[WARNING: Spoilers for The Last of Us: Part 2]
The brutality of most violent games ever made. Yet, despite the violence, The Last of Us: Part 2 ends with mercy. During the entirety of the game, minus the opening couple of hours, Ellie wishes to kill Abby, but when she finally has the chance, she doesn’t. Ellie spares Abby. Why?
As she drowns Abby, Ellie sees a flash of Joel, not dying as she usually does, but playing the guitar. It’s upon seeing this memory, and feeling its implications, that she recoils and chooses comion. In the final flashback players see the origin of Ellie’s vision, but the true impact of the memory, and what it means to Ellie, is found in her journal.
Throughout The Last of Us: Part 2, Ellie’s journal reveals her inability to cope with the multitude of feelings around Joel's death. She has trouble reconciling her grief with the anger she feels over what Joel did to the Fireflies. The resulting cacophony of emotions is too much for Ellie to face. In her journal, she writes, “I don't want to talk about it. It's just gonna hurt. And I think once I'd start I wouldn't be able to stop.” Her feelings boiling within her, Ellie cannot see clearly. She tries again and again to draw Joel but she cannot; his eyes elude her. She draws lines through his eyes trying to angle his face but she's never able to fill them in.
How Joel's Love Saves Ellie
When Ellie finally can kill Abby at the end of The Last of Us: Part 2, the underlying truth behind all she’s felt comes bursting out, and, for the first time, she weeps. Ellie's emotions had never been allowed to surface, but once they do, they reveal what lies underneath all the confusion and rage: love. Ellie loves Joel, just as he loved her. The image of him playing the guitar represents this, as it is from their last time together. During this final conversation, they came to an understanding. Ellie expressed her desire to forgive Joel, while he made it clear that he does not regret his actions. Yes, his murder of the Fireflies was wrong and prevented a cure, but it was rooted in his love for her. Her life means something because she is herself, and not because she has immunity.
The gravity of Joel's love, and its resonance within Ellie, becomes apparent in Ellie's concluding journal entries. After sparing Abby, Ellie writes new song lyrics that deal with her hesitancy about returning to Dina and JJ. Ellie struggles with whether or not she deserves love, or even has it to offer. She muses, “Do I have it to give?/Can I offer the scrapes now?” Ellie finds her answer in Joel as her next, and final, entry is a drawing of him playing the guitar. Where she was once unable to draw him, she now sketches him fully – capturing the gentleness of his presence. Ellie trusts that there is still love left with in her. She's going to believe in the reason Joel did what he did: she is lovable.
Ellie decides to return to Dina and even though the home is barren (Dina probably returned to Jackson to be with Jesse's family) hope remains. Ellie may or may not be able to rekindle their relationship but she is not empty. In The Last of Us: Part 2's last scene, Ellie goes up to her room, takes out the guitar Joel gave her, and reminiscences about their final conversation. Previously, hidden away in its case, the guitar is now out in full view, just like Ellie's feelings for Joel. The love they shared still endures and gives Ellie the means to move forward.
