“The Last of Us” isn’t for the faint of heart for those who get attached to characters – because often they are not long for this world.
The first season of the HBO adaptation had a pretty high body count. So high that it might actually be hard to keep track of the deaths that “mattered” as opposed to the ones that just happened as Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsay) went from A to B.
Sift through the bloody first season of “The Last of Us” and refresh yourself on the biggest deaths before jumping into Season 2 of the video game adaptation.
Sarah
The brutal death of Joel’s daughter kicks off the whole series and really keys viewers in on what to expect from the bleak HBO adaptation. Sarah doesn’t even make it through the first night of the outbreak. She and Joel just about make it out of town after a harrowing journey through the chaos, only to be stopped by a soldier looking to contain the scene.
Despite not being sick, the soldier opens fire on the pair. Joel manages to get out unscathed, but Sarah is shot and dies in her father’s arms.
Bill and Frank
Bill was a doomsday prepper who actually got his doomsday. He was happy to wile away his years setting and resetting his traps and enjoying the finer things solitude provides until Frank literally fell into his life.
The two fell in love, but after Frank’s health takes a turn to the point where he’s begging Bill to euthanize him, he can’t imagine a life beyond that moment. He doses Frank’s wine with enough pills to kill him and does the same to his own and the lovers die in each other’s arms.
Tess
Tess was Joel’s partner in more ways than one in the years following the outbreak. The pair take on the job of taking Ellie to the Fireflies in the West. The three don’t make it far before Tess is bitten and she decides to stay back and hold off a group tailing them so Joel and Ellie can get away.
Kathleen
Melanie Lynskey guest starred as the antagonistic Kathleen, a resistance leader in Kansas City, who was ruthlessly hunting down Henry (see below) after he turned her brother Michael over to FEDRA. When Michael was executed Kathleen poured all her resources into killing and torturing FEDRA members — and hunting for Henry with the same intention.
She almost had him too, but just before she got her hands on her target, she was killed by a child clicker after her group was overrun by a horde.
Henry and Sam
Henry and Sam are brothers who mirror Joel and Ellie. Henry is the protective elder, keeping a watchful eye over Sam – his innocent and curious younger brother. The two groups team up to battle their way through Kansas City. Unfortunately, they become an endearing bunch and work well with Joel and Elli – which means they’re not long for this world.
After making it through the city, the group stops for the night to rest, and Sam is acting quiet and weird. The next morning, Ellie wakes up and learns Sam was bitten and turned in the night. The two struggle and it’s Henry who puts the shot in his brother, killing him and saving Ellie.
But the older brother can’t live with what he did and, in a reactive choice, turns the gun on himself and fires.
Riley
Before Ellie met Joel and started their journey across the infected US, she was falling in young love with Riley (Storm Reid). The two sneak out one night to a mall and have an idyllic date night – full of merry-go-rounds, arcades, and dancing. Unfortunately, it’s a night to remember because it’s also the night Ellie was bit and learned she was infected.
Riley was also bitten but didn’t have the rare immunity and died, placing a permanent chip on Ellie’s shoulder.
James was the leader of a cannibalistic Christian survivor group, who took Ellie captive, told her all about his violent heart and tried to do much worse before she staged an escape, bested him and his men, and killed him.
Marlene
Marlene saved Ellie as a baby and she was the one who tasked Joel with escorting Ellie to the hospital in Salt Lake City. That’s where they reconnected and where she told Joel that they had to conduct brain surgery on Ellie in the hopes of finding a cure for the cordyceps plague.
Joel couldn’t and wouldn’t let them proceed, staging a rescue in which he killed several Fireflies, including Marlene, who tried to talk him down. Afterward, he kept his actions a secret from Ellie.
