What absolutely destroys me about this moment isn't just only how Joel immediately flips the switch and becomes so gentle, so loving, so soft when he picks Ellie up, like he hasn't just shot a doctor in the head without even sparing him a glance or hasn't slaughtered the entire hospital on his way to this room.
It's how he takes a tiny little moment to just hold Ellie against him before he picks her up. How he lets himself this moment to just feel her.
As if we already didn't know it but Craig Mazin confirmed in the podcast that this is their "I love you" to each other and this scene needs to be here because I actually sobbed at this point. And he also said that all this time Ellie knew what he meant to her, but this is when she realizes what she meant to him.