#the last of us endure and survive

[againstacecilia]

Ellie

Relationship: Joel and Ellie (Henry and Sam)

Word Count: 1.3k

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Blood mention, emotional breakdown, spoilers for Episode 5 of The Last of Us.

A/N: Please mind the warnings! Inspired by a post by @not-so-mundane-after-all and originally posted here, but I wanted it on its own post. 🥰

Ellie.

Joel’s mind is racing, the gunshot ringing in his good ear. Ellie is staring at Sam, or, rather, Sam’s little body, blood rapidly pooling and spreading over the yellowed carpet, her shoulders heaving from the breaths she’s desperately pulling into her lungs. Henry’s eyes haven’t left his younger brother, hand going limp and dropping the gun to the floor with a thud.

“Are you okay?” Joel asks as Ellie’s eyes meet his. Her hair is wild, standing at odd angles and sticking haphazardly from her ponytail. The sight reminds him just how young she is, looking more like a scared child waking from a nightmare than the world-weary person she was forced to grow into too quickly.

Joel wishes he could wake her from this nightmare.

Two long strides carry him across the small hotel room and he drops to his knees next to Ellie, ignoring the protesting of the joints, and pulls her into his arms. She’s still for a heartbeat before her small hands grab Joel’s arms surrounding her in a vice grip, pulling him closer. Sobs immediately wrack her body and Joel’s stone heart cracks for the first time in years.

“Shhh, it’s okay, you’re safe,” Joel whispers, adjusting his embrace to envelop her completely. He holds Ellie as she shakes and murmurs whatever he can to try and comfort the panic coursing through her system.

“I- I tried to save him,” she manages to say between gasps, “I thought maybe my blood… But it didn’t…”

“You did everything you could, baby girl, it’s okay, it’s okay…” Joel’s gaze wanders to Henry, the younger man laying on the floor across the room, his eyes still focused on the body of his brother. He’d convince Henry that he did the right thing. That, in a world like this, sometimes the right choice has to be made from a list of wrong ones. But he’d do it later.

“Ellie, look at me,” Joel keeps his voice calm but firm, coaxing Ellie’s face from it’s spot buried in his chest. “Now I’m guessin’ you knew Sam had gotten bit and didn’t tell us. I’m not mad, I know you wanted to help him, and I’m proud of you for thinkin’ of him. I just need you to be honest with me, okay?”

Ellie’s puffy eyes never leave Joel’s as she nods, sniffing and wiping her nose across the sleeve of her jacket. “Okay,” she whispers.

“Are you hurt?”

She shakes her head and sniffles again, turning to look back at her friend. In a matter of a day, Sam really had become her friend. Someone closer to her age that understood things like Savage Starlight and could roll their eyes at the adults with her. And they had been so close to getting out…

A fresh wave of tears hits Ellie and she turns back to Joel. Without hesitation he pulls her back into his arms, allowing the walls he’d built so thoroughly over the last twenty years to fall.

[applenunez]

Endure and survive. This show keeps breaking me 🥲

[chiefnooniensingh]

The Last of Us is a comedy

The Last of Us - 1x05 Endure and Survive

[barlowstreet]

[azertyrobaz]

Joel looking at Ellie then looking at his watch because he’s thinking about Sarah

[tadpole-art]

Endure and Survive

[eddievedders]

THE LAST OF US — 1.08 "When We Are In Need."

[midnightmurdershow]

The Last of Us (2023 - ) Season 01 Episode 05 “Endure and Survive” Directed by Jeremy Webb

[technicolourtelevision]

The Last Of Us || 1x05

[pedrodascal]

ᴊᴏᴇʟ ᴍɪʟʟᴇʀ ɪɴ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇ | 45/?

"What does that comic book say? Endure and survive?"

[mothinked]

[amihyperfixatingagain]

As someone who went to school for theatre production and focused in scenic design, I just want to point out this moment in episode 5 of The Last of Us that just made my heart sing. I am a sucker for anytime scenic elements help tell the story. This is fairly early in the episode, when Henry is looking out the window and spots Joel shooting back at the KC Resistance members. 

It is just a reflection on the window but its placement portrays Henry as wearing the same superhero mask that he painted on Sam...

It’s fast and probably easy to miss if you’re not thinking about it, but it’s a moment of absolutely elegant visual storytelling. While Henry is unaware of the mask he’s wearing, Sam sees him as his hero all the time. And Henry is his hero, in so many ways despite “doing bad guy things”.

Again I’m a complete sucker for visual storytelling, especially moments like this, so fast, so subtle, and yet such an important look into the characters, without having to say anything.

[themardlonk]

I lost it at "My blood is medicine." They were both so scared, and she showed Sam her bite to prove to both of them that he could live, too. She really was hopeful that it would work. I've played the game, and I still wanted it to work! I wanted it to work so, so badly. I knew it couldn't, but it didn't stop me. They captured that desperation and that hope here. This scene was amazing, I'm so glad they put it in.

"For kids, it's easier, you don't have anyone depending on you," nahhh she's internalized this shit for life now. She couldn't save Riley. Smearing her blood on Sam's bite didn't work. We now know that rudimentary treatments like this can't save others from cordyceps. But if she'd had a medicine, maybe Riley and Sam would still be around. This scene was so good for demonstrating Ellie's thought process behind getting the operation. Because, for Ellie, what good is this immunity if all it does is mean she ends up alone?

[blue--ingenue]

currently obsessed with the "exhausted dad pedro pascal adopts kids being hunted by bad guys" cinematic universe

[azertyrobaz]

The Last of Us, "Endure and Survive", behind the scenes

(From the Making Of)

[oliviabelova]

joel would've run to ellie if henry hadn't pointed the gun at him. he cleared the way for ellie, even though he could've escaped and saved himself. the way he panicked when he could've hit the clicker kid while ellie was hiding in the car. ellie really believing her blood could save sam when he was infected. i hate this show for making me cry every day, i love this show it's my fucking favourite. endure and survive.