I Walk Alone
From the very first episode, we are introduced to a world where humanity’s fear of itself leads to disastrous consequences. On “outbreak day” governments made the decision to bomb most of their own major cities to avoid the spread of infection; additionally shooting anyone suspected of infection or whom they could not safely quarantine. These drastic actions parallel the fear-based decrees of ancient rulers such as Pharaoh in the book of Exodus or Herod in the Gospel of Matthew, and many of the horrific exterminations of the twentieth century by Fascist and Communist regimes. A victim of such fear-based violence is Sarah, the daughter of the series protagonist, Joel Miller. It is her senseless death that embitters Joel towards his fellow man for the next twenty years, leading him down a dark path of hostility towards the rest of humanity.
This bitterness is not exclusive to Joel—it becomes a dominant trait of the post-outbreak world where everyone does what is right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). The assumption of humans seems to be that anyone else will try to lie to, steal from, or kill you if they can, so the best thing you can do is to get them before they get you. This new culture of hyperindividualism is one of isolation, where the most foolish thing you could ever do is trust someone else. However, the show makes it evident that a life lived with this worldview leaves one as dead as the creatures stalking this bleak world. We see Joel wracked by guilt from the horrible things he’s done to survive—and for him, there is no escape from that shame except in numbness from drugs and alcohol.
Despite Joel’s desire for solitude, this battered man can’t help but grow close to those he travels with along the way. These friendships are often brutally cut short by the terrors of the world he lives in, however, making him all the more hesitant to form new ones. Because of this history of trauma and loss, when Joel meets a young girl, Ellie, he initially wants nothing to do with her. Yet, as the two develop a deep and personal bond, he soon becomes terrified of losing her or failing to protect her. This fear leads him to want to abandon Ellie, but this is something that she refuses to let him do. “Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me,” she says in tears, “So don’t tell me I would be safer with somebody else, because the truth is, I would just be more scared.” Scenes like this highlight our need for human connection. We must rise to take on the responsibility of caring for those God has placed in our lives, even if we will lose them for a time on this side of heaven (1 Timothy 5:8). Ultimately, Joel expresses that his relationship with Elli has helped him resist the urge to commit suicide, and given him new purpose in life. Commitment like this to others is then essentially biblical, but what happens if we take this duty to protect those we love too far?
Anything for Family
The dark side of protecting those you love comes in the form of hurting those who would or have hurt them. This is demonstrated in The Last of Us when a vengeful resistance leader named Kathleen leads brutal, celebratory murder sprees through the streets of Kansas City. The targets of this vengeance are those who used to rule the town with a merciless efficiency and any who dared support this now fallen government. Kathleen and her fellow resistance fighters were once dehumanized by these oppressors and their glee in returning this hatred in kind is frighteningly similar to those who engaged in the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. This fighter’s ire is especially directed at a man named Henry, who sold out her brother to the former Kansas City rulers in exchange for a rare medicine his own brother needed to live. Kathleen’s inability to forgive Henry eventually leads not only to her own destruction, but that of the entire urban area which serves as a sobering reminder that vengeance should be left to the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35).
While this extreme and distorted example of familial love is looked down upon by those hunted by Kathleen, many throughout the show practice this same essential ethic. The journey of the show thematically can in many ways be described as one from violent individualism to vicious tribalism. This idea is driven home in the finale of this season when Joel kills those trying to save the rest of humanity because he cannot bear to lose the girl he’s come to see as a second daughter. The idolatry of companionship, then, proves in many ways to be even more destructive than the selfishness that led to it, even in more subtle ways. In episode three, we see a gay couple commit suicide together because one is terminally ill. Bill, the one who is not sick, justifies his decision as follows: “I’m old. I’m satisfied. And you were my purpose.”
Initially it seems we are left with two options: to die alone and miserable or to find someone to love, doing anything to protect them. The Last of Us seems to indicate that the latter is the more favorable, but also seems to understand that there is still something missing in that approach, as its characters are left haunted by violence and trauma in the end. So, does the show present an alternative to these two paths to social destruction?
Expanding the Tribe
Much has been made of the way The Last of Us portrays the sexuality of its characters. Ellie is shown as attracted to another girl, and an entire episode of the show is dedicated to exploring a romantic relationship between two men. These are storylines that were also present in the video game that this series is based upon. Both the game and the series were written by Neil Druckmann, who was born in Israel. Growing up with the many violent conflicts endemic to that country served as a backdrop which informed his storytelling imagination. Druckmann has stated in several interviews that the conflicts he witnessed are part of what inspired him to write this story.
What do LGBTQ+ characters have to do with resolving violent conflict? In Druckmann’s mind, it is about accepting our neighbors as who they are, even if they are different from ourselves, and creating one tribe so that there is no longer any “us vs them.” The way this is expressed in the series is with the peaceful community we are shown in episode six. A multicultural, multi-religious commune run by Joel’s brother and sister-in-law. Contrasted to this is a brutal community in episode eight, which uses Bible verses as a thin facade to oppress others and revel in power. The message here is clear: accept everyone into your community or become a cruel bigot who ruins the lives of others. But this appears to be another false binary set up by this show’s creators.
Where The Last of Us is right is that for those genuinely seeking Jesus, we should never exclude any from our tribe for being different from ourselves (Galatians 3:28). Having an exclusionary disposition can be a trap far too many of us fall into with our own prejudices and Christ also calls us to love those outside our communities, even including our enemies (Luke 6:27-28). However, loving someone also means wanting the best for them, which often leads to difficult conversations to help them become more like Christ (Galatians 6:1). Without this balance of truth and relationships, we can very easily become embittered towards those around us, causing us to want to walk through this life alone; that is a journey just as dangerous to our souls as the one we witness Joel and Ellie taking across the apocalypse.
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