Joel Miller

“

Sometimes thing don't work out the way we hope. You can feel like you've come to an end and you don't know what to do next. But if you just keep going, you find something new to fight for. ―Joel's words to Ellie.

”

Joel Miller is a main character in HBO's The Last of Us. After losing his only daughter, Sarah, during the early stages of the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak, Joel became a hardened survivor in a post-apocalyptic America.^[2] He found his way as a black market smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, before being tasked with the mission of smuggling and protecting a 14-year-old girl named Ellie Williams, the apparent key to creating a vaccine.

Biography

Background and early life

Joel was born on September 26, 1967. He grew up with his younger brother, Tommy Miller, in Austin, Texas.^[3] During his childhood, Joel developed a passion for music and dreamed about becoming a famous singer^[4] though he eventually worked as a contractor together with Tommy after his brother left the United States military. When he was 21, Joel had a daughter, Sarah Miller. He raised her with his brother's help, working long hours to earn a living.^[3] At some point after Sarah was born, Joel helped put up a Christmas tree with her.^[4]

Events of HBO's The Last of Us

A birthday to forget

On September 26th, 2003, his 36th birthday, Joel woke to Sarah cooking breakfast. As they enjoy breakfast, Tommy joins them, noting they are late for a construction project. Joel agrees to work a double shift with him to earn their money, insisting they work alone. Sarah objects, knowing it means he will get home late. Joel assures her he will buy a cake to share with her when he finishes. After breakfast, Joel packs the car and ensures Tommy puts his cigarette out when Sarah gets in to take her to school.

Joel comes home an hour late without a cake that night, much to Sarah's disappointment. However, she quickly cheers up and gives him his two birthday presents: a watch she had fixed for him and a copy of Curtis and Viper 2 from Danny Adler. The two watch the movie together on the couch, and Sarah falls asleep. As Joel watches the movie, Tommy calls him and says he's been arrested for assault. He explains that he got into a fight at a bar, knocking a man out who'd gone "crazy" and attacked a waitress, and needs to be bailed out. Joel reluctantly agrees to come get him so he won't have to spend the weekend in jail. He carries a sleeping Sarah to her room, tucks her in, and leaves the house at 11:03 p.m.

Joel arrives at the jail and bails Tommy out. However, chaos ensues as the city is embroiled in the outbreak of the Cordyceps brain infection. The brothers fight their way back to Joel's house, in time for Joel to save Sarah from an infected Nana, killing her with a wrench. Sarah is heartbroken by the attack, despite Joel comforting her. Joel's opposite neighbor, Denise, runs outside but Joel barks for her to stay indoors and secure her house. He joins Tommy and Sarah in the car as they start driving to Travis County.

While driving, they see their friend Jimmy's farm engulfed in flames and pass a stranded family on the side of the road. Joel convinces Tommy not to stop. They try to merge onto the highway, avoiding traffic going the wrong way, only to see that it is full of people trying to escape. They attempt to cut through a field to the west, only to see the military has set up a huge blockade. Out of options, they head due north to cut through a town, find a river, and pick up the highway on the other side of the blockade. As they attempt to drive through the town, an airliner crashes in the street behind them, a piece of wreckage from it hitting the truck with enough force to overturn it.

Joel comes to and grabs Sarah, whose ankle is injured, and exits the truck, with Tommy exiting the other side. A law enforcement vehicle collides with Tommy's truck, trapping Joel and Sarah in an alley and separating them from Tommy; they plan to regroup at the river. Since Sarah cannot run, Joel carries her through the burning town, stumbling upon a group of infected. One of them notices Joel and chases him into a diner. The runner thrashes through the kitchen, almost catching up to Joel in the field outside the diner, but it is shot in the head.

Joel turns around to see a soldier aiming his gun at him. The soldier radios his superior for instructions, notifying them of Sarah's ankle injury. He is told to kill Joel and Sarah. Joel tries to convince the soldier that neither of them are sick, but the soldier fires at them, and they fall down a hill. Joel, only grazed by a bullet, is almost shot again by the apologetic soldier, but Tommy kills the soldier and saves Joel. They then shift their attention toward Sarah, who was mortally wounded in the abdomen and is hyperventilating. Joel attempts to move her, to no avail. He then tries to apply pressure to the wound and calm Sarah, who is in severe pain. He screams for Tommy to help, but Tommy knows it is too late. Sarah dies in Joel's arms.^[3]

Surviving

After Sarah's death, many cities were converted into quarantine zones by FEDRA, who amalgamated with the military. As society broke down following the initial outbreak, Joel and Tommy found themselves in a triage clinic, part of an emergency medical center that the Army established after the outbreak. It was here where Joel obtained a pistol and attempted to kill himself. Having lost Sarah, he saw no reason to live anymore. However, when he pulled the trigger, he flinched and was subsequently stitched up and survived the wound.^[5]

After his suicide attempt, he decided to carry on living for his family, namely to keep Tommy safe. Tommy eventually convinced Joel to join a traveling group intent on getting into one of the zones for protection. He did so, meeting Tess, and the group reached Boston sometime before 2010. Joel, Tommy and Tess resorted to killing innocent people for supplies, seeing it as the only means of survival. The two brother's relationship became increasingly strained, with Tommy eventually leaving Joel to join the Fireflies, a group of populist revolutionaries fighting against FEDRA's rule and seeking to make a vaccine for the Cordyceps.^[6]

Joel saw the Fireflies' ideals as pointless and instead formed a partnership with Tess as smugglers in the Boston QZ. The pair grew close, becoming an effective team together.^[3] They lived together in an apartment, with Tess becoming the person Joel cared for most in the post-apocalyptic world.^[7]

Life in the zone was strenuous, Joel having to kill many infected over the years to survive and worked strenuous jobs that left him with worn knees.^[8] However, Joel heard how it was better than life in other zones, such as FEDRA-controlled Kansas City and infected underground settlements in cities. He also knew that some residents collaborated with FEDRA, informing them about Firefly members and activities, smugglers and other matters to gain a better life in the zone. Joel, like many smugglers, hated these collaborators and considered them "rats".^[9]

By 2010, Tess informed Joel that she had made radio contact with a man named Frank living in Lincoln and wanted to go there to set up a trading agreement because Frank claimed to have a surplus of supplies. Joel was not fond of meeting strangers, but Tess convinced him to go with her. He went and had dinner with Frank and the man's partner, Bill. He noticed Bill was similarly unhappy with Tess and Frank's trading desires and bonded with the man over the idea they both protected those they cared about. He then pointed out Bill's electrified fence would rust within the next year and so needed him to get better metals and wire from Boston. Bill relented and agreed to the partnership. Before leaving, Joel informed Bill that raiders would approach the town eventually. Bill assured him that he and Frank would be fine.^[7]

Over the next thirteen years, Joel and Tess traded with Bill and Frank regularly, storing supplies in a gas station a few miles from the town as a middle point between Boston and Lincoln. The last time Joel and Tess left Boston to trade with the pair was sometime in 2022.^[3] Joel also made a deal with Bill at some point to care for Frank if anything happened to him. They also established radio codes, with Joel vigilant that—should he hear 1980s music—Bill and Frank needed him and Tess to go help them.^[7]

Also during this time, Tommy decided to leave the Fireflies at some point. He and Joel still kept in radio contact with one another. However, Joel grew concerned when Tommy stopped replying in the middle of August 2023 and began arranging with Tess to get a car battery and other equipment to go find Tommy.^[3]

Twenty years later

Joel, among other Boston quarantine zone residents, are burning infected corpses. A truck arrives with more bodies to burn, and Joel and a woman move to unload it. Finding a young boy's body in the truck, the woman stops and tells Joel that she cannot bring herself to throw a child into the fire. Joel stoically does it himself. Later, Joel is finishing his manual labor and collects payment from a FEDRA foreman named Knapp. Joel asks if there are any other possible jobs for the day, and Knapp offers one of two jobs: street sweeping or sewer maintenance. Joel chooses sewer maintenance since it pays more.

