The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Look for the Light
We’ve reached the end of The Last of Us, and it’s as heartwrenching as we expected. In so many ways The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 9, “Look for the Light,” is the perfect bookend to a rollercoaster season.
When we first entered this world on The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 1, “When You’re Lost in the Darkness,” we knew that this world wasn’t going to be kind, and it continued to be that way time and time again.
“Look for the Light” fits that bill perfectly.
While the episode opens with the tragedy that surrounded Ellie’s birth, it highlighted the pain of not being able to save the one you love. That quickly becomes the theme of the episode.
Following the events of The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8, “When We Are in Need,” we need to see Joel and Ellie connect. Watching Joel attempt to bring her out of her shell with beefaroni and Boggle is a cute moment that’s punctuated by them finding the giraffes.
It feels so cruel, but we need to get back to that joy before we see what comes next in the hospital. The episode is almost perfectly divided between these moments and the hospital and that’s how it should be.
But the revelation that the possibility of saving all of humanity means losing Ellie is the biggest gut punch the series throws at us.
The ending of the game has been debated for years, but “Look for the Light” shows us why the ending has to be that way. Joel cannot fathom losing Ellie.
It was only an episode ago that he started calling her “baby girl,” something he hasn’t said in 20 years, and he’s started to open up to her. Heck, he’s even come around to her “shitty puns.” Joel can’t imagine giving that up, and unlike what happened with Sara, he can actually do something about this.
His decision to go through the hospital to save Ellie, and defy Marlene, feels like we’re back playing the game. While we can’t control Joel, the camera movements and angles feel close and personal and it makes the moment when he finds Ellie in the operating theater feel more victorious.
The decision to make most of that sequence silent and soft also suits the moment. It would have been easy to layer in sound effects and gunshots, but the silence allows us to focus on Joel’s rage and determination.
We are with him for a singular focus, and that’s getting Ellie back.
Joel’s decision has been hotly debated since the game originally came out, and while I can see how it’s selfish of him to save Ellie over humanity, it’s also very refreshing.
It would have been easy for this narrative to be created with antigen pseudoscience, but the fact that the science demanded this sacrifice that he wasn’t willing to give is monumental. It speaks to the human condition and I think that’s why this game has been talked about for so long.
The last moments of the episode are where The Last of Us‘s morality really hits home. Ellie waking up in the back of the car and Joel’s decision to lie to her, even until the very last exchange feels like a bigger betrayal.
Joel is a character that gave a lot of himself to serve his country. Then he lost all of that along with his daughter. He has been surviving, like all the humans have tried to and he has now found something to live for, that he wants. He sees a bit of what he lost in Ellie and he doesn’t want to let that go.
Even though we can see why he does it, Marlene’s warning still rings in the air. Joel can’t protect her forever, because she does live in a cruel world.
However, that doesn’t mean they can’t survive and be happy, for now saving the parts of the world that they can save.
Overall, “Look for the Light” bookends the season nicely. With another season on the way, we are sure to have more.
Stray Thoughts:
- Seeing Ashley Johnson as Anna was a nice surprise and made me realize how I missed seeing her on my TV since Blindspot ended.
- That said I also wish we got to see more of Anna and Marlene’s friendship. I know that we don’t really have that time and it didn’t really serve the story, but I am so curious as to how the last 20 years went down for these two.
- I really want to see Joel and Ellie play Boggle now.
- If Ellie doesn’t have her pack, how is the “shitty pun” schtick going to continue?
What did you think of this episode of The Last of Us? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Last of Us Season 1 is now available to stream on HBO Max.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.