The Last of Us Episode 2 ending explained: What happened to Tess?

Cameron Frew

  ❘   Published: 2023-01-23T03:05:00

  ❘   Updated: 2023-01-20T16:59:01

The Last of Us Episode 2 sees Joel, Ellie, and Tess venture through a museum filled with Clickers in a bid to reach the Fireflies – so, let’s break down the ending.

In the first episode of the HBO adaptation, we saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) meeting Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a young girl with a curious secret: a bite mark from three weeks ago, yet she’s shown no signs of turning into an infected.

They agree to help smuggle her out of the Boston quarantine zone to the city’s old Capitol building. On their way out, Joel was forced to kill a FEDRA guard, who also revealed Ellie’s infection (despite her immunity).

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In Episode 2, they make their way through the city; more specifically, they have to go into a museum that’s notorious for being a Clicker hotspot.

Despite their best efforts in the museum, a fight with Clickers broke out – and Tess got bitten, leading her to sacrifice herself in a blaze of tragedy to allow Joel and Ellie to continue their journey.

On the top floor of the museum, the trio finds several Clickers roaming the rooms. They try their best to remain silent, but with a little creak here and a cough there, they manage to hone in on them. Tess draws one of them away, and appears to emerge unscathed.

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When they arrive at the Capitol building, they find nothing but boxes of gear and dead, bloody bodies. “One of them got bit, the healthy ones fought the sick ones, and everyone lost,” Joel tells Ellie, but while he seems fairly accepting of this being a sign to go home, Tess desperately tries to think of a solution.

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We knew it was coming. Many of you did. But for those who didn’t, Tess was bitten in the neck by a Clicker, and the infection is starting to run its course. “Our luck had to run out sometime,” she tells Joel. 

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She gives Joel her last wish: she wants him to take Ellie to Bill and Frank’s, and “save who you can save.” On the ground, a nearby corpse suddenly crawls forward, and Joel shoots him in the head – but one death begets a horde, as the vibration of the gunshot is felt along the vast network of fungi, and hundreds of infected start sprinting their way. 

Joel grabs Ellie, and Tess awaits a fiery death surrounded by fuel and grenades – but her lighter won’t work, even as an infected gives her a horrid, yucky kiss of death, with tendrils going into her mouth and down her throat. At the last moment, it comes alight, and she sacrifices herself in the explosion. 

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The Last of Us Episode 3 will be available to watch on January 29 in the US and January 30 in the UK. You can check out the rest of our coverage here, and the trailer for the weeks ahead here.