Season One of The Last of Us on HBO has come to an end, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be more great discussions to take place. The show goes deep into the backstory of Ellie’s birth to find out what events may have caused her immunity, and the question is finally answered directly through Marlene’s conversation with Joel at the Firefly hospital. Let’s see the reason why Ellie is immune in The Last of Us.
Does The Last of Us explain why Ellie is immune?
The player is never presented with a definitive answer as to why Ellie is immune in The Last of Us video game. The show, on the other hand, provides the audience with the necessary backstory and information needed to solve the riddle. Ellie is immune to cordyceps because they have been growing inside her since birth, and signal to the actual cordyceps that she has been infected.
Related: Will Ellie infect others in The Last of Us?
Marlene explained this to Joel when he woke up in the hospital after being knocked out by the Fireflies and Ellie. Ellie is being prepared for surgery, as is the case in the game. When Joel asks to see her, Marlene explains that the cordyceps inside Ellie since birth act as a kind of chemical messenger to the real cordyceps, stating that she is also part of the infected, which is not’ y cause a reaction from the fungus that takes over. his body.
Marlene also makes it clear that this is the Firefly doctor’s theory, and she wants to get the rare cordyceps mutation from Ellie’s brain to make the chemical messengers in a lab to make a medicine. This is pretty close to the logic of the game, and we will find out later how important the doctor is to the future narrative.
Ellie has had cordyceps since birth because her mother, Anna, was attacked and bitten while giving birth. Anna did not cut the umbilical cord until the bite was over, and so she was infected while still in labor. This allows the cordyceps to enter Ellie’s body and trigger an immune mutation. This phenomenon is not directly shown in the game, and therefore the TV series is the way we achieve this knowledge.
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The events at the end of The Last of Us continue in Part II, and Joel’s decision has been debated by fans for over a decade. The game chose not to state Ellie’s immunity outright, but the response HBO gave didn’t change the narrative in any way. It just takes what’s there and makes it definitive for fans.