The Last of Us (2023) / Characters

This is the Character sheet for the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us. Please see here for the game versions of the characters.

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Protagonists

Joel Miller

"We don't have time for this."

Played By: Pedro Pascal ^{Other languages}

When the series starts, Joel is in his mid-thirties and a single father to his daughter, Sarah. He and his brother Tommy run a construction company together. On the night of his birthday, a brewing fungal pandemic truly explodes. As the three Millers try to get out of town, they're caught in a plane wreck wherein a piece of shrapnel injures Sarah's leg. They run into a soldier who mistakes Sarah's injury for a bite mark and he shoots them, killing Sarah in the process.

Twenty years later, Joel has never quite gotten over Sarah's death and lives in the Boston Quarantine Zone with his partner (in both senses of the word) Tess. Joel and Tess are smugglers who are on the hunt for a working truck battery so they can head to Wyoming to find Tommy, whom Joel has been unable to contact for three weeks. They finally find their chance to get one when Marlene, the head of the Fireflies, a terrorist group looking to restore democracy, offers it and more to them in exchange for smuggling a teenage girl named Ellie who's immune to the disease out of the QZ and to the Massachusetts state house so she can move out West in hopes of making a vaccine. However, things don't quite go as planned and Joel and Ellie embark on the trip together.

Adaptational Heroism: Joel is a more sympathetic character than he is in the game. Here he's trying to go to Wyoming because he hasn't heard from Tommy in three weeks whereas in the game, they've been estranged for years and his motivation is for guns.
Adaptational Nice Guy: In the game, when Ellie shoots a hunter to save Joel, Joel's first reaction is anger that she didn't stay hidden as he told her to, followed by accusing her of nearly blowing his head off, and only very begrudgingly acknowledging that she saved his life. In the show, he immediately apologises for allowing her to be put in the position where she had to shoot somebody and considers it messed up that she has to witness and participate in such violence at her age.
Adaptational Sympathy: In the game, Joel asks Tommy to take Ellie primarily because of his Firefly connections. Although it's still implied to be his fear of watching another child die - something Ellie catches up on - it's an implication that's easy to miss and Joel's manner remains cold. In the show, Joel's been suffering from panic attacks and nightmares, being terrified that he's too weak and afraid to keep Ellie safe, showing far more vulnerability, citing the ambush in Kansas City as an example of his inability to guard her, and he tearfully pleads with Tommy for this last favor.
Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. The show gives the Fireflies much more detailed reasoning for how they expect to extract a cure from Ellie, making it seem more likely that they could have succeeded. Joel's motivation for massacring the Fireflies remains the same as in the game - saving his surrogate daughter, an act noble on its face - but in giving the Fireflies clearer motivations and rationale, it makes it clearer that Joel really has doomed humanity.
Adaptational Wimp: Joel suffers from hearing loss and is overall slower, older and weaker than he is in the game. Episode six has him admit that he sincerely fears that he isn't strong enough to protect Ellie.
Age Lift: The original games and their supplementary materials established that Joel was born in 1981 and therefore his birthday would have been his 32nd. In the show, he was celebrating his 36th birthday in 2003, moving his birth year back to 1967 and making him a few years older than in the game when the pandemic happened. Similarly, Tommy was born sometime after that, but no later than 1974 given that he served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. ^note
Anti-Hero: Bordering on nominal. He's protective of those he's close to and technically helping save humanity's future by transporting Ellie, but he's motivated entirely by self-preservation and clearly couldn't give a damn about the Fireflies' goals. That said, he has enough redeeming qualities to keep him from nominal status.
Anti-Villain: When all is said and done, Joel dooms humanity's chances of ever getting a cure for the fungus by massacring the Fireflies, including Marlene and their scientists. Saving Ellie may be a noble goal on its face, but it's made clear that Joel is only thinking of himself and his inability to lose another daughter.
Awesomeness by Analysis: A key part of Joel winning Bill's respect is his analysis of the latter's fortifications. Joel recognises the barbed wire's composition and weakness from casual observation, and sees through its daunting appearance to its weakness against raiders.
Badass in Distress: The Agonizing Stomach Wound he conceived at the end of episode 6 renders him helpless for almost two episodes during which Ellie takes center stage as his caregiver.
Battle Couple: He and Tess are involved romantically and are smuggling partners, which means fighting together when the need arises.
Big Brother Instinct: Joel's motivations for trying to go to Wyoming is that he hasn't heard from Tommy in three weeks and is worried something horrible has happened to him.
A Birthday, Not a Break: The outbreak occurs the same day as his birthday and he loses his daughter later that night.
Bumbling Dad: Downplayed in his scenes with Sarah, where he tends to miss little details everywhere and it's implied he regularly forgets to follow through on commitments. When things get serious, however, he snaps into laser focus and easily takes command of his group to see them out of danger by any means necessary.
Bungled Suicide: In the final episode, he tells Ellie where the scar on his forehead came from; he tried to kill himself the day after Sarah's death by shooting himself in the head, but flinched at the last moment.
Bystander Syndrome: During the night of the outbreak, he, Tommy and Sarah come upon a family whose car is broken down by the side of the road. When Tommy slows down to help, pointing out they have a kid with them, Joel tells him they have a kid too and orders him to keep driving, saying someone else will come along to help the strangers.
Call to Agriculture: When asked by Ellie what Joel will do if the cure works and he can do anything, he says he'd probably buy a farm and ranch sheep. He later amends his answer to singer.
Changed My Mind, Kid: Joel tries to get Tommy to take Ellie to the Fireflies for him because he's afraid of losing Ellie the same way he lost his daughter. When Ellie tells him she's not Sarah, he tells her she's right, Ellie isn't his daughter and he isn't Ellie's daddy, seemingly dissolving their relationship permanently. Then the next morning, after a night of reflecting and remembering Sarah, Ellie finds Joel waiting to take her to the Fireflies.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He's certainly capable of it when those he loves are in danger. After Ellie is captured by David, he brutally interrogates a captured cannibal for info on their whereabouts, including kneecapping the man with a knife and beating him within an inch of his life.
Combat Pragmatist: Video Game Joel was skilled enough in a gunfight to be a small-scale One-Man Army, proceeding through several scripted battles with survivors, managing to defeat a make-shift armored car, able to take on several Bloaters, and most prominently single-handedly massacring the semi-military trained Fireflies in the game's climax. Series Joel, being overall less capable, is never forced into such large-scale fights, and struggles heavily to handle small groups of attackers. He avoids conflict wherever possible, tends to attack with the element of surprise and good cover, and generally survives each situation by being more ruthless and willing to strike than his opponents, rather than overcoming them in a fair encounter. This gets emphasized most by Series Joel's own rampage against the fireflies, as he methodically confronts them one-by-one with the elements of surprise and flanking wherever possible, and the Fireflies are shown to be Mildly Military at best, thus not nearly as much of a threat as the video game encounter.
Commonality Connection: He warms up to Henry after seeing the similarities in their situation, with Henry acting as a protector and father figure for his little brother Sam, just as Joel is doing for Ellie.
Cool Old Guy: He's an immensely capable fighter and survivor while in his late 50s, has a hilariously dry sense of humor, and is a bit of a music geek.
Cold Sniper: One of Joel's combat skills that especially stands out is marksmanship: the man is a beast with a rifle at his side. Once he gets his hands on a rifle in Episode 5, he picks off the driver of the truck bulldozer that's been chasing down Ellie, Henry, and Sam, and after that protects Ellie from the distance by taking down multiple infected that are after her during the ensuing chaos. He later teaches Ellie how to shoot Tommy's rifle in Episode 6, which leads to a little comedic moment after Ellie complains that the rifle is busted when she misses the target several times, but then Joel manages to shoot the dead center of it in a single shot and is rather smug about it.
The Cynic: Joel has a very low opinion of the world and most people in it given the way society's broken down. When Ellie tells him if there's a chance to save the world, they need to try, Joel simply replies, "You haven't seen the world, so you don't know." He believes that the world isn't going to get better and anything that promises heroism like the army or the fireflies is just a trick. He only wants to go on in life to protect his family, not for any greater purpose.
Dark and Troubled Past: He loses his daughter on the very first night of the outbreak in 2003. It's also implied from his reputation and conversations with his peers that he did some very nasty things in the twenty years between that night and the start of the main plot, in the name of survival and keeping his family and friends safe. The guilt of his past actions and failures clearly weighs on him.
Deadpan Snarker: He has a very dry wit, and while he's rather stoic for the most part he does occasionally make acerbic quips.
Dented Iron:
- At 56, Joel admits more than once that due to his age he struggles climbing the multi-storey staircases he has to navigate in the cities, and he has gone partially deaf in his right ear after two decades of regular gun use. Still doesn't make him any less terrifying to his enemies, though.
- Joel being past his prime actually becomes a plot point once he and Ellie reach Jackson and find Tommy. Tearfully, Joel explains to Tommy that he's not the same man he used to be years ago and that he's much more vulnerable, and that the kid in Kansas City almost killed him were it not for Ellie saving him. He's terrified that he would not be strong enough to protect Ellie, whom he came to care so much for, and begs Tommy to take her to the Fireflies in his place because Tommy is more capable than him.
Disabled in the Adaptation: Unlike in the games, Joel is partially deaf from all the shooting he has done over the years. It leads to him getting jumped from time to time. He also has aching knees.
The Dreaded: Joel has a fearsome reputation among his fellow smugglers in the Boston QZ. Robert is terrified when his men rough up Tess after he double-crosses them, and has to be convinced by her that she'll talk Joel out of hurting him when he sees her bruises. Though he has every right to be scared, he dies before Joel can hurt him like he feared.
Driven to Suicide: In the first season finale, he reveals he tried to commit suicide the day after Sarah's death. He says he was ready to die and doesn't know why he flinched when he pulled the trigger, but he survived with only a scar to show for it.
Establishing Character Moment: As soon as the outbreak starts, Joel gets his family in the car and tells Tommy to keep driving, even when they have to run over their infected neighbors or leave stranded families on the side of the road. It immediately establishes that Joel will do anything to protect the people he cares about, but if you're not one of those people, he doesn't care if you live or die.
Feeling Their Age: As much of a skilled fighter and survivor Joel is, he is a 56-year-old man who's deaf in one ear and says he doesn't feel as strong as he used to be. He confides to Tommy that he feels too weak to get Ellie to the Fireflies and he's been having panic attacks over the thought of her dying because he was too powerless to stop it.
Global Ignorance: Apparently thinks that Jakarta is located in the Middle East.
Hidden Depths: In addition to his in-depth knowledge of music, he tells Ellie if he could truly be anything he wanted in the world, he'd be a singer.
I Did What I Had to Do: Joel's main justification for his actions since the outbreak, is to protect himself, Tommy and Tess.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Episode 6 ends with him unresponsive after being impaled in the gut by the sharp end of a broken, wooden baseball bat.
It Never Gets Any Easier: When he tells Ellie it's not right she was forced to kill someone at her age, she asks him if it gets easier when you're older. Joel confirms it doesn't.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both as a consequence of losing his daughter and doing whatever it takes to survive the outbreak, Joel has become a cold, callous and ruthlessly pragmatic individual, to the point he's willing to aim a gun at Ellie the first time they meet. However, he does have many good qualities which normally come out once he's gotten to know and care about someone. Examples include his brother Tommy, his partner Tess, and, most importantly, Ellie.
Knight Templar Parent: Marlene claims Ellie would want to sacrifice her life if it meant manufacturing a cure for the Cordyceps infection. It's implied Joel knows this, but it doesn't stop him from gunning down her and every Firefly standing in his way, willing to damn the world's only hope to make sure his surrogate daughter will live.
Love Makes You Evil: What truly drives Joel to his worst acts is when they're done to protect the people he cares about. As early as the first episode, he's willing to leave a family stranded on the side of the road even when they have a child of their own, unwilling to stop to put his daughter in danger for even a second. It's his love for Ellie that causes him to massacre the Fireflies, knowingly condemning humanity to never getting a cure for Cordyceps if it means protecting his surrogate daughter.
My Greatest Failure: The death of his daughter completely shattered Joel's world and his failure to protect her remains just as fresh a wound to him over twenty years later. Perceiving himself as a failure who will only get Ellie killed causes him to beg Tommy to take her to the Fireflies instead until Ellie talks some sense into him. In the end, he kills the Fireflies and dooms humanity in the process because he couldn't allow another daughter to be taken from him.
My Greatest Second Chance: Because he failed to save his first daughter Sarah from being shot in the prologue, he wastes no time making sure Ellie survives unscathed from being harmed. Even if it may doom humanity of a potential cure.
Not So Stoic:
- His stoic demeanour in front of Ellie is near absolute when they first travel together, but any mention of Tess' death wavers it.
- He begins suffering from panic attacks in episode 6 and when he confides in Tommy the reason why, for the first time Joel expresses true vulnerability to the point of tears.
Not So Above It All: He tries to act stoic, but eventually even he can't help but giggle at Ellie's stupid joke book. He's also not above reciprocating her immature insults at times, even before they start bonding.
Ellie: Is there anything bad in this room?
Joel: Just you.
One-Man Army: A more realistic version than in the game. Throughout the show Joel shows himself to be a good shot and a tough, canny survivor. When pressed in the first season finale, he shows how he earned his reputation by slaughtering the Fireflies single-handed, but his kills still rely on surprise attacks and good use of cover.
Outliving One's Offspring: Joel tried and failed to save his daughter Sarah in the pilot. He had to watch helplessly as she died from being shot by a soldier. It partly motivates him in the present to protect Ellie, who's a girl about Sarah's age when she died.
Papa Wolf: In episode 8, once he fully embraces Ellie as a surrogate daughter he kills three cannibals while still suffering from an infected stab wound, torturing one of them to find out her location, and bludgeoning the final one to death just to eliminate loose ends. In the first season finale, he becomes a One-Man Army, gunning down an entire base of Fireflies, executing even those who try to surrender or beg for mercy, in order to stop them from killing Ellie to create a cure.
Parental Substitute: As of episode 6, he's come to fully view Ellie as a surrogate daughter. Despite their growing bond over time, he spent the previous episodes insisting she's not family, just "cargo". After months traveling together, the thought of him not being strong enough to keep her alive gives him panic attacks, and he pleads with Tommy to take her to the Fireflies to cut her out of his life completely rather than stay with her and risk failing her like he did Sarah. When Ellie overhears and calls him out on it, Joel tries to dissolve their surrogate father-daughter relationship, before showing up the next day to stay with her. He fully acknowledges their relationship when he calls Ellie "baby girl" while comforting her in the aftermath of David's attempted assault, a name he only previously used with Sarah.
Pet the Dog:
- Even before he starts to bond with Ellie, he tries to divert their course so Ellie doesn't have to see a mass grave.
- Gives the eight-year-old Sam food despite his supplies running low and being introduced to the Burrell brothers by them holding him and Ellie at (unloaded) gunpoint.
- Admits he was wrong to call Henry a rat for dealing with FEDRA to provide for Sam. He later invites Henry and Sam to join him and Ellie on their way to Wyoming.
Race Lift: Joel is Latino here which he was not portrayed as being in the games.
Trademark Favorite Food: He loves coffee. He was a frequent customer at Starbucks prior to the outbreak, and he's over the moon when he sees Bill has coffee inside his compound.
Tragic Keepsake: His broken watch, repaired by Sarah on infection day.
Trauma Button:
- When a FEDRA soldier points his rifle at Ellie and threatens to shoot her, Joel sees red and proceeds to tackle the man and savagely beat him to death. He has a flashback to the moment a soldier murdered his daughter, Sarah, just before lunging at the soldier.
- Joel is noticeably unbalanced throughout the hospital massacre, as his decades old trauma is once again dragged up by Ellie's imminent murder.
Unscrupulous Hero: Bordering on nominal. Joel may be one of the protagonists, and a protector of Ellie, but he is far from a good guy. He refuses to answer Ellie when she asks if he's ever killed innocent people, and he admits that he helped lure well-meaning passerbys to steal from them. What keeps him from being a Nominal Hero is his redeeming qualities, namely being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: He kills Bryan with his own knife.
Would Hurt a Child: When he first meets Ellie, he aims a gun at her even after disarming her. He later kills a Kansas City revolutionary who's implied to be a teenager himself, Joel later referring to him as just a kid, by killing him with his own knife as the boy screams for his mother.
Wrench Whack: He takes down an infected Nana Adler with a wrench after she charges at him.