Joel walks into a crowd of people witnessing a public execution, but quickly moves through it to discreetly meet with a soldier on the far side of the gathering. The soldier, Lee, gives Joel a considerable sum of ration cards; Joel counts it and claims Lee is short by five. Lacking the money, Lee gives him a pack of cigarettes. In exchange, Joel gives Lee hydrocodone. Joel asks about the status of a vehicle he wants, and Lee says he has convinced everyone necessary for the acquisition. Lee asks for six hundred ration cards for himself and the four accomplices, but lets Joel know the vehicle is in bad condition. Joel leverages this and negotiates the price down. Lee warns Joel to stay off the streets due to violence from both an opposition group called the Fireflies and sleep-deprived FEDRA soldiers.

Joel then visits Abe, who is working as a radio operator. Joel gives him the cigarettes, and Abe says that he has not heard anything back from Tommy, even with Gabriela or his elder son listening at night. Joel sent Tommy a message three weeks prior, and is insistent that it never took Tommy more than a day to respond previously. Joel presses for the location of Tommy's tower, and the man says it is in Wyoming. The man admits Joel is capable of handling himself, but he warns that a trip from Boston to Wyoming will likely be obstructed by the infected, raiders, slavers, and worse things he hears about on the radio on a daily basis. The man begins marking the location on Joel's map, when Joel abruptly walks out, clearly annoyed.

Joel enters his apartment, shifts a dresser, and uncovers a hidden stash by removing some wooden floorboards. He takes out a map and closely studies it while indulging in alcohol and drugs. It is revealed that he still wears the watch that Sarah had fixed for him. He dozes off but is abruptly awakened by a nightmare. Tess enters the room and joins him in bed.^[3]

Smuggling Ellie

In the morning, Joel is shocked to see Tess' injuries. Tess lies, claiming that she was simply jumped by a few nineteen-year-olds she provoked. Joel notices that the injuries are old, to which she admits she was being held captive by FEDRA for a day. She then comes clean and admits she was injured by Robert's men, and says that Robert sold their car battery to someone else. She tries to calm Joel, claiming they can either get the battery or the money back. Joel wants the battery, since he is worried about Tommy and wishes to leave as soon as possible. Tess agrees to get the battery and the money, but she asks Joel to calm down before making a move so as to ensure a stealthy operation. After hashing out a plan, Joel pulls a gun out of the stash.

The pair go to the slums in the city, where they learn from an informant that Robert is hiding in an old building used by fellow smuggler Miguel. The pair head there and break in, heading down the tunnels. They encounter a deceased infected merged into the wall. They then climb a set of ladders to the upper levels. Joel comments that the area was built post-outbreak, surmising it from his pre-outbreak profession in construction.

They reach the stop and enter to find Robert and his smuggling group dead. Joel moves down the corridor, spotting Marlene and Kim Tembo. He moves towards them when a girl, Ellie jumps out behind a door at him. He tosses the girl to the ground, aiming his revolver at her when Marlene calls to him, insisting he aim at her. Joel does so and the two engage in a trading discussion, with Marlene offering all of her group's supplies in return for him and Tess smuggling Ellie outside the city to the State House. Joel, wary of Marlene because she came between him and Tommy, doesn't trust her, but Tess convinces him to agree. The pair then take Ellie back to their apartment, where Tess asks Joel to wait with the girl while she checks the zone's walls. Joel enters the apartment, dismissing Ellie's questions about his trading partnership with Bill and Frank and goes to sleep on the couch.

When Tess returns, the pair take Ellie outside the walls. However, Lee spots them as makes them kneel for interrogation. Ellie panics and stabs the soldier in the knee. Despite Joel's attempts to talk him down, he has a flashback to when Sarah was killed and attacks Lee, tackling and beating him to death. The scanner then beeps, revealing Ellie is infected. Confused, he takes Lee's assault rifle and the trio flee into the infected-infested area.^[3]

The trio get to an abandoned salon. Joel barricades the door and he and Tess stay up all night watching Ellie, seeing if she succumbs to her infection. By morning, she is still human. Joel dismisses Ellie's claims she is immune but Tess does, convincing Joel that they should finish their smuggling operation and get their promised supplies. Giving in, Joel accepts. The group then leave the salon and traverse downtown Boston, Joel keeping silent as Tess and Ellie talk. They eventually reach a flooded hotel. Joel mocks Ellie's childish antics but does help her up when she falls down in shock at seeing a skeleton.

They climb to a higher floor and Tess climbs some rubble to check the other side of the street. Joel stays guarding Ellie and does his best to avoid answering her questions. When Tess returns, they overlook the street and see the infected horde below. Tess then insists they try the other route through The Bostonian Museum. Joel reluctantly agrees, fearing infected are within.

When they get there, they find the Cordyceps fungus dead outside but a freshly killed corpse within. They climb the stairs when the ceiling collapses in the hallway, trapping them in the Civil War exhibition. The noise attracts the attention of two clickers. Joel stays near Ellie, informing her they can't see but have potent hearing. Despite their efforts, the clickers detect them and attack. Joel eventually manages to kill them both with his rifle and revolver with Tess' support.

They reach the rooftop where Joel begins complaining to Tess about Ellie. Tess dismisses his complaining, insisting he be thankful they are still alive. Taken aback, Joel crosses a beam with Ellie to the adjacent building and looks at the skyline with her. Ellie and Tess then descends a set of maintenance ladders, leaving Joel to look at his broken watch.

A while later, they reach the State House but find it deserted. Joel approaches a truck and opens it to find several Firefly corpses within. Tess then charges into the building with Ellie, Joel following as they discover the Fireflies became infected and killed each other. Joel then insists they go home and abandon their operation but Tess reveals she was bitten by one of the clickers and can't leave. Shocked, Joel tries to deny it but Tess compares her bite with Ellie's, proving Ellie is really immune. A Firefly-infected then rises up, causing Joel to kill it with his revolver. The shot attracts the infected horde from the main street.

Tess then begs him to follow the operation through and get Ellie to Bill and Frank's giving in, Joel grabs Ellie and forces her to go with him as Tess stays behind to ensure the horde is killed. Joel and Ellie exit the building, turning around as an explosion erupts. Tess and the infected are dead. Sullen, Joel glares at Ellie before walking away, heading towards Lincoln.^[8]

Joel and Ellie walk until they are around ten miles from Lincoln. They camp in the woodlands. In the early morning, Joel goes to the nearby river and builds a cairn in honor of Tess. He returns to Ellie, tossing her the remains of his food for her to eat. He insists Ellie not mention Tess, but Ellie replies she only wants him to not behave as though her death was her fault. The pair then walk along the path towards Lincoln, with Joel answering Ellie's questions about the outbreak and how FEDRA oppressed and even murdered civilians they were supposedly working to help.

Hours later, they reach Lincoln. Joel takes Ellie to Bill and Frank's house but find it deserted. He goes to check their room when Ellie called out to him. He comes to her, where she reveals Bill left Joel a letter. In the letter, Joel learns Bill and Frank had opted to take their own lives but left everything they had for Joel to use. However, the letter mentions Tess, causing Joel to leave the house as he became emotional.

Outside, Joel checks the garage, finding Bill had left him a working truck and a car battery. He set it up then returned to Ellie, offering her to travel with him to Wyoming to find his brother Tommy. Ellie agrees but Joel makes her promise to follow his orders and never mention Tess. The pair then rest in the house, showering and collecting numerous weapons and supplies to bring with them. Joel then helps Ellie put her seatbelt on and the pair leave the town.^[7]

Detour in Kansas City

Joel and Ellie travel on the road together. Because gas has aged over the twenty year period, they have to regularly stop so Joel to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles. At one stop, Joel tries to explain how siphoning worked to Ellie but lacks the proper understanding to do so. He orders she at least not wander off, prompting Ellie to take out a joke book from her backpack and read to him several puns. These puns annoy him, leading him to jokingly tell her to wait in the truck. Once the fuel is siphoned, he refuels the truck and they continue their journey.

