The Last of Us season 1 recap: Everything to know before season 2 arrives

The Last of Us is set to return this week as season 2 premieres its first episode on Sunday, April 13, 2025, on Max. The show, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, will once again follow Joel and Ellie as they live in peace in Jackson away from the horrors of the outside world. But when an adversary from their past shows up, they will go down a path that they least expected to walk.

With The Last of Us season 2, the show will be adapting events from the second game in the series - The Last of Us: Part II. However, with it having been more than two years since the first season came out, fans may need a refresher of exactly what went down then.

So, let's dig deep into the major events of The Last of Us season 1 to get fans ready for season 2 of the HBO show.

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The Last of Us sees Joel go through a traumatic event

The Last of Us season 1 begins with Joel going through a traumatic event. With the cordyceps infection just starting, Joel, along with his daughter Sarah and brother Tommy, tries to escape the city. However, her daughter is shot by a military officer during the event as he suspects that they may have been infected as well. Heartbroken by this loss as his daughter dies in his arms, Joel breaks down.

The show then switches to 20 years into the future, where the world has broken down and people live in camps to separate them from the horrors of the outside world. Joel has been separated from his brother Tommy and now has become a hardened smuggler who operates alongside Tess, his partner.

Amidst this, a militia known as The Fireflies operates on the side, too in The Last of Us. They have been obsessed with trying to find a cure for the Cordyceps infection, and it is led by a woman called Marlene. Marlene also has a hold of a girl called Ellie, who has a bite mark on her hand and shows signs of immunity to the Cordyceps infection. The Fireflies intend to use her to make a cure.

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Joel and Tess are tasked with smuggling Ellie in The Last of Us season 1

When one of Joel and Tess's associates betrays them by selling their weapons to the Fireflies, the duo decides to seek him out to get revenge on him. At the same time, the Fireflies headquarters in the city is being raided by the military. When Joel and Tess arrive, they find a wounded Marlene who has already killed their associate, and she is bleeding out as well.

She then makes a deal with Joel and Tess to smuggle Ellie to the outskirts of the city as a Firefly group is coming to pick her up, and in exchange, they will get back their weapons. Joel and Tess agree, and they begin their journey in The Last of Us. When they reach the city outskirts, they are intercepted by a military group that starts scanning them for signs of infection.

While Joel and Tess show no signs, Ellie showcases signs of infection, and Joel then kills the military guards. Tess and he then start contemplating whether Marlene set them up, but Ellie reveals that she is immune and the only hope for a cure, and they go along with it. They then encounter a ton of infected as well while on their way to their location, the Capitol Building.

When at the Capitol Building, they discover that the Fireflies have been shot down by the military, and Tess starts panicking. Confused, Joel asks what's happened and Tess reveals that she has been bitten by the infected. She then asks him to promise her that he will find the Fireflies and get Ellie to them no matter what, and Joel reluctantly agrees.

The infected then start swarming the building, and Tess asks Joel and Ellie to get out of there as she will deal with them. In a final stand, Tess blows up the Capitol Building as Joel and Ellie stare back in sadness in The Last of Us season 1.

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Joel and Ellie travel across America to find the Fireflies

Thus begins Joel and Ellie's journey in The Last of Us as the two then travel across America to find the Fireflies. Throughout their journey, they visit multiple cities where they meet people, and more often than not, it ends with death, as was the case with Bill and Frank, and Henry and Sam. This then leads to Joel and Ellie reaching Jackson eventually, where he is reunited with his brother Tommy.

Tommy reveals that he has been married and updates his brother about his life, and Joel then asks to talk to him in private. He asks Tommy whether he can get Ellie to the Fireflies since Tommy used to run with them before, but Tommy disagrees at first. However, Joel says he can't do this and is haunted by his past, and Tommy reluctantly agrees, but Ellie ends up listening to their conversation.

Joel then goes to tell Ellie about this, but she confronts him about sending her off with Tommy. The two then get into an argument, and Joel tells her that she isn't his daughter, and neither is he her dad. However, Joel reflects on this, and the next morning, when Tommy is set to take Ellie to the Fireflies, he goes back on his decision and decides to stick by her.

Tommy then gave them the location for the Fireflies, and this leads them to an abandoned university where they had set up shop, but turns out the group had to leave from there too. It is then revealed that they set up shop in a hospital in Salt Lake City, but at the same time, Joel and Ellie are ambushed by hunters and a firefight breaks out, where Joel is left heavily injured.

The two then escape the hunters, but Joel collapses to the ground with Ellie having to fend for herself and him all alone.

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Joel and Ellie run into Cannibals in The Last of Us season 1

Ellie then finds an abandoned house where she starts nursing Joel back to health. Winter comes along, and she is seen hunting for deer and comes across a man called David and his partner. Turns out, David is the leader of a town nearby and asks Ellie if she needs help. Ellie, who has her weapons aimed at him and his partner, asks them to get her medicine, and in exchange, she will give them her deer.

David agrees and sends his partner into town to get some medicine. David then reveals that a girl matching her description, travelling with an injured and older man, killed a couple of his men in an abandoned university nearby. Ellie quickly realizes what's going on and gets her guard back up. When David's partner returns with the medicine, she takes it quickly and escapes with it.

It is then revealed that David is actually the cult leader in a town and is secretly feeding his people human remains as well. Ellie then gets back out to look for more food after taking care of Joel, but is intercepted by David and his men. He then locks her up and sends a party out to look for Joel, but Ellie breaks his fingers and escapes from the place.

Joel then wakes up at the right time and is intercepted by David's men, but he is able to get the upper hand and tortures them and kills them to get Ellie's location. David then catches up with Ellie once again and tries to s*xually assault her, but in a fit of rage, she brutally kills him. Breaking down, Joel finds her and then comforts her.

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Joel saves Ellie by killing the Fireflies

Joel saving Ellie in The Last of Us season 1 finale (Image via Max)

Following the encounter with David, Joel and Ellie finally reach Salt Lake City after travelling for a while in The Last of Us. There, they finally meet up with the Firefly crew, who think of them as intruders and knock them out. When Joel wakes up in the hospital, he is met by Marlene, who says that she thought they were dead. Joel then asks to see Ellie, but Marlene gives him some news that sends him over the edge.

Turns out, since the Cordyceps virus grows in the brain, to get a cure out of Ellie, they will need to kill her - a sacrifice needed for the betterment of humanity. An angry Joel then escapes from their confines and slaughters the entire hospital before reaching the operating room where Ellie is being kept sedated. He kills the head surgeon, too, and then escapes with Ellie.

In the parking lot, he is met by Marlene, who tries to reason with him to do the right thing, but Joel kills her in cold blood too. The Last of Us season 1 then sees Joel driving Ellie to Jackson.

While on the drive, she wakes up and asks what happened with the Fireflies, and Joel lies to her by saying that they have stopped looking for a cure, and they also have a bunch of immune people and don't know what to do with them.

When they finally reach the outskirts of Jackson, Ellie asks Joel to promise her that whatever he said about the Fireflies was true, and The Last of Us season 1 ends with him swearing that yes, what he said was true and Ellie accepting it.

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For further updates on The Last of Us season 2, stay tuned with us.