The Last of UsThe Last of UsThe Wolves are on the prowl—and so is Ellie
HBO/Ringer illustration
By Daniel ChinApril 28, 2:00 am UTC • 8 min
Following last week’s explosive episode, The Last of Us returned on Sunday to explore the aftermath of the seismic events that have shaken the entire Jackson community. Episode 3, “The Path,” slows the show’s action to a halt as the series allows its characters—and the audience—a chance to recover from the dual tragedy of Joel’s death and the infected attack on Jackson. But it also propels the show’s narrative, as Ellie leaves her home of five years to hit the road again. This time, without Joel by her side.
“The Path,” written by Craig Mazin and directed by Peter Hoar, begins on a somber note, as Jackson is filled with pain, grief, and panic over everything that has just transpired. Tommy spends a quiet moment with Joel’s lifeless body, surrounded by the corpses of those who died when the infected horde broke through Jackson’s defenses. Ellie, meanwhile, wakes up in the local hospital and is anything but quiet as she reorients herself: She screams in violent, shocking anguish and stops only after being sedated. The cold open is distressing and difficult to watch, much like the conclusion to last week’s installment. However, the remainder of the episode—which occurs after a three-month time jump—features some much-needed moments of levity as the town and its residents start to recover and find a path forward, some in healthier ways than others.
When we first see Ellie after the time jump, she’s being released from an extended, mandatory stint in the hospital. Ellie appears to be healing in both body and spirit from the physical and emotional agony she was in before the title sequence, even as she lies her way through her final psych evaluation with Gail and sobs as she examines Joel’s possessions back at his now-vacant home. But everything changes the moment Dina arrives with a crucial confession: She lied to Ellie (and everyone else) about how much she knew about the crew who killed Joel.
Dina explains that she withheld everything she learned about the group to save the ever-impulsive Ellie from going after them while she was still recovering from her injuries. Before Mel—who happens to be the only one whose name Dina can’t seem to recall—sedated her, Dina spotted a yellow patch on a backpack bearing a wolf logo and the letters “W.L.F.” stitched into it. Piecing together a story that Eugene once told her from his Firefly days, Dina has identified them as the Washington Liberation Front, based in Seattle, which she’s guessing is “small enough” for them to handle.
Any chance for Ellie to simply stay in Jackson and try to move on with her new life without Joel vanished the moment Dina delivered this very impressive amount of intel (which she managed to gather while dealing with frostbite, no less). Yet Ellie had likely already made up her mind to go after Joel’s killers the moment she promised them that they were “all gonna fucking die” for what they did to Joel.
Revenge—and its cost—is a core theme in The Last of Us. In Season 1, Kathleen prioritized her hunt for Henry to avenge her brother, Michael—whom Henry had sacrificed to save his own brother, Sam—over the safety of all the people she was entrusted to lead in Kansas City. As a result, she left them exposed to the real threat that she should have been worrying about: the infected. In last week’s episode, Abby was prepared to endanger all of her friends to avenge her father. Although they all made it out of Jackson alive, Abby has now placed a target on each of their heads.
This recurring need for vengeance is central to “The Path,” as Jackson’s residents weigh in on whether avenging Joel is worth what it could cost them as they rebuild their community. After Ellie and Dina relay the intel on Joel’s killers to Tommy, a formal request is made to the town council to send a 16-person team of Jackson’s best to Seattle to execute Abby and her crew. Both sides of the debate are brought forth at the ensuing town hall: One resident argues that such a mission would leave Jackson too vulnerable to raiders and infected, especially after the recent attack; another questions the ethical implications of seeking revenge when they should all be choosing to be merciful instead; and Seth—the same bigot who called Ellie and Dina “dykes” after they kissed at the New Year’s Eve party—makes an impassioned speech about the stupidity and cowardice of every person in the room who isn’t prepared to get payback.
When it’s Ellie’s turn to speak, she reframes Seth’s call for revenge into a more noble cause that might be more palatable to the voting body: justice—not for her, or even Joel, but for everyone in Jackson. As convincing as she is, it isn’t hard to see that vengeance is all she’s really after as well. Despite Ellie’s valiant, if thinly veiled, attempt to pander to the council, the request is ultimately denied by an overwhelming majority.
