The Last Of Us “The Price” Recap

In 1983, young Joel and Tommy live in fear of their abusive father, Javier; after Tommy was ripped off while buying marijuana, Joel instigated a fight, and the two ran into trouble. Javier does not beat them and instead gives Joel a beer, revealing he was abused more violently by his own father as a child. Sharing his guilt about his own violence, Javier says that he hopes Joel will do better with his own children.

Two months after arriving in Jackson, Wyoming, Ellie burns her arm to cover her bite. For her fifteenth birthday, Joel gifts her a cake and a custom-made guitar. Ellie asks him to perform a song, and he sings “Future Days“. A year later, for her sixteenth birthday, Joel brings Ellie to an abandoned museum, where she climbs a dinosaur statue. Sitting in the Apollo 15 module, she listens to a tape of the Apollo 11 liftoff and imagines herself traveling to space. On her seventeenth birthday, Joel stumbles into Ellie’s room after she has smoked marijuana and been intimate with Kat, who has tattooed a moth on Ellie’s arm. Ellie starts to move into the garage; they argue but Joel concedes, the distance between them growing.

On her nineteenth birthday, with Ellie’s suspicions surrounding Joel’s story about the Fireflies growing, Joel lets her join him on patrol. They encounter Eugene, who has been bitten and begs Joel to let him see his wife Gail before he turns. Ellie convinces Joel to agree, and he promises her. As she collects their horses, Joel leads Eugene away before executing him, which Ellie stumbles upon. In Jackson, Joel lies to Gail, telling her Eugene killed himself, but Ellie, realizing he had lied to her about the Fireflies years earlier, angrily exposes his lies to a distraught Gail.

Following the New Year’s party, Ellie joins Joel on his porch. She demands the truth of what happened with the Fireflies. Joel tearfully admits that he killed the Fireflies to save Ellie’s life, preventing them from finding a cure. Enraged, Ellie says he selfishly took away her life’s purpose. Joel admits he has no regrets because he loves her and tells her that he hopes she will do better with her own children. She says she does not think she can forgive him but is willing to try.

In 2029, after torturing Nora, Ellie returns to the theater.