[KC_Connection]

Spoiler!

Great season, great finale. That ending also raises some interesting ethical questions with those two characters (one that I'm sure anyone who played the game has been discussing for a decade).

You can spin it any way you want, but Marlene is just murdering a child in the hopes of a greater good. She didn't tell Ellie about the procedure, didn't give her a choice in going through with it, and clearly did not give a shit about Ellie's own autonomy (despite making a promise to Ellie's dying mother to protect her and despite trying to appeal to Joel in that regard). There are also no guarantees that their cure is actually a cure. It's all supposition. As far as we know, nothing like it has ever been tried. Is the potential of a "better" world worth it if it comes at that kind of consequence? If it's built on murdered children? Most would say no. I would say no.

Joel, on the other hand, saved Ellie from the procedure and her death, but made a selfish choice in doing so (and then lying about it) and one that could ultimately doom humanity. Yes, he deeply cares about Ellie but it was made clear he believed he had nothing left to live for without her. How much of his decision was about how she makes him feel more than anything else? He couldn't even bear to tell her the truth about any of it because he didn't want her to leave him. He made a decision for his own personal happiness at the expense of everyone else who has to live in that world. It's an incredibly selfish act but one that does fit his character (he's not a good guy and I suppose he's never pretended to be).

Ellie ultimately deserved to know what happened and deserved to make the choice for herself, although I'm sure Joel would argue at the same time that a choice/decision of that kind of gravity shouldn't be put on a child (and he'd also probably be right). If you tell a kid like Ellie that they are the key to the fate of the world, what are they going to do? Probably go through with it (and certainly that was the implication of this episode).

There's no easy answers here, but interestingly I think what we're supposed to take from the final scene is that on some level Ellie already knows that Joel is lying about what happened and has chosen to accept it regardless. She's been alone all her life and needs him just as much as he needs her.