Heavy spoilers for ‘The Last of Us’ below!
Ashley Johnson provided a beautiful full-circle moment for “The Last of Us“fan.
The actor, who rose to fame playing Chrissy on the ’90s sitcom “Growing Pains,” played Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) mother in the Season 1 finale of the HBO drama Sunday night.
And in the video game from which the series is adapted, Johnson voiced a pretty significant character, series co-creator Craig Mazin explained in an “Inside the Episode” video for HBO Max.
“Here we are at the end,” Mazin said of Johnson’s opening scene in the season finale. “And we go to the beginning of Ellie. Which is her mother, Anna, played by Ashley Johnson, which is the very beginning of Ellie, because Ashley played Ellie in the game.”
Yes, that’s right: Johnson voiced Ellie in the 2013 video game “Last of Us” and had the opportunity to play the character’s mother in the HBO adaptation.
“It was a special level for me to play the mother of this character that I care about so much,” Johnson told HBO Max in the same video.
“There is a genetic link between the two Ellies we know,” Mazin told HBO. “And this moment binds them together.”
The opening scene of episode nine is a flashback sequence, where we see Johnson’s character pregnant and running through the woods, trying to escape a mushroom zombie chasing her.
At this point in the scene, the audience has no idea who Johnson is playing or what this flashback is about.
Johnson’s character eventually seeks refuge in an old farmhouse, and as she climbs the stairs to find a place to hide, she realizes she’s about to go into labor. Find an old nursery, barricade the door and hold a knife in preparation for an attack. When the infected breaks down the door, she fights for her life and eventually stabs the zombie in the throat, killing him.
Soon after, Johnson’s character gives birth. But she notes that she was bitten, which means she contracted the cordyceps infection from the show and will soon turn into a zombie. Realizing this, he quickly cuts his own umbilical cord with the same knife he used to kill the zombie in an attempt to prevent the infection from spreading to his son.
She then picks up her newborn and, as she holds the crying baby in her arms, seems to understand her daughter’s personality immediately. He says, “Tell her, Ellie.”
Viewers then realize they are watching the story of Ellie’s birth and that the scene could vaguely explain Ellie’s unique immunity to cordyceps infection. This origin story is not included in the game and introduces new information for fans of the game and the show. Neil Druckman, game creator and show co-creator, told The Hollywood Reporter that this scene is a “clue” to Ellie’s immunity and offers “some theories as to why Ellie [is] immune, even if we don’t respond definitively.”
Later in the episode, Ellie’s mother’s name is revealed to be Anna when her lifelong friend Marlene (Merle Dandridge, who voiced the same character in the game) finds Anna in the farm nursery. Anna holds little Ellie with one hand, singing to her, and holds a knife to her neck with the other.
Anna lies to Marlene and tells her that Ellie’s umbilical cord was cut before she was bitten. Marlene then agrees to grant Anna’s dying wish: for Marlene to kill her, save Ellie, and give Ellie Anna the knife. Fans of the series and the game will know that Ellie grows up a lot attached to this knife.
Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter that she was “shocked” and “broke down in tears” when she was offered the role of Anna in the HBO adaptation. He explained that voice and motion capture actors involved in video games “usually aren’t brought in to be a part” of a television or film adaptation.
“To be able to still be a part of this story and this world and also be the first character to fight for this character to live means the world,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said it was a “surreal” experience to see someone else play a character he once played. But she said she was “blown away” by Ramsey’s performance and that the young actor’s personality embodied “the essence of Ellie”.
She told THR that she liked the way Ramsey approached many of her scenes.
“There was a time when Joel [Pedro Pascal] he finally gave the gun to Ellie,” Johnson said. “She has this look on her face where she starts to smile because she feels so beautiful, but she’s also trying to keep it under wraps. For example, “I’m relaxed about it.” I made a video of it and I sent it to Bella and I was like, “Man, that’s funny.”
