Ellie Is Riding Into A Warzone In 'The Last Of Us'

After watching Joel die in last week’s episode, it was easy to predict that Ellie would be on the warpath looking for his killer. And she is — of course she is! — but the third episode, titled “The Path,” slows things way down. There’s healing to do, and rebuilding, and more importantly, grieving — for the characters, and for us. By the time Ellie finally does leave Jackson in pursuit of Abby, it’s clear the show has taken another serious departure from the plot of the game. Namely, the Tommy of it all.

In the game, it’s Tommy who sets out to avenge his brother’s murder, and Ellie follows behind. I can see why the show chose to reduce his role in order to give Ellie more agency in the mission. It was always her story, after all. However, it does change the emotional aftermath of Joel’s death, which the show compensates for in a few ways. Keeping Tommy behind may have been the real impetus to add the Infected attack last week, to give him a different mission (rebuilding the city). His competing loyalties are clear in the scene where he washes Joel’s body, silently grieving as the camera pulls back to show all the other dead bodies in the room around them. He’s a brother, but he’s also a leader. It would be different if there was a rescue mission he could undertake, but revenge is a luxury he doesn’t have. Arguably, it’s one that none of them can afford in this world.

The show uses Ellie’s injuries to add in a three-month time jump, which further diffuses the immediate emotional impact of Joel’s death. By the time she’s healed, the people around her have moved on to a certain extent, and she has to pretend she has as well — at least to convince Gail she’s ready to leave the hospital. The fact that Joel is just one of many loved ones who died that day is driven home again later on, when the city council hears arguments for whether they should send out a team to hunt Abby. Whether it’s the concept of mercy or the immediate need for protection at home, the people of Jackson don’t want to risk their own to pursue vengeance. Ellie — and to everyone’s surprise, that bigot Seth — feel differently. Ellie gives a persuasive speech (thanks to Jesse, who recommended she write her thoughts down) about how this isn’t a question of revenge at all, but justice. The world may have gone sideways, but they’ve eked out a real community in the midst of chaos, and a community is supposed to have each other’s backs.

The council overwhelmingly votes to do nothing (although the three votes in favor of the mission almost certainly came from Maria, Tommy, and Jesse), but my favorite part is Gail watching over the proceedings. As she tells Tommy later on, Ellie is a liar — and she’s right. This episode may have dialed back the emotional intensity, the anger, but it’s still there. Ellie doesn’t want justice, she wants revenge — she’s just smart enough to throw a mask over it in polite company. I like that Gail sees through her, though I do wonder if the writers added Gail as our interpreter because otherwise Ellie could come off as too subdued in this new, slower build-up to her departure.

Because yes, obviously Ellie is still going to leave to find Abby, no matter what the council says — and it turns out that Dina is going to go with her, because Ellie may have the will, but Dina knows the way. Literally. Dina has a map! Dina also has the names of Abby’s compatriots, their likely location (Seattle), and their known affiliations (WLF stands for Washington Liberation Front, a.k.a. the wolves). Dina even has a contact for their survival gear, because all Ellie was going to pack was guns. When Seth meets them at the rendezvous with food and medical supplies, he earns a handshake from Ellie. Maybe Ellie is capable of forgiveness, sometimes.

Even the beginning of Ellie’s journey is weirdly peaceful. They start by visiting Joel’s grave — a marker amongst many, ten miles outside of town — where Ellie leaves some coffee beans by way of goodbye, then the pair moves on through stunning landscapes. They pass the time with silly games, and at night they finally discuss their New Year’s kiss. That three-month time jump seemingly put their romance on pause, and they each pass the kiss off as a drunken experiment, though Dina simultaneously admits she wasn’t that high and that she did hook back up with Jesse afterward. They’re both playing their cards close to their chests, but the very fact that Dina came along for the ride says exactly how much Ellie means to her. Dina may have cared about Joel, but I don’t think that’s why she tagged along.

As they approach the outskirts of Seattle, they stumble across a massacre — the dead bodies of the religious group we met earlier in the episode. In the game, they were called the Seraphites, though so far we don’t know much about them — only that they follow the teachings of a dead prophet and that they were fleeing a “war.” We also know that “wolves” attacked them. It appears the WLF killed the group, including the children among them — a fact that has Ellie and Dina on edge. If Abby is a part of whatever group did this, then maybe Ellie’s mission will be a little bit about justice after all.

We haven’t seen Abby yet, though one of her friends — Owen — is a lookout in Seattle. We do, however, get our first glimpse of the WLF before the credits roll and … well, it looks like Ellie is following her warpath straight into a warzone. The militia has tanks, and dozens of armed and trained recruits, and seemingly controls the whole city. She’ll have her job cut out for her, trying to track Abby in the midst of all of that — not unlike the odds Abby faced trying to find Joel in Jackson.