Ellie Williams

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ba06c9e0_b553_46ef_a8e3_2ade98f3b1b0.jpeg

"If you don't think there's hope for the world, why bother going on?"

Played By: Bella Ramsey

Ellie is a teenage girl who was born about five years after the pandemic and was sent to military boarding school when her mother died. When the series picks up, she's been recently bitten by an infected while sneaking out with her best friend Riley. However, after three weeks she's yet to turn. This catches the attention of the Fireflies who want to smuggle her out of the QZ to take her out west where a team is working on a vaccine.

Adaptational Badass: She becomes a badass a lot earlier in this continuity than in the game, even saving Henry and Sam from some Infected that have them trapped.
Adaptational Explanation: The closest the game gets to explaining her immunity is in notes that state the other immune people the Fireflies found were believed to have been infected with a mutated strand of the fungus. The show just shy of outright states it came from being exposed to it in utero when Anna got bitten.
Adaptational Jerkass: She is a lot more confrontational and abrasive compared to the game, especially towards Joel. This includes having a greater penchant towards violence. Once she and Joel start to bond, her characterization becomes more similar to the game's continuity.
Big Sister Instinct: Quickly forms a sisterly bond to Sam and courageously crosses through Kathleen's resistance and the infected to save him and Henry from a couple Clickers.
Born After the End: Was born in 2009, six years after the outbreak began. As a result, her attitude is largely one of The World Is Just Awesome when Riley takes her to the mall, being incredibly amused by mundane things like escalators, Merry-Go-Rounds, and photo booths. And when the punchline of a pun involves computers and screenshots, neither Ellie nor Riley understands what that means.
Break the Cutie: She is a playful and curious 14-year-old girl, and she remains this way for most of her and Joel's journey, constantly making jokes and awing at the larger world around her. Then she meets David, a cannibal who kidnaps, beats and attempts to sexually assault her. Although she's able to kill him, the damage is already done and she comes out of her ordeal alive but thoroughly traumatised by the experience.
Butch Lesbian: A girl with tomboy tendencies who had feelings for her female best friend Riley, which she acted upon before they were both attacked and bitten by a Stalker.
Children Forced to Kill: Ellie shoots a resistance fighter in the back to protect Joel. Joel then finishes the job. Afterwards Ellie admits that wasn't the first time she had hurt someone it is later revealed that before meeting Joel she had been forced kill her best friend and crush; Riley after she had been bitten and become infected. Her first on-screen kill was James, an assistant and devout follower of David, whom she also killed later that episode, grabbing a meat cleaver and hacking his face apart when he attempted to sexually assault her.
Constantly Curious: Justified. To Joel's annoyance, she doesn't stop pestering him with questions about The Outside World since she has never been there before.
Joel: You ask a lot of goddamn questions.
Ellie: [pleased] Yes. I do.
Cool Big Sis: She quickly takes on this role towards the eight-year-old Sam when she meets him, playing with him and bonding over their shared love of comics, and, when he confides his fears to her, trying to make him feel better with a joke before honestly reciprocating.
Dark and Troubled Past: She was orphaned as an infant and left at a FEDRA military boarding school, and has lived her entire life inside a quarantine zone without any real paternal figures to speak of. Additionally her first love Riley was infected in the same attack which proved Ellie immune. Ellie then confirms that she had to kill Riley when the latter turned during their wait for death.
Deadpan Snarker: Uses biting humor and sarcasm as a defense mechanism. When told to count from one to ten (as a cognitive test to detect signs of infection) she replaces nine and ten with "fuck" and "you", followed by a middle finger.
Doorstop Baby: Marlene mentions that she delivered Ellie to FEDRA when she was still a baby, reasoning it'd be the safest place for her.
Establishing Character Moment: She is introduced as a captive, chained to a radiator for days on end, and she still gives her captors no end of sarcasm and foul language.
Hates Being Alone: Ellie confides with Sam her greatest fear is to be alone.
The Immune: She is immune to the cordyceps fungus, with nothing happening to her despite having been bitten by the Infected twice. The hope is that the Fireflies out west can use this to synthesize a vaccine. It turns out Ellie is immune because of an incredibly unlikely scenario: she was infected through her umbilical cord when her mother was bitten mid-birth. The filtered exposure gave Ellie a benign version of Cordyceps lodged in her brain, which emits chemicals that fool new fungus introduced to her system into believing that she's already infected.
Lady Swears-a-Lot: Has a pretty foul mouth for a teenager.
Like a Daughter to Me: By the end of the series Joel starts to see her as his adopted daughter.
Little Miss Snarker: A fourteen-year-old girl who dishes out sarcastic zingers with practically every breath.
Living MacGuffin: As the only person ever confirmed immune to the fungus, the Fireflies want to study her to find a way to cure everyone else. The original plan was for Marlene and other armed Fireflies to escort her, but a sudden lack of manpower results in hiring Joel and Tess to escort her instead. Then the Fireflies they're supposed to meet are dead, and Joel has to take her even farther out.
Morality Pet: She serves as this to Joel, convincing him to do things he normally wouldn't and generally getting him to open his defenses and be less of a jackass. Later, Joel outright admits that her presence helped him overcome his trauma relating to Sarah's death.
Mouthy Kid: Nearly every word that comes out of Ellie's mouth is either snarking about Joel or her current situation or just cursing up a storm, peppering her speech with F-bombs.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When David tries to rape her, she gets a hand free just long enough to grab his dropped cleaver and swing it into his neck. She then jumps on top of his chest and starts hacking at his face with the cleaver while screaming at the top of her lungs.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Ellie is rather unflappable and at most only shows concern at possible threats to her life. Sam's death and Henry's subsequent suicide is the first time we see her crying, and she destroys her surroundings in a mad fury when she realises she and Riley have been bitten.
- When David has her pinned underneath him, she can only cry in terror as she knows what he wants to do to her. She soon releases that anger and fear as she swings the cleaver into David's face over and over again in a blind fury that has never been seen from her before. And when Joel finds her, she starts fighting back against him before she realizes who he is. She can't get more than a single word out before she just breaks down sobbing in his arms.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sometimes you can hear Bella Ramsey's English accent peek through very slightly, such as during her conversation with Marlene.
Parental Abandonment: Ellie's mother Anna died just a few hours after giving birth to her. Meanwhile, what became of her father hasn't been revealed.
Please, Don't Leave Me: Episode 6 ends with Ellie begging a seemingly dead Joel to wake up and not to leave her on her own.
Protectorate: Ellie serves as this to Joel, being the person he's tasked with escorting to the Fireflies, first because it was a job, then because it was Tess's dying wish, and eventually because it's what Ellie wants.
Queer Establishing Moment: Within the show (obviously it's no surprise if someone's familiar with the game) Ellie kissing Riley, her female best friend, in "Left Behind" shows she's attracted to girls.^note Riley is also fine with the kiss, implying she's had the same feelings.
Replacement Goldfish: With each episode, it becomes clearer that Joel is growing to see Ellie as a surrogate daughter after the death of his biological daughter Sarah, 20 years ago. Episode 6 makes it official, despite Joel initially telling her she's not his daughter and he isn't her dad, the next day he chooses to stay by her side and embrace his role as her surrogate father.
The Symbiote: Ellie has had a benign version of Cordyceps growing in her brain since birth, transmitted through her umbilical cord after her mother was bitten during childbirth. The fungus is safe inside her brain, and in return it makes Ellie immune to the more dangerous variant.
Trademark Favorite Food: Chef Boyardee beef ravioli. Even 20 year-old canned food is good when cooked throughly! In Ellie's case, she loves it so much it's enough to lift her spirits with just about anything. So when she isn't excited when Joel finds a can, it's a big O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Understandable given her dystopian upbringing and unique situation, but Ellie has some discreet violent tendencies, watching in awe as Joel beats a soldier to death, and experimenting on a trapped Infected by slitting its forehead with her knife.

Miller Family

Tommy Miller

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/37e5fc33_2a8e_44fc_9192_ad7954d69db9.jpeg

"A bad reputation doesn't mean you're bad."

Played By: Gabriel Luna

Joel's younger brother with whom he owned a construction company prior to the pandemic and who was there the night Sarah died. In the present, Tommy has moved out to Wyoming and gotten married to a woman named Maria. They live in a functional and peaceful former resort town outside of a QZ. Joel is trying to find a functional car to get out to find him after not having heard from him for three weeks.

Adaptational Backstory Change: Tommy's a veteran of the First Gulf War according to a sticker on his truck whereas in the games' universe he is not a veteran and due to the Setting Update in the show, would have been a child during that conflict. ^note
Deadpan Snarker: How does Tommy greet his older brother on his birthday? Calling him an "old fucker".
Happily Married: By the time Joel reunites with him, Tommy is newly and happily married to Maria.
Heroic Wannabe: Joel calls him a "joiner", someone who joins groups to save the world but ends up growing disillusioned when those groups don't make him feel like a hero. He did it first with the army, then again with the Fireflies.
Hot-Blooded: When he calls Joel on the night of September 26 to come bail him out of jail, Joel is seriously annoyed as this evidently isn't the first time his brother's been arrested for fighting. Tommy insists that it wasn't his fault this time — which is absolutely correct, as Tommy got caught up in the beginnings of the outbreak.
I Did What I Had to Do: Like Joel, he believes they did what they needed to in order to survive, even if that meant murdering people. However, Tommy's come to recognize that, while they survived the only way they knew how, there were other ways, he and Joel just weren't any good at them. It's why Tommy's happy to be a part of the peaceful Jackson community.
Race Lift: Tommy is white in the games, while in the show he is portrayed by Mexican-American actor Gabriel Luna.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: A bumper sticker on his truck show us that he served in The Gulf War. This might explain his heartbroken "Joel..." after seeing Sarah shot, him instantly recognizing a fatal wound, while Joel spent the same minute frantically trying to fix her.