While driving down the road, Joel allows Ellie to put a cassette on, Alone and Forsaken by Hank Williams. He then notices she had stolen a male pornography magazine from Bill's house. Uncomfortable, Joel tells her to get rid of it, which Ellie eventually did. After more hours of driving, Joel eventually decides it was enough and drives the truck off the main road into the woods in the distance to set up camp for the night. The pair eats ravioli together and prepare to sleep when nightfall arrived.

Before sleeping, Ellie tells him another pun, one he finishes for her, having heard it before. This exchange draws laughter from him. However, Ellie then asks a serious question of whether hostile survivors could find them. Joel lies that no survivors would be out so far, comforting Ellie. As Ellie sleeps, Joel gets up from his bed and stays up through the night, keeping watch with his bolt-action rifle.

By morning, he boils a pot of coffee and packs up their supplies. The coffee awakes Ellie, who disapproves of the drink despite Joel liking it. A while later, Ellie asks him to tell her about his brother and why he was not with him. Joel tries to dismiss her question but she notes it would kill time in their estimated twenty-six hour long journey. Relenting, Joel reveals how he and Tommy were together with a traveling group until Tommy left him to join the Fireflies. Joel then suggests Ellie go back to sleep, given they were up early. Ellie scoffs that she was not tired. However, she does fall asleep and Joel keeps driving through the day.

Hours later, Joel slams on the brakes, waking Ellie as they reach the entrance to Kansas City. The road is blocked. Against his better judgement because they would have to drive hundreds of miles back to get on a different highway, Joel turns the truck around and drives into the city, hoping to go around the rubble and enter the highway elsewhere.

Once in the city, the pair notice the FEDRA quarantine zone section was abandoned. Shortly after, a man calling for help enters the street. Ellie asks if they would help him. Joel orders her to put her seatbelt on, recognizing the trick as one he did with his traveling group. Joel then accelerates straight towards the man, who dives away and ordered his group to attack. Despite Joel's efforts, the attackers manage to burst his tires and send the truck off road, crashing into an abandoned laundromat.

Joel makes Ellie exit the vehicle as the attackers shot at them. He retrieves his bolt-action rifle from the back of the truck and orders Ellie to take cover behind a wall across from them. Once sure she was safe, he leaves cover and shoots at the group, killing one. The other attacker threatens Joel and moves to attack him. Joel moves from cover and shoots him dead as well. However, the third flanks Joel and hits him from behind. Though Joel manages to disarm the third attacker, he is knocked down, the man pinning him with Joel's own rifle. Ellie then exits cover and shoots the man with a pistol she had stolen from Bill's. Now free, Joel ignores the wounded man's pleas and demands Ellie hide behind the wall again. Once she does, Joel takes the man's knife and stabs him in the chest, killing him. Joel leaves his rifle behind, now out of bullets, then returns to Ellie and helps her evade the rest of the attackers who arrive in their trucks.

Later on, Joel and Ellie hide in a Hi-Lo bar as the assailants conduct a city-wide search for them. Joel plans for them to reach a skyscraper so he can assess the layout of the city and find a safe exit. However, he then grows serious, apologizing to Ellie that he forced her into a position where she had to shoot a man. Ellie then reveals it was not her first time. To console her, he returns the pistol to her and taught her how to grip it properly when shooting. The pair then move through the streets, eventually sneaking into a high-rise building.

While climbing the staircase, Ellie asks him how he knew about the attackers' plan to ambush them. Joel then reveals that the group he and Tommy traveled with did what they had to survive. Ellie surmises this meant Joel had also attacked and murdered innocent people. Once near the top, Ellie helps Joel to his feet, the man tired from climbing the forty-six floors. They enter an office and prepare to sleep. Joel scatters shards of glass by the door to ensure they could not be snuck up on. Joel then informs Ellie he was deaf in his right ear, hence he intentionally sleeps on his right a lot. As they lay down to sleep, Joel asks Ellie if she wanted to talk about the first time she shot someone. Ellie refuses, which Joel understands. Ellie then says another one of her puns, this one causing Joel to laugh heartily.^[6]

During the night, Joel fails to hear as a man and a boy snuck up on them. He is startled awake when Ellie shouts his name, seeing the boy has a gun trained on him. The man has his aimed at Ellie. Joel listens as the man reveals he did not intend to hurt them and actually wanted to form an alliance. Joel agrees to the plan, with Ellie insisting he meant it despite his dry tone. The man then revealed he was Henry Burrell—the only other man in the city wanted by the rebels more than Joel.

The group then eats together. Joel keeping silent for most of the meal, listening as Henry explained the people after him and Joel were the city's resistance movement, who had overthrown FEDRA. Joel gives some of his food to the boy, Henry's brother, Sam. Keen to move past their meeting, Joel presses Henry to leave once they ate but Henry reveals he could offer them the perfect escape route.

Joel talks with Henry about his plan to escape through underground maintenance tunnels into the suburbs. Although angered the man was a former FEDRA collaborator, he chooses to ally with him anyway for Ellie's sake. He also sees how important Sam is to him when the Henry smiles at seeing his brother laughing with Ellie. He also expresses irritation that Henry was relying on him solely to protect them, given Henry had never actually had to kill anyone himself. Ellie mentions how Joel saved her from two clickers in Boston, which Henry remarks proved Joel was a strong protector.

The group then sneaks through the city to the tunnels. When Henry says he thought Joel was Ellie's father, Joel firmly dismisses the claim. After walking down the tunnels, they come to a painted door. Joel leads them inside, discovering it was an abandoned underground settlement. Joel informs the group these were formed soon after the outbreak by regular citizens. Ellie then says they should rest there, a statement Henry supports because it would allow them to wait for nightfall before they resurfaced. Joel reluctantly agrees.

While waiting, Joel sits with Henry and watches Ellie and Sam play games together and talk about their favorite comic series, Savage Starlight. He looks down at his watch and then says to Henry that he was sorry for his anger about Henry's FEDRA collaboration earlier, stating he knew Henry only betrayed his community to keep Sam safe. The remark leads Henry to challenge Joel's claim, revealing Henry's betrayal was the reason the resistance group's leader, Kathleen Coghlan, had formed a dictatorship. Henry begs Joel to say he was a bad man, but Joel did not answer. This response prompts Henry to say he could sense Joel was a father, even if not Ellie's. Joel looks away at this reminder of Sarah, his daughter, and instead declares they had spent too much time resting and should move on.

By nightfall, the group makes it to the suburbs. Henry calls his plan a success, but Joel dismisses him, stating they still were not safe. Ellie then offers Henry and Sam to join them on their trip to Wyoming. Joel disagrees with the suggestion, but she claimed he would change his mind. Their conversation is interrupted by gunfire. Joel grabs Ellie and directs them behind a car. More shots rang out and Joel draws his revolver. He then turns to Ellie, revealing his intentions to flank the sniper down the street. Ellie protests, but Joel asks her to trust him, which she does.

Joel races from cover and, despite the sniper's persistent shooting, he reaches the end of the street unharmed. Glancing at the embankment in the distance, he enters the house and sneaks upstairs. He finds the sniper, an old man, by the front window. He asks the man to lay down his gun but the man instead moves to shoot him, prompting Joel to reluctantly shoot him dead. Joel then retrieves the man's scoped bolt-action rifle for himself and finds his radio, hearing Kathleen's voice state the resistance was entering the suburbs.

