Love and loss hang-out Joel and Ellie’s total journey by means of a fallen, alternate United States. On the very first day of the Cordyceps outbreak, Joel misplaced his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker). In the meantime, 14-year-old Ellie, orphaned in the course of the apocalypse, has misplaced everybody she’s ever cared about. All through this entire season, we have watched the daddy/daughter duo slowly come collectively and fill the void in one another’s hearts whereas their story intersects with different types of love. Regardless of all his makes an attempt to close her out, Joel’s love for Ellie blossoms into one thing complicated and highly effective. Druckmann shared he needed each thread within the sequence to return to Joel and Ellie’s relationship:
“Generally, once you love one thing unconditionally, logic goes out the window and you’ll do actually horrible issues to guard those you’re keen on. And there is a number of examples worldwide of this occurring on a regular basis. So for us, it was similar to, ‘Okay, listed here are all of the totally different items that we have now, the instruments that we have now, inside this story. How can we, with every episode, thematically contact on that in a roundabout way?’ Each the [beauty] and the enjoyment that may come out of, like, a narrative like Invoice and Frank, and a destiny worse than dying when a person has to kill his personal brother as a result of he is turned. After which, finally, the higher and higher sacrifices Joel has to make for Ellie. And likewise, what she’s going by means of to guard him.”
For the HBO sequence, Druckmann seized a beautiful alternative to go deeper into these facet characters than ever earlier than. Invoice (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett) tragic love story, for instance, provides dimension to Joel and Ellie’s quest as a lot because it stands alone.