Sarah Miller

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1931a8a7_4f4a_40a6_a57b_bb8ae9b10b7e.jpeg

"Maybe it's everywhere. Maybe there's nowhere to go."

Played By: Nico Parker

Joel's teenage daughter who was shot and killed by a soldier during the initial outbreak.

Adaptational Dye-Job: She's a brunette here instead of a blond.
Agonizing Stomach Wound: Part of what makes her death so cruel is that she isn't killed instantly by the bullet. She's shot in the stomach and spends over a minute in agony, wailing in pain whenever her father tries to move her, before bleeding out and dying in his arms.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: Like the game, Joel is a single parent but we don't know what happened to her mom. In the game, Joel offhandedly mentions that they weren't married for long during the university segment but that is almost completely cut from the show.
Daddy's Girl: Sarah is incredibly close with her father, spending half of the pilot wanting to celebrate his birthday. She gets his watch fixed because she knew Joel would never do it himself, wants to celebrate with a special breakfast and cake, and finds a copy of his favorite movie, which bores her, but she stays up late to watch with him.
Deadpan Snarker: She retains her game counterpart's snarky sense of humor, telling her dad she got the money to fix his watch by selling "hardcore drugs" then admitting she took his own money to do so but put back the remaining $40 rather than pocket it because she's "an honest thief."
Death of a Child: She's the first major character death in the series.
Decoy Protagonist: Even more so than in the game. About half of the pilot's run time of 85 minutes is dedicated to seeing the last day of Sarah's life through her eyes. Whereas in the game, she's only alive for about fifteen minutes and it opens with her waking up alone the night she died.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: She passes away in her father's arms.
Genre Savvy: She quickly speculates that the fungus has spread all over the world, and outright asks Joel what his plan is if that's the case. Unfortunately for just about everyone, it turns out she was right.
Nice Girl: She's sweet, thoughtful, and polite to just about everyone. It makes it all the more tragic when she dies.
Race Lift: Sarah was fully white in the games but played by a biracial actress here.
Sacrificial Lamb: After spending half the pilot following her point-of-view, she's shot by a soldier and dies in her father's arms, setting the dark tone of the series and establishing Anyone Can Die.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: A kind-hearted Daddy's Girl. Naturally, she doesn't live past the prologue as the world rapidly turns into hell.

Maria Miller

Played By: Rutina Wesley

Maria is Tommy's wife with whom he lives in Jackson, WY. She's currently one of the leaders of the Jackson community. Before the pandemic she was a federal prosecutor from Omaha.

Absurdly Elderly Mother: Like a lot of the side characters in the game, Maria gets a bit of a backstory in the show. She mentions to Ellie that she was an assistant district attorney before the pandemic and had a son named Kevin who died during the outbreak. Given that people typically graduate from law school in their mid-twenties and Maria had been practicing law long enough to have built up a career in the DA's office, that puts her conservatively in her late twenties or early thirties when the pandemic started. The problem lies in that she would be, using this assumption, in her late forties or early fifties in the present and is pregnant again. It seems unlikely that a woman of that age in a world with no access to fertility treatments would be able to get and stay pregnant.
Action Politician: She's one of the democratically elected members of Jackson's ruling council and she accompanies patrols in taking care of threats to her community.
Adaptation Expansion: Nothing much is known about Maria's life before she started running the Jackson, Wyoming settlement in the game. The show reveals she was an assistant district attorney and had a son, Kevin, who died three days after Outbreak Day.
Alliterative Name: Maria Miller.
Chummy Commies: She's pretty upfront about being a communist, saying that's literally what they are since everyone lives in a commune and subscribes to collective ownership.
Good Is Not Soft: She's one of the leaders of Jackson, WY, which is the most peaceful and stable community shown post-outbreak. However, in order to keep the community safe, she and other members of Jackson build up a fearsome reputation to scare off people who'd try to harm them, kill those who cross them and leave their bodies out as a warning.
Happily Married: She and Tommy are recently married and based on what's shown, they're very happy with each other.
Nice Gal: She is, in general, a helpful, generous, and affable woman. No wonder Tommy's very happy with her.
Outliving One's Offspring: Her son Kevin died 3 days after Outbreak Day.
Pregnant Badass: Being pregnant does not prevent her from riding with the patrol and carrying a gun.
Race Lift: Maria is white (with blonde hair and blue eyes) in the games but played by a black actor here.
Reasonable Authority Figure: She's a democratically elected member of Jackson's ruling council and it's clear she takes the safety of her three hundred citizens very seriously, while also helping bring about a sense of peace and normalcy rarely seen in a post-outbreak world.
Wasteland Elder: Downplayed. She has a wealth of pre-apocalypse law knowledge, helped establish and run the thriving settlement of Jackson, and is getting up there in years for a society without access to modern medicine.

Austin, TX

Adler Family

Played By: Brad Leland (Danny), Marcia Bennett (Connie), Wendy Gorling (Nana)

Danny, Connie, and Nana Adler are Joel and Sarah's next-door neighbors before the pandemic. They also had a dog named Mercy.

Canon Foreigner: No mention of any neighbours are made in the game except for Jimmy, who was killed by Joel after becoming infected^note.
Evil-Detecting Dog: One of the first clues to Sarah that something is not right with Nana is that Mercy is staring at her intently.
Meaningful Background Event: Nana can be seen having some sort of seizure over Sarah's shoulder while she's looking at their movie collection.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The Adler family was nothing but kind to the Millers, with Connie even taking up a maternal role for Sarah. Naturally, they're the first people to be turned on-screen.

Denise

Played By: Caitlin Howden

Another of the Miller family's neighbours in Austin.

Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She is a friendly neighbour who tries to help the Infected Adlers, but gets attacked for it and most likely ends up dying.
Uncertain Doom: The last we see of her is being attacked by the Infected Adlers, but we don't know if she died or not.

Nasir and Tahira

Played By: Haysam Kadri (Nasir), Sarah Himadeh (Tahira)

Two Lebanese Americans who run a watch and jewelry repair shop in Austin, where Sarah goes to get Joel's watch fixed.

Bilingual Bonus: When Nasir protests at being forced to close early, Tahira reminds him in Lebanese Arabic that she just got off the phone with her sister and something seriously bad is happening, with a hint of panic in her voice.
Pet the Dog: Not that they do anything evil, but they do shoo Sarah out of the shop in an almost callous manner - but not before Tahira concernedly tells her to go straight home and stay there.
Uncertain Doom: It is unknown whether they have managed to survive the outbreak.

Boston, MA

Tess Servopoulos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0503fac5_7a3c_44d7_bbd7_4c60d31a2f09.jpeg

"Save who you can save."

Played By: Anna Torv

Joel's partner (in both the romantic sense and the business sense) in the QZ.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Tess is a lot nicer in the show than she is in the game. She kills Robert in cold blood in the game after he pisses her off but in the show, she tries to de-escalate (even lying to Joel about him being the one that beat her up) and the Fireflies kill Robert.
Adaptation Expansion: Druckmann and Mazin said on the official podcast that they came up with a backstory for Tess that wasn't in the game, though it didn't end up making the final product. She was married and had a son and her husband and son were bitten. She killed her husband but couldn't bring herself to kill her son, so she locked him in their basement, where he's theoretically never left and could still be alive as a Clicker. They liked the contrast with Joel who closed himself off after Sarah died, whereas she was brave enough to love and have hope again. Joel also mentions she's from Detroit which was never brought up in the game.
Adaptational Ugliness: She was an Unkempt Beauty in the game. Here she looks more realistically like someone who has lived in the post-apocalypse for twenty years.
The Atoner: She becomes dedicated to escorting Ellie to the Fireflies upon finding out she's immune and that there can actually be a cure manufactured for the infection. A large part of this is because she feels like it's the only way she can make up for the horrible things she's done to survive, and when she can't carry on because she gets infected, she makes Joel promise to take Ellie instead.
Battle Couple: She's romantically involved with Joel and fights alongside him against smugglers, FEDRA and infected.
Beauty Inversion: Anna Torv is quite an attractive woman who plays Ms. Fanservice characters in real life. In the present day scenes, Tess looks much more haggard and worn down with very messy hair. Not the case in the flashbacks in episode three where she looks as gorgeous as Anna Torv does in real life.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the game, Tess dies in a shootout with FEDRA to buy Joel and Ellie time after getting bitten. Here, she blows herself up with the Fireflies' supply of gas to do the same, though this time the threat is from a horde of infected that Joel inadvertently alerted.
Heroic Sacrifice: As in the game, Tess performs one of these rather than let herself succumb to the infection, in order to buy Joel and Ellie time to get away. However, the manner in which it happens has been altered somewhat; while in the game she was gunned down in a firefight with FEDRA, here she blows herself up along with a horde of infected, which also makes her death an example of Taking You with Me and Dies Differently in Adaptation.
I Was Quite a Looker: Episode 3's flashbacks shows that Tess used to be much more lively and attractive. In contrast to Joel and Bill, who only gotten some mild wrinkles and gray hair in a 20-year time span, Tess hasn't aged too well given her frayed hair, bagging eyes and rougher complexion in the present.
Informed Flaw: She repeatedly mentions, like in the game, that she and Joel are shitty people. But given the Adaptational Nice Guy treatment they receive, it doesn't really ring well. And by what is shown in the flashbacks, they weren't exactly horrible people at that point either.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's just as cynical and mercenary as Joel, but she's by far the more compassionate of the pair and is the one to try and make a genuine connection with Ellie. She's similarly the one who actually believes their mission could make a difference in the grand scheme of things, to the point of sacrificing her life to ensure Ellie's survival.
Last Request: Her last words to Joel are begging him to take Ellie to the Fireflies so a cure can be made for the infection. Joel agrees and it serves as his initial motivation in escorting Ellie across the country.
Odd Friendship: Tough, hardened survivor and smuggler Tess ends up forming a surprisingly sweet friendship with Frank, first over long-distance radio communications, then eventually in person. Her interactions with Frank are the happiest she's seen on-screen. This is in deep, deep contrast with Joel and Bill, who have static electricity made of pure paranoia emanating from each other whenever they're together.
Promoted to Love Interest: While the game hinted that Joel and Tess were probably partners in both senses of the word at some point, it was still done in a subtle manner and never outright confirmed. The show does away with the implications. Their first scene together has Tess climbing into bed with Joel and spooning him. When they wake up, their physical interactions are also more intimate than they are in the game.
Sacrificial Lamb: She is a supporting character with a long history with Joel who dies two episodes into the first season to show how dangerous the journey is gonna be for the two protagonists.
Unscrupulous Hero: By her own admission, Tess is not a good person (although she's a lot better than she claims to be, and she's an angel compared to the ruthless Joel), but in contrast to Joel she genuinely believes Ellie's immunity can help restore the world and wants to see their mission through out of genuine altruism.
Zombie Infectee: She ends up bitten by a Clicker in episode 2. Knowing she doesn't have much time left, Tess decides to die holding off the infected rather than turn into one of them.

Robert

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2aba7b0b_76ba_43c2_add3_ef429a441b16.jpeg

Played By: Brendan Fletcher

A smuggler in the Boston QZ who Joel and Tess bought a car battery from.

Bullying a Dragon: Robert's absolutely terrified of Joel and for good reason, but that doesn't stop him from taking his money for a car battery that doesn't work, and then cheating him by selling it to someone else. He even contemplates killing Tess just because his men roughed her up against his will and he knows Joel will kill him if he finds out Robert was responsible.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He tries to scam Joel and Tess as well as the Fireflies with a faulty car battery in spite of knowing how dangerous each of them are.
Demoted to Extra: He goes from being the game's first Arc Villain to appearing in just two scenes - one in which he is worried about Joel's retribution after two of his men seize Tess seemingly behind his back, and another as a corpse, killed offscreen. It is possible that he had more screen time before the first two episodes were combined.
Didn't Think This Through: He takes a broken truck battery to a building full of Fireflies and tries to scam them into buying it. This ends up getting him killed as he somehow believed they would fall for it. And this is after he tries to scam Joel with it.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Dies in a shootout with the Fireflies in a deal gone wrong instead of being killed by Joel and Tess.
Dirty Coward: He's introduced begging for mercy from someone his men have captured.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Perhaps not 'Sympathetic' considering how blasé he is about murder, but Robert is pitiably incompetent, implicitly barely has control over his own men, and spends most of his screen time terrified he'll have to face Joel's wrath for trying to scam him. To top it off, he's murdered by the Fireflies when he tries to pull off another one of his hare-brained scams on them.
Killed Offscreen: By his second scene he's already a corpse, killed in a shootout with the Fireflies.
Small Role, Big Impact: He has only two scenes and he's dead by his second, but him selling a faulty car battery to Joel and Tess then backstabbing them to sell it to the Fireflies results in Joel and Tess finding him dead from a shootout with the Fireflies, who are no longer able to escort Ellie where she needs to go, and forces Marlene to entrust Ellie to Joel and Tess instead.
Too Dumb to Live: This idiot thinks it's a good idea to scam Joel (who has a reputation as The Dreaded) out of his money for a faulty truck battery. He then tries to sell the same battery to the Fireflies, which ends up getting him killed.

