HBO’s The Last of Us season 1 recently ended, and fans really loved the way the showrunners added a bunch of things to it. Especially the addition of one special, never before seen character really made this episode stand out. It was so well received that even a second is on its way, and it would be based on The Last of Us Part 2.

Other than that, this series ended just the way it was expected to. With Joel finally saving Ellie and then being united with her for one final time, fans are left wondering: Did he do the right thing?

Did Joel do the right thing by saving Ellie in The Last of Us?

Ellie is living in a world full of infected; this world has its problems, its dangers, and its safe havens. She is mostly met with everything wrong that happens in this world. People die around her; they are left hapless and kill themselves, and even people she considers her best friends are taken from her.

The worst part for her is her immunity; it keeps her safe from the illness that affects pretty much everyone. So she is always afraid that her friends might get bitten. So, did Joel do her any favors by preventing her death? Or was his deed as meaningful as Ellie’s mother’s?

Ellie’s mother is shown in the last episode running through a forest as an infected chases after her; she is pregnant and is almost in labor. The kid is about to come, and she takes out a knife and disposes of the infected, then cuts the umbilical cord.

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When Marlene meets her, she lies to her that she cut the cord before the infected bit her. She did that to save her child, and she gave that world a chance to survive, as Ellie became the only source of cure that the world had.

But what Joel did by saving her was to snatch that chance from the world. He literally did not allow what Ellie wanted to happen, and he even killed those doctors who knew how to do it.

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Joel only acted out of his selfishness; he did it so he could be with Ellie, and he never cared for the world around him. So his actions cannot be seen as similar to Ellie’s mom’s.