Joel looks down the street, seeing several trucks charging at Ellie, Henry, and Sam. He shouts out for them to run then reloads the rifle and shoots at the lead truck, killing the driver and causing it to crash and explode into a house. However, the rest of the resistance exits their vehicles and their platoon leader Perry fires on Joel's position, forcing him to take cover. Joel reloads the rifle and listens as Kathleen confronted Henry. However, he hears an eruption and sees a sinkhole form by the burning truck. A large horde of infected emerge from it. Joel aims the rifle down the street, using it to shoot infected trying to attack Ellie. He also shot several clickers that are trying to kill Henry and Sam. The trio eventually reach the house, with Joel meeting them downstairs. They then cross the embankment, leaving the horde to kill the resistance soldiers.

That night, Joel and the others stay in an abandoned motel. Henry asks him if Sam and Ellie would be okay after the ordeals they faced. Joel assures him they would be because they are still children. He and Henry then joke about the lead quote from Savage Starlight—"Endure and Survive". Before sleeping, Joel changes his mind and asked Henry if he and Sam wanted to travel with Wyoming with him and Ellie; Henry accepts.

The next morning, Joel is awoken by Ellie's screams as she bursts into the room—Sam had turned in the night into an infected and was trying to kill her. Joel jumps for his revolver but Henry reaches it first, firing a warning shot at Joel's feet to stop him protecting Ellie. Soon after though, Henry changes his mind and shoots Sam dead. Joel asks if Ellie is okay. However, Henry falls into shock. Seeing Henry's state, Joel tries to coax him to give him his gun but Henry uses it to shoot himself. Devastated, Joel and Ellie bury the brothers' bodies outside the motel before carrying onward to Wyoming.^[9]

Finding Tommy

Joel and Ellie journey to Wyoming over the next three months. During it, Joel teaches Ellie how to stand guard and keep watch though never lets her do it herself. They eventually reach Wyoming and go to Cody but find it crawling with infected. Desperate, Joel and Ellie break into a remote cabin and interrogate an elderly Native American couple, Marlon and Florence, for information about their location and how best to travel westwards. The couple brush off Joel's aggression, revealing across the nearby Yellowstone River (dubbed the "River of Death") is a potentially dangerous group whom mercilessly kill survivors and infected and leave their corpses across the river. Joel and Ellie exit the cabin, but Joel staggers against a nearby post, clutching his chest and breathing sharply. Ellie grows worried and, upon her saying she will be in trouble if Joel is dying, Joel insists he is fine and begins walking again.

The pair continue on their route, camping out in a cave next to a river. While Joel tapes his boot, Ellie observes the Northern Lights in the sky from a nearby rock, prompting Joel to tell her to come down. As they sit by the fire, Ellie asks what Joel would do if the cure from her blood worked and the world went back to normal. Joel replies he would find an old farmhouse and raise sheep, joking that at least sheep do what they are told. Ellie reveals she has always wanted to be an astronaut, having read about space travel at the library; Joel correctly guesses her favorite astronaut is Sally Ride. Ellie then reveals she tried to heal Sam on the night he became infected, Joel assuring her the cure is probably more complicated, and that Marlene knows what she is doing. Joel then tells Ellie to go to sleep while he keeps watch. However, he falls asleep at some point.

Joel awakens in the morning to find Ellie keeping guard, having taken over when she woke up to find him asleep. Joel scolds her for not waking him up, but Ellie retorts she did everything necessary for keeping watch before giving him back his gun. They continue trekking through the snow, crossing a bridge over what they assume is the "River of Death". As they trek along the riverbank, Ellie practices whistling like Joel, to no avail, and asks that he teach her how to hunt at some point. Joel denies her, citing she likely could not stomach cleaning out the prey's guts. They come across a hydroelectric dam, which Joel explains is how people used to get electricity. As they continue however, Ellie questions if the "River of Death" was referring to the location near the dam.

They are soon interrupted by a party of armed survivors on horseback, who demand they drop their weapons. As their leader looks on, one of the men asks if they have been near any infected, before sending a dog to check for any signs of infection. The dog ignores Joel, but it is then sent to inspect Ellie. Joel requests they talk and try and sort something out, even tossing away his own rifle, but the man insists everyone must be checked. As the dog approaches Ellie, Joel finds himself overcome with terror at the prospect of Ellie getting shot, but is relieved when the dog plays with Ellie instead. thankfully the dog seems more interested in playing with her. Having confirmed they are not infected, Joel explains he is looking for his brother; hearing this, the leader of the group suddenly steps forward and asks for his name. Joel reveals it and the woman permits him and Ellie to ride on horses and travel to their settlement with them.

The group escorts Joel and Ellie inside to the gated community of Jackson, on the condition they relinquish their weapons. Once inside, they are stunned to find a thriving town full of families preparing to celebrate Christmas. Joel soon spots Tommy working on an outdoor construction project. He dismounts his horse and calls out to him, the two brothers racing towards one another and emotionally reuniting with a hug. Tommy and the leader of the group, Maria, take Joel and Ellie into a cafeteria to have food, the first real meal the two have had in months. Joel urges Ellie to be polite to their hosts, which she attempts to do, though not before shouting at a shy girl she spots staring at her from across the room. Tommy and Maria apologize for getting off on the wrong foot, explaining they have to take extra precautions to protect Jackson from any dangers, revealing the bodies Marlon and Florence discovered were examples of such dangers. Joel suggests they have a private talk "between family," but Tommy reveals that Maria is actually his wife - Ellie forces Joel to congratulate them, the man dryly doing so.

Tommy and Maria then take them on a tour of the town, explaining Jackson was an abandoned gated community Maria and her crew found seven years ago and turned into a commune, drawing power from the dam. They reveal they also have a ranch and farm, Ellie joking that Joel's dream of herding sheep is possible. Tommy takes Joel aside as they have a drink in one of the town’s bars. Joel remarks positively about Tommy's new life, praising the alcohol. Tommy asks how Tess is doing, to which Joel lies that she is fine and he is taking Ellie across the country to find her family among the Fireflies. Tommy explains the Fireflies have a base at the University of Eastern Colorado that is about a week away on horseback, but the route is infested with raiders and infected. Joel dismisses his concerns remarking that - with Tommy now with him - they will be fine together, claiming they have survived worse. However, Tommy rejects the idea, revealing that Maria is pregnant and he has chosen to put his faith in the new community. Joel lashes out at him, questioning if Tommy would even be a good father. Tommy angrily tells Joel that just because life "stopped for [him], doesn’t mean it stopped for [Tommy]." Enraged, Joel declares he and Ellie will leave in the morning and storms out. As Joel heads out to the town square, he finds himself feeling the same fear from before, stumbling against a lamp post, clutching his chest. However, his sharp breathing ceases when he notices a woman in the crowd singing Christmas carols who reminds him of Sarah.

That night, Joel goes to a cobbler's workshop and attempts to repair his worn hiking boots. Tommy comes in with a new pair and apologizes for being rude earlier, remarking he knows Joel would not feel right about him living the life he lost with Sarah. He assures tells Joel the path to the university is nothing he cannot handle. Joel then reveals that Ellie is immune. Tommy is initially doubtful, but sits and permits Joel to tell him everything. Joel does so, recalling Tess’s death, Henry's suicide and Ellie having to save him from a raider. Overcome with emotion, he expresses terror over Ellie's safety, believing he is now too weak to protect her and even has nightmares that he is going to get her killed, and fail her like he failed Sarah. He declares he needs Tommy to take her to the Fireflies for him, promising he will never ask anything of him again. Tommy reluctantly agrees.

Joel returns to the house that Maria and Tommy set aside for him to find Ellie reading the diary of one of the previous inhabitants, and realizes from Ellie's cold demeanor that she overheard his and Tommy's conversation. Ellie angrily confronts him, telling him how Maria told her about Sarah. Joel tells her she does not understand loss, to which Ellie angrily points out everyone she has ever cared for has either died or left, all except Joel, and that she would be worse off without him. Joel quietly reiterates that she is not his daughter, and he is not her father, declaring they will go their separate ways in the morning. Leaving Ellie in her room, he tearfully thinks about Sarah and his memories of Christmas with her and seeing her face on his 36th birthday.

