HBO's The Last of Us stays faithful to the original game while also exploring the world and its narrative. The HBO show focuses more on character relationships than the game, working hard to make viewers care about its characters. While there are brief spasms of violence, this is a series about people as much as it's about the zombie apocalypse. However, it's already showed a lot about its heroes' final destinations.

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Remaining faithful to the source material allows co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann to foreshadow The Last of Us's twists and turns, both giving fans what they expect while taking advantage of every chance to surprise fans. From the very first episode of the HBO series, the creative team has planted subtle seeds that will come to fruition by the season's end.

This article contains spoilers for the ending of HBO's The Last of Us and mentions of suicide.

10 Sarah's Death

"When You're Lost In The Darkness"

Joel and Sarah in The Last of Us

The untimely death of Joel's daughter in Episode 1 sets the emotional tone for the rest of the season. "When You're Lost In The Darkness" paints a caring portrait of Joel's daughter, making the audience care about her. They even see the beginning of the outbreak from Sarah's perspective, making her death all the more shocking.

However, it's Joel's reaction, and Pedro Pascal's acting, that really sells this tragic incident. This traumatic loss changes Joel's character forever and foreshadows his relationship with his surrogate daughter, Ellie. By the end of the narrative, he'll love her as fiercely as Sarah.

9 A False Choice

"Kin"

Ellie, played by Bella Ramsay, in a hoodie jacket with their hair down in "Kin" from The Last Of Us

After Ellie overhears Joel's conversation with his brother Tommy in Jackson, she fears Joel is trying to abandon her. The father-daughter pair have an emotional conversation where neither says how they truly feel and it feels like Joel is leaving her. However, the next morning, Joel is found in the stables and tries to give Ellie a choice.

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However, this isn't a choice for Ellie, and the audience knows she'll always choose Joel over anything else, and that Joel will always choose Ellie. Their bond is what pushes the story forward but they've already made their choices. Similarly, Ellie doesn't have any real choices to make about the future of humanity at the Fireflies hospital. Joel takes that away from her in the end.

8 Henry And Sam's Fate

"Endure And Survive"

Sam looking up at Henry in "Please Hold To My Hand" from The Last Of Us

Acting as Joel and Ellie's foils, Henry and Sam are brothers on the run in post-revolution Kansas City. Due to their age gap, Henry is more like a parental figure to Sam. The audience spends two episodes with the pair and learns to care for them.

Unfortunately, Sam is bitten by an Infected person in the final moments of "Endure And Survive." After Sam turns, Henry won't let Joel shoot his brother, so he does it himself. After realizing what he's lost, he takes his own life. This tragic moment foreshadows the way Joel won't let Ellie go at the end of Season 1.

7 Bill's Note

"A Long, Long Time"

Old Bill and Frank looking at each other in front of a piano from The Last of Us

Episode 3 focuses on Bill and Frank's 20-year-long love story and expands on the subtleties of their relationship hinted at in the game. Despite Joel and Ellie not being present for the majority of its runtime, their story is still at the center of the episode.

Bill leaves a note for Joel and writes, "that's why men like you and me are here: we have a job to do. And God help any[one] who stand[s] in our way." This foreshadows Joel's role in the story - he must protect Ellie so the Fireflies can find a cure. However, as their bond develops, the Fireflies will become the people who stand in the way of their futures.

6 Kathleen's Monologue

"Endure And Survive"

Kathleen aims her gun at Infected in episode five of HBO's The Last of Us

In "Endure And Survive," fans learn that Henry murdered Kathleen's brother to obtain medication for Sam's leukemia. Henry committed a bad act for good reasons, just like Joel will. Near the end of "Endure And Survive," Kathleen confronts Henry, asking him: "did you ever stop and think that maybe [Sam] was supposed to die?"

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This foreshadows the end of The Last of Us where it feels like letting Ellie die is the right thing to do. Her death might create a cure for the brutal Cordyceps fungus, but Joel simply can't let that happen. Henry tells Kathleen that Sam "is just a kid," but Kathleen isn't satisfied because "kids die." To Henry and Joel, Sam and Ellie are special and deserve to live. From an outside perspective, there's nothing distinct about the children at all.

