‘The Last of Us’: Why Did Joel Kill the Fireflies?

The season 1 finale of The Last of Us gave a very emotional moment for those who both played the video game version and those who only got into this storyline through HBO’s adaptation. Of course, one of the most surprising things we saw in episode 9 was that Joel took matters into his own hands by killing the Fireflies before rescuing Ellie. So, why did Joel kill the Fireflies?

Joel killed the Fireflies because he didn’t want them to kill Ellie for the sake of concocting a cure or vaccine for the Cordyceps Brain Infection. He treated Ellie like a real daughter and was unwilling to lose her. Joel also knew that the Fireflies would stop at nothing to get their hands on Ellie as long as they were around.

The fact that Joel killed the Fireflies was one of the biggest moments in the entire storyline of The Last of Us, as this opened up questions regarding whether or not he was right. Of course, he sacrificed the chances of creating a cure or vaccine for humanity to keep Ellie alive. And this is why some fans argue about whether or not he was right in what he did to kill the Fireflies.

Why Did Joel Kill the Fireflies?

After such an emotional moment with the cannibals in episode 8, Joel and Ellie resumed their journey to Salt Lake City, where they knew the Fireflies were hiding. While on their way there, Joel and Ellie had a much-improved relationship as they learned to see each other as family. Joel already saw Ellie as his real daughter, while Ellie learned to value Joel as the father figure that she never had.

However, when they got to Salt Lake City, they were ambushed by the Fireflies, and Joel got knocked out in the attack. He came through and was in a hospital, where Marlene apologized to him as her people didn’t know who Joel and Ellie were. Marlene commended Joel for making it that far, as she and her people struggled to make their way to Utah.

When Joel asked Marlene about Ellie, she told him the truth about the child. She knew Ellie’s immunity was due to her brain telling the Cordyceps fungus she was already infected. And this all stemmed from the fact that Ellie’s mother gave birth to her after she got infected.

Marlene also told Joel that they were prepping Ellie for surgery, as Joel understood that the Fireflies were looking to harvest her brain so that they could use it to concoct a vaccine that would give people a similar effect to what Ellie’s brain is doing to the fungus whenever she gets infected. And that meant that Ellie needed to die for the Fireflies to have a chance at saving humanity.

On top of that, Marlene didn’t even give Ellie a choice because she was already sedated before they told her what they planned to do to her. That meant that Ellie never agreed to die so that humanity could be saved.

That prompted Joel to pick up a gun and massacre the Fireflies in the hospital. He shot anyone in sight, including the doctor in the Pediatrics Department of the hospital, so that he could rescue Ellie from certain death. While he was leaving the hospital with an unconscious Ellie, he was confronted by Marlene. Joel also killed Marlene as he was responsible for crippling the entire Fireflies organization and forcing the members to disband.

The reason why Joel had to kill the Fireflies can be attributed to his attachment to Ellie. As mentioned, he already saw Ellie as his daughter. More than 20 years ago, Joel lost his daughter when a soldier shot her to death while they were making their way out of Texas during the outbreak of the Cordyceps pandemic. Joel no longer wanted to lose a daughter, as Ellie was all he had left.

Of course, Joel also understood that the Fireflies would have stopped at nothing to ensure they got their hands on Ellie. As long as one of the leaders of the Fireflies was still alive, they would scour the entire country to find Ellie and use her to create a vaccine. Because Joel didn’t want that to happen, the only logical choice was to kill all the Fireflies in that base so that no one would ever go after Ellie.

Was Joel Right?

As we all saw at the end of season 1 of The Last of Us, Joel was driving with Ellie back to Jackson, Wyoming. He lied to Ellie about what he did to the Fireflies and what they planned to do to her. Joel didn’t want Ellie to discover he had killed the Fireflies. But did Joel do the right thing when he killed them?

This is something that video game fans have been debating about ever since the first game was released. They thought Joel was selfish in killing the Fireflies to save Ellie because he didn’t want to lose his daughter again. But some believed that Joel did the right thing. Nevertheless, others are not in favor of either side.

Remember that the Fireflies unilaterally decided to sedate Ellie and prep her for surgery to harvest her brain without telling her what would happen to her. In a sense, the Fireflies were going to kill Ellie regardless of whether or not she wanted to die to save humanity, and they never gave Ellie a choice.

Meanwhile, Joel unilaterally took matters into his own hands by killing the Fireflies to save Ellie. He also never gave Ellie a choice regarding the matter because he decided to save her without even knowing whether or not she wanted to sacrifice herself for the Fireflies to concoct a vaccine that could save humanity.

As such, neither the Fireflies nor Joel gave Ellie a choice, which means they were wrong. The choice was Ellie’s, which meant that both the Fireflies and Joel took that away from her. 

This is why Joel was in the wrong when he killed the Fireflies to save Ellie. But the Fireflies weren’t exactly right either because they were about to kill Ellie without telling her. This means that the ending of season 1 of The Last of Us is in a morally grey area where no one is right, but no one is exactly wrong either.