a teenage girl who has known nothing but the harsh realities of a world that has collapsed after being overrun with the cordyceps infection and is put in the care of a reluctant smuggler, Joel, to transport her across the country.

This undertaking carries weight because it turns out that Ellie is one of, if not the only person in the world that is completely immune to cordyceps infection, and as such, she could be the key to returning the world to a state of normalcy. Seems like a very happy ending for a post-apocalyptic zombie tale – could it really be that simple? Or does a tragic fate await Ellie?

We issued a warning at the top of the article, but we’re about to go DEEP into the show’s future, based on our knowledge of the video games. Turn back now, or forever have it all ruined for you. This is strictly for the crowd that wants to ‘read ahead’ on the show’s narrative.

Will Ellie die in The Last of Us season one? 

Before we press on, we should make note that we haven’t seen how the show ends, and are basing this knowledge off of The Last of Us Part I, the video game. We answer this query with a high degree of certainty, because in the show’s run so far, all of the key narrative beats have remained the same, and we can’t imagine what we’re about to discuss will be any different.

Joel will eventually deliver Ellie to the Firefly camp with the facilities to utilize Ellie’s immunity and progress in developing a cordyceps cure, but as Joel will discover, it would cost Ellie her life. 

To properly use Ellie’s immunity to their advantage, the doctors at the Firefly camp would need to cut away a part of her brain, and kill her in the process. By this point in their journey, Joel has grown to love Ellie like a daughter (whether he admits it or not) and refuses to allow this to happen.

He goes on a murderous rampage through the hospital, and retrieves an unconscious Ellie, saving her life, but costing humanity a way out of the apocalypse. So, no, Ellie will not die by the time the credits roll on the ninth episode of The Last of Us. However, she will come dangerously close to doing so, for better or worse.

That’s how we’re more or less expecting things to play out by the time The Last of Us season one comes to an end, but we all know the show has been renewed for a second season – so is Ellie safe a little further down the road? Read on if you’re interested.

Will Ellie die in The Last of Us season two?

As above, we’re again going to mention a potential caveat that the show could deviate from the events of The Last of Us Part II, but this is more or less how we’re expecting things to play out. 

Joel’s actions at the Firefly hospital catch up to him, when Abby, the daughter of a surgeon he murders, tracks him down in Jackson, Wyoming to exact her revenge. She beats Joel to death, while Ellie is forced to watch on helplessly.

Of course, the ugly cycle of vengeance continues, and Ellie pursues Abby to Seattle. What ensues is a cat-and-mouse game between the pair, but Abby ultimately escapes. Ellie returns to Jackson to live out her days with her girlfriend Dina and her child but continues to be plagued by the post-traumatic stress of losing her father figure. 

To Dina’s displeasure, Ellie resumes her hunt for Abby and tracks her down in Santa Barbara California. The pair engage in a fistfight and Abby bites off two of Ellie’s fingers, but Ellie eventually overpowers her adversary. As Ellie is about to kill her, she has a change of heart and chooses to end the cycle of vengeance and let her go. 

However, it’s a hollow victory and redemption. She returns to Jackson to find that Dina and her child have moved out of their home and left her. So, Ellie will also survive the second season of The Last of Us, but she will end up with some extremely traumatic emotional scars (and eight fingers) by the end of it.