By morning, Joel changes his mind about abandoning Ellie and breaks into the ranch to steal one of the horses. When Ellie and Tommy arrive as arranged, Joel remarks Ellie deserves a choice of who she goes with, but he barely gets a word out before Ellie resolves to go with him. As they prepare to depart, Joel bids goodbye to Tommy, who reminds the two that there is always a place for them in Jackson. He asks for Tommy's rifle, the man gifting it to him as a replacement for the one Maria confiscated.^[4]

Encountering cannibals

As Joel and Ellie make their way to the university, they continue to bond, with Joel teaching Ellie how to shoot with the scoped rifle, telling her about his life as a contractor before the outbreak, and explaining the rules of football. As they enter the university campus, Joel reveals, when he was a child, he wanted to be a singer. Ellie finds this amusing and tells him he will have to sing for her later in return for her saving the world. They find some escaped monkeys on the campus and signs of Firefly presence, but no actual Fireflies. They infiltrate the science building and learn the Fireflies abruptly packed up and moved to Salt Lake City, Joel guessing to get ahead of the incoming blizzard from the winter.

They are interrupted by the sound of voices outside. Joel cautiously looks out a window, and spots a small group of raiders walking past the lab building. Concerned, he leads Ellie out the back and the pair try to make their escape. While hurriedly stowing his rifle on the horse, Joel is ambushed by one of the raiders wielding a baseball bat. He manages to kill the attacker by breaking his neck, only to realize immediately afterward that the raider had stabbed him during the scuffle with the jagged end of his broken bat. With the other raiders approaching, Joel struggles onto the horse and they ride away. As they reach a snow-covered rail yard and Ellie proclaims that they've gotten away, Joel loses consciousness and falls off the horse. A panicked Ellie kneels beside him and cries for him to keep his eyes open.^[4]

Ellie eventually manages to drag him to a basement in a house roughly two miles from Silver Lake and stitches up his abdomen.^[10] However, Joel contracts wound sepsis and develops a fever, leaving him struggling to stay conscious and consequently bed ridden. Ellie keeps him wrapped in several blankets and does her best to keep him alive, helping him drink water and eat food. After hunting one day in the winter, Ellie returns with penicillin and injects his stitched wound with it.

By the next day, Joel's condition improves but he still struggles to stay awake. Ellie suddenly rushes to him and gives him a knife, informing him in his dazed state that a group of men had found them and that she was leading them away. Realizing they were in danger, Joel tries to move but struggles to do so. Ellie then leaves Joel alone. Eventually, Joel hears footsteps above. Struggling, he gets up from his bed and hides as a man armed with a rifle comes down the stairs. Joel ambushes him, managing the stab him in the back of the neck, killing him. Knowing Ellie was in danger, having been captured by the group, Joel motivates himself to retrieve his rifle and make his way outside, where he silently knocks two more unconscious. He then ties them both up in the house and tortures them for information, learning they lived in the Silver Lake resort. Joel then kills one with a knife and another with a pipe in cold blood before proceeding on.

Joel eventually makes it to Silver Lake, breaking into a boathouse, where he finds Ellie's backpack. He also discovers human corpses strung up as though being prepared to be eaten, revealing the group were cannibals. Panicked, Joel collects Ellie's bag and searches for her, eventually finding her stumbling from Todd's Steakhouse in shock and covered in blood. He grabs and calms Ellie, calling her "baby girl". He then wraps her in his coat and leads her away from the town.^[11]

Finding the Fireflies

Months later in the spring of 2024, Joel and Ellie make it to Salt Lake City. On the highway, Joel spies an abandoned RV. He searches inside and finds canned Chef Boyardee, a Boggle game and a smashed acoustic guitar. He picks up the prior two items and returns outside and calls out to Ellie, who waits on a truck. However, Ellie does not respond. He walks towards her and calls her name again, showing her to Chef Boyardee and Boggle game, claiming she can play it with him sometime. Joel then remarks on the destroyed guitar and how he used to play and muses that he would like find a guitar so he can teach Ellie to play some day.

The pair then walk into the city, eventually reaching an abandoned building. Joel guesses the building was planned to be demolished before the outbreak but ironically was not destroyed in the military's carpet bombing campaign. He spies a ladder and calls out to Ellie to help him reach it. However, she does not respond again. Joel approaches her and says her name again, remarking his concern that she is being unusually quiet. Ellie apologizes and the pair prepare to reach the ladder.

While lifting the ladder down, Ellie suddenly drops it, crying out at something. Panicked, Joel hastily climbs the ladder to see Ellie running further upwards. He pursues her, finally stopping when he sees what she was searching for: a giraffe. Joel approaches it, tearing leaves from a nearby foliage on the building and gifts it to Ellie, prompting her to feed the giraffe. Ellie giggles as she feeds it, causing Joel to smile. The giraffe then moves on and the pair follow it to a balcony looking over a large field where a herd of giraffes walk. Taking in the view, Joel breaks the silence by getting serious. He remarks that they do not have to go to the hospital, noting they could return to Jackson and reunite with Tommy. Ellie promises she will follow Joel to wherever he wants, but insists that they finish their journey first, claiming they have come too far and done too much to turn back now. Joel relents and they descend the building.

Outside, they walk through an abandoned Army hospital. Ellie asks what it was for, Joel recalling how it was made soon after the outbreak. Ellie guesses Joel was with Sarah in one but Joel reveals she had already died by that point. He then stops walking and tells Ellie the truth about a gunshot wound to the head he had – rather than from a fight, it was actually from a suicide attempt, prompted by Sarah's death. Ellie guesses that he is telling her the story to say that time heals all wounds, but Joel knowingly tells her, "It wasn't time that did it." As they continue, he asks her to tell him some more bad puns. However, while walking on, a smoke grenade lands behind them. Joel shields Ellie, but the blast dazes him. Helpless, three men grab Ellie as Joel struggles with a third, who knocks him unconscious with the butt of their rifle.

Saving Ellie

Joel awakens in Saint Mary's hospital in one of the beds with Marlene by his side. She reveals a Firefly patrol found them and remarks her astonishment that the pair made it all the way from Boston to the Fireflies headquarters. Marlene moves to thank Joel for his work but Joel sits up, asking to see Ellie. Marlene then reveals he can't see her because their doctors are preparing her for surgery: their head doctor thinks that Ellie's immunity is caused by the Cordyceps growth that has been in her since birth releasing a chemical messenger that tricks the infection into thinking she is already infected. The doctor hopes to replicate the chemical messenger in a lab, potentially creating a cure.

However, Joel knows that Cordyceps grows in the brain, meaning Ellie will die in surgery. Marlene confirms this. Enraged, Joel shouts for her to take him to Ellie but two guards intervene, one striking him to the ground. Marlene explains she understands his pain, having promised Ellie's mother Anna, to keep her safe, but remarks humanity's chance for a cure supersedes their love for Ellie. Embittered, Joel remarks he has a choice, even if Marlene doesn't. Marlene then hands one of the guards Ellie's switchblade and Joel's bag, ordering they escort him to the highway. The two guards grab Joel, leading him away.

Joel decides he will not let Ellie die like he let Sarah die. At the bottom of a staircase, he attacks the guards, forcing a semi-automatic rifle from one and using it to kill them both. He retrieves his bag, Ellie's switchblade and extra magazines from the guards and marches up the stairs. Bent on saving Ellie whatever the cost, Joel storms through the hospital massacring every Firefly he meets along the way, including ones who try to surrender. He even uses Ellie's switchblade to kill them.

Arriving in the operating room just as the surgical team are getting ready, Joel demands that they unhook Ellie from their equipment. The head surgeon tries to threaten Joel with a scalpel, but Joel shoots him in the head with a pistol, causing the frightened nurses to comply. Joel picks up Ellie and takes her down into the hospital's garage, where he finds a car.