Abe

Played By: Jerry Wasserman

A radio operator with the Boston QZ.

Canon Foreigner: Only appears in the show.
Communications Officer: Functions as it between residents of the Boston QZ and their friends and family outside the zone.
Parental Favoritism: It's implied he favors one son over the other, allowing one to man the radio when either he or his wife aren't available, but doesn't let the other do so because he's dumb, though Abe does say it in a tone that implies he still loves him.

The Smugglers

A group of Survivors who work as smugglers.

Flat Character: Beside Joel, Tess, and Robert, they don't get much characterisation.
Make an Example of Them: Three of them end up being executed by FEDRA for violating the laws.

Riley Abel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/https___hiddenremotecom_files_image_exchange_2023_02_ie_99494_2.jpg

Played By: Storm Reid

Ellie's best friend from FEDRA military school.

Best Friend: She and Ellie were best friends at FEDRA.
Child Soldiers: A teenager who walks armed at all times, has sworn vows to the Fireflies, and guards a depot of pipe bombs.
Death by Origin Story: Without Riley's actions leading to their bites, Ellie's story may have never happened.
A Death in the Limelight: Riley and Ellie are attacked by a Stalker who manages to bite both of them before they can kill it. Ellie survives due to her immunity, but Riley does not, and it is implied that Ellie may have had to perform the Mercy Kill herself.
Defector from Decadence: Left FEDRA boarding school and was recruited by the Fireflies.
Dying as Yourself: Riley mentions this as one of the ways people choose to go out when they're infected, after she and Ellie have been infected themselves. Riley also refuses to go through with it, believing that every moment of life they have remaining is precious, no matter how long it may be.
First Love: Ellie and Riley served as this to each other, although they never had the chance to explore their feelings for each other before the Stalker attack.
Killed Offscreen: The flashbacks end before Riley succumbs to the infection. Ellie's refusal to talk about her first kill heavily suggests that she had to put Riley down after only Riley turned, something Ellie confirms in the first season finale.
The Lost Lenore: For Ellie, to the extent that she refuses to speak about Riley whenever possible. It's implied that the loss of Riley is the main cause of Ellie's terror of surviving alone.
Not So Stoic: Despite being the more levelheaded next to Ellie, Riley lets down her walls when she reveals their trip to the mall will be her last day in Boston before leaving with the Fireflies. However, she loses composure later on when they are bitten by a Stalker, and tearfully apologizes when Ellie asks what their third option is.
The Stoic: In contrast to the emotional Ellie, Riley is the more reserved of the two.
Together in Death: Riley had hoped to have this with Ellie after they're both bitten, but Ellie's immunity prevents this from happening.
Two First Names: Abel is also used as a given name.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Riley grows increasingly uncomfortable defending the Fireflies each time Ellie makes reference to their more violent actions, but she maintains that doesn't make FEDRA any less fascist dickheads.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Ratna Pertiwi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a100a664_03cc_49a3_a834_b313dc133130.jpeg

"I have spent my life studying these things."

Played By: Christine Hakim

A professor of mycology at the University of Indonesia during the beginning of the outbreak.

Canon Foreigner: She does not exist and is not mentioned in either game, both of which are set entirely in the (former) United States.
Cold Equation: She is not at all unaware of how horrible her recommendation is, nor is she callous about it, but she sees it as the only way to possibly keep the infection from spreading. Of course, it's already too late.
Face Death with Dignity: After calmly informing the authorities that the only way to contain the outbreak is for the military to level Jakarta to the ground with all of its inhabitants, she asks to be taken to her family so that she can see them one last time.
Quaking with Fear: After the scene in the autopsy room, she is seen sitting down with a cup of tea, her hands shaking so bad she can barely hold the cup.
Senseless Sacrifice: She's fully including herself and her family when she recommends the government bomb the city and leave no survivors to stop the spread of the infection. Unfortunately, it's already too late to stop the fungus.

Agus Hidayat

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d6850d32_9eff_47bc_9630_a41f5ed3f2cf.jpeg

"We need a vaccine, or a medicine."

Played By: Yayu A.W. Unru

A lieutenant general in the Indonesian military, who contacts Ratna for her assistance.

Ambiguous Situation: Did he take Ratna's advice to bomb Jakarta to dust? Was he allowed to make such a call? We don't get an answer either way, aside from Joel asking Sarah about Jakarta three days later, having heard something about it in the news. Although the suggestion was likely infeasible anyway given that it would take nuclear weapons to level a city like Jakarta to the extent needed to wipe out every possible infected, and Indonesia is not a nuclear power.
Canon Foreigner: He does not exist and is not mentioned in either game, both of which are set entirely in the (former) United States.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He treats Professor Ratna with respect and is completely forthcoming with the information she requests once she is shown a sample of the Cordyceps infection. He also takes her advice sincerely, knowing that she is a respected expert in her field with decades of experience.

Lincoln, MA

Bill

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b1c08980_f976_45a8_bddb_f403bcf233d1.jpeg

"Not today, you New World Order jackboot fucks."

Played By: Nick Offerman

A contact of Joel and Tess' who lives out in the suburbs of Boston. During the beginning of the outbreak, he had holed himself up and began fortifying the area around his house once it was abandoned.

Adaptational Nice Guy:
- In the game, Bill is such a Jerkass that Frank would rather risk his own life (and in fact does end up getting bitten by an infected and leaves behind a vitriolic suicide note rather than saying goodbye in person) than spend any more time in his company. Here, while still a Crazy Survivalist prepper, he's a loving life partner and carer for Frank who simply suffers from a lack of social graces.
- While his relationship with Joel is still fairly icy he does ultimately consider him (almost) as a friend, and even leaves him a goodbye note before going away. Compare that to Bill in the games who, while he had a certain level of respect for Joel, spent most of the time grumbling and complaining at him.
Age Lift: Bill was around Joel's age in the games, probably late 40s/early 50s. Here he's at least a decade older.
The Aloner: He spends the first four years after the apocalypse alone due to his distrust of others. He starts to change for the better after meeting Frank.
The Bear: Bill is a big guy with a thick beard. He ends up in a relationship with Frank.
Call to Agriculture: Bill is shown farming and raising animals. Justified, since the collapse of society means that food is scarce.
Conspiracy Theorist: Among others, he believes that 9/11 was an inside job and that the leaders of the pre-collapse government were all secretly Nazis.
Crazy-Prepared: Bill's systematic preparation for life alone as soon as his neighbours and the military left, from amassing fuel to preparing traps for the Infected, is what has allowed him to survive on his own with an incredibly high quality of life.
Crazy Survivalist: Even before the apocalypse, he stockpiled guns and food in a bunker beneath his house and referred to the military as "New World Order jackboot fucks". Also he lived off the grid. However, his reaction after his town is evacuated — stockpiling a massive amount of gasoline, ensuring he'll have a steady supply of power, quickly rigging up traps and barricades — show that he wasn't just a hoarder but had clearly put intense time, thought and planning into what to do should this situation ever arrive.
Cultured Badass: A crazed survivalist who cooks gourmet meals, is knowledgeable about wine, and plays piano.
Cynic–Idealist Duo: Bill starts out as a mistrustful loner. Frank on the other hand is idealistic, is able to find positivity in small things in this nightmarish world, and wants to clean up their neighborhood and make new friends. With Frank's positive influence Bill eventually manages to open up a bit.
Death by Adaptation: He kills himself before Joel and Ellie even arrive to where he lives. However, if anything it's almost a happier fate, as he dies together with Frank and both die happily compared to the game, where Frank killed himself due to being infected, and Bill is left all alone as Joel and Ellie leave him.
Deadpan Snarker: Bill has a rather dry and biting sense of humor compared to Frank.
Frank: Is it antique?
Bill: 1948.
Frank: Wow! Do you know how much these are worth?
Bill: Currently, nothing.
Driven to Suicide: Bill decides to commit suicide along with Frank rather than go on without him.
False Flag Operation: He believes that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Food as Characterization: The first sign that Bill is more than just a Crazy Survivalist is when he grudgingly allows Frank to stay for lunch, then comes out with an exquisitely cooked meal and wine pairing. Frank is stunned silent, and by the end of the day, they're in a relationship.
Frank: A man who knows to pair rabbit with a beaujolais!
Bill: I know I don't seem like the type.
Frank: No, you do.
Gay Conservative: Bill's belief in conspiracy theories, intense distrust of the government and the fact that he owns a Gadsden flag imply that he is some sort of right-wing libertarian. He eventually falls in love with Frank.
Gayngst: Inverted. Bill's acceptance of his love for Frank is what ends up giving his life meaning that he lacked in his pre-apocalypse life and makes him a better person.
A Good Way to Die: He ultimately passes away on his own terms with his beloved by his side after a long, fulfilled life riding out the apocalypse.
Government Conspiracy: He firmly believes that the American government has been taken over by fascists who plan to kill off most of America's population as part of a plan to bring about the New World Order.
Hidden Depths: Bill surprises Frank when they meet with his oenophilia and musical abilities.
Irony: The fall of civilization actually improves his life by allowing him to live out his survivalist fantasies and creating the circumstances for him to find the love of his life and accept his sexuality.
Late Coming Out: He's around fifty at the beginning (to judge by the actor's age) and only admitted he's into men on meeting Frank.
Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When Bill realizes that there is no one left in his town he immediately proceeds to loot the town for supplies and fuel to turn his house into a self-sustainable fortress.
Manly Gay: He's a big, bearded bear of a man who falls for Frank.
Misanthrope Supreme: He writes in his letter to Joel that he hated the world and was glad that most of humanity perished due to Cordyceps.
No Social Skills: Due to being so paranoid and cynical, Bill doesn't really know how to function well in social situations and is always guarded and tense when in one. Frank mildly scolds him for this when he brings a handgun to a garden party because he doesn't trust the guests (Joel and Tess) Frank invited over.
Posthumous Character: Unlike in the game, he's already dead well before Joel and Ellie get to him, with his episode being a Whole Episode Flashback.
Properly Paranoid: He thought the pre-collapse US government was setting up a conspiracy to kill off the majority of the population and keep the rest under control. While he was wrong about there being a conspiracy beforehand, he ended up being 100% correct to be worried about such an outcome, since FEDRA killed at least some of the residents of his town and numerous other towns because there was no room for them in the Boston QZ and they didn't want to risk them being infected, and in the present day run the QZ areas as mini dictatorships.
Renaissance Man: Bill is shown to be quite adept in a variety of areas such as cooking, metalworking, mechanics, farming and making traps.
Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Bill definitely comes off as one given his (justified) distrust of the US government, his belief in various conspiracy theories (including that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job) as well as the fact that he has a bunker under his house and owns a Gadsden flag. However, the trope is downplayed as Bill does not display any racist or homophobic behaviour.
Supreme Chef: Despite how his paranoia and survivalist bunker full of weapons and right-wing paraphernalia and propaganda might make him come off as, he's shown to be quite refined. Most of all, he's an amazing cook and sommelier. Even with thin post-apocalyptic resources, he can make a classy dinner like no other.
Took a Level in Idealism: Becomes more optimistic and willing to be vulnerable due to his love for Frank.
Transparent Closet: He never says or does anything at first to show he's gay, though Frank knows it instantly anyway.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Bill thinks that there is an Illuminati-style genocidal conspiracy. However, he actually ends up in the middle of an apocalypse caused by a deadly infection. Zig-zagged in that while Bill is wrong about the existence of a conspiracy his belief in it has motivated him to properly prepare for disaster. This ended up giving him a significant advantage over other survivors.

Frank

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9a28d091_a981_4749_b200_a2baf1e55a6f.jpeg

"Paying attention to things, it's how we show love."

