#i also jusf saw this screenshot and was like

[skoulsons]

hey uh. idk im thinking about this ig and probably overthinking :)

Ellie. Focused on the fireflies. Putting her identity in her immunity. In what she could give a broken world. A cure. A vaccine. Something so that Riley, Tess, and Sam didn’t die in vain.

That’s what their whole journey was about. Their destination was pushed farther away again and again and again… and they kept going. Ellie was determined to make it to them. To put her worth to use.

Liars. That couldn’t be true, right? They couldn’t be liars. The vaccine was real. They were real. What they wanted to try was real. It had to work.

And then there’s Joel. Watching Ellie.

Screw the fireflies. Screw the cure. Screw whatever belief they preached. This was Ellie. A second chance—a second daughter. What drove him. What gave him a purpose after twenty broken years. The most important thing to him.

In a way, this screenshot shows their downfall. Ellie—focused on the fireflies. What she made her purpose into it. What drove her life and, eventually, her decision to give Joel the cold shoulder for two years. And Joel—focused on Ellie. Focused on Ellie and her life. Saving her, against all odds. Because she deserved life, yeah, but also for him. He wouldn’t lose another daughter, and if it meant destroying the people and the opportunity that she based her purpose around, so be it. He wouldn’t lose her.