Bella Ramsey Promises A ‘Massively Divisive’ The Last Of Us Season 1 Finale

The Last of Us season 1’s ending is nearly upon us. It’s not this week, but next, as it ends on Episode 9, oddly, and some game fans are a bit concerned it may be rushing through the final chapters a bit.

However, there is one aspect of the finale that is going to divide fans, at least according to star Bella Ramsey speaking to Vogue:

“It’s going to divide people massively – massively,” she said, before going on to talk about how brutal filming that episode was for her, though she enjoyed it.

There are two minds of what she means by this. The first is that some people think that it’s going to be divisive because it’s going to diverge significantly from the game, which would be controversial. Others think it’s going to be divisive because if it does stick to the source material, that was a hugely divisive ending when it happened as well, and now show-only watchers will get to experience that controversy for the first time.

To talk about what this means, we’re going to have to get into spoiler territory here.

The ending in the game poses a seemingly impossible situation. The Fireflies Joel and Ellie find do in fact believe that they can possibly use her immunity to find a cure. The catch is that they need her brain to fully research this, which will kill her.

In the game, you think that in a game where you don’t get to choose anything, you’re going to be presented with one final choice. Sacrifice Ellie to potentially save the world, or rescue Ellie and possibly erase hope for a cure?

Except it’s not a choice. This is not your story, the player, this is Joel’s story, and Joel has already made the decision. You probably know what it is. In this segment, the player is forced to storm the Firefly hospital and kill the doctor, rescuing Ellie. I think I tried to shoot him in the leg to be “nice” when I realized the game was going to make me do this, but it doesn’t matter, he dies. You save the unconscious Ellie who is not aware any of this was happening, and tell her later nope, they couldn’t use you for a cure, sorry. She doesn’t find out what actually happened until later. So that is probably the divisive aspect Bella is talking about.

You cannot change this ending in any meaningful way. You just can’t. Ellie has to survive for the second game, and Joel has to kill the doctor which triggers Abby’s quest for revenge on him, where she views him as a madman that executed her father who was just trying to find a cure and save the planet. These are fixed aspects of the story that cannot be altered, so no, I don’t think Bella is saying to expect some wild departures from the game.

I do look forward to seeing what everyone makes of Joel’s choice.

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