Played By: Murray Bartlett ^{Other languages}

Bill's partner, who stumbled into one of his traps one day and was allowed to stay.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Frank in the show is implied to be much nicer than he is in the game. In the game, Frank grows tired of his partner being a controlling asshole and tries to abandon him and steal his car. He ends up getting infected in the attempt and committing suicide, the note he leaves behind being a Dying Declaration of Hate to Bill. In the show, he remains a loving and faithful partner to Bill until their deaths.
Ascended Extra: In the game, he was nothing more than a dead body who, before death, tried and failed to ditch Bill by stealing his car and was heavily implied to be his lover. He is fully fleshed out as a character in the show.
Bad Liar: Frank openly admits to this, dithering over whether or not to lie to Bill about being armed and admitting that he'd do a poor job of keeping the town and a free meal a secret.
Blithe Spirit: Transforms Bill's "town" from a mere survival base into a lovely, well-kept little village.
Bury Your Disabled: He ends up committing suicide some time after becoming sick with a disease that made him wheelchair-bound.
Camp Gay: Personality-wise, Frank is this. He's artistic, cultured, quirky, and excitable. He likes renovating the survival base Bill made, enjoys cultivating and growing plants in their garden, and frequently invites friends over for civilized garden parties.
Closet Key: He is the first man that Bill falls in love with.
Common Law Marriage: His relationship with Bill is this. Him and Bill are husbands in all but name. He only decides to have a wedding ceremony when he finds out that he is sick with a terminal disease.
Cynic–Idealist Duo: He is idealistic, is able to find positivity in small things in this nightmarish world, and wants to clean up their neighborhood and make new friends. Compare this to Bill who starts out as a mistrustful loner who eventually opens up a bit due to Frank's influence.
December–December Romance: Downplayed. Both him and Frank appear to be in their fifties and they end up in a relationship.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: He kills himself in both versions of the story, but the context is different. In the game, his relationship with Bill broke down and he later hangs himself all alone after he was bitten trying to leave the town. In the show, he and Bill have a very happy relationship, and he chooses to end his life by overdosing on pills after contracting an incurable terminal disease, and does so with Bill at his side.
The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: The show never states what illness Frank is suffering from, only that it is a terminal condition that would have been incurable even when proper medical services were more readily available before the cordyceps outbreak. The only confirmed symptom that we see is that it has affected his motor control: he uses a wheelchair that Bill has to push for him, he struggles to feed himself and take his medication, and he is unable to hold a paintbrush steady. Word of God is that Frank likely had either multiple sclerosis or early-stage ALS.
Dreadful Musician: For how excited he gets when he sees Bill's piano, he cannot carry a tune to save his life. Although given his below mentioned Gaydar, it may have just been a way to get Bill to open up a bit.
Gaydar: Frank's appears to be well-tuned, as he immediately realizes that Bill's gay and attracted by him though the latter doesn't say or do anything that indicates this at first.
A Good Way to Die: He ultimately passes away on his own terms with his beloved by his side after a long, fulfilled life riding out the apocalypse.
Keet: He is an extremely excitable man, almost diving to play a piano when he thinks he has a chance, insisting on beautifying the neighborhood and making friends, and even treating coded radio messages to Joel and Tess like a fun game more than a necessary part of operational security.
Let's Wait a While: He tells Bill that he doesn't need to have sex with him unless he's ready for it and he can take as long as he wants.
Manic Pixie Dream Guy: Frank is a quirky, artistic, enthusiastic guy who wants to redecorate the neighborhood and host dinner parties in the post-apocalypse, trades guns for strawberry seeds, playfully gives their radio security protocol an "80s theme," and most importantly, gets Bill to break out of his joyless, asocial, utilitarian status quo. Bill knew how to survive, but Frank taught him how to live.
Morality Pet: Downplayed. While Bill is, at worst, a paranoid jerk, Frank is the only person he actually loves, let alone likes.
Nice Guy: He's a loving, compassionate man who brings out Bill's soft side and is willing to lend a helping hand to and befriend other survivors as seen with Joel and Tess.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Bill's blue.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Bill's Manly Man. Frank is the more openly emotional, sociable, and artsy of the two, with a desire to beautify the neighborhood and make a home with Bill, rather than simply survive.
Sole Survivor: He was part of a group of ten heading to Boston when the Baltimore QZ collapsed. He's the only one left by the time he makes it to Bill's town.
Tragically Disabled Love Interest: He becomes this to Bill after he gets sick with an unknown disease that makes him wheelchair-bound.
Unseen No More: Frank doesn't appear in the games. At least not alive.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Doesn't see the collapse of civilization as a reason to let things go into disrepair, as he reasons that paying attention to the little things is "how we show love."

Kansas City, MO

Kansas City Revolutionaries

In General

A group of revolutionaries who deposed FEDRA forces in Kansas City and are currently hunting Henry and Sam.

All for Nothing: Their revolution is rendered moot when Kathleen's poor decision-making results in a massive horde of infected emerging from the ground which instantly wipes out the Kansas City militia, effectively dooming the city's population.
Canon Foreigner: They replace the Hunters in the TV series but they also take a fair bit of inspiration from the Washington Liberation Front seen in the sequel.
Curbstomp Battle: When a horde of Infected attack, they are wiped out almost instantly. Justified due to the presence of Stalkers, Clickers, and a Bloater among the horde.
Didn't Think This Through: They open the gates to the Kansas City QZ after their revolution to display their newly-won freedom. This along with Kathleen wasting all of their fighters on a pointless manhunt, leaves the city defenseless to face the horde of infected.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Viewers with a mind for history will see Kathleen and the militia's actions (former rebels to an oppressive governing body hunting down people who collaborated or weren't "revolutionary" enough, with show trials before execution, if they even bother with the trial) and see a very easy comparison to the French Revolution in its Reign of Terror phase.
Expy: Of the Washington Liberation Front, complete with similar motivations, albeit a lot more short-sighted in their pursuit of vengeance against their enemies. Both their leaders even get caught up in a moment of blind insistence on murder before being offed by a child's surprise attack from the back, shortly before the rest of their troops are butchered.
Fascist, but Inefficient: In contrast to FEDRA, their "revolution" is easily just as brutal as their regime, if not worse, but lacks any of the safeguards that FEDRA had. They throw the gates of the Kansas City QZ open largely as a show of independence, while their leader goes out of her way to waste what little resources they have to hunt down a single collaborator on a personal grudge and ignores a very easy-to-see infestation in the meantime. Naturally, the QZ is overrun and everyone is killed within weeks of their revolution.
Full-Circle Revolution: They overthrew FEDRA, but appear to be just as brutal (if not more so).
He Who Fights Monsters: FEDRA in Kansas City was a genuinely monstrous force that deserved to be wiped out, but the revolutionaries have grown just as brutal in their war against them, even after their victory.
Henry: Rape and torture and murder people for twenty years, and you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get a chance, they do it right back to you.
Leave No Survivors: The militia is all killed off when the Infected breach the city. The countless other survivors within the city possibly meet the same fate as they have no defenses left due to the uprising and Kathleen focusing on hunting Henry and Sam.
Moral Myopia: They have no issue with killing innocent people but when Joel and Ellie kill some of their own, they launch a city-wide manhunt in revenge.
The Purge: The revolutionaries conduct a purge in Kansas City to execute every member of FEDRA, everyone who sympathizes with FEDRA, everyone who ever informed to FEDRA, and everyone who shelters informants.
Pyrrhic Victory: They beat FEDRA under Kathleen's rule after years of nothing substantial happening with her brother at the helm. An underground swarm of infected Kathleen didn't tend to wipes most of them out in less than 10 minutes when it pops out, and it's safe to say the whole city will be overrun.
Reign of Terror: After pushing FEDRA out, they become just as bad, if not worse, as FEDRA, gunning down outsiders and executing collaborators and those who hide them.
Won the War, Lost the Peace: After twenty years under the boot of a particularly cruel FEDRA regime, they managed to gain their independence, only for their charismatic leader to neglect the city's defenses in favor of using them to pursue personal retribution. As a result, within two weeks of winning their freedom, they had all been wiped out by an infestation that Kathleen had seen and decided to ignore.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Joel and Ellie first encounter the group when one of them fakes being injured and pleads for help to lure them into an ambush. Joel sees through it because "he's been on both sides."

Kathleen Coghlan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2585e18e_6c39_4da7_862b_ddd16586f4ba.jpeg

"This is what happens when you fuck with fate."

Played By: Melanie Lynskey

The leader of a violent revolutionary movement that drove FEDRA out of the Kansas City QZ. Some of her men ambush Joel and Ellie on their way into the city and are killed as a result, leading her to suspect they're mercenaries brought in by an enemy of hers named Henry.

