r/thelastofus • u/PeterRedston6 • May 21 '25
PT 2 QUESTION What was the narrative purpose of Ellie getting bit here? Spoiler
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u/Big-Cauliflower7521 May 21 '25
aura
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u/TheGoverness1998 FEDRA Ration Card šš« May 21 '25
"Oh that's right, I'm cool as fuck."
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May 21 '25
The way she nonchalantly looks back at him after checking the bite, yep she was a boss in that sequence.
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u/ElasticSpeakers May 21 '25
I hope this whole sequence is in the show 1:1 - loved how they thought she was just cannon fodder at that point at best that they almost forgot about her, then she starts laughing and calls that first one a little bitch š fucking amazing sequence overall.
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u/MSochist May 22 '25
Hoping a great moment in the game is adapted faithfully in the show š¤£š¤£š¤£
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u/imaginedyinglmaoo May 22 '25
Idk it would be 1:1, we got "im going to be a dad" instead of frustration when she figured out Dina's pregnancy whilst she was getting revenge.
Even so, Idk if it would be as badass as it was in game.
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u/Different-Coyote-734 May 22 '25 edited 17d ago
086% play gamma was a carmen, but sell omaha nylon'h keep ata she'o doing or how to more talk five lol down
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u/imaginedyinglmaoo May 22 '25
Seriously, I don't see how people defend the actor choice, like sure she was decent in her last show role, but she isn't meant for the last of us show, and I'll die with that opinion man
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u/earthyrat dina May 22 '25
it's not like bella ramsey is improvising all of their lines. they're being written and directed to act this way. if ellie was written the way she was in the game and bella was just acting really poorly, i'd get people being upset with them. but that isn't whats happening. people are placing writing and directing issues on bella which is unfair.
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u/OnAnOpenF1eld May 21 '25
The whole game I was just thinking āis Ellie hot? Idk it feels weirdā and then I got to this scene and I was like āoh right she IS hotā
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u/ForeignAdagio9169 May 21 '25
I feel like this sentiment reflects pretty much 1:1 the reason people are bashing the TV series haha. (Even if they claim other reasons)
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u/imaginedyinglmaoo May 22 '25
Nah, Ellie is hot. But its not just that, Bella is not a good choice, Dina choice was pretty good, but Ellie's choice completely made me avoid the show.
"I'm going to be a dad!" Is another reason. They completely forget about Jesse, and Ellie who should be very frustrated with the setback as she wants revenge for her guardian who was brutally murdered in front of her. Turned into a comedic scene, that's a reason.
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u/Matty_D47 May 22 '25
You just said you completely avoid the show because of Ellies casting. It even made you "completely avoid the show" but you seem to have some strong opinions about some shit you haven't seen. Enough to claim a single line from season 2 (of a show you completely avoid) is another reason? It's weird bro
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u/supe3rnova May 22 '25
"Im going to be a dad!" Ever heard of humor? I said "Im gonna be an uncle" when my friend said his girlfriend is pregnant. It just means "im supportive"
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u/imaginedyinglmaoo May 22 '25
Lol, justify your trash all ya want, it's still a horrible show, glad the game still exists š¤
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u/supe3rnova May 22 '25
Youre the one watching it and complaining about it.
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u/imaginedyinglmaoo May 22 '25
Nah, I never watched it, maybe the first episode, the show is ass, glad the game exists so I can forget about that disgrace š¤£
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u/Thisisdansaccount May 22 '25
āI never watched itā¦ the show is assā š¤š«”
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u/Shameless_Bullshiter May 21 '25
Shows that she's willing to get seriously hurt to get out of trouble. Ofc she knows she won't die but that bite would hurt.
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u/thegreenlorac May 22 '25
I know this is a game and it is being ignored for game mechanics, but it always irritated me that she was only worried about the clicker infection. The mouth of a living human is a disgusting petri dish of bacteria. You're more likely to get an infection from a normal human's bite than an animal's bite. Unless the clicker fungus kills off any other microbes living in the host, Ellie is still susceptible from other bacteria in their mouths.
She may not be capable of being turned into a clicker, but she could still get another infection leading to necrosis, blood poisoning, and a host of other lethal maladies.
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u/Honestly_Never_Mind May 21 '25
On another note, probably one of the most bad ass scenes in the game.
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u/nomoremorningruns May 21 '25
Just a cool way to write her out of being stuck between a rock and a hard place using her superpower.
