Game Theory: Ellie Is NOT Immune! (The Last of Us Part 2)

Special thanks to Raycon for sponsoring this episode!

The Last of Us franchise is a story of humanity trying to survive in the face of a virus turning people into fungus creatures that are not quite zombies. We learn early on in the first game that Ellie is immune, perhaps even the only immune person there is. This makes her invaluable to those trying to find a cure. Except, I think she may not be immune. The second game shows a lot of evidence that something else may be going on with Ellie. Something that may tell us the future direction of this story and the future of Ellie. 

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#TheLastofUs #TheLastofUs2 #LastofUs #TheLastOfUsPart2 #TLOU #TLOU2 #Ellie #Joel #NaughtyDog #Theory #GameTheory  #MatPat

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Credits:
Writer: Stephanie Patrick
Researcher: Zach Stewart
Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Koen Verhagen, and Josh Langman
Assistant Editor: AlyssaBeCrazy
Sound Editor: Yosi Berman

[Grebeny]

I was always thinking how Ellie was not alone, the others with her condition were just shot because of positive test. And when I started watching the series with my parents, my mother pointed out that they can't know if others are immune because they kill them if test is positive.

[tameronica]

Other people: _dies horrifically from zombie infections_

Ellie: "uh oh i got a cold"
*_dies_*

[samsung]

the sad thing about this is that there would be more people actually immune for the same reason but resort to just killing themselves "before they turn" when they get bitten or accidentally breath spores so they would never know they could survive

[tinman]

Coming back here after the reveal on how Ellie was born might have the key to explaining why she isn't turning into a zombie. Anna (her mom) got bit right as she was being born, and before her umbilical cord was cut. That might be how Ellie's newborn self was inoculated with the cordyceps infection but at a much smaller amount so much so that as she grew up, her body got used to it and it didn't have the serious effects on her.

[MrMauser]

Now my medical degree comes in handy:
Having a disease from one family of diseases sometimes makes you immune to others from the same family.
That's how vaccination was discovered:
People with cowpox didn't get normal pox. Cowpox isn't deadly though.
People might just become immune to the Zombie-fungus after one infection but never survive long enough for that to happen. Ellie got infected by one version of that fungus and became immune. The fungus is a immunosupressant, yes, but not strong enough to stop the immune system from keeping zombiefication away.
So she could infect other people, making them immune as well, essentially enabling the vaccination from Part 1 again.

[movietheatersnacks]

Ellie: *Gets mad at Joel*
Joel: *proceeds to talk for over 16 minutes about how she's not actually immune and killing her wouldn't do anything*

[SlimeCrime]

Ellie : Breathes in spores. Matt : “Just hold on a second”

[irosquaredboku]

Rewatching this episode after going through a medical lab tech program, I immediately paused at the CBC screenshot and read through. One thing, though, MatPat: Hematocrit is not a type of cell, it's the percentage of cells in your blood to the serum. Similarly, for the doctors note on the elevated level in her serum and CSF, he's talking about the levels in her *blood* serum and cerebral spinal fluid, not just her central nervous system.

[amthysts]

Fireflies: “How can we cure ourselves and protect ourselves?”

Ellie: “Get infected.”

[chokoon]

*plottwist:* It was actually the one zombie that bit Ellie that is immune to spreading infections

[EonServoXA]

What's interesting is that in the farm, if you go in Ellie's journal, she was complaining about her eyes hurting a lot and that's typically the first area where the fungus attacks

[nzzaaxkx]

In the series that released this year, it showed that Ellie's mum was bit by a zombie just before giving birth, and since the umbilical cord is connected the cordyceps entered Ellie through the cord right before birth, therefore when she was bitten the cordyceps already thought she was infected so it didn't attack her.

[iphito]

So to save the world everyone has to get high on mushrooms.

[yoyoyoaliman]

*in Thanos' voice*
"I used the Cordyceps to destroy the Cordyceps."

[stcxps]

“She’s not immune because she’s already infected and can’t turn into a zombie “
Me: so she’s immune

[sleepie]

Heres my theory, maybe ellies body doesnt fight the infection such as its said. where other peoples body for some reason do. and when the infection feels some pushback it goes into defensive mode and locksdown the entire body which causes the full infection. And since ellie's never fights the infection it feels no need to fight her and just continues to live within her body like a symbiotic relationship.

[randomlittleidot]

intro : has glitch
people who watched latest film Theroy : this is strangely familiar

[Mo-vrep]

So Ellie should running around biting people to spread her "version" of cordyceps.

[LadyBrady]

Ellie: I'm immune

Mattpat: Well no but actually yes

[luna-zwrd]

I rlly wish he would do another theory now since the series is out and the explanation that they give us is basically: "her mother got bitten when she was born so shes used to it" even though I find Matts explanation better 😭