Alliterative Name: Her given name and surname start with the same sound.
Arch-Enemy: After Henry turned her brother to FEDRA, Kathleen becomes hellbent on killing both him and his brother, even using her entire militia force to hunt him down.
Arc Villain: Kathleen's the driving antagonist of episodes 4 and 5 comprising the Kansas City arc, the show's equivalent of the Pittsburgh section in the game.
Bad Boss: While it's never shown on-screen, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have clarified she has a tendency to execute those who fail her. If Joel hadn't killed Anthony, she would have for failing to kill Henry and Sam.
Big Brother Worship: The way she talks about her brother makes him sound more like a god than a person, calling him "beautiful" and admitting she isn't because she's done things that would horrify him.
Canon Foreigner: Kathleen was created specifically for the show, with her revolutionary group replacing the Hunters in Pittsburgh which had no onscreen leader. She also takes some inspiration from Tess's original storyline in the game and from Isaac in the second game.
Establishing Character Moment: She first appears interrogating the medical doctor Edelstein about being a collaborator for FEDRA. When he pleads that FEDRA soldiers put a gun to his head to force his cooperation, she does the same in order to get the location of fellow collaborator Henry Burrell. Moments later she leaves the doctor to attend a crowd gathering around some of her men that were killed in an encounter with Joel and one of whom is wounded. When one of her soldiers informs her that the man's wounds are fatal regardless of whether or not he receives medical attention, she immediately goes back to the cell and executes the doctor. This establishes her as someone who will use the same draconian methods that FEDRA used to get what she wants (in this case the location of Henry Burrell), as well her ruthlessness towards collaborators. Her execution of the doctor establishes her short-sightedness, as a doctor was a rare profession even before the outbreak and collapse of civilization. Her behavior in that scene foreshadows her character arc over the two episodes she is in.
Et Tu, Brute?: Of all the collaborators she kills, Dr. Edelstein is the only one it's implied she feels personally betrayed by since she's known him all her life. She's brought to tears during their talk and is the only collaborator she hesitates before killing.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: It's implied she has a good relationship with her mother, as Perry visits her to find out where Kathleen is when he can't find her.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Kathleen loved and admired her brother, and it's his murder that caused her to take his place as leader of the revolutionaries, influencing her group to be just as bad as FEDRA in order to overthrow their oppressors.
Fake Ultimate Hero: While she is legitimately the reason the Revolutionaries were able to overthrow FEDRA, she doesn't seem to actually care much about the actual people themselves, to the point she hides the fact the QZ is in danger from a Clicker horde so they won't stop seeking Henry, a lie her first in command holds up.
Fatal Flaw: Wrath. Her quest for revenge for her brother skews her priorities, ultimately leading to her death and the death of the resistance.
Faux Affably Evil: Her voice always maintains the cadence of a mother gently chastising her children for their bad behavior, but it's clear she enjoys sadistically toying with the lives of people at her mercy. She pretends to be reasonable when questioning captured collaborators, promising a trial and imprisonment as opposed to death if they give up Henry. As soon as she gets the info, she orders her men to kill them all and burn the bodies, for easier disposal. She later turns down Henry's offer to sacrifice himself if she'll let Sam and Ellie live with a painfully insincere, "No, sorry," before explaining why the children "have" to die.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Once just another oppressed resident of the Kansas City QZ, her brother's death drove her to lead a revolution to overthrow FEDRA — and, in the process, become a despotic leader in her turn.
General Failure: While the Kansas City FEDRA was brutal it at least kept the infected at bay for more than 20 years. However, under Kathleen's leadership the city falls to the infected in less than two weeks.
Hate Sink: Though she succeeded in overthrowing FEDRA's tyrannical rule over Kansas City, Kathleen turns out to be no better than her oppressors and shows no sympathy towards any collaborators even after they surrendered themselves to her, whom she had executed despite earlier telling them that she won't kill them after they provided information on Henry. She has her hunters ambushing any travelers who wandered into the city and steal their supplies and doesn't even care if innocent children are among the casualties. She refuses to tell her more reasonable subordinates about an active infestation because she doesn't want to distract from her personal revenge, but has the gall to try to convince Henry to have his kid brother killed because, as she puts it, "the world doesn't revolve around him." Even her closest subordinate sacrificing himself so she can escape the aforementioned infestation doesn't even get her to bat an eye, and she goes right back to revenge. No tears are shed when she's finally torn apart by a Clicker due to her own shortsighted need for vengeance.
He Who Fights Monsters: Her revolution to overthrow the fascist FEDRA regime leads her to become just as ruthless as her oppressors, but not a tenth as competent.
Hypocrite:
- She accuses Henry of sacrificing everything to keep Sam alive in a world where children die all the time, as if she is not doing the same thing by demanding her people to give everything they have to fulfill her quest for revenge, and she even gets them killed by the very Clicker infestation she was withholding information about.
- She heavily derides FEDRA for having promised fair treatment to prisoners, only to torture and beat them to death under a sign proclaiming their rights. In the present, she offers fair trials to FEDRA collaborators, only to have them all executed once she has info on Henry.
I Lied: She promises FEDRA informants who turned themselves in a fair trial, blunting stating they'll all be found guilty and imprisonment instead of execution if they tell her Henry's location. Once one of them does, Kathleen orders Perry to kill them all then burn their bodies.
Inadequate Inheritor: Kathleen admits she feels this way about herself in regards to the former revolutionary leader, her brother. She acknowledges she's done horrible things that her brother would never have wanted while he was a purely good person. Perry tells her that, as much as he and the other revolutionaries loved her brother, they see Kathleen as his Superior Successor, because her brother never accomplished anything while Kathleen did. Turns out Kathleen's assessment was more accurate since her quest for vengeance against Henry ends up directly causing the revolutionaries to be wiped out by Infected.
It's All About Me: While Kathleen does have her reasons for the way she behaves, it is no excuse for how she chooses her actions based solely on her own gratification rather than actually helping people. She calls out Henry for thinking that the world revolves around his brother but it is hollow when it is apparent she thinks the world revolves around herself and her brother.
- She sends all her soldiers on a manhunt for the person who sold out her brother instead of having some stay behind to guard her city.
- She kills a Doctor which is a rare commodity nowadays because he not give up the whereabouts of Henry rather than think about how valuable he is in providing medical care of her citizens.
- When informed about a potential outbreak of Infected in a nearby building, she chooses to cover it up so that her soldiers would not be distracted from her personal manhunt. This comes to bite her people in the ass when the Infected inevitably run rampant and slaughter them. All because she only cared about getting her revenge.
It's Personal: Kathleen's love for her late brother who was betrayed by Henry makes finding Henry her top priority.
Karmic Death: Immediately after proclaiming her willingness to murder Sam and Ellie for reasons that were not their fault, Kathleen herself is killed by a child Clicker. On a larger scale, the revolutionary group that Kathleen leads is ambushed and quickly massacred by the very horde of Infected that she knew about, but willingly chose to ignore in favor of pursuing her personal vendetta against Henry.
Lack of Empathy: She doesn't care about the reasons why some of her neighbors acted as informants for FEDRA, lumping in those who sold out people for booze and apples with those who did it because FEDRA literally put guns to their heads (Edelstein) or offered life-saving medicine for themselves and their loved ones (Henry and Sam). She flat-out says she knows Henry sacrificed her brother to save his own, but doesn't care, coldly saying the eight-year-old Sam was "supposed to die". She then makes it clear she'll kill both him and the teenage Ellie for events beyond their control, just because of the people they're with.
Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: A notable aversion. Kathleen was told by her brother face-to-face to forgive Henry, and knows he would not approve of anything she's doing. But seeing him die having accomplished nothing major with the resistance swayed her from that.
Moral Myopia: She tries to convince Henry to let his eight-year-old brother be killed by her militia by claiming that there are more important things than his life. This is the same person who withheld information about a surfacing Clicker infestation from her troops because she didn't want them to abandon the manhunt for her brother's killer.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Despite leading the Kansas City revolution, she shows no interest in actually protecting the city, instead seeing the militia as a means to an end for personal revenge. Given that under her brother's leadership the revolution stagnated, it's likely she didn't care then, either.
Reign of Terror: Much like in the rest of the former United States, the Kansas City QZ run by FEDRA turned into a fascist regime that murdered dissidents. After overthrowing them, Kathleen and her group act just as ruthlessly, gunning down outsiders on sight and executing FEDRA "collaborators" throughout the city, even though some of them were threatened with death to get them to sell out their neighbors.
Revenge Before Reason:
- She prioritizes her revenge against Henry for his role in her brother's death over the Infected gaining a way into Kansas City. Rather than tell everyone of the danger, she has her Number Two seal off the building they can emerge from and orders that no one be told until Henry is found. For her part, she admits to this flaw to Perry as she tearfully explains how much she loved her brother and why she wants vengeance against Henry so much, yet she allows herself to be consumed by it anyway. Even when there's an entire horde of infected pouring out of the ground and killing all of her men, Kathleen still tries to kill Henry for what he did, which ultimately leads to her own downfall when a child Clicker ambushes her from behind and mauls her to death.
- Even before the debacle above, she kills a doctor (hard to come by these days), because said doctor was a collaborator (under threat of death by FEDRA) and won't tell her where Henry is.
Revenge by Proxy: She intends to murder Sam and Ellie in retaliation for actions taken by Sam's brother Henry and Ellie's guardian Joel.
Revenge Myopia: She wants revenge on Joel for killing some of her men in a fight they started.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kathleen's assumption that Henry recruited Joel turns out to be true though as a bodyguard and not a mercenary.
Skewed Priorities: Not even an attack by a horde of infected and a Bloater will make her reconsider from going after Henry.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: She has the voice and intonation of a caring mother, but dishes out death to anyone standing in her way to get justice for her brother.
They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: She is the leader of a violent revolutionary movement but has the look and bearing of a suburban mom. By contrast, her second-in-command Perry fits the bill of a grizzled elderly apocalyptic survivor almost to parody, but politely points out things to her and follows her orders.
Too Dumb to Live: Her staying behind to kill Henry - even after her second-in-command died telling her to run from the army of infected that burst out of the ground - is pure idiocy.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: As a resistance leader, Kathleen is ruthless and aware she's worse than her brother, who'd be appalled at everything she's doing.
The Unfettered: Nothing - not even clear and present danger - will stop her in the quest to kill Henry and Sam as revenge for her brother.
Villainous Friendship: Kathleen seems to value Perry beyond him just being her second-in-command given that she confides in him her doubts about herself and tells him stories about herself and her brother when they were kids.
Would Hurt a Child: She has no qualms about trying to kill Sam because he's the reason why Henry sold her brother out to FEDRA in the first place, and Ellie simply because she's with the person who killed some of her men.
Wrong Assumption: She assumes that Joel and Ellie are mercenaries hired by Henry to attack them. Although Henry eventually did hire them for protection, Kathleen has no way of knowing that and simply makes up an excuse to get her army to double down on finding Henry for her own selfish purpose.
You Killed My Father: Brother, in this case — FEDRA executed him before the revolution after Henry ratted him out.

Perry

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/820fd89e_11f1_40e3_9158_171d611c67f8.jpeg

Played By: Jeffrey Pierce

Kathleen's second-in-command.

All There in the Manual: Jeffrey mentioned in interviews through HBO that Perry used to be a soldier prior to the global outbreak.
Canon Foreigner: He does not exist in the game. However, his actor does, as Jeffrey Pierce provided the voice and motion capture for Tommy.
Casting Gag: Jeffrey Pierce does the voice and motion capture of Tommy Miller in the games.
The Confidant: He serves as this to Kathleen, being the only revolutionary she shows any vulnerability to, telling him about her childhood with her brother and her own doubts about not being a good person like him.
Cruel and Unusual Death: There's nothing left of him after the Bloater gets ahold of him.
The Dragon: Kathleen's right-hand man, confidant and most capable soldier.
Fatal Flaw: Loyalty. Perry is smart enough to avoid Blind Obedience by questioning Kathleen's riskier decisions in pursuit of vengeance, but ultimately he's too loyal to her to ever disobey, even when he knows it's a bad idea. Agreeing with her decision to keep the infected under Kansas City a secret leads to them wiping out the revolutionaries, a Bloater ripping off his head and Kathleen getting mauled by a Clicker.
Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed but notable. As part of his My Master, Right or Wrong Undying Loyalty relationship to Kathleen, he'll question her orders but he'll still carry them out, as she is the reason FEDRA is gone and she is his friend, so she must know what she is doing. His belief in her not only costs him and everyone else in the Kansas City QZ their lives, but Kathleen immediately wastes the chance he gives her to save herself not five minutes went she is eaten by a Clicker while trying to kill Henry and Sam again.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To Kathleen, whose poor leadership makes it seem that Perry backing her up is the only thing keeping her in command. When the Infected horde emerges from underground, Perry immediately turns his full attention to trying to hold them off, quickly and correctly recognizing that the Infected are a much more pressing concern than Kathleen's personal conflict with Henry.
Jawbreaker: His unfortunate demise when a Bloater emerges is to have his head ripped in two by the jaw.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Though he sometimes questions Kathleen's decisions, like prioritizing the hunt for Henry over more pressing matters on the night of the revolutionaries' victory or keeping signs of infected in the city a secret from her followers, but ultimately he always does what Kathleen says.
Number Two: He's Kathleen's second-in-command in the Kansas City revolutionaries.
Off with His Head!: He dies when a Bloater gets ahold of him and rips his head clean off.
Senseless Sacrifice: He tries to distract the Bloater to buy the time for Kathleen to escape at the cost of his own life. However, it's rendered moot when Kathleen stubbornly remains in the area to try to kill Henry and Sam and she gets herself killed shortly after.
Undying Loyalty: He's nothing but loyal to Kathleen despite her faults, to the point that he's willing to sacrifice himself for her by holding off the Bloater while she escapes.

Bryan

Played By: Juan Magana

A revolutionary that ambushes Joel and Ellie.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Joel's at his mercy, he screams obscenities at him as he tries to kill him. Once he's wounded, he begs for mercy, doing everything he can think of to convince the pair to let him live, telling them his name, asking them to carry him to his mother, claiming they can share supplies and be friends. Instead of being portrayed as pathetic, the scene paints him as pitiable.
Alas, Poor Villain: Though he's part of a ruthless group and tries to kill Joel and Ellie for supplies, his final moments paint him as a dumb kid in over his head rather than a monster.
Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: He spends his final moments begging to be taken to his mom then crying out for her before Joel kills him. His father is later seen crying over his body. Kathleen says the reason why she won't spare Ellie is because she was with Joel who killed him.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He gives Joel and Ellie his knife as a sign of surrender so they'll spare his life. Joel uses it to kill him instead.
I Can't Feel My Legs!: After Ellie shoots him, Bryan claims he can't feel his legs, indicating he may be paralyzed.
In the Back: Ellie shoots him from behind, paralyzing him in the process.
I Want My Mommy!: He begs Joel and Ellie to carry him to his mom after he's been shot and spends his last words are him screaming for her.
Moral Myopia: When he has Joel at his mercy, he screams that Joel will pay for what he did to his friends, ignoring the fact Joel only killed them because his group attacked Joel first.
Named by the Adaptation: In the game, the guy that ambushed and overpowered Joel and was shot from behind by Ellie had no name. Here, he's called Bryan.

Anthony

Played By: Ron J. Anderson

A revolutionary sniper that was in charge of monitoring the suburbs.

Adaptational Wimp: The Sniper section in the game is considered one of the hardest part of the game as the sniper's high damage and firing speed and back up from other Hunters give players a hard time even on Normal difficulty. In the TV series, Anthony is alone and because it is dark and he has a horrible aim, Joel is able to sneak up on him easier.
Age Lift: The Hunter Sniper's age is not revealed but doesn't appear to be an old man like Anthony.
Cold Sniper: He's a silent sniper working for the revolutionaries, though he's not a particularly good shot, implied to be because of his age and that his targets are moving at night.
Evil Old Folks: He's an elderly man and is willing to shoot Ellie and Sam when they along with Joel and Henry pass through the suburbs.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Despite being a sniper, he can't actually shoot for shit - something Joel very quickly realizes and exploits. It's likely due to the combination of his age and having lower visibility at nighttime.
Named by the Adaptation: The Sniper in the game goes unnamed. Here, his name is Anthony.
Old Soldier: He's a very old man but he still fights for the revolutionaries.
Suicide by Cop: Joel offers to spare him when he sees his attacker is an old man, telling him to just give up his gun and wait an hour. When he sees Anthony gearing up to attack him anyway, he actually pleads with him not to make him kill him. Anthony ignores him and ends up shot by Joel in self-defense. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann said that they imagined him dying as this as if he survived, Kathleen would've killed him for failing to take out Henry and Sam.

Michael Coghlan

Played By: N/A

The former leader of the revolutionaries in Kansas City. He was sold out by Henry and murdered by FEDRA, causing his sister, Kathleen, to take on his role.

