The last of us | Why is Ellie immune?

The narrative element that drives the plot The last of us She is immune to infection cordyceps that destroyed humanity. After all, this is where the whole plot unfolds, and that’s how Joel ends up getting in the way.

But after all, how and why is Ellie immune? She really is the only person immune to it The last of us? These are constant questions for anyone dealing with the game or series, although there is no clear answer. But in today’s video, we look at some of the top theories regarding Ellie immunity that may shed some light on this topic.

through the mother

Ellie was born in the spring of 2019, around the time she contracted HIV cordyceps It spread across the United States and led to the collapse of civilization. According to what we know of her origin story, Ellie is the daughter of a woman named Anna, a nurse associated with the Fireflies and a friend of Marilyn, the leader of the group. Hence the first theory about Ellie’s immunity.

in the last of us, We learn from a letter Anna left for Ellie that she died the day after giving birth to her daughter. And while the circumstances of her death are not clear, it is suggested that she was bitten by an infected person – a crucial element for our theory to make sense.

This theory is that Ellie’s mother became infected when she was pregnant with her, which means Ellie was exposed to the Cordyceps infection when she was still a fetus. This could mean that her immunity was instilled in her before she was born, and so when she was exposed to a cordyceps infection through a bite…it had no effect on her. This theory gained more force with emphasis on this Ashley Johnsonwho played Ellie in the original game, will play Anna in the HBO series.

In the trailer, Ashley Johnson can be seen holding a newborn, in what appears to be a flashback to Ellie’s birth. This sequence may confirm that Anna, Ellie’s mother, was infected during her pregnancy, which in turn caused her immunity. But while this has been the most widely accepted theory by fans for years, it’s also the one that poses the most narrative problems, as we’ll discuss below.

natural immunity

There are some factors that distort the immunity theory through Ellie’s mother. Because if Anna had been bitten while she was pregnant with Ellie, she would have had to be in the last stages of her pregnancy to give birth before she died – which would be too late for her to develop any immunity.

Also, once she found out Ellie was immune, Marilyn would connect the dots. However, both in the game and in the series, Marilyn is as surprised as anyone about the girl’s immunity.

The third discrediting aspect of this theory is that it implies that Ellie has had Entamoeba histolytica in her system since birth. So, in routine Boston ZQ checks, she could already have been accused of being infected and would have been summarily executed years ago. And this is where we come into the theory of natural immunity.

It is worth noting that in the game the last of us, The surgeon’s tape recorder indicates that Ellie’s white blood cell count does not increase despite the presence of Cordyceps in her bloodstream. From this information, we can conclude that the character’s immune system does not fight the virus in the same way that our bodies fight the flu after a vaccine, for example.

Ellie’s condition is compared to the “discovery of penicillin”, suggesting that her immunity is simply the result of mutation. This would make Ellie naturally immune, putting an end to theories that she may have been infected as a fetus and developed an immune response.

The patient mutated

The third theory comes from the fact that Ellie’s infected bit wasn’t the same as Riley’s bit in the “Left Behind” expansion, leaving room for some speculation as to a possible mutant strain that triggered the inert hit. While cordyceps in the universe The last of us If it were a mutation affecting humans, Ellie’s infection would be just another mutation.

This theory suggests that the infected that bit Ellie would be carrying an inactive mutant strain, and thus would not evolve in anyone’s system, not just Ellie. If he had bitten Riley for example, we would have a very different protagonist The last of us.

But in the case of this theory, could a second bite, this one from a common injury, kill Ellie? The answer is no. After all, the mutant strain also mutated its immune system, something hinted at there in the white blood cell count dialogue. That’s why Ellie can naturally breathe germs into the game, without getting contaminated after all. In the series, since the spores do not exist, they create the narrative device of the “second bite”.

But after all, if the mutant strain infection theory is true, then there must be other infected people, right? Plus other immunocompromised people besides Ellie. What, then, explains the concept of Ellie being considered unique?

Well, it turns out that FEDRA instantly killed anyone it checked as infected, no questions asked. There is a scene in the game in which a woman is detected to be infected even if she yells with conviction that she is not and is immediately eliminated. Given the theory of mutant strains, this makes us wonder: How many immune people have been killed by FEDRA simply because their scans showed infection?

This is without taking into account the people who have been bitten and immediately taking their lives – or asking others to do so – so that they do not turn into monsters.

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