Does Marlene die in ‘The Last of Us’?

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WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us, Episode 9: “Look for the Light.”

The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us has come to an end and we’re not too sure what to do with ourselves until the second season drops. After dedicating our entire lives to this show over the last few months, it’s a bittersweet feeling to have finally reached a satisfying conclusion. It seems like only yesterday that we were introduced to Joel and Ellie in “When You’re Lost in the Darkness” on Jan. 15, but now, we’ve come full circle as HBO aired the corresponding finale, “Look for the Light,” on March 12. For those who haven’t caught on to that clever wordplay, “When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light,” is the Fireflies’ recruitment motto.

Although Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie are the shining stars of the cast, there are certain hidden gems in the ensemble — one of those being Merle Dandridge‘s Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies. We don’t see her at all besides the debut episode and then the finale, which is rather significant to the way her story unfolds. Marlene is the one who sets Joel and Ellie off on their quest to reach a Firefly base across the country and use Ellie’s immunity to develop a cure for the cordyceps fungal infection. When we next see Marlene, she’s begging Joel to rethink his change of heart and allow Ellie to sacrifice her life to save millions of people. Naturally, having bonded with Ellie during their journey, Joel begins to view the teenager as a surrogate daughter of sorts, therefore his parental instincts kick in and urge him to spare her.

Interestingly, for those who might not be aware, Merle Dandridge provided the motion capture performance for