Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the HBO show The Last of Us.As a zombie apocalypse game-turned-series, HBO’sThe Last of Usis—hence its name—all about death. After a global disease infected the population, only the strongest survived when the world ended, while some had no choice but to be born into it.
The first part of the show follows unlikely allies Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they travel cross-country for a chance to create a cure. Despite several brushes with deaths along the way, the two lose plenty of friends throughout the show’s first season that both the characters and fans are still mourning.The deaths keep piling up in Season 2, and those will take a while to get over as well. Here are the saddest ones so far.
The Last Of Us
15Kathleen
Dies in “Endure and Survive” (Season 1, Episode 5)
Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) is the leader of a militia in Kansas City, and she’s on the hunt for a man named Henry. Henry betrayed her brother, Michael, who was the former leader of this group (and apparently a kinder one). Kathleen will stop at nothing to get payback. When her second-in-command shows her a crater that’s obviously filled with infected, she insists that they catch Henry first; only then will they warn the others about what should probably be a priority. Alas, that decision costs her when she gets bitten by a zombie in “Endure and Survive.”
One of the prevailing themes inThe Last of Usis vengeance, and Kathleen is one of the characters who best exemplifies that.What makes her death so sad is what drove her toward a single-minded path of fury: her devotion to her brother. When she revisits the room she grew up in and talks about how her brother asked her to forgive Henry, the tragedy of her story moves us greatly—despite the fact that she’s hunting down our protagonists.
14The Brain Surgeon
Dies in “Look for the Light” (Season 1, Episode 9)
People are relatively sparse in the post-apocalypse, so doctors who know how to cut into someone’s brain and come up with a cure to the Cordyceps virus are nearly impossible to come by. Apparently, there’s only one in the world, or at least in the United States, and all he wants to do is help. When the answer to his prayers (and what should be everyone else’s) arrives, he’s ready to change the world. Then Joel comes along and shoots him just when the procedure was about to begin.
In a way, everyone in the show is mourning the loss of this doctor. Theman was Abby’s father, but he also could have been the father of a new world—a safer world in which everything could potentially return to some kind of normalcy. Watching the infected become more and more dangerous, viewers might understandably feel saddened all over again by this doctor who died in such an unexpected and tragic way.
13Ellie’s Horse
Dies in “When We Are In Need” (Season 1, Episode 8)
The episode “Kin” saw the return of Tommy (Gabriel Luna) when Joel and Ellie arrived at a new community, but it also introduced two memorable characters from the games. After Ellie’sThe Last of Us IIhorse named Shimmer made a cameo, she later hopped on another unnamed horse who resembled Callus from the first game.
Ellie rode Callus to the university with Joel, and later rode a wounded Joel to safety. After crossing a group of cannibals, Ellie rides Callus in an attempt to lead the group away, but gets shot at,the bullet killing Callus and sending Ellie flying off the horse.
Aminor character in theTLoUgames, James (Troy Baker) was one of the antagonists in the episode “When We Are in Need” as David’s (Scott Shepherd) right-hand man of sorts who helped him capture Ellie. And while his death was a victory for Ellie, it also came with some sadness for diehardTLoUfans for a special reason.
James was played by Troy Baker, who famously voiced the main character, Joel, in the games. Baker joined three fellow voice actors –Ashley Johnson,Merle Dandridge, andJeffrey Pierce– who all made guest appearances in the series.
Head of the Fireflies, Marlene (Merle Dandridge) is the one who asked Joel to take Ellie in the first place. She was going to take Ellie herself, but circumstances changed and she had to entrust the “cargo” to Joel. Marlene may not have thought much of Joel’s character, but she respected his abilities as a man who knows how to survive. Unfortunately for her, she chose someone who was too good for the job; after delivering Ellie to the Fireflies as promised, he kills them all (including Marlene) to save Ellie from a fatal surgery.
Marlene had so much hope for Ellie, andthe fact that her plan worked for that long makes her death even more tragic. Marlene begged Joel to let her go, but he knew that she would just go after Ellie if he didn’t kill her. Overall, it’s impossible not to feel terrible that Marlene’s effort was all for nothing.
The season finale started out with a short but powerful appearance by Ellie’s mom, Anna (Ashley Johnson). As she ran for her life through the woods while she went into labor, Anna finally found shelter in an abandoned house and gave birth to her daughter just as a clicker barged through the door.
Anna got a few memorable minutes with her daughter she named Ellie after getting bit by the clicker, knowing she wouldn’t have much time with her. When Marlene (Merle Dandridge) found the two, Anna made Marlene promise to keep her daughter safe before killing her. While the death happened off-screen, viewers could hear Marlene’s gunshot and Ellie’s cries as it happened.
It’s common inThe Last of Usfor charactersto come and go, giving Ellie and Joel whatever it is they need at the time before their story ends. That’s exactly what Henry (Lamar Johnson) did when he and his little brother Sam (Keivonn Woodard) showed up holding Joel and Ellie at gunpoint.
Desperate to survive Kathleen’s (Melanie Lynskey) constant attempts to kill him, Henry joined forces with Joel to try and skip town. But it all came crashing down for Henry when he watched Sam attack Ellie after being infected and needing to be put down, causing Henry to take his own life.
Dies in “Left Behind” (Season 1, Episode 7)
When Season 1 broke away from the first game to tell the story of the expansionThe Last of Us: Left Behind, it introduced fans of the franchise to the character everyone had been waiting for: Ellie’s best friend, Riley (Storm Reid).
While her death doesn’t happen on screen, it’s easily presumed after the events of theepisode when Riley and Ellieare both bit by an infected.The two choose to die together, but ultimately Ellie was left to kill a turned Riley off-screenbefore returning to the QZ with her newfound immunity.
Dies in “Infected” (Season 1, Episode 2)
Tess (Anna Torv) was not only a short-lived character in the game, but lasted for an even shorter amount of time in the series after she and Joel escape the QZ to smuggle Ellie across the country. With a badass personality (muchlike Carol Peletier fromThe Walking Dead), fans gushed over Tess' post-apocalyptic relationship with Joel.
During a death that departed from the game, when Joel, Ellie, and Tess discover a herd of infected coming their way,Tess sacrifices herself in order for Joel and Ellie to escape, sharing a strange and unexpected kiss with an infected man before being devoured.
Dies in “The Price” (Season 2, Episode 6)
We know from the very first episode of season two that Joel killed Gail’s husband sometime after the events of season one. Gail (Catherine O’Hara) tells Joel that she’s not mad that he killed him; she’s just furious abouthowhe did it. So we can tell that Eugene was probably infected and would have to be shot, and “The Price” confirms that in a terribly sad flashback.
Ellie and Joel were on patrol when they found Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), bitten. Joel wanted to kill him immediately, but there was enough time to bring the man to his wife for a final goodbye. Joel makes him and Ellie think that he’ll let Eugene live long enough to see his wife before dying, but tricks them both to make sure that the man is killed before he can possibly become a threat. Eugene begs to be kept alive just a little longer, and Joe Pantoliano’s performance makes us feel awful for this man in a remarkably short amount of time.He’s forced to picture his wife instead, as the view that Joel gives him proves completely inadequate.