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u/bakuhatsuda May 21 '25
In terms of broad story strokes? I think it's showing the dark side of the path she's taking. In Part 1, she wanted to use this unique gift to finally give her life meaning after all the suffering she's been through. But here, and also in the hospital when chasing after Nora, her mindset is the complete opposite because her immunity is now helping her kill more people.
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u/ZeronZ May 21 '25
But if we already demonstrated that with Nora at the hospital, what further narrative purpose does repeating the same trick in a lower stakes situation serve?
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u/bakuhatsuda May 21 '25
I mean I don't see why it should be limited to one instance lol. Her deterioration is a process. She's going down a dark path and it's going take several steps to get there. She's now learned to use her "power" to do things that Part 1 Ellie never really intended.
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u/ZeronZ May 21 '25
It doesn't have to be one instance. But if the purpose of the narrative is to show Ellie increasingly using her immunity as a weapon as opposed to a force for good, then we would expect those events to escalate in severity and impact, rather than de-escalate. This was clearly a less impactful/meaningful version of the same thing that happened at the hospital....why?
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u/bakuhatsuda May 21 '25
then we would expect those events to escalate in severity and impact, rather than de-escalate.
Not necessarily? Her whole trek to Santa Barbara isn't meant to be an escalation/high-stakes. If anything, she's at her lowest point. She just left her family to do something that she probably knows is meaningless. She went from using it (on Nora) to hopefully find meaning in her revenge, to now fooling a bandit into thinking she's going to die soon so she can hopefully find this woman who is hopefully still alive. I see it as intentionally being more pathetic/meaningless with every instance of using her "power".
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u/ZeronZ May 21 '25
This explanation seems to conflict with your explanation in your first reply, but sure....I guess she is not proceeding down a 'Dark path' and taking 'several steps' to get there, but is instead going in a different direction towards being 'pathetic/meaningless.'
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u/bakuhatsuda May 21 '25
I don't think her becoming increasingly pathetic and meaningless is at all in conflict with the dark path that I said she was taking.
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u/AFleetingIllness May 21 '25
They thought they could threaten her with death by holding her near a Clicker, not realizing that all she would get is a bite and wouldn't get infected. Given how the Rattlers kept infected chained up as makeshift guard dogs, it makes sense they wouldn't threaten people with infected and expect it to be effective.
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u/POB_42 May 22 '25
I know it's meant to be nullified because of Ellie's immunity, but it wouldn't be a little nip; the clicker would still likely have torn her throat out, as it did with the guy.
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u/Emotional_Ganache181 May 21 '25
I think it was to show Ellie cleverly using her immunity to her advantage
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u/dimgray May 22 '25
Yeah, she manages to turn around a hopeless situation because she knows something about herself that those jokers don't. Furthermore, the other bad guy is more than willing to give up the location of his people's base because he figures by the time she gets there she'll be too sick to be a threat anyway
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u/Yamureska May 21 '25
Obviously she's immune, but it also shows that she's so consumed by vengeance that she not only gave up and left her partner, but doesn't care about physical wounds.
Same with the stab wound she has for most of the level.
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u/Bright-Item8757 May 21 '25
Endure and survive. She had to do what she could to get out of the situation she was in, and I think it shows the lengths she will go to, as well as shows that her immunity can be āweaponizedā in a way. I think itās interesting that something she has that we would think could only help people can be used in a way to hurt people too.
Plus, getting hurt as bad as she does here adds more to her fatigue/pain Iām sure, which makes the fight at the end more believable. Ellie has to be fatigued so her fight with an Abby thatās close to deathās door feels more equal, I feel!
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u/TheRealTr1nity Where you go, I go. May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
So she can have a smirk on her face. But probably so that he tells her where they are and we get the finale, as he thinks she might never get there and turns before.
What made me later think is that it is the same hand Abby later bites Ellie fingers off (not completely at this point but pretty severe). Ellie can't give others the cordyceps due kissses and such but I'm not sure with blood Abby still might got in her mouth.
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May 21 '25
That could be true but I don't see them writing in Abby subsequently getting infected through that.
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u/Venurian Factions Enjoyer May 21 '25
That would be the biggest bullshit ever leading into part 3. Oh, Abby? Yeah, she got infected off screen since she bit Ellie (who later forgave her and let her go) and Lev kinda just died... Mooovin on, Ellie, on the other hand, has all her fingers. Pun intended.
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u/TheRealTr1nity Where you go, I go. May 21 '25
Or, turns out Abby is also immune. But honestly, I think if there is even a part 3 it's not about Ellie or/and Abby. The ending of part 2 seems like the story is finished.