While it’s interesting to get this window into Jackson’s democratic process, the scene is a heavy-handed way to tackle the topic of revenge as The Last of Us starts the cycle of violence once more. The episode goes to even greater lengths to highlight the similarities between Ellie and Joel, the latter of whom spent much of his life trying to avenge his daughter—and atone for failing to protect her—after she was killed. During an impromptu therapy session, Tommy tells Gail about his fear of Ellie following in Joel’s footsteps to heal her grief through rash, violent behavior.
More on ‘The Last of Us’
More on ‘The Last of Us’
“I just don’t want her to go down the same paths that Joel did,” Tommy says. “Comin’ up with justifications and such. All he was really doin’ was lashin’ out.”
“So, you think she might have learned that behavior from him?” Gail asks, before Tommy’s silence confirms her question. “Turns out nurture can only do this much. The rest is nature. If she’s on a path, it’s not one that Joel put her on. No. No, I think they were walking side by side from the very start.
“Tommy, I get it,” Gail continues. “You inherited her, and you wanna keep her out of trouble. Take it from a psychotherapist of 40 years. Some people just … some people just can’t be saved.”
Gail’s words seem like as much of an assessment of Ellie’s character as a prophecy of her future. And sure enough, Ellie is already packing to leave for Seattle—equipped with a full arsenal—on her own by the time Dina checks in on her later that night.
Although Ellie is initially worried that Dina will try to talk her out of going, Dina is two steps ahead of her: Not only did she anticipate that Ellie would still travel to Seattle despite the council’s decision, but Dina has already mapped out the best route and prepared a packing list for their journey. Knowing Ellie all too well, Dina foresaw that her best friend/crush would be paying more attention to her choice of weapons than the logistical details of how to achieve their shared goal of killing Abby. Their dynamic is laid out in this scene as clearly as all the guns and ammo Ellie has piled up around her room, with Dina serving as the brains of the operation and Ellie the brawn.
With an assist from Seth, they sneak out of Jackson and leave its (relative) safety behind, then make a pit stop at Joel’s grave to pay their respects and—in Ellie’s case—properly say goodbye. It doesn’t take long for them to get a taste of how little they really know about the W.L.F. and the risk they’re taking on: They discover a group of people (including children) who have been slaughtered by a faction that doesn’t seem to be FEDRA. Ellie and Dina don’t know for sure that they’ve been killed by the W.L.F., but we do, thanks to a rather oddly placed scene earlier in the episode that ended with the victims being hunted by the so-called Wolves.
Before meeting its unfortunate demise, this group was traveling through the woods to create distance “from war,” as one man describes their journey to a little girl. The Last of Us has yet to reveal this faction’s name, but viewers who played The Last of Us Part II will immediately recognize these scarred individuals as the Seraphites. There’s a lot of exposition wedged into this cultlike group’s introduction, as the man explains their people’s ways to the young girl. While specific names are withheld for now, we hear a lot about the Seraphites’ prophet—who has apparently been dead for 10 years—and how they live by her teachings with a religious fervor.
In the first season of The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie’s westward quest began in earnest at the conclusion of Episode 2, after Tess sacrificed herself so they could escape the incoming infected horde. As the duo spent months traveling from Boston to their eventual destination of Salt Lake City, the series expanded its scope by introducing various groups and settlements across the country, all of which were trying to endure by any means necessary. (From an isolated town that was carefully modified by a doomsday prepper to the remnants of a quarantine zone that overthrew its oppressive government to a community of mostly unwitting cannibals, the range in survival methods is extensive.) It took until Episode 3 of the new season, but Ellie is on the road again, with a new partner. And The Last of Us is wasting little time in introducing new groups and ways of life as the series broadens its world once more.
“The Path” ends with Ellie and Dina arriving in Seattle, and it’s clear that they’ve underestimated the dangers of this unfamiliar territory. The Wolves have a pack that’s far more impressive than Dina anticipated, with not just their size posing a threat but also their weaponry, which includes mounted guns on armored vehicles. And as Manny helps coordinate this particular W.L.F. regiment’s movements from a nearby lookout, it seems as if the Wolves are gearing up for another battle in the war that the Seraphite alluded to. Soon enough, we’ll see just how much of a risk Ellie and Dina are willing to take in order to claim their revenge—and what it may cost them.
Daniel writes about TV, film, and scattered topics in sports that usually involve the New York Knicks. He often covers the never-ending cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.