As he moves towards it, he is stopped at gunpoint by Marlene. Marlene insists that Joel cannot protect Ellie from harm forever; inevitably, he will die of old age and Ellie will die without a chance for her death to mean something, namely making a cure. Joel argues that Marlene cannot make that choice for her, but Marlene points out that neither can he, and they both know Ellie would choose to sacrifice herself. She lowers her gun and offers Joel a chance to make the right decision.

She approaches him but Joel, his decision made, uses his pistol to shoot Marlene in the stomach. The woman collapses, bleeding out. Joel carries Ellie to the car and places her inside. Marlene's pained grunts prompt him to walk back over to her. Marlene tearfully begs Joel to spare her. Joel counters that she would only try to come after Ellie. Without a thought, he aims his gun and executes Marlene before returning to the car and driving away.

Returning to Jackson

Sometime later, Ellie awakens in the back of the car. Joel assures her she is okay but Ellie queries why they are not at the hospital and why she lacks her belongings. Joel lies that the Fireflies had found several more immune people just like her, but the doctors failed to make a cure and they had given up. He adds that the hospital was then attacked by raiders, forcing him to escape with Ellie. Ellie asks if Marlene is okay but Joel goes silent.

Sometime later, Joel and Ellie found some other clothes for Ellie to wear. Once within about a five hour hike from Jackson, the car broke down but Joel assured Ellie they could make it, having done it many times before. While hiking, Joel tells Ellie about Sarah, commenting they were both very different, but would have liked each other.

As they approach Jackson, Ellie stops and explains to Joel her previous claim in Kansas City that she had killed someone was actually her best friend, Riley, who had turned into an infected. She reminds him of how many people have also died because of the Cordyceps infection, including Tess and Sam, and begs him to swear he was telling the truth about what happened at the hospital. Joel swears to her that everything he told her was true leading Ellie to reply "Okay."^[5]

Appearance

Joel is a well-built, tall man with dark graying hair and a short beard.^[3] His hair grew longer over his months long journey across America, with it growing unkempt by early 2024.^[5] He had a scar on his right abdomen from when Ellie stitched up his wound from a stabbing.^[11] He also had a scar on his right temple from when he attempted to shoot himself after Sarah's death and another on his neck from where a bullet from a Firefly soldier grazed him.^[5]

He wears an assortment of clothing, but predominantly wears buttoned shirts, jeans and hiking boots.^[8] He also wears a short sleeve dark green shirt that was Frank's.^[7] He also obtained a repaired watch from his daughter Sarah and still wears it by late 2023 though it is now broken again.^[3][8][9] When traveling, he also wears a brown jacket.^[6] Joel, when traveling, also uses a backpack.^[8] While initially he had a red one,^[7] he lost this while in Kansas City.^[6] After Henry's death, he obtains and uses his backpack instead.^[9]

After the outbreak, he also now carries weapons on his person. While initially he used a wrench,^[3] he now carries knives instead.^[6] He has also obtained and used long guns like an assault rifle,^[8] semi-automatic rifle^[5] and bolt-action rifles.^[6][9] While he tends to change what weapons he carries, he has always had a revolver on his person since living in Boston.^{[3][8][7][6][9]} He also uses a flashlight^[6][9] and occasionally a pistol.^[5]

Personality

Before the outbreak, Joel was a loving and caring father and brother, working long hours to provide for Sarah and ensure work was available for Tommy. Joel was selfless, wanting those around him to focus on themselves rather than him, detesting the idea of celebrating his birthday rather than prepare Sarah for school.^[3]

At Joel's heart he is a fatherly figure with an inherently protective nature over those he cares for and protects but he achieves it through dark and violent means. Joel personally believed his biggest purpose was to support those who relied on him, especially people he considered family.^[6]

When the outbreak began, Joel demonstrated his protective nature when leaving the safety of his house to help Tommy escape the chaos occurring in the city. He then returned to his home to save Sarah from their infected neighbors, making the difficult choice to use violence to protect those he loved. Joel consequently disliked relying on others, preferring instead to be the protector, instinctively telling Tommy what to do during their escape and personally protecting Sarah himself when trying to escape the city.^[3]

After losing Sarah, Joel saw his purpose for living (protecting her) as lost. He subsequently opted to take his own life.^[5] However, when the attempt failed, he decided he would go on living to protect Tommy, later stating he believed it was his duty to protect his family.^[6]

Over the years, Joel began to close off emotionally and distance himself from others. After meeting Ellie, however, Joel gradually became more emotionally open. While trying to keep a distance initially,^[8] Ellie's joy for life led Joel to risk opening up emotionally again, the man even allowing himself to laugh at her jokes and share history about his past. His protective nature became even more pronounced towards the girl, him trying his hardest to shield her from the horrors in the apocalypse and killing others to keep her safe. This connection even led Joel to feel a sense of guilt, first in his inability to save Tess.^[9] He also felt guilty in his failure to prevent Ellie having to kill others. Joel's guilt came from his belief that children should not have to experience violence, especially murdering another person, revealing a loss of his ability to connect with others stemmed from his experience with violence.^[6]

Joel's guilt culminated in an emotional confession to Tommy that he felt unworthy to protect Ellie, overcome by the fact she needed to save him and instilled in him a fear that he would be unable to save her if he kept trying to protect her. However, once he revealed this to Ellie, Joel became content and allowed himself to continue the journey with Ellie, embracing the chance to take care of her, teach her how to shoot with a rifle and also talk about his life pre-outbreak with her.^[4] Joel would even display humanity again in how he comforted Ellie after the trauma she encountered with David and sought out to protect her above all else.^[11] He even rediscovered a sense of humor he had lost through her, seeking to hear jokes that he once before disdained.^[5]

However, Joel's goodness and desire to protect others meant he was capable of a deep and intense darkness manifested through violence. After Sarah's death, Joel became withdrawn, callous and immoral. He focused on surviving above all else, committing horrid acts against innocent people in the name of survival and to protect Tommy.^[6] His trauma at losing Sarah could cause him to behave erratically and illogically, the man notably beating Lee to death in cold blood when reminded of how a soldier had killed Sarah years before.^[3]

Joel would refuse to even talk about those he lost, including people he cared for like Tess and especially Sarah.^[7] He also became paranoid of connecting with others, purposefully avoiding close relationships with others beyond a partnership he established with Tess and only cautiously traded with Bill and Frank.^[7] Joel believed these actions necessary, willingly separating from Tommy to further his own survival.^[6]

Joel's hardened exterior made him a feared man, with people living in the Boston zone afraid to cross him or even talk to him,^[3] with Ellie commenting he had developed "an asshole voice".^[9] David would personally characterize him as "crazy" based on how he killed people.^[11] His sheer ferocity when storming Saint Mary's hospital caused Fireflies to cower before and flee from him.^[5] Tess also outright states she and Joel "were not good people".^[8] Joel even inferred Maria was wary of him and deemed him "the wrong sort of people" based on his morally grey choices.^[4] Although, it also drew him admiration, with numerous people viewing him a capable fighter and protector^[7][3][9] even if Joel didn't personally believe this.^[4]

Joel's acceptance of Ellie as family heightened his ability to protect her but consequently enhanced his dissociative and dark demeanor. Notably, when David and his group captured Ellie, this spurred Joel on and reinvigorated him to fight on and live, deeming it his purpose to save and protect Ellie now at all costs. This renewed sense of purpose also meant he used his violent means such as torture and killing again, but this time using violence to help save others, rather than solely to ensure his own survival.^[11]

