7 questions we have after the season finale of 'The Last of Us'

1. Why was Ellie's mom, Anna, in the middle of a forest by herself at the start of the finale?

Kirsten: I was excited to see Ashley Johnson, the actor who brought Ellie to life in the video game, on-screen as Ellie's mom, Anna.

However, after revisiting the finale, this was a perplexing watch for many reasons. 

Who or what was Anna running from? Was she trying to escape that one infected? Was FEDRA or another group after her? Why was she running by herself? It seemed odd that no one was with this very pregnant woman in a random forest. 

When Marlene and some Fireflies finally locate Anna, there's no urgency other than dealing with Ellie's birth and Anna's infection so it's unclear why Anna was on the run in the first place. Marlene never says anything to the effect of, "It's OK. We're safe. No one's after us anymore."

It's briefly hinted that they may have been escaping the Boston quarantine zone in order to defect to and start the Firefly uprising.

Maybe further flashbacks will fill in these answers next season, but I couldn't help but feel like something was left on the cutting-room floor.

Palmer: During this scene, I was more confused than anything else. Joel says in episode four that a forest where he and Ellie take shelter is "too remote" for the infected, implying that the creatures tend to concentrate in or near former urban areas.

We don't know how far outside of the city Anna is during this scene, but it seemed weird that she was being pursued by an infected that far out, and that there weren't more of them. 

Ultimately, I also left this opening scene with more questions than answers and would have loved to learn more about Anna's connection to Marlene and why she was fleeing while in labor.

2. What's the importance of the farmhouse to Ellie's mom and the Fireflies?

Kirsten: Was this a safe house for Anna and the Fireflies as they were escaping the quarantine zone? When Anna enters the house at the start of the episode, it seemed like she expected to find someone there. The house looked pretty abandoned and rundown.

In the game, an identical house in the sequel game is located near the Jackson community.

Palmer: I would also like to know this! Was this a botched rendezvous point? A safe house?  It pretty obviously seemed to have belonged to a family; the room where Anna gave birth had what looked like a toy box and juvenile curtains. 

3. So, do we really know why Ellie is seemingly immune to the cordyceps infection now?

Kirsten: It's implied that Ellie's immune to the cordyceps infection because her mother, Anna, was bit by an infected in the moments leading up to Ellie's birth. As a result, on the show, it's presumed that Ellie has some built-in immunity to the infection or a mutation of the fungus.

Marlene later tells Joel that the Fireflies have a running theory: "Our doctor thinks that the cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth. It produces a kind of chemical messenger. It makes normal cordyceps think that she's cordyceps. It's why she's immune."

Palmer: Yeah, the show seems to leave it pretty deliberately vague. I would love to get more of the details, but given Joel's actions in the finale, I don't think they'll likely be relevant in the future. 

Kirsten: In a conversation with press, via The Hollywood Reporter, Druckmann noted that they "hint at and give some theories as to why Ellie is immune," but "don't answer that conclusively." I'm wondering if they'll revisit this more next season.

4. Who is Ellie's father and will we ever meet him?

Kirsten: Is this guy even alive? Ellie's father is never addressed in the game. 

His potential existence could make an interesting avenue for the game and show to explore in the future, but no third game has officially been announced.

In January, Druckmann told The Hollywood Reporter he believed there was "more story to tell" without confirming whether or not a third game was in the works. 

Palmer: Part of me feels like if we were going to meet Ellie's father, we likely would have gotten some kind of nod in the episode nine flashback, or a comment for Marlene early on.

Introducing Ellie's father would definitely be a curveball, and open up a lot of new ground, though.  

Kirsten: Again, in a conversation with press, coshowrunner Craig Mazin said he's never had his own curiosities about Ellie's dad. It sounds like something we may never get an answer about.

5. Why weren't there more infected on the show, and will we see more next season?

Kirsten: This was my biggest gripe about the first season of "The Last of Us." Apart from three contained moments on the first half of the show, where were all of the infected?

In the game, you're constantly running into hordes of them. That wasn't the case on the show, making the cordyceps outbreak feel less dangerous. It felt odd that only one infected attacked Riley and Ellie in episode seven. In the game, they were chased by an entire herd in the mall. 

For a series that reportedly had around a $100 million budget, I expected to see many more clickers, runners, and bloaters at almost every turn. 

The cordyceps felt like such a limited threat at times that I wondered why finding a cure even mattered on the show. Plenty of people seemed to be getting on just fine without infection outbreaks. People like Kathleen and David — instead of the monsters — were the real threat. 

Palmer: I know cocreator Craig Mazin spoke a bit about this in a PlayStation Blog interview — part of the show's decreased level of violence, he said, has to do with the fact that you can't have the same kind of healing mechanics in a show as you do in a video game.

Any amount of violence or injury has a bigger impact than it would in the game. In that vein, I get why we don't see as many infected in the show. 

That being said, I agree that it also made the cordyceps pandemic feel like much less of a problem than the show keeps telling us that it is.

And ultimately, that makes Joel's choice towards the end feel less impactful — with limited certainty as to whether or not a cure would even work, and a minimized threat from the infected, it starts to feel like a bit of a no-brainer that he would choose to save Ellie.  

6. Is "TLOU" going to be a two or three-season limited series?

Kirsten: I was extremely surprised that the first season of "The Last of Us" covered the entire first game in the series along with its downloadable content, "Left Behind." I really thought they were going to try and extend the first game into two seasons.

If the second season covers all of game two, will "TLOU" only be a two-season series? It's tough to imagine that's the case when the show has become such a success.

Since January, I've thought Naughty Dog and PlayStation may announce a third "The Last of Us" game to correspond with the release of a possible third future season of the show. 

In 2021, Druckmann told the Script Apart podcast he worked on an outline for a third game that explores the events after the second game that they weren't planning to make.

However, he added that he hoped it could maybe "see the light of day" in the future.

Palmer: I think part of me wishes that the first game would have been split into multiple seasons as well — my biggest gripe with the series is that it just didn't feel like we spent quite enough time with Joel and Ellie. I don't feel like I got to watch their relationship develop quite to the extent needed for me to fully buy into the finale.

I'd be curious to see if the series serves as an impetus for a further game, or general expansion of the narrative. 

7. Will the show carry out its controversial moment next season and stay true to the game or will they change things up?

Kirsten: Without giving away a massive spoiler for show-only viewers, a major controversial death becomes the major focus of the next game.

As a result, "The Last of Us" sequel game became extremely divisive among fans. 

The scale of the death reminds me of the controversial killing of Glenn on "The Walking Dead," which resulted in many viewers giving up on the show for its brutal murder of a fan favorite. Years later, star Jeffrey Dean Morgan told Insider it was a "probably a bad decision."

I've been wondering if "TLOU" may reconsider how it handles a similar controversial moment in its second season in order to preserve potentially losing viewers or angering its fanbase. 

Palmer: While "The Last of Us" has made some diversions from its source material, it's religiously adhered to it in other ways. At least personally, I would be a bit skeptical that the show would make a change on that scale — to my understanding as someone who hasn't yet played "Part II," it would fundamentally change the rest of the story.

But I'd be curious to see if reception to the first season would change any of that going into season two. 

Kirsten: Yeah, if I was an HBO exec, I feel like I'd want to keep a certain actor around for as long as possible on season two instead of killing them off right away.