Original air date: March 13, 2023
As she gives birth to Ellie, Anna is bitten by an infected, which she kills. She is found by Marlene, who hesitantly takes Ellie and kills Anna, at the latter’s request. In the present, Firefly soldiers capture Ellie and knock Joel unconscious. After Joel awakens in a hospital, Marlene explains doctors are preparing Ellie for surgery to produce a cure, but the procedure will kill her. Marlene orders Joel to be taken away; however, he fights back and kills most of the soldiers and the lead surgeon. Joel finds Ellie and leaves the hospital. Marlene intercepts them, stating there is still time to find a cure, but Joel shoots and kills her. When Ellie wakes up, Joel lies and tells her the Fireflies had found other immune people and were unable to create a cure. As they hike to Jackson, Ellie expresses survivor guilt. She insists Joel swear his story about the Fireflies is true. She verbally accepts his words.
* * *
(heavy breathing)
(grunting)
(distant screams)
(grunting, groaning)
(groans)
Fuck!
(distant screams)
(grunts)
(panting)
(distant screams)
♪ ♪
(grunting)
It’s me!
(heavy breathing)
Anyone?!
(groans)
(distant screams)
(grunting)
(water breaks)
(groaning)
(grunting)
(glass shatters)
(Infected shrieks)
(heavy breathing)
(pounding on door)
(grunts)
(pounding continues)
(screaming)
(grunting, snarling)
(grunts, yells)
(grunting)
(baby crying)
Oh… oh…
Oh. Oh shit.
(grunts)
(crying stops)
(Anna crying)
Hi.
Hey.
Oh.
(baby crying)
Yeah, you tell ’em.
You fuckin’ tell ’em, Ellie.
(Ellie quiets)
Okay.
Hi.
Oh, you’re so tough.
I got you. It’s okay.
Yeah, it’s okay.
(inhales, sniffles)
(pensive theme music plays)
♪ ♪
(crickets chirping)
(wind blowing)
(muffled singing)
Anna?
(stairs creaking)
Anna (singing): ♪ Hold me ♪
♪ Close to your heart ♪
♪ Touch me ♪
♪ Give all your love to me ♪
(door creaks)
(Ellie cooing)
(exhales)
(switchblade clanks)
Marlene: Oh God.
It’s not your fault.
Marlene: We were delayed getting out of the zone.
I’m…
She’s hungry.
She needs to be fed, and I… I didn’t wanna nurse her.
I cut it before I was bit.
Before.
I want you to… take her with you to Boston… find someone to bring her up, and make sure that she’s safe.
I can’t do that.
And I want you to give her this.
Anna.
Her name is Ellie.
I can’t.
How long have we known each other?
Our whole lives.
So you pick her up right now… and then you kill me.
(Anna grunting)
(panting)
(groaning)
I can’t kill you.
Please, please, please.
Please!
(Anna groaning)
Marlene!
(grunting, crying)
Here.
Hold her head… There you go.
Take this.
(Ellie cooing)
(Anna grunting)
Cover her ears.
(Anna breathing heavily)
(gunshot)
(Ellie crying)
(Marlene shushing)
(crying echoes)
Joel (muffled): Ellie.
Ellie.
(clearly): Ellie!
D’ya hear me?
No… What?
Well, I found this in there.
Beefaroni. Chef Boyardee.
Oh, cool.
And have you ever played this?
Boggle? It’s a word game.
Mm-mm.
Well, if you wanna beat me at somethin’, it would be this.
Well, all right then.
We’re gettin’ close.
Mm-hmm.
Hospital that way.
May be the one we’re lookin’ for.
Got it.
Take this for me?
Thanks.
They had a guitar in that RV.
It was all smashed up but got me thinkin’, maybe I should find one.
I haven’t played in forever.
In fact, I was thinkin’ maybe I could teach you.
I bet you’d be great at it.
(slight chuckle)
Do you wanna learn how to play guitar?
Ellie?
Hm?
Oh, yeah.
That’d be great.
♪ ♪
(birds chirping)
Okay, so this is what I’m thinking…
Cut through that building to get around that stuff, find the skyscraper, go up and look around.
Uhh, actually, this time I was thinkin’ we blast our way through that rubble.
I found some dynamite in that RV back there.
Really?
No, so we’re gonna cut through that building, find a skyscraper, go up and look around.
But I had you goin’, didn’t I?
(water dripping)
Look at this place.
Talk about bad luck.
Military drops bombs… not one of them hits the building you’re trying to demolish.
No way up.
I get you up there, you can drop that ladder down, maybe we go through that way.
Come on. I’ll give you a boost.
You okay?
Yeah, I’m fine.