Despite that, his dissociated and apathetic attitude towards others remained, Joel killing the cannibals he encountered with a blood lust and disregard for their life.^[11] Furthermore, when Marlene revealed her intentions to have Ellie killed to create a vaccine, this caused Joel to mercilessly kill numerous Fireflies at Saint Mary's hospital to save Ellie. He even executed the surgeon and Marlene without a second thought, revealing his cold-blooded nature was instinctively at its strongest when committed to save those he truly loved.^[5]

Before the apocalypse, Joel was fond of coffee. Despite Sarah wanting him to have orange juice, he would make and have coffee with his breakfast.^[3] He would regularly go to Starbucks for the drink and was delighted at having gained some from Bill's settlement to have on his road trip to Wyoming.^[6]

Regarding his passion, while initially claiming his dream was to live alone on a ranch and herd sheep, Joel confessed that, since childhood, he had always dreamed about becoming a singer.^[4] Joel's passion for music was evident in how he owned numerous CDs from various musicians, such as The Clash, and was a musician himself, owning an acoustic guitar.^[3] He also liked Linda Ronstadt's song, Long Long Time,^[7] and Hank Williams' Alone and Forsaken.^[6] While having lost his passion for playing guitar during much of the outbreak, he remarked in the spring of 2024 a desire to take it up again and teach it to Ellie.^[5]

Relationships

Ellie Williams

The first time Joel and Ellie interact, they are both hostile towards one another and neither enjoys the other's company. They reluctantly ally together at Marlene's insistence though Joel remains cold towards her, kicking her switchblade away from her out of spite and refusing to answer her questions at his apartment.^[3] While traveling to the State House, Joel refused to form a connection with her, with him deflecting questions she asked. Although, he was protective of her, saving her life from Lee in the outskirts and against two clickers in the museum.^[8]

Tess' death left Joel even more withdrawn towards Ellie, refusing to let the girl talk about Tess by name and shutting down the topic where possible. However, as time passed, he became less abrasive, letting her mention Tess' name in conversation, but would not let her dwell on the topic.^[7]

In time though, Joel began to connect with Ellie, secretly admiring her love for life and her attempts to make jokes towards him. Joel's urge to protect her also grew stronger, the man staying up all night guarding her while out in the woods and killing several resistance members in a gunfight to keep her safe. Joel tried to shield Ellie from the apocalypse's horrors, insisting she hide whenever he fought enemies and even felt guilty that she had to shoot a man to help him. Consequently, Joel taught her how to properly grip a pistol, understanding she needed to be prepared for the challenges they faced.^[6]

However, when Henry drew indirect parallels between Ellie and Sarah, Joel would grow cold again, refusing to allow his bond with Ellie to mirror his deceased daughter.^[9] This only deepened during the winter of 2023, the man desiring to abandon Ellie on his brother Tommy. He admitted to his brother this came from his fear of failing to protect Ellie as he had done Sarah, the man believing himself too old and weak to care for her the way he could have when he was younger. This emotion would bottle into anger, the man sternly refusing to allow Ellie to compare herself to Sarah and insisting she wasn't his daughter. After this confession though, Joel changed his mind and did care for Ellie, deciding to take her to the Fireflies base in Colorado and even taught her how to shoot.^[4]

Joel even found himself calling Ellie "baby girl" when comforting her as he had done Sarah, displaying he now saw her as equal to his own daughter. Joel's love for Ellie even helped him overcome his wound septis, the man finding the strength to get up and fight back against the cannibals because he was driven by a need to help Ellie, whom the group had captured. His resilience displays his immense loyalty to keeping Ellie safe despite the strain it placed on his body.^[11]

Joel's closeness to Ellie climaxed when journeying with her through Salt Lake City.^[5] While initially lying about how he received his scar on his head months before,^[7] he finally revealed the truth to her about his battle with suicidal thoughts after losing Sarah and even admitted indirectly that he found a new purpose to live through her, displaying how much she mattered to him. Joel's desire for a life with Ellie was declared through his slaughter of the Fireflies in Saint Mary's hospital, the man killing any who stood in his way - including Marlene - to save her. This action demonstrated the extreme lengths Joel would use violence to keep her safe, even when it meant sacrificing humanity's chance at securing a cure for Cordyceps.^[5]

Sarah Miller

Joel loved his daughter Sarah, raising her as a single parent. He worked hard to provide for her with his construction business and insisted she prioritize school, wanting her to have a good education and to pursue her talent in soccer. Despite this, he did not expect her to repay him, dismissing her efforts to make him breakfast and her desire to have him celebrate his 36th birthday.

However, when the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak occurred, Joel made it his priority to keep her safe. He was even willing to kill their infected neighbor to protect her, despite knowing how much seeing him commit acts of violence traumatized her. When Sarah injured her ankle, Joel carried her to safety despite it leaving him vulnerable to infected attacks.^[3]

When Sarah was shot dead, the loss ruined Joel, the man attempting to kill himself the day after her death.^[5] When the attempt failed, Joel decided to carry on living but became a closed, isolated individual who avoided forming deep emotional connections again, despite this straining relationships with his brother Tommy and partner Tess.^[3] This avoidance of emotion came from Joel's sense of failure towards Sarah, the man having nightmares reminding him of his inability to protect Sarah that day even twenty years on from her death.^[4]

Joel would also outright refuse to talk about Sarah, and coldly brushed off Ellie's attempts to mention her when she found out about her through Maria.^[4] However, by 2024, Joel felt comfortable talking to Ellie about Sarah, even his attempt to take his own life brought on by her death, displaying he had finally accepted her death.^[5]

Tommy Miller

Tommy is Joel's younger brother and the pair were close, growing up together in Austin, Texas. Joel loved his brother, letting Tommy work with him in his construction business and let him help raise his daughter, Sarah. Joel, however, viewed Tommy as dependent upon him to help him. Indeed, Joel found himself constantly having to support Tommy, from bailing him out of jail to protecting him during the apocalypse. Although, Tommy had the chance to also protect Joel, notably saving him from a soldier trying to shoot him during the outbreak.^[3]

However, the brothers did not always get along and experienced conflict in their relationship. Unlike Tommy, Joel was fixated on protecting those close to him rather than trying to solve wider societal problems. This led him to part with Tommy when he joined the Fireflies.

Despite this, the two kept in regular contact with one another, with Joel concerned when Tommy's radio messages stop in August 2023. Joel would remark this was another sign of Tommy's dependency on him, with Joel seeing it as his duty to leave Boston and go out and help him in Wyoming.^[6]

When seeing reuniting with Tommy again in the winter of 2023, Joel was overcome with emotion and hugged his brother tightly. However, when left alone to privately drink together, Joel came to resent Tommy, jealous that Tommy had established a family for himself in Jackson - the very thing Joel had lost - causing him to storm off. Later on though, Joel would apologize to Tommy and confess everything that had happened to him since meeting Ellie, including her immunity, and revealed Tess's death to the man despite initially deflecting the question about her. This confession culminated in Joel openly admitting that Tommy was the man whom he could confide in and trusted most.^[4]

Tess

Tess and Joel were close partners in the smuggling community in Boston. Having worked with each other for years, the pair formed a romantic bond and knew one another well, with Joel knowing of Tess' family life in the pre-pandemic world. They even shared an apartment in the Boston QZ. Joel was fiercely protective of her, but Tess could sway him to do as she desired, firmly ensuring she was the brains but he was the muscle in their smuggling partnership. This even led to her convincing Joel to trade with Bill and Frank, something he confessed he would not have done without her. While she did have affection for Joel, their relationship was mostly platonic, though with some implied formerly romantic feelings, and focused on mutual survival, owing to Joel's refusal to form intimate connections.^[3] Joel's avoidance of connection with Tess meant he was openly vague about how much he truly cared for her, avoiding the question from Ellie^[8] and only said that she was "mine" in response to Bill comparing his relationship with Frank, his lover, to Joel's with Tess.^[7]

When Tess was dying, Joel heeded her last wish to save Ellie, displaying immense loyalty to her.^[8] He even considered her "like family" to him.^[3] Losing her heavily affected him, the man making a stone monument in her honor and refusing to openly talk about her with Ellie, preferring instead to move on and try to forget about her.^[8] However, he would later open up about her death to Tommy, emotionally recalling the trauma losing her caused him^[4] and was comfortable when Ellie mentioned the woman's demise in 2024, revealing he was now coping with losing her.^[5]

Bill

Joel was not especially pleased when first meeting Bill, but noticed that Bill was paranoid like himself at the thought of trading with strangers. Seeing this, Joel respected Bill for his care over Frank because it mirrored his care towards Tess. Joel consequently worked to convince Bill to trade with them and see as one of mutual benefit—Joel able to provide machine parts and tools for the town in return for food—and even gave him a warning that raiders would potentially attack his town. Joel grew to trust Bill, with the pair privately arranging a deal to contact one another if something happened and they ever needed help.