All-Loving Hero: The last time Kathleen saw him alive, he implored her to forgive Henry, despite knowing he was about to die because Henry sold him out to FEDRA. The revolutionaries were much less violent under his command and Kathleen admits if Michael saw the things she'd done since his death, he'd be horrified.
Big Brother Instinct: Kathleen tells Perry a story from her childhood when she used to be afraid of storms until Michael comforted her and told her so long as they were in their bedroom, together, nothing would ever hurt them.
Failure Hero: As Perry admits, though the revolutionaries loved him, Michael never achieved anything before he died, while Kathleen's ruthlessness allowed her to overthrow FEDRA.
The Ghost: He's only mentioned by others and doesn't make an appearance since he died before Joel and Ellie reach Kansas City.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He starts a revolutionary movement to overthrow FEDRA only to end up betrayed by someone he trusted and beaten to death by his oppressors without ever achieving any meaningful victory against them. He begged his sister to forgive his betrayer and she refused his wishes, stepping into his role as leader, overthrowing FEDRA and then ending up getting both his movement and the city he was trying to liberate wiped out by infected due to her singleminded pursuit of vengeance.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He wasn't just executed by FEDRA, they beat him to death.
Posthumous Character: He's dead before the events of the series, with Kathleen's hunt for Henry and Sam over Michael's death driving episodes 4 and 5.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Michael's described as selfless, forgiving, and the kind of person who inspired others to follow him anywhere. He also wasn't anywhere near as violent as his sister, to the point where even after he was betrayed, he begged his sister to forgive the man who did it. Michael ends up beaten to death by FEDRA without his revolutionaries ever managing to achieve anything until Kathleen took over.
Universally Beloved Leader: Everyone who talks about Michael does so in glowing terms. Kathleen describes him like he was a god, and Henry, who was forced to betray him to save his little brother, says Michael was the kind of great man he would've liked to follow anywhere.
- Deconstructed in that Perry, Kathleen's second-in-command, says that, while all the revolutionaries loved him, Michael never achieved anything as their leader, while Kathleen did, managing to overthrow FEDRA.

Others

Henry Burrell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/880ff343_fd15_4495_a32d_5f908178ac8c.jpeg

"See my face? Do I look scared?"

Played By: Lamar Johnson

A young man from the Kansas City QZ, hunted Kathleen's band of revolutionaries for being a FEDRA collaborator. Complicating matters is the matter of caring for his deaf little brother, Sam.

Action Survivor: He survives the revolutionary uprising without any combat skills. He admits to Joel that pointing an unloaded gun at him and Ellie to make a deal is the closest he's ever come to actually killing anyone, and he needs Joel to act as muscle so he can Sam can escape the city.
Adaptational Backstory Change: In the original game, Henry was a traveler who was ambushed while passing through the city, and had the goal of joining the Fireflies and their fight against FEDRA. Here, he's a local being hunted by his vengeful neighbors for collaborating with FEDRA before the revolution.
Adaptational Nice Guy: He's less strict with his younger brother Sam than his game counterpart, who's a borderline Knight Templar Big Brother.
Adaptational Skill: Justified. Since his younger brother Sam is deaf in the show, Henry knows ASL to communicate with him.
Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed, in that he clearly regrets what he had to do, but he did betray Kathleen's brother and rat out the Kansas City Revolutionaries to FEDRA just to save his brother. In the original game, Henry was simply another survivor who crosses paths with Joel and Ellie.
Adaptational Wimp: While Henry's brave and willing to risk his life for his brother's sake, he admits he's never killed anyone and isn't a combatant like his in-game counterpart who fights and kills bandits and infected alongside Joel and Ellie.
Big Brother Instinct: There's nothing he wouldn't do to protect his younger brother Sam, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when Sam turns into an infected and he has no choice but to put him down before he hurts Ellie.
Despair Event Horizon: He loses all will to live after he is forced to kill his infected younger brother. Seconds later, he takes his own life.
Driven to Suicide: Just like in the game, Henry is overcome by despair once he's forced to kill Sam, and he commits suicide with Joel's gun soon after.
Healthcare Motivation: He sold out Kathleen's brother because it was the only way he could get medicine to save his own brother's life.
Hero-Worshipper: He considered Michael, the former resistance leader, a great man, calling him fearless, selfless, and always forgiving. Henry said he was the kind of person he would've followed anywhere, but Sam got sick and the only way to save him was to hand him over to FEDRA.
I Did What I Had to Do: His reasoning for selling Kathleen's brother Michael out to FEDRA. Sam was suffering from leukemia and only FEDRA had the necessary medicine that could treat him, so Henry has no other choice but to betray Michael to them and thus earning Kathleen's wrath. While he doesn't regret his decisions he does believe himself to be a villain.
Laser-Guided Karma: In a way, Henry being forced to kill his own brother after he turns into an infected is the price he paid for selling Kathleen's brother out to FEDRA, resulting in his death.
Les Collaborateurs: He refers to himself as a collaborator because he sold out the information on the revolutionaries to FEDRA. Joel's even briefly disgusted with the idea of working with a "rat" before he comes to understand and empathize with Henry's circumstances.
The Most Wanted: Once the revolutionaries defeat FEDRA, Henry becomes the most wanted man in Kansas City since their leader wants to kill him for causing her own brother's death.
My God, What Have I Done?: Henry's in shock as he asks Joel what he just did after Sam becomes a Runner and Henry kills him to save Ellie. Then Henry turns the gun on himself.
Promotion to Parent: There's no indication of what happened to Henry and Sam's parents, leaving Henry acting as the role of father-figure to his eight-year-old brother.
Self-Deprecation: It turns out his remark that his being a collaborator makes him worse than FEDRA wasn't sarcasm. He genuinely doesn't hold a high opinion of himself for selling out the former resistance leader and considers himself a bad person. At the same time, he doesn't regret saving his brother.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the end, his efforts to protect his brother are All for Nothing.
Staking the Loved One: He's the one who kills Sam after his brother turns into a Runner. He kills himself immediately after.
The Stool Pigeon: In order to get his brother, Sam, life-saving medicine to treat his leukemia, Henry gave up the leader of the resistance to FEDRA. The leader was Kathleen's brother.
Yank the Dog's Chain: He survives FEDRA's regime, the revolutionaries hunting him for ten days, and subsequent Infected attack along with his little brother. Afterward, Henry seems to catch a break as Joel invites Henry and Sam to accompany him and Ellie, which Henry happily accepts. Then it turns out Sam was infected during the attack, and though Ellie tries to cure him with her blood, it fails. Henry is forced to kill Sam himself to save Ellie, and with nothing else to live for, immediately kills himself.

Sam Burrell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/84c13878_773c_4e6f_ae74_12003c5abc5f.jpeg

Played By: Keivonn Montreal Woodard

Henry's deaf younger brother. Kathleen's revolutionaries are hunting him alongside his brother.

Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Downplayed. In the game, Sam doesn't tell anyone after he got infected and ended up alone and scared as he waits to turn into a Runner. Here, he at least musters up enough courage to tell Ellie about it, who uses her own blood to apply to his wound in the hopes that her immunity would transfer to Sam as well, and she stays with him through the entire night to at least reassure him that he won't be alone when he turns, giving Sam some solace in his final moments.
Adaptational Skill: Unlike the game, Sam knows and communicates with his older brother in ASL, which is justified on the account that he's deaf in the show.
Age Lift: Sam is even younger than his video game counterpart, being just 8 here instead of 14 like Ellie.
And Then John Was a Zombie: Just like in the game, he got bitten in the leg and eventually turns into a Runner and has to be put down by his own brother.
Disabled in the Adaptation: The game's version of Sam is not deaf. Like his actor, his character is deaf in the series, forcing him to communicate by writing with anybody but Henry, since they don't know sign language. He is also a leukemia survivor, whereas the game's Sam had no hint of ever having any serious illness prior to the game.
Heroic Sacrifice: It's heavily implied that he spends his last moments of control sitting and facing away from a sleeping Ellie so he doesn't attack once he turned.
Littlest Cancer Patient: In addition to deafness, Sam in this version also suffers from leukemia, which is the reason why Henry is forced to sell the Kansas City Revolutionaries out to FEDRA in exchange for medicines to treat his brother.
Living Emotional Crutch: Sam is the most important person in the world to Henry, who will do anything to keep his little brother alive. When Sam becomes a Runner and Henry is forced to kill him to save Ellie, Henry kills himself mere moments after, believing there's nothing else to live for.
Kill the Cutie: He gets infected and Henry has no choice but to kill him.
Protectorate: Henry is just as devoted to protecting Sam, as Joel is to protecting Ellie.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: An Adorably Precocious Child who brings joy to those around him even amidst the bleakness of the world. It's not a surprise that he ends up dead just like Sarah.
Twofer Token Minority: He is black and deaf.
The Voiceless: Justified on the account that he's deaf. He does speak after turning into Runner, but only in feral screaming.
Zombie Infectee: Unbeknownst to all, he gets bitten during the attack and later reveals his bite mark to Ellie. She tries to cure him with her blood but he still turns the next morning.

Eldelstein

Played By: John Getz

A doctor within the Kansas City QZ.

Les Collaborateurs: He's another FEDRA "collaborator", having sold them information, though he was much subtler about it than others as the revolutionary leader, Kathleen, was a friend of his and never suspected.
Cool Old Guy: He helped Sam and Henry hide when the revolutionaries first overthrew FEDRA, steals food to feed them, and plans to escape KS with them. Even when he's found and captured by Kathleen, he refuses to give up Henry and Sam's location, and instead calls Kathleen out on perpetuating the violence FEDRA inflicted on KS rather than putting a stop to it.
Et Tu, Brute?: He's literally known Kathleen all her life, being the doctor that delivered her, and it's implied she trusted him a great deal, to the point she's brought to tears when talking to him and he's the only collaborator she hesitates before killing.
The Medic: He's a doctor in the Kansas City QZ.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: He did act as an informant for FEDRA but only because they put a gun to his head. When he tells Kathleen this, she does the same to force him to reveal Henry and Sam's location. Eldelstein refuses and Kathleen ends up killing him.
Red Shirt: Another victim of the Kansas City Revolutionaries; Kathleen kills him in a moment of frustration to demonstrate how vindictive and short-sighted she is.
You Wouldn't Shoot Me: When Kathleen threatens to kill him and asks if he thinks she wouldn't, he just shakes his head and says, "I'm your doctor." Unfortunately afterwards Kathleen finds out several of her men have been killed and this steels her resolve enough to return to his cell and execute him.

Jackson, WY

In General

The town of Jackson, Wyoming. Joel's brother Tommy lives here along with his wife Maria, one of the town's effective leaders.

Arcadia: With the exception of its hydro powerplant Jackson fits this description as it is a primarily agricultural town located in the countryside and is also one of the most prosperous and peaceful settlements in post-apocalyptic America especially when compared to major cities which have either fallen to the infected or devolved into totalitarian dictatorships.
Boring, but Practical: Jackson has stayed safe for years with little more than a stockade wall, horse-mounted guards with bolt action rifles, and a bit of isolation from the rest of the world.
Chummy Commies: By Maria's own admission, the town is a commune, and everything is shared equally by the populace as needed. It's also the only community shown thus far which has a pre-outbreak level of comfort and stability, and is by far the most peaceful.
Disaster Democracy: It is stated that Jackson has an elected council.
The Dreaded: The people of Jackson have been so successful at repelling raider attacks that most people in the area do not dare approach the town and have nicknamed the nearby river "The River of Death". Interestingly, the people of Jackson are well aware of their reputation and play it up to ensure that no one bothers them.
Flyover Country: Jackson is located in Wyoming.
Foil: To both FEDRA and Kansas City revolutionaries.
- The people of Jackson have managed to create a stable and prosperous community without sacrificing democracy and civil liberties in the process thereby proving FEDRA's claims that humanity cannot survive without totalitarian measures wrong.
- The leaders of Jackson are infinitely more competent and less bloodthirsty than Kathleen's revolutionaries and put the needs of the community above their personal interests.
Good Is Not Soft: As many raiders can attest, despite their pacifistic leanings the people of Jackson will not hesitate to kill those who threathen the safety of their town.
Hidden Elf Village: The town is almost completely isolated from the outside world, projecting a fearsome image to keep raiders and other threats far away.
New Old West: Aside from the presence of electricity and greenhouses, Jackson resembles an Old West stockade town more than anything. The fact that all travel outside is done on horseback instead of anything more advanced just adds to it.
Shining City: The first full-sized community shown that's actually a good place to live in, being so comfortable as to have amenities such as a multifaith chapel and a movie theater and lacking the oppressive policing of the Quarantine Zones.
Terror Hero: The town militia plays up an image of fearsome isolationists, keeping bodies of infected and raiders strewn about the region to ward off raiders and being as threatening as possible to outsiders. All of this has kept their town safe since the outbreak. They also pointedly do not raid passersby, only killing raiders and infected and scaring anyone else off.
Uncertain Doom: It is mentioned that the current inhabitants of Jackson have migrated there relatively recently and are not the original residents. It is mentioned that the town was found completely abandoned and the fate of the original inhabitants remains a mystery.