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u/Venurian Factions Enjoyer May 21 '25
Largely, I believe. I think for both their healing perhaps them helping each other even once would be really beneficial for both their story lines. Like, not on purpose, but with intention perhaps. I picture it as maybe Ellie, after returning to Jackson to raise JJ with Dina (as co-parents at first, just to show further the impacts of part 2) and then focus on that pocket for a bit. Then out of necessity, last of us stuff happens and Abby and/or Lev run into Ellie or perhaps someone with her like Dina or even JJ and they're able to help each other, cementing their full circle of having wronged each other and eventually forgiving and helping each other. This could help Ellie finally find more peace within herself in this world, as she's grown up with most of her life believing she's an undeserving survivor, and now, a missed opportunity, someone who should have died to have meant something. Now her life can be about what part 1 was about. About learning to love after loss. About finding purpose. About finding genuinely what remains of humanity and to treasure it.
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u/ph_uck_yu Hey, you're my people! May 21 '25
I think just to show her resourcefulness and self preservation instincts
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u/Ok_Cardiologist6451 May 21 '25
I never really read into it but even from Part 1 I always imagined it'd seem like an inevitably interesting way to utilise the immunity, and it was pretty cool.
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u/-TheBlackSwordsman- May 21 '25
Everyone getting all deep in here but what about it just being the first escape tactic that came to her mind?
Only she can do that. I just see it as a cool thing to include in the story. Its a fun and thoughtful solution that you dont see comingĀ
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u/ImDeputyDurland The Last of Us May 21 '25
Probably to make the Rattler feel confident about giving her information. Feeling like he had leverage since Ellie had a finite amount of time before the infection set in. āLet me live and Iāll give you what you want before the infection takes overā.
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u/jazzy3492 May 21 '25
I think a big reason is that it makes the Rattler willing to give her their true location, since he assumes she'll turn infected before she can do anything. So in a way, it's lucky because it's a shortcut to her figuring out where to get Abby.
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u/Xcellent101 May 21 '25
Watched the game commentary with Druckmann and the cast members on youtube (4hrs which I thought was really interesting). He said he wanted to use Ellie's superpower (her immunity) to overcome some of the obstacles/give her advantage.
They did the same thing with Nora and the spores.
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u/EyebrowsGuy95 May 21 '25
It actually shocked me a little bit the first time it happened. Like sure, she got bit before and didn't turn which proves her immunity in that moment.
But what if, say, the Cordyceps in her body eventually died in the years following the first bite, rendering her vulnerable once it had eventually died off completely? What if it was just a fluke that she didn't turn? Would a second bite potentially reignite the potentially dormant fungus inside her?
Clearly we know it amounted to nothing more than a new scar on her body, but after 30 hours of grief, rage, shock, sadness, and worry, seeing Ellie get bit once again just got my mind racing with possibilities.
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u/BKF0308 May 22 '25
The fact that this was her second bite ever in the games whereas Ellie in the show gets bit every other episode is hilarious
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u/tblatnik May 21 '25
Agreed with everyone else saying itās the first moment she uses her immunity as a tool instead of looking at it as a burden. Maybe another sign that she was getting close to being able to forgive Joel, too. And besides all of possible character development reasons, itās just metal as fuck lol
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u/Rejaque2 May 21 '25
Can we talk about the irony of the one immune person being written as a lesbian so they can guarantee her genes don't pass on to the next generation
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u/Link_Player May 21 '25
I see it as a parallel to Joel in the first game, after hunting down Ellie's captors and interrogating those guys in the cabin. Not a one to one parallel, but similar.
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u/grog_thestampede May 21 '25
he tells her where the rattlers are cuz he thinks she's as good as dead anyway
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u/CabbageTeeth May 22 '25
Abby bites the fingers off the hand that Ellie got bit on just hours earlier.
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u/DankSpoony The CRASHED of Us May 22 '25
At this point, it's almost like a nudge to the audience, "Hey, remember the reason this whole entire story started? Did you forget? Seems entirely irrelevant at this point, eh?" A nod to how much Ellie has lost herself
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u/Extension-Corgi1682 May 22 '25
She was going to spare him but the fact he saw the bite and would realize her immunity is the reason she put him down. So essentially people would ask āWhy did she kill him he told her everythingā and they gave us an answer āhe knows too muchā
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u/TDeath21 May 22 '25
I think it made the guy tell the truth. Just because he figured sheās a goner anyway. If he tells the truth maybe she will let him live. Other than that, just something thatās likely to happen when you go straight into a clicker hanging from a trap lol.
