The Last of Us: Who Is Marlon? Meet Graham Greene’s New Character
We know that the duo of Joel and Ellie meet a lot of different people on their journey west to find Joel’s brother and the Fireflies. In that regard, we saw in episode 6 that the duo met two new people that ended up helping them in their journey, one way or another, despite the fact that they weren’t really too keen on helping them. One of them was a man named Marlon. So, who is Marlon in The Last of Us?
Marlon is an elderly man that lives in the wilderness of Wyoming before and during the Cordyceps pandemic. He was the man that pointed to Joel and Ellie the possible location of Jackson in Wyoming. Marlon lives in his secluded Wyoming house together with his wife, Florence.
The thing about Marlon is that he is a very minor character that had little to no role in episode 6 of The Last of Us. While he was indeed helpful in pointing Joel and Ellie in the right direction, he had no other role after that as he is seemingly a one-off character that we probably won’t meet again anytime in the future. That said, let’s look at what we know about Marlon in The Last of Us.
Who Is Marlon In The Last Of Us?
During the opening of The Last of Us episode 6, we learned that three months had passed since the events that happened in Kansas City in episode 5. It is possible that the duo of Joel and Ellie walked their way to Wyoming during that huge time skip. Of course, the first person we saw in the opening scenes of episode 6 was an unknown old man carrying two rabbits he had hunted out in the wild.
This man was Marlon. He is an elderly man living in the wilderness of Wyoming with his wife, Florence. The moment that he entered his home, Marlon was greeted by Joel, who had his gun held up to him as he wanted Marlon to drop his weapons. Nevertheless, Florence didn’t look too worried about what Joel was doing because she knew and understood that he didn’t want to harm them.
Marlon, of course, was not as receptive to their unwanted visitors as his wife was, and that is the reason why he was not entirely polite to Joel. The first thing that Joel wanted to know was their exact location, as he wasn’t sure where they were. That was when Marlon pointed their location on the map after asking his wife whether or not she told Joel the truth about where they were.
After Marlon told Joel where they were on the map, Joel commented that they chose a good place to hide from the Cordyceps Brain Infection (CBI) outbreak as they lived in a secluded area where the infection probably won’t reach them. However, Marlon said that he and his wife had been living there for a long time and way before the outbreak started, as he wanted to get away from the world.
In that regard, it is clear that Marlon isn’t exactly a people person that loves being around people other than his wife, who actually didn’t like the idea of them living in a secluded area. Nevertheless, Marlon chose a good location to settle down because he and his wife were spared from the effects of the outbreak as they were able to continue to live in relative peace and prosperity long after the start of the pandemic.
Of course, we can assume that Marlon and his wife live off the land, as he was seen bringing two rabbits home. He may have been hunting and gathering for a long time and possibly even before the outbreak. And he must be good at hunting because he and his wife were able to live in their Wyoming wilderness home for decades.
What Is Marlon’s Role In The Last Of Us?
The thing about Marlon is that his role is a minor one in The Last of Us because he didn’t do much. Nevertheless, he was a vital part of Joel and Ellie’s journey because he was responsible for pointing out their location and where they needed to go if they wanted to find the settlement where Tommy, Joel’s brother, lived.
During the time when Joel was asking questions about the surrounding area, Marlon told Joel that he hadn’t seen Tommy or anyone else. But he told him that the area past the river is a place of death as people who go there often never return. Still, this gave Joel and Ellie more incentive to go to the area that Ellie affectionately calls the “river of death,” as there is a good chance that this is the place where Tommy is.
After that, Joel and Ellie left Marlon and his wife in peace as the elderly couple went on with their lives unharmed by the duo. We never heard from him again because it is possible that Marlon is merely a one-off character that played a minor role in the journey of Joel and Ellie.
However, what we noticed about Marlon and his wife is that they represent a different side of the people that survived the CBI outbreak. That’s because he and his wife have been living there for a long time and were left unbothered and untouched by the pandemic due to the fact that they didn’t rely on conventional human society to survive even before the outbreak.
As such, Marlon and his wife showcase the fact that it probably really isn’t too bad to seclude yourself from human society and to live off the land as long as you are self-sufficient enough to survive for years. The duo Bill and Frank was a different case because they actually hoarded stuff from conventional human society to survive. But Marlon and his wife simply lived the same kind of lifestyle that they always did before and during the outbreak.