The Last Of Us closes out season one with the death of a key character.
Created by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the original game’s co-director Neil Druckmann, the series follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) 20 years after civilisation has been ravaged by a deadly infection.
The season finale, titled Look For The Light, saw Joel make a crucial decision to save Ellie from the Fireflies – resulting in a string of murders.
Is Marlene dead after The Last Of Us finale?
Unfortunately, she’s super dead. As Marlene (Merle Dandridge) attempts to convince Joel that his choice to save Ellie was wrong – preventing humanity from finding a cure to the Cordyceps infection – Joel shoots Marlene in the stomach.
The show cuts forward to a scene later where Joel lies to Ellie about what happened with the Fireflies, saying they had found other people who were immune and had failed to create a cure from them. As this plays out, we cut back to the parking lot scene with Marlene who is bleeding on the floor. Joel approaches Marlene and remarks, “You’d just come after her,” before shooting her dead.
Does Marlene’s death play out in the game in the same way?
While prior deaths like Tess and Sam were altered slightly in their translation from the original game, Marlene’s death is practically identical (right down to the dialogue and editing). It’s perhaps a wise choice, considering how much of a turning point it is in the development of Joel’s character.
In a four-star review, NME wrote: “Gamers have been burned before by poorly conceived adaptations of their favourite titles, so they were naturally skeptical. But they needn’t have been. The Last Of Us lacks novel ideas, but when it’s this good it can get away with it.”
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