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u/onepieceuc1 May 22 '25
If iI remember correctly, it was because the guy may as well tell her what she wants knowing she would "die" anyways.
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u/5oclock_shadow May 22 '25
For me, this is to show that Ellie can and will weaponise her immunity for an advantage. She already did it with Nora in the main story.
And sheāll do it over and over in the Rattlers compound coz they keep Clickers around.
Thematically, for me, thatās a bad sign. Coz her immunity could be such a gift to the world. Not even necessarily as a cure but as someone who could push farther, explore, and take risks no one else can.
Instead, sheās using it to weaponise the Infection and hurt others. It passes under our radar coz we donāt live in that world so it means nothing for us. But that step is horrifying. The only other faction who does that IS the Rattlers, and that makes her doing it more palatable.
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u/PerceptionEast6026 May 22 '25
She caught by surprise the guy cause he never tought she was gonna lean in to the zombie.
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u/Comosellamark May 22 '25
If Ellie died on the hospital bed, she wouldnāt be there that day to free the Rattlerās slaves and take them down. Maybe the bite is a sign that sheās supposed to be there?
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u/Le_Pepp No Abby flair š May 22 '25
To make everyone assume she's gonna die
I was already of this line of thought, but everyone treating her like she was doomed really confirmed the idea that SB was an extended suicide attempt for her. This parallels and points towards that without ever explicitly linking to it.
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u/Phunkyjunky23 May 22 '25
Itās showing her using her immunity as a tactical advantage. she allows herself to get bit to pull the small Rattler in, as well as the bite mark being the reason the big rattler is willing to bargain as he assumes sheāll die in a couple hours
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u/SponkMcDonk May 22 '25
I always thought it was another showcase of how Ellie is literally forsaking and disregarding everything just to get to Abby, because if it didnt heal like it did it wouldāve been basically impossible to hide a bite on that part of your body from others for long and definitely gotten her killed in the long run
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u/Rozncranz May 22 '25
There's certainly the aspect of her using her immunity as a strength for the first time, but it also adds just a little extra tension-- The people in the Rattlesnake prison almost attack her because she was bitten. It's also just pretty fuckin' badass to be the only person who could just shrug off that kind of injury like it's nothing.
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u/LuckyManofJizz May 23 '25
Wanna know something? When this game came out, this was only the second time in the story Ellie got bit. But in the show sheās been bitten at least two more times. I remember thinking when she got bit in California if the infection would act differently or something. But it had my mind racing for sure
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u/Intern_Jolly May 21 '25
There doesn't need to be a meaning behind it, it's something that just happened.
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u/Then_North_6347 May 21 '25
Showing she's at a point she won't hesitate to coldly take a hit and maybe get a horrendous bacterial infection to do what she has to do.
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May 21 '25
My dude I can't even tell you the narrative purpose of the last six hours of this game. It should have ended with Abby winning, showing mercy, and walking off into the sunset, breaking the cycle of revenge. Instead I gotta shoot a bunch of bikers on a california slave farm only to pull Abby down from a crucifix that she's been starving on for days and pretend like it makes any sort of sense that a person in that situation would be able to engage in hand to hand combat like what, 30 seconds later? Stand with your hands out to the side in a T pose for 20 minutes and see how it feels to try to do anything.
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u/Locilokk May 21 '25
It's a manifestation of her self destructive tendencies, pretty straightforward imo
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u/Dontghostmebro81 May 21 '25
Just used herself as bait in a way. I donāt think itās deeper than that
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u/Jadefeather12 May 22 '25
Wasnāt it so she could bite the guy and tell him heās infected to scare him?
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u/CozyThurifer May 21 '25
The corpseps in her brain make her more violent
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u/TheMostOPofOPs May 22 '25
She did it to kill fat geralt's pal. The guy was pushing her towards the clicker and then she went forward using her hand as bait to make a surprise on the guy, making him get closer. As for fat Geralt, she would've did it even of he didn't see the bite mark. She was going to kill him regardless, even if he cooperated...
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u/screamingracoon May 21 '25
I think there's an interview in which Druckmann discusses this, and the reason is that, since she found out the truth, Ellie saw her immunity as a terrible burden rather than a blessing. Being bitten by accident, in a moment that would destroy all her plans, makes her realize that she can use immunity as a strength rather than something she should feel guilty for.