The Last Of Us: Part 1 | No one's curing anything on Joel's watch

Gameplay Part 5 (Finale + DLC)

In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.

In this playthrough we cover:

Chapter 10: Bus Depot:
Spring arrives, and with it a somber quiet as Joel and Ellie make their way through the ruins of Salt Lake City. Their bond has deepened after the horrors of winter, though Ellie remains withdrawn, clearly still haunted by what happened in Lakeside Resort. As they approach the Bus Depot, they come across a herd of giraffes peacefully roaming the abandoned stadium—offering a rare and beautiful moment of peace that lifts Ellie’s spirits. Continuing on, they push through flooded streets and ruined highways toward the hospital where the Fireflies are supposedly stationed. Along the way, they fend off infected swarms in an underground tunnel, eventually getting separated after Joel is pulled underwater. Ellie manages to free him but gets knocked out by a wave. Just as they reach the outskirts of the hospital, a group of Fireflies captures them, knocking Joel unconscious.

Chapter 11: The Firefly Lab:
Joel awakens in a medical room within the Firefly base, Saint Mary’s Hospital. Marlene, leader of the Fireflies, informs him that Ellie is being prepped for surgery—the scientists believe her immunity lies in her brain and intend to remove it to create a cure, a procedure that will kill her. Horrified and unwilling to lose Ellie, Joel violently fights his way through the hospital, eliminating armed Fireflies in a desperate bid to rescue her. He bursts into the operating room and kills the surgeon before carrying Ellie—still under anesthesia—out of the facility. As alarms blare, Joel escapes to the parking garage, where Marlene confronts him and pleads for Ellie’s life to have meaning. Joel shoots Marlene, ensuring no one will come after Ellie, then drives away. Later, Ellie awakens in the car, unaware of what happened. Joel lies, telling her the Fireflies had found many others like her and had given up on a cure.

Chapter 12: Jackson:
Joel and Ellie hike toward Tommy’s community in Jackson, Wyoming. The mood is heavy, with Ellie clearly unsettled by Joel’s story about the Fireflies. As they near the town, she stops him and forces a difficult conversation—recounting the people she’s lost and asking for the truth. Joel swears to her that everything he said about the Fireflies was true. After a long pause, Ellie simply says, “Okay,” leaving the story on a quiet but emotionally charged note.

DLC: Left Behind:
Set between Fall and Winter during the main story, Left Behind interweaves two timelines: Ellie struggling to save an unconscious Joel after he was impaled at the university, and a flashback to her final night with her best friend, Riley. In the present, Ellie scavenges through a Colorado mall for supplies—facing infected and hostile survivors—trying to locate medical equipment to treat Joel’s wound. She pushes through shuttered shops, locked pharmacies, and flooded backrooms while cleverly using distractions and traps to survive. The mall is eerily silent except for the tension of lurking danger and Ellie’s desperate internal drive to keep Joel alive.

The flashback picks up with Riley sneaking Ellie out of her dorm at the Boston quarantine zone. The two reconnect after weeks apart—Riley had run off to join the Fireflies—and sneak into an abandoned mall to enjoy one final night together. They playfully compete in games, dance, go on rides. It's a moment of happiness and freedom that briefly allows them to forget the harsh world outside. Their bond is palpable, filled with unresolved feelings and emotional tension. When they share a kiss, it's a quiet, brave moment between two girls surviving in a broken world.

But their joy is cut short when infected swarm the mall. The girls fight back desperately, but both are bitten. They hide in a back room, devastated by the realization of what’s to come. Rather than take their own lives or separate, they decide to stay together, no matter how short the time left. It's a heartbreaking, powerful memory that gives greater context to Ellie’s determination to save Joel—she’s already experienced the agony of losing someone she loved and refuses to go through it again. The story fades back to the present as Ellie secures medicine and returns to Joel’s side, reaffirming her will to fight for the people she loves.

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