The Last Of Us Episode 9 Teases The Origin Of Ellie’s Immunity – Looper

Similar to the HBO series, the game introduces Ellie, with Joel and Tess later finding out she’s immune, but there’s never a direct explanation of how she became this way. During the winter portion of the game, players can choose to read a letter left by Ellie’s mother, Anna, which pretty much just says that she died shortly after giving birth. This led players to believe she got infected while carrying Ellie, which could have resulted in the baby developing natural immunity to the fungus.

Although fans had to wait until the end of the season, the backstory finally gets its time to shine, opening the season finale with Anna (Ashley Johnson) running to an abandoned house to escape an Infected. She manages to kill it, giving birth in the process, but not before it takes a bite out of her thigh. Later in the episode, Marlene tells Joel that the Fireflies’ doctor believes the fungus has grown within Ellie since birth, resulting in her immunity and giving fans an answer to the unsolved question.

In an interview with Variety, Neil Druckmann stated that after Naughty Dog released “The Last of Us,” he had written a short story about Ellie’s mom and planned to develop it into either an animated short or a DLC, but that never happened. Thankfully, the HBO series finally allowed him to explore Ellie’s birth, giving the character’s voice actor, Ashley Johnson, the spotlight to show how she became immune.