Why is Ellie immune in ‘The Last Of Us’?
HBO’s The Last Of Us faithfully adapts the acclaimed video game into a prestige post-apocalyptic drama series.
Created by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the original game’s co-creator Neil Druckmann, the series follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) 20 years after modern civilisation has been ravaged by a deadly infection.
The show also stars Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman.
Has the show explained why Ellie is immune?
Unlike the game, the HBO series provides a clear answer to the reason behind Ellie’s immunity. In episode nine, Look For The Light, a flashback with Ellie’s mother Anna (Ashley Johnson) shows her giving birth to Ellie shortly after being bitten by the infected.
When Marlene (Merle Dandridge) later finds Anna and notices the bite mark, Anna lies and states that she cut the umbilical cord before she was bitten. As such, Marlene vows to take care of Ellie and shoots Anna before the Cordyceps infection takes over.
Later, the cause for Ellie’s immunity is explicitly outlined in a conversation between Marlene and Joel. “Our doctor,” Marlene begins. “He thinks that the Cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth. It produces a kind of chemical messenger. It makes normal Cordyceps think that she’s Cordyceps, it’s why she’s immune.
“He’s going to remove it from her, multiply the cells in a lab, produce those chemical messengers, and then we can give it to everyone. He thinks it could be a cure.”
How does the game tackle Ellie’s immunity?
In the game, Ellie’s immunity is only directly addressed on a surgeon’s recorder in St. Mary’s Hospital. The recording deems the cause of her immunity to be “uncertain” but outlines the differences in her body’s reaction to the infection compared to previous infected cases.
“The cause of her immunity is uncertain,” the recording states. “As we’ve seen in all past cases, the antigenic titers of the patient’s Cordyceps remain high in both the serum and the cerebrospinal fluid. Blood cultures taken from the patient rapidly grow Cordyceps in fungal-media in the lab… however white blood cell lines, including percentages and absolute-counts are completely normal.
“There is no elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and an MRI of the brain shows no evidence of fungal-growth in the limbic regions, which would normally accompany the prodrome of aggression in infected patients. We must find a way to replicate this state under laboratory conditions. We’re about to hit a milestone in human history equal to the discovery of penicillin. After years of wandering in circles, we’re about to come home, make a difference, and bring back the human race into control of its own destiny.”
With no further explanation given in the game, many believed Ellie was simply a rare anomaly who has natural immunity to the infection.
Some however theorised the connection to Ellie’s mother (as confirmed in the show) through a blood-stained note you can find by Anna, written shortly after Ellie was born.
“You’re not even a day old, and holding you is the most incredible thing I’ve done in my life – a life that is about to get cut a little short,” the note reads. “Marlene will look after you. There’s no one in this world I trust more than her.
“When the time comes she’ll tell you all about me. Don’t give her too much of a hard time. Try not to be as stubborn as me. I’m not going to lie, this is a pretty messed up world. It won’t be easy. The thing you always have to remember is that life is worth living! Find your purpose and fight for it. I see so much strength in you. I know you’ll turn out to be the woman you’re meant to be.”
In a four-star review, NME wrote: “Gamers have been burned before by poorly conceived adaptations of their favourite titles, so they were naturally skeptical. But they needn’t have been. The Last Of Us lacks novel ideas, but when it’s this good it can get away with it.”
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Adam Starkey
NME
