The Last of Us spoilers below.
The Last of Us has finally dropped, and it couldn't come soon enough. Fans have been hungrier than the fungal-parasite-inflicted to get their hands on this post-apocalyptic drama. But now that it's finally here, was it worth the wait? Hell yeah, and here's why.
There was so much to unpack in the first episode alone that it's kind of a good thing that there will be a week in between episodes. You know, like it used to be done in the olden days. More time to ruminate, speculate and – of course – digest.
Someone that's bound to be at the forefront of your mind is Ellie (Bella Ramsey). You know the girl. Razor sharp-tongue, gutsy, appears to be living with the very Cordyceps brain virus that has doomed the rest of the planet, but she's fine.
When we first meet Ellie she is pretty feral – but not because of the disease she's harboring. It's because she's been chained to a radiator like a rabid animal and like an animal keeps bucking and yanking and jerking against those restraints to break free.
No such luck. The Fireflies (a revolutionary militia group) have her well and truly detained.
We later find out it's because Ellie is deemed as valuable to them. Nothing is confirmed to the viewers as to the nature of her value. It's all hushed tones and passed notes, but we get the picture. She's important.
In fact, as the Fireflies leader tells her: "You have greater purpose than any of us could have imagined."
This becomes even clearer when Fireflies leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge), reluctantly entrusts Ellie to a smuggler named Joel (Pedro Pascal), and his girlfriend Tess (Anna Torv).
With the military in pursuit, Joel and Tess are tasked with delivering Ellie to the safety of a team of Fireflies at the old state house. Only then can Ellie's mysterious destiny begin.
This Marlene does after being shot. Bleeding out is not the way you want to start your escape, so it was pretty much an 'all-out-of-other-options' situation.
Joel only agrees because he's desperate to find his missing brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and the Fireflies will provide the means for him to do so.
So who is Ellie, and why is she so important to the story? Allow us to explain.
Who is Ellie in The Last of Us?
It's pretty obvious by now that they believe Ellie is the key to the antidote that will put an end to the plague that is ravaging planet Earth.
The Cordyceps brain virus is caused by fungal parasites that invade the hosts, feed on their brains and begin to control them.
This has been true for every victim… except for Ellie. Ellie bears the mark of someone who has been infected and when scanned for the virus she comes up positive, but as she tells Joel and Tess: "This [my scar] is three weeks old. Nobody lasts more than a day. Does this look a day old to you?"
Ellie aced the Fireflies' tests, proving there had been no decline in her mental capacity and that she is pretty much A-OK, apart from the smart mouth.
Like us, Ellie knows very little about her past and why she was orphaned. However, it's Marlene who reveals the truth to her. It was she, Marlene, who delivered her into the hands of the FEDRA Military when she was a baby, despite her opposition to them.
Marlene knew in spite of everything, she would be safe with them. Marlene's reasons for wanting to keep her safe have not been made clear in the show, but her origins in the game reveal that she was a close friend of Ellie's mother. This means she would have an interest in keeping tabs on her.
It would explain how Marlene was able to discover Ellie's infectious status presumably very quickly (before she could be killed) and why she's been kept alive when everyone else has been killed.
It's likely that they monitored her, waiting for her to reach the point of no return to give her a humane death, and when this didn't happen they began looking for answers.
MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW...
Cover your eyes, click off the page, set your phone or your laptop on fire if you really don't want to know any more about Ellie and her potential fate in The Last of Us. You have been warned.
In the video game series Ellie is a very, very central character to the story. Just as it has been established in the television franchise, Ellie grew up as an orphan.
Like in the video game, Ellie became infected with the Cordyceps brain virus when she was a teenager, and both TV Ellie and game Ellie proved to be immune to its effects.
Marlene believed that Ellie was the key to finding a cure. The show and the game are also aligned in the fact that Joel was the one to step in and deliver Ellie to the other Fireflies, but he soon learns some pretty epic news that is far too spoiler-y to reveal thus far. Just expect all sorts of crazy situations to unfold.
Of course, we know that the show has deviated from the finer details of the game's plot but it's likely that it will stick to the main structure of the story, which means Joel, Tess and Ellie are in for a tumultuous ride.
The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US, and on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK.
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