Spoilers for The Last of Us episode 4 below!
The Last of Us creator, Neil Druckmann, recently explained Ellie's strange reaction to her big moment in episode 4. After resupplying at Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank's (Murray Bartlett) heavily-fortified compound, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) make their way across the country to find Tommy (Gabriel Luna) in Wyoming. At Kansas City, the pair find their path blocked and take a detour through the metropolis only to get ambushed by a violent survivor group. While defending Ellie, Joel is flanked by a Hunter and nearly killed, forcing Ellie to shoot the attacker to save Joel.
Upset that he needed Ellie to save his life, Joel takes the gun from her while the attacker pleads for his life to be spared.
Where some may have expected Ellie to be the voice of morality and demand Joel to spare the man's life, she instead obeys Joel's instructions to get behind the broken wall while he ends the attacker's life. Speaking with Troy Baker on HBO's The Last of Us Podcast, Druckmann breaks down Ellie's odd reaction to the devastating moment. Read what Druckmann said below:
And it's interesting, both characters -- we had a lot of conversations about what this moment means and what should their reactions be and they should be comforting each other. They just survived this thing, and instead Ellie is feeling fearful and shame. She's about to cry. It bothers her more that she's about to cry than what Joel's about to do to this man. Often in this genre, a character like Ellie would symbolize the innocence that still exists in this world. This moment, when they guy is begging for his life, Ellie would be arguing on that guy's behalf like, "What if we left him alone? What if we save him?" And she does none of that. She understands what needs to happen, and she walks away and lets it happen. Her thought process is, "I feel sad for him so I must be weak."
How Ellie's Actions Affect Her Going Forward
Since The Last of Us episode 1, Ellie's reaction to violence has proven that growing up in a post-apocalyptic world has had a serious effect on her. This is immediately evident by her awestruck reaction to Joel mercilessly beating a FEDRA soldier to death with his bare hands when they were caught escaping the Boston Quarantine Zone. Episode 3 saw Ellie revel in the freedom to cut and kill an incapacitated infected she encountered in a basement bunker, further demonstrating her fascination with violence.
When faced with killing a real person, especially one pleading for his life, Ellie hesitated, as any functional person would. However, instead of bargaining with Joel for the man's life, Druckmann explains that Ellie holds a sense of desire to be like Joel and wants to have the ability to take violent action when the time comes. As Ellie's journey continues, she will likely get her chance to prove herself once more.
The Last of Us episode 5 trailer teases Joel and Ellie's tense escape from Kansas City as Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) leads her Hunter group in a search for Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard), the two survivors who surprised Ellie and Joel at the end of the episode. The trailer shows Ellie using her pistol once more against her pursuers who more than likely wish her dead. With The Last of Us episode 5 arriving two days earlier on Friday, audiences don't have to wait long to see how Ellie's perceived failure affects how she takes on the Hunters.
Source: HBO Max