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It was a spectacular death, and indeed, it was a death. Tess will not come back.
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There’s a lot to unravel about Tess’ ending if you stick around Episode 2, “Infected”, it’s like 2013 video game version of last survivorHowever, the difference before and after death gives Tess’ final moments in the game more narrative weight.
Let’s start with the performance.
Joel and Tess traded the car battery for an escort mission that took Ellie to a rendezvous outside the QZ. To hell with everything. Tess was bitten. She decides to let the zombies kill themselves to buy more time for Joel and Ellie.
One important thing to note. Tess’s reaction to the bite – her insistence that Joel see the difference between her and Ellie’s physical reactions – helps Joel to believe that Ellie is the real deal. The hope that she’s human will help motivate Joel to protect her.
But that’s not necessarily the conclusion Tess needs to pass on to Joel. And that’s where the character relationship between the two gets a little tenuous in the series.
In a sense, Joel doesn’t need Tess. His motives exist outside of their relationship. His goal was—and always has been—to find Tommy. One feels as if Tess is just a temporary support for this mission; Joel will go West with or without Tess. (Bringing Ellie didn’t seem like that much of a sacrifice.)
Making Tess’ final moments impactful is also difficult for another reason. Her death was predicted through much of the marketing; we knew the series would involve Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsay) on a cross-country voyage—it would be a duo, not a three. group of people. Even in video games, this is a problem because we never play Tess (but we do play Sarah), so there’s no reason to think she’ll survive. Her death also happens in a cutscene, so it’s not the player’s responsibility; the player would never make the choice to make Tess’ death their fault.
In the series, we do see scenes where Tess is alone, allowing her character some moments of subjectivity outside of Joel. But even here, she feels marginal, just a narrative tool to tie Ellie and Joel together.
However, the game gives Tess more influence and her death more narrative weight.
Tess died in last survivor Electronic games?
Yes. But not so inconsequential. Unlike the series, the game complicates the relationship between Joel and Tommy. Joel didn’t spend time looking for Tommy. His goal is not to find his brother, but just to survive. (That means doing horrible shit and committing serious acts.) In the game, when Joel and Tess agree to transport Ellie, it’s not on the car battery just to get to Tommy. They accept the deal in exchange for guns. They want supplies from the fireflies. no others.
The show may have added to Tommy’s motivations, both smoothing out Joel’s bugs and giving him a more immediate reason to take Ellie west.
Joel’s reason for being in the game: Tess.
Tess is the one who convinces Joel to accept the mission, and Tess’ death prompts Joel to go west with Ellie; he’s just fulfilling her last request.
So the difference in Tess’ final moments is very important. In the episodes, her death does help Joel realize Ellie’s immunity, but his motivation for going west doesn’t change. Tommy is still there. Bringing Ellie is just a hassle.
But in the game, it’s Tess who convinces Joel to take Ellie. If this request had not been made, Joel would have returned to QZ. (Or Tess isn’t dead.) Joel agrees to take Ellie, in part because of his guilt over Tess’ death and his loyalty to her. If her last wish, the woman he cared about, was to take Ellie away, then he would do it. The motivation for this decision is not so much a brotherly rescue as guilt, shame and affection for Tess. Tommy still became a target, but he was never the driving force behind the instigation. Simply put: Joel won’t protect Ellie unless Tess dies.
In the series, this counterfactual has never been seen before. Regardless of Tess’ fate, Joel at least has a reason to continue west: Tommy.
That doesn’t seem like a huge change, considering that death plays pretty much the same in both mediums—one bite, one decision, one epic explosion. But the motivation is different, the whole reason for starting the journey has now changed.
assistant editor
Joshua St Clair is an assistant editor at Men’s Health.
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