5 Joel Cradles Sarah

"When You're Lost In The Darkness"

Joel holds his daughter Sarah in The Last of Us

In the first episode of The Last of Us, Joel cradles Sarah in his arms. Despite her independence and maturity, this image symbolizes the fact that Sarah is still Joel's sole responsibility. Later in the episode, Joel is seen carrying a dead Infected child. He throws their body into a fire, creating a stark contrast between the two scenes.

This repeated motif foreshadows the end of The Last of Us's story. In the final chapter of the game, Joel cradles an unconscious Ellie like a baby. After murdering the Fireflies, Joel leaves the hospital with his surrogate daughter in his arms. He finally succeeds in saving someone he loves, but at a particularly high cost.

4 Ellie's Blood As Medicine

"Endure And Survive"

Ellie playing with Sam in "Endure and Survive" from The Last Of Us

After Sam and Ellie bond throughout Episodes 4 and 5, Sam shows her his Infected bite at the end of "Endure and Survive." She tells him that her blood is medicine and tries to save him. Tragically, it doesn't work, as Sam turns and attacks Ellie. In the episode's final moments, Ellie is devastated and writes "I'm sorry" on Sam's makeshift Etch-A-Sketch.

This disappointment foreshadows Joel's lie to Ellie at the end of The Last of Us. In the game, he tells her that the Fireflies couldn't make a cure. Ellie's facial expression is a mix of deep disappointment with a hint of suspicion. After everything and everyone she has lost, Joel's love destroys her hope for saving humanity.

3 Joel Calls Ellie "Baby Girl"

"When We Are In Need"

Joel reunites with a shaken Ellie in episode eight of HBO's The Last of Us

In the first episode of The Last of Us, the audience learns that Joel's pet name for his daughter Sarah was "baby girl." At the end of "When We Are In Need," Joel holds Ellie's face, embraces her, and gives her that same name. This is after Ellie goes through a particularly traumatizing series of events at Silver Lake, where she's assaulted by the cultish group's leader.

This interaction cements Joel and Ellie's relationship as father and daughter. Despite Joel's earlier claims that Ellie is just "cargo," he's opened himself up to the possibility of having what he lost 20 years ago. This foreshadows the narrative's end, where Joel will go to any lengths to avoid another daughter's death.

2 Joel Kills A FEDRA Officer

"When You're Lost In The Darkness"

Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, with his hands up as a FEDRA officer points a gun at him from "When You're Lost In The Darkness" from The Last Of Us

At the end of The Last Of Us's first episode, Joel flashes back to Sarah's death, when she was shot by a FEDRA officer. In the present, a FEDRA officer is pointing a gun at him, Tess, and Ellie. Acting purely out of grief and trauma, Joel beats the FEDRA officer to death with his fists.

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Ellie watches, and audiences may have found it difficult to read her expression here. She's certainly disturbed, but she's also almost in awe of Joel's strength and capacity for violence. This foreshadows Joel and Ellie's potential as a team. Together, they're volatile and strong, pointing the way to an explosive climax.

1 David's Monologue

"When We Are In Need"

David holds a Bible as he reads it to his community in episode eight of HBO's The Last of Us

In Episode 8 of The Last of Us, the audience meets David, perhaps the show's most chilling villain. With Ellie in a cage, David explains his worldview, and how he thinks the Cordyceps fungus "loves." This harkens back to early episodes, where Tess is given a tendril-filled kiss by the Infected. David finds "truth" in the apocalypse, not in God as he pretends. The fungus doesn't care about morals, it does whatever it can to multiply and "[protect] its children."

This disturbing monologue foreshadows Joel's destructive love for Ellie. It is a violent love, which makes him willing to sacrifice humanity's future. Despite the beauty of their blossoming relationship, it is their love for each other that makes The Last of Us's now iconic ending so dark.

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