It’s just you kinda seem extra quiet today, so.
Oh… I’m sorry.
No, it’s fine.
Did you hear what I…
Yeah, boost.
Got it.
One… two, up.
(Ellie grunts)
Ya got it?
Yeah. (grunts)
(quietly): Okay.
Ellie: Whoa!
God damn it, Ellie!
Shit.
You stay there!
Ellie: You gotta see this!
Ellie?!
(footsteps running)
Ellie: Up here!
Ellie!
C’mon!
Ellie.
C’mon!
Just wait. God damn it.
(heavy breathing)
(light violin music playing)
(birds chirping)
(softly): Don’t scare it.
I won’t.
What are you doing?
It’s all right.
Come here, hurry up. Come on.
(giraffe grunts)
(Ellie chuckling)
Hey there.
(giggling)
So fucking cool.
Aw, where’s she going?
Come on, come on, come on, come on!
Okay.
(birds chirping)
(giraffes vocalizing)
So… is it everything ya hoped for?
It’s got its ups and downs… but you can’t deny that view.
(Joel chuckles)
Look, I don’t know exactly where this hospital is…
Yeah, we’ll find it.
Sure. It’s just…
Maybe there’s nothin’ bad out there, but so far there’s always been somethin’ bad out there.
We’re still here, though.
I know.
I’m only saying there’s risk.
We don’t have to do this.
I just… I want you to know that.
What do you mean? What else are we supposed to do?
Nothin’. We just go back to Tommy’s.
We forget about the whole damn thing.
After all we’ve been through… everything I’ve done… it can’t be for nothing.
I know you mean well.
I know you wanna protect me. You have.
And when we’re done, we’ll go wherever you want.
Tommy’s, sheep ranch, the moon.
(Joel chuckles)
I’ll follow you anywhere you go.
But there’s no halfway with this.
We finish what we started.
♪ ♪
(ambient nature sounds)
Was this a FEDRA thing?
No.
Army.
They put these places up all around the first few days after the outbreak.
Emergency medical camps.
Obviously didn’t last.
They had me in one just like this.
With Sarah?
No, she was gone already.
Oh.
So what was wrong with you?
It was for this.
Ah, the guy who shot and missed.
I figured that would’ve happened later.
No.
Second day.
Well, I’ve gotta hand it to the Army people.
They were way better at stitchin’ you up than I was.
It was me.
I was the guy who shot and missed.
There’s no story.
Sarah died… and I couldn’t see the point anymore.
Simple as that.
And I wasn’t scared either. I was ready.
I couldn’t have been more ready.
When I… When I… went to pull the trigger, I-I flinched.
Still don’t know why.
Anyway, the reason I’m telling you all this…
I know why you’re tellin’ me all this.
Yeah, I reckon you do.
So time heals all wounds, I guess.
It wasn’t time that did it.
Well, I’m glad that… that didn’t work out.
Me, too.
We should probably get going. (sighs)
Yeah.
You know what I’m in the mood for?
What?
Shitty puns.
Oh-ho-ho.
“People are making apocalypse jokes like there’s no tomorrow.”
Too soon?
No, it’s topical.
(laughs) Oh, I love this one.
“Moon rocks taste better than Earth rocks. Why?
‘Cause they’re meteor.”
Oh, that’s terrible.
Fuck you. That was actually good.
That’s a… That…
That’s a zero outta 10.
All right, all right.
“What did the green grape say to the purple grape? Breathe, you idiot.”
That was a three outta 10.
Seven, minimum. Uh-uh.
I’ll give it a five.
Five outta 10.
Five?
(both coughing)
(high-pitched ringing)
Ellie: Joel!
Joel: Ellie.
Ellie!
Ellie: Joel!
(grunts)
Marlene: Welcome to the Fireflies.
Easy.
Ya got hit pretty hard.
Patrol didn’t know who you were.
Where’s Ellie?
She wasn’t hurt.
Not even a scratch.
She’s mostly worried about you.
Where is she?
We lost half our crew crossing the country.
I had five men whose only job was to protect me.
And I still almost got killed.
How’d you do it?
It was all her.
She fought like hell to get here.
She would’ve been dead on day one.
You are the one person I never wanted to be in debt to.
But I owe you.
We all owe you.
Just take me to her.
I can’t.
She’s being prepped for surgery.
What surgery?
Our doctor… he thinks that the Cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth.
Why is she in surgery?
It produces a kind of chemical messenger.
It makes normal Cordyceps think that she’s Cordyceps. It’s why she’s immune.
He’s gonna 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, Joel.
A cure.
Cordyceps grows inside the brain.
It does.
Find someone else.