When hearing Ellie read the letter Bill wrote for him, Joel grew emotional and had to leave the room, overcome at having lost someone he had known for several years. However, he honored Bill's wish to put his supplies to good use, assembling a car battery and taking his truck to travel to Wyoming in. He also obtained Bill's bolt-action rifle to use himself, a weapon that proved useful on his travels.^[7]

Henry Burrell

Joel was initially cautious of Henry, disliking that he threatened Ellie with a gun. This hostility only rose when Henry confessed he was once a FEDRA collaborator. He also disliked the man's optimism and egotism towards his plans.

However, Joel softens towards him when learning the man had actually had an unloaded gun and admired Joel for his combat skills. This softening only increased when seeing how much Henry cared for his younger brother, Sam, leading Joel to apologize for his previous behavior. Joel would even protect Henry against a sniper attack in the suburbs and helped shoot infected trying to harm him and Sam soon after. Joel felt comfortable enough with Henry to have serious conversations about how children coped in the apocalypse and even offered for Henry to bring Sam with him to Wyoming.

When Henry fell into shock at having to kill Sam to save Ellie, Joel attempted to coax Henry to give him his gun, trying to prevent Henry from killing himself, but failed. Joel then buried his corpse, providing him a proper burial as a sign of respect to the man. He also kept Henry's backpack, using it as his own on his travels.^[9]

Marlene

Joel did not like Marlene, the man blaming her for his detachment from his brother Tommy. Because of this, Joel did not trust her, only begrudgingly accepting her smuggling offer because Tess convinced him to do so.^[3]

Joel found his view of life heavily differed from hers; while he valued surviving and keeping family safe above all else, she wanted to focus on wider societal problems like curing the Cordyceps brain infection and restoring social order, whatever the cost.

When meeting her again months later, Joel's distrust over Marlene only increased. Despite Marlene's claims that she understood his pain at the thought of Ellie dying, being the only other adult who was a surrogate parent to the girl, Joel dismissed her attempt at empathy and declared she did not have the right to determine Ellie's life. The clash of their contrasting beliefs peaked in the parking lot, where Marlene offered to forgive Joel if he allowed Ellie to die. Joel denied this attempt, wounding and then executing Marlene, showing his contempt for her and her ideology of sacrificing one life for the chance to save humanity.^[5]

Lee

Joel and Lee worked together, each trading goods the other wanted. Though he and Joel had a mutually beneficial relationship, neither man fully trusted the other as evidenced by Lee demanding an extra payoff not to report Joel for trying to leave the zone. Despite Lee trying to be reasonable with Joel, the man still did not care much about him and had no qualms killing him for getting in the way of a smuggling mission he was undergoing.^[3]

Behind the scenes

• Joel is portrayed by Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal.^[12] Pascal became available for a new series following the release of the second season of The Mandalorian, attracting several offers for projects from large networks. He chose HBO's The Last of Us,^[1] partly to work with co-creator Craig Mazin,^[13] and The Mandalorian producers granted him permission to work on the series.^[14]
  • Pascal reportedly earned $600,000 per episode, making him one of the highest-paid American television stars.^[15]
  • Pascal was chosen for his ability to portray a tough, tortured, and vulnerable character who suppresses his emotions until necessary.^[16]
  • Pascal, a non-gamer, watched his nephew play the beginning of the first game because he lacked the skill to play it himself. He found Joel to be "so impressive" but was concerned about imitating the games too closely. He instead chose to "create a healthy distance" and allow the showrunners to decide the characterization.^[17]
  • Pascal based Joel's voice on his own experiences growing up in San Antonio, Texas, paring it back from the Southern accent used in the games.^[18]
• Unlike his counterpart from the video game series, Joel is more vulnerable in the television series; he is hard of hearing on one side due to a gunshot, his knees ache when he stands and he also suffers from nightmares and panic attacks. Co-creator Craig Mazin felt Joel should be "less resilient" than in the game to show the toll that living in the post-outbreak world has taken.^[19]

Quotes

“

A hardened survivor, tormented by past trauma and failure, who must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity. ―Official description from HBO's website.[20]

”

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Joel: "I understand. If my, er...If mine brought strangers into our situation, I wouldn't be happy either. But of all the people you could have found on the radio, we're actually decent people just tryna get by."

Bill: "Oh, well aren't I the lucky one?"

Joel: "There's stuff we have in the QZ you don't have here. Books, medicine, machine parts. We can help each other if you get that gun out of my face."

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Joel: "Thing is, if I hadn't had heared that guy coming. You're just a kid, you shouldn't know what it means. It's not like you killed him but when shootin'. I know what it's like, the first time you hurt someone like that. If you er...I'm not good at this."

Ellie: "Yeah, you're really not."

Joel: "I mean, it was my fault. You shouldn't have had to and I'm sorry."

Ellie: "It wasn't my first time."

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Joel: "You think I can still handle things but I'm not who I was. I'm weak. I have these moments where the fear comes up out of nowhere and my heart feels like it's stopped. I have dreams every night...I just know that when I wake up, I've lost something. I'm failing in my sleep. It's all I do. It's all I've ever done is fail her again and again."

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Joel: "Sarah died and I couldn't see the point anymore. Simple as that. And I wasn't scared either. I was ready. I couldn't have been more ready. But when I went to pull the trigger, I flinched. Still don't know why."

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Joel: "Sometimes thing don't work out the way we hope. You can feel like you've come to an end and you don't know what to do next. But if you just keep going, you find something new to fight for."

Gallery

Season 1

Promotional images

Official stills

Behind the scenes

Season 2

Promotional images

References

v · d · e Characters and groups in HBO's The Last of Us
Groups	Cannibals · FEDRA · Fireflies · Infected (Runner · Stalker · Clicker · Bloater) · Jackson community · Kansas City resistance · Raiders · Smugglers · Survivors · United States military
Austin	Connie Adler · Danny Adler · Denise · Jimmy · Lauterstein · Mercy · Nana · Nasir · Sarah Miller · Tahira
Boston	Abe · Becca · Bethany · Carol · Ellie Williams · Gabriela · Jason Choi · Joel Miller · Maria Elisiano · Miguel · Robert · Tess
Cannibals	Alec · David · Hannah · James · Josiah · Joyce · Howard · Marco · Martin · Timothy
FEDRA	Knapp · Kwong · Lee
Fireflies	Kim Tembo · Marlene · Riley
Jackson	Maria Miller · Shimmer · Tommy Miller
Jakarta	Agus Hidayat · Ratna Pertiwi
Kansas City	The Bergquists · Carrie Schreiber · The Chans · Edelstein · Henry Burrell · Mark Anthony Halpin · Sam Burrell
Lincoln	Bill · Frank
Resistance	Anthony · Bryan · Kathleen Coghlan · Michael Coghlan · Perry
Wyoming	Florence · Marlon
Other characters	Abby Anderson · Anna · Dina · Isaac · Jesse · Kevin · Manny · Mel · Murray · Neuman · Nora · Owen · Schoenheiss