There is no one else.
We didn’t tell her, we didn’t cause her any fear, there won’t be any pain.
No. No, you take me to her. You take me to her right now!
(grunts)
(heavy breathing)
Please… you don’t understand.
I do.
I was there when she was born, Joel.
I promised her mother that I would save her child.
I promised.
So I do understand.
I’m the only one who understands.
I’m sorry.
I have no other choice.
I do.
Walk him out to the highway, leave him there with his pack.
Give him this.
He tries anything… shoot him.
Firefly: I didn’t hear anyone say, “Stop.”
Which way?
Down the stairs.
The fuck are you doin’? Keep walking.
I said keep walk… (grunts)
(gunshot)
(groaning)
Fuck!
Where is she?
Fuck you.
I don’t have time for this.
(gunshot)
Firefly (on radio): Shots fired. Shots fired!
(distant shouting)
(tense music playing)
(gunfire)
(gunfire)
(gunshot)
(gunfire)
(Firefly groaning)
(grunts)
♪ ♪
(muffled gunfire)
♪ ♪
(monitor beeping)
Surgeon: Do we have enough power?
(indistinct)
Nurse: She’s ready.
Unhook her.
(nurse gasps)
Surgeon: How did you get in here?
I said unhook her.
I won’t let you take her.
(gunshot)
(nurses screaming)
Unhook her.
(shouts): Move!
Nurse: Oh, my God.
(monitor beeping)
Cover her arm.
Fast.
Nurse: Okay.
Turn around.
♪ ♪
(door closes)
(elevator moving)
You can’t keep her safe forever.
No matter how hard you try, no matter how many people you kill, she’s gonna grow up, Joel.
And then you’ll die. She’ll leave.
Then what?
How long till she’s torn apart by Infected or murdered by raiders?
Because she lives in a broken world that you could have saved.
Maybe.
But it isn’t for you to decide.
Or you.
So what would she decide, huh?
‘Cause I think she’d wanna do what’s right.
And you know it.
It’s not too late.
Even now…
even after what you’ve done.
We can still find a way.
♪ ♪
(Ellie groans)
What?
It’s all right. You’re with me.
Take it slow.
The drugs are still wearin’ off.
I was with the Fireflies and then…
What drugs?
They were runnin’ some tests on you… and some others.
Turns out there’s a whole lot more like you… people that are immune.
Dozens of ’em.
And the doctors, they couldn’t make any of it work.
They’ve actually…
(gunshot)
They’ve stopped lookin’ for a cure.
Where are my clothes?
Raiders attacked the hospital. I barely got ya outta there.
We’ll find you some new ones on the way.
Were people hurt?
Yes.
Is Marlene okay?
I’m takin’ us home.
I’m sorry.
(Marlene groaning)
(coughing)
(gasping)
No, wait. Wait, wait, wait.
(panting) Please.
Let me go.
You’d just come after her.
♪ ♪
Well, she got us close enough.
We gotta walk the rest of the way.
Probably about a five-hour hike… but we can manage that.
Remember?
Yeah.
(ambient nature sounds)
You know, Sarah and I used to hike like this all the time.
I wouldn’t say it was her favorite thing.
She wasn’t a fan of the mosquitoes and such.
But she was a big climber… or scampering.
That’s probably the right word.
That girl… she’d see a big rock, and just… pew.
She woulda liked you.
Not to say the two of you are the same.
Definitely different kids.
How so?
Well, she was a lot more… I wanna say girly, and I’m not sayin’ that you’re not girly.
I’m not.
Yeah, you’re not.
So that. (chuckles)
She was taller.
She had a killer smile.
Again, not sayin’ that you don’t.
But you know why I think she’d like you?
Ellie: Why?
‘Cause you’re funny.
I think you would’ve made her laugh.
Anyway, I bet you would’ve liked her back.
Yeah, bet I would’ve.
There ya go.
Not much further now.
Hey, wait.
(softly): Fuck.
Back in Kansas City, you asked me about the first time I killed someone.
When I got bit in the mall, I-I wasn’t on my own.
My best friend was there (sniffles) and she got bit, too.
We didn’t know what to do, and she says, “We can just wait it out… be all poetic and just lose our minds together.”
And then she did.
And I had to…
Her name was Riley… and she was the first to die.
And then it was Tess.
And then Sam.
That’s not on you.
I know, but…
Look, sometimes things don’t work out the way we hope.
You can feel like… like you’ve come to an end… and you don’t know what to do next.
But if you just keep goin’… you find something new to fight for.
And maybe that’s not what…
Swear to me.
Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true.
I swear.
♪ ♪
Okay.
♪ ♪