Silver Lake, CO

In General

A group of deeply religious survivors led by David, who have been facing a food shortage due to the winter.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Most of the Cannibals in the game reused the same models as the generic raiders in other parts of the game, which gave them the look of ragged wilderness squatters. Here they're dressed like normal, everyday people.
Adaptational Heroism: Some of them are this by default. In the game, all of the cannibals knew they were eating human meat, whereas in the show, only a select few of the group are let in on the secret.
Avenging the Villain: The ones who go out to hunt other survivors for meat want revenge on Joel for killing one of their own in self-defense.
Cannibal Clan: The group consists of men, women, and children who have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive, especially during the winter months, although only a few of them are actually aware of where the meat's really coming from.
Churchgoing Villain: The ones who are privy to the secret of the venison are all this, attending David's sermons along with the rest of their group.
Cult: David is shown to have twisted Christianity for his own purposes to keep the group in line, preaching to them in sermons while abusing them.
Early-Bird Cameo: The men that Joel and Ellie encounter at the university in "Kin" are members of David's group searching for supplies, but don't get properly introduced for two episodes.
Locked Out of the Loop: According to David, only a few of them know they're eating human meat, with everyone outside his inner circle being tricked into it.
Moral Myopia: The group demands Joel and Ellie be hunted down to gain "justice" for what they did to a member of their scavenger party. Of course, the only reason that man died was because he attacked Joel first. The group either isn't aware of this or doesn't care.
No Party Like a Donner Party: They indulge in this in order to pad out their meager food supplies. What's worse, David tells Ellie that only a couple of others in the community know about it, meaning this trope is being forced on the other unwitting members of the group.
Revenge Myopia: The cannibals who want to kill Joel and Ellie to avenge Alec's death don't care that Joel only killed Alec in self-defense, and don't care that Ellie is guilty of nothing more than being his associate.
The Secret of Long Pork Pies: The majority of them have no clue that they're eating human meat. Only David and his inner circle know the truth.
Would Hurt a Child: David slaps a girl who spoke out of turn. Also his men are eager to kill Ellie.

David

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fqjo5fgxoaaa5ri_1.jpg

"There is no fear in love."

Played By: Scott Shepherd

The leader of Silver Lake, a ruthless and controlling man who has resorted to feeding his "flock" human meat without their knowledge to stave off starvation.

Admiring the Abomination: While trying to sway Ellie to his side, David briefly monologues about how the Cordyceps infection isn't malicious but is a manifestation of love that humans can learn from. To a certain extent he isn't wrong, in that the infection is indeed just a natural outcome of competition for survival, but his speech still betrays a disturbing mentality.
Adaptational Attractiveness: The show's David is considerably better groomed and less obviously creepy than the game's version.
Adaptational Job Change: David is given a backstory as a teacher. Since the audience also gets to see David with his community away from Ellie in (relative) peace, David's comments in the game and the restaurant's banner are expanded to David being shown as his community's spiritual as well as organizational leader.
Adaptational Villainy: The game's David was already a nasty excuse for a human being, but his series counterpart manages to be even worse. Here he is much more abusive and authoritharian towards his followers than in the game, such as slapping a teenage girl in public for speaking out of turn, deliberately intimidating his guards into submission, eating a full plate of stew while the others eat measly bowls and even feeding his unknowing followers their own loved ones. That is on top of making his pedophilic tendencies towards Ellie far more explicit and heavily suggesting she wasn't his first victim even before the outbreak.
Adaptation Expansion: Like all survivors in the games, David's past prior to Outbreak Day is never mentioned. The show has him as a teacher in the pre-apocalypse who found religion and became a preacher afterwards. He lived in the Pittsburgh QZ before it was destroyed in a war between FEDRA and the Fireflies, and then travelled with fellow survivors who he became a pastor for, adding more survivors to his "flock" until they settled in Silver Lake.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: David initially appears to be a kind and understanding priest who seeks justice but prevents his followers from acting out the worst of their instincts. He is slowly revealed to be a manipulative cult leader who practices cannibalism, as well as a pedophile and a rapist with self-admitted violent tendencies.
Ephebophile: He's sexually attracted to Ellie, who's a 14-year-old girl. And based on his comments and his pre-apocalypse profession as a teacher for young teenagers, it's very likely she would not have been his first victim.
Evil Counterpart: To Joel, being an alternative potential father figure to Ellie, but with completely opposing personalities and perverted ulterior motives. The comparison is made more explicit by David carrying an unconscious Ellie in the same way Joel carried Sarah in Episode 1.
Evil Teacher: A former teacher, and one who may well have preyed on his students.
A Father to His Men: Subverted. David presents himself as a loving but stern leader, but he dismisses his followers as "sheep", happily cannibalizes them when necessary, slaps a grieving child when she interrupts him, and shows no concern when his right-hand man James is killed in front of him.
Faux Affably Evil: He puts on a good show, quoting the Bible and talking soothingly, comforting Ellie and his people—but it doesn't take much for the façade to drop. When an orphaned child interrupts his speech, he slaps her across the face (notably, no one speaks up, not even her mother), and when Ellie breaks his finger he drops a "you little cunt!" From that point on, the mask is off for good.
Hate Sink: He's an utterly disgusting ephebophile and viciously demonstrates how Humans Are the Real Monsters in a dystopic setting where infected tend to dominate the landscape, completely upending the Gray-and-Grey Morality found everywhere else in the series. Specifically, he's a madman who lies to give others false hope, doesn't really care about anybody other than himself, thinks highly about himself, gets aroused when Ellie attacks him, and delights in the possibility of raping her. Of course, this also means that his death, visceral as it may be, is one that he really had coming.
Hiding Behind Religion: It's strongly implied David doesn't actually believe in Christianity and that he just uses religion as a means of controlling his followers, who need something deeper to believe in. He calls himself a shepherd surrounded by sheep.
Jerkass: In addition to being outright evil, David also enjoys a full plate of stew at dinner while his starving followers have more meager bowls of soup.
Karmic Death: What's a better way for a sadistic and creepy ephebophile to be killed than to be overpowered and be repeatedly gutted in the face by a teenage girl that he tried to rape?
Mask of Sanity: He starts off seeming like a kindly spiritual leader who's concerned with the wellbeing of his community, even as hints emerge of darker goings on at Silver Lake. The mask slips for the first time when he drops his composed demeanor and strikes a teenage girl across the face in front of everyone for demanding Ellie's death as revenge for her father's, before he regains his composure. After Ellie breaks his finger, David drops the mask entirely and is reduced to a raving sadistic monster by the time of their fight.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He lets Ellie live despite every opportunity he has to kill her. Once he's done with her and decides to do it, he insists on keeping her alive out of pure sadism. All of this lead to Ellie managing to kill him and James.
"Not So Different" Remark: He tells Ellie that she reminds him of himself, a natural leader who's smart, loyal and has a "violent heart", just like him. Ellie is disgusted by the comparison.
Pedophile Priest: Or rather, pedophile preacher. He abducts Ellie and throws her in a prison cell in the restaurant of Silver Lake. After Ellie shows severe violence against him, he tells her that they can rule together, with obvious romantic undertones on David's part. After Ellie rejects his advances and escapes her cell, David chases her with a butcher knife. After he gets a hold of her, he pins her down and attempts to rape her. Ellie escapes his clutches and strikes him down repeatedly with his butcher knife.
David: The fighting's the part I like the most.
Preacher Man: David is the community's preacher as well as its leader.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The reveal that he's a pedophile who wants to groom Ellie, along with his later Attempted Rape of her, establish to the audience that David is an unrepentant monster who long since abandoned his humanity and is overdue for a violent death which he receives.
Sinister Minister: A preacher who is also a pedophile and a cannibal. Although whether he's actually a man of God or not is left open to interpretation (his conduct and conversation with Ellie in her cell implies that he might just be simply pretending to be a priest because it's the easiest way to keep his followers under control).
They Look Like Everyone Else: David is a nasty piece of work to put it lightly, but he looks no different than any other normal, unassuming middle-aged man.
Villain of the Week: He only appears in one episode, "When We Are In Need", where he serves as the main villain.
We Can Rule Together: He gives a speech to Ellie telling her that she reminds him of himself and offers her a chance to join his group where she can one day rise up to become the leader. Absolutely every word he says is proven to be a lie when it's revealed he's a pedophile who's trying to groom her.
Would Hurt a Child: David slaps a child for interrupting his speech ordering the community to hunt down Joel and Ellie. And then there's his plans to groom/rape/kill/eat Ellie (depending on his mood).

James

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fqjoxbqwcaae_v1.jpg

"It looks pretty fucking real to me!"

Played By: Troy Baker

David's right-hand man.

Adaptational Nice Guy: It's subtle, but he is shown to be much more pleasant than his video game counterpart. He looks ashamed about having to cook and eat Alec for food and having to lie to Hannah. He is also much less abrasive of a person, even towards Ellie, and is implied to be against David's unsavory reasons for keeping Ellie alive.
Avenging the Villain: He's one of the survivors who wants revenge on Ellie and Joel for killing his friend, Alec, despite the fact that Alec was trying to murder them, unprovoked, so he and the rest of the group could eat them.
Casting Gag: Troy Baker played Joel in both of the games.
Dies Wide Open: His eyes are wide open from the shock of getting hit in the neck by a cleaver and it stays that way when he bleeds out and dies.
The Dragon: He appears to be David's second-in-command.
Even Evil Has Standards: When a girl, Hannah, asks when they'll be able to bury her father, James looks ashamed knowing that they've already butchered his body for meat. After the meeting, David says he senses doubts from James, forcing him to confirm his loyalty.
Pragmatic Villainy:
- He dismisses Ellie as "another mouth to feed" and, unlike David, doesn't seem to take any particular pleasure in tormenting her. He also hesitates for a moment when she's passed out in the snow and looks conflicted rather than gleeful about the prospect of shooting her point-blank. That doesn't stop him from trying to shoot her, though, or holding her down when David approaches with the meat cleaver.
- Unlike David, James hesitates before he knowingly eats a stew made from his former friend.
Secret-Keeper: He's one of the members of his group that knows the "venison" they're serving to other survivors is either deceased members of their community or other survivors they've preyed on.
Too Desperate to Be Picky: Troy Baker played James as a pragmatist who isn't religious by any means, and who knows David doesn't believe any of his own preaching and is just using it as a way to control the community, but he goes along with it because it's the only way to survive.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: He's confused and exasperated when David insists on keeping Ellie alive. Presumably he doesn't know about David's other tendencies.
Would Hurt a Child: He goes against David's orders and prepares to kill Ellie because Joel killed one of his friends and he wants revenge on her for being with him. The only reason he doesn't is because David stops him.

Joyce

Played By: Ari Rombough

One of David's inner circle who knows the truth about the meat they're serving the community.

Abusive Parents: Abusive through inaction. Not only does she end up feeding her unknowing daughter Hannah her father's remains, but she quickly backs down when David strikes her daughter for demanding Ellie be killed alongside Joel in revenge of her father's death.
Canon Foreigner: She doesn't exist in the game and was created specifically for the show.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Joyce cares about her daughter Hannah to the extent that her initial reaction to David striking her is to move to interfere, but ultimately she's too scared of David to do more than make the gesture.
Evil Chef: She's one of the members of David's group who knows the "venison" the group's eating is human meat. She's also one of the ones who cooks it, even when it's her own late husband's remains.
Extreme Doormat: A single hand gesture from David is all it takes to stop her from acting after David hits her daughter.
Secret-Keeper: She's one of David's inner circle and knows the truth that they're serving human meat to the rest of her group.
Unholy Matrimony: She's the cannibal chef in mourning for her cannibal husband who would murder other survivors for her to prepare as food.

Alec

A cannibal who is killed by Joel. Husband of Joyce, and father of Hannah.

Batter Up!: Wields a broken baseball bat that he uses to stab Joel.
Neck Snap: Gets killed by Joel this way.
Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears near the end of the 6th episode but his actions in stabbing Joel result in Ellie having to care of him and herself and encountering David.
Unholy Matrimony: Married to the head cannibal chef.

Hannah

Played By: Sonia Maria Chirila

Daughter of Alec and Joyce.

Canon Foreigner: She was made for the show.
Familial Cannibalism Surprise: She believes her father's body will be buried when its spring and the ground is no longer frozen, when in reality it's highly implied her father's remains are in the stew she and everyone else eats that night.
Locked Out of the Loop: She has no idea what the "venison" she and the rest of the group are served is really made of.
Revenge by Proxy: Despite Joel being the one who killed her father, Hannah wants Ellie killed too just for traveling with Joel.
Trauma Conga Line: She's introduced crying her eyes out in the middle of one of David's sermons because her father died, during dinner later she's hit by David for saying Ellie should be killed for being associated with her father's murderer, her mother does nothing to help her, and then she continues eating what's strongly implied to be her father's remains.

Fireflies

In General

A revolutionary militia that are trying to restore the pre-outbreak government and liberate the Quarantine Zones.

Adaptational Wimp: The Fireflies Joel slaughters are much weaker than the ones encountered in the game. In the game, the Fireflies are some of the toughest enemies, equipped with heavy body armor, helmets, and assault rifles, making them difficult opponents. In the show, the Fireflies are less numerous and lacking as much military-grade equipment, letting Joel use flanking and ambush tactics to mow through them without so much as a scratch and their body armor does little to protect them.
The Alleged Expert: From what's seen in the show, the doctor that Marlene is pinning everybody's hopes (and Ellie's sacrifice) upon might not really know what he's doing. While it's possible that all of the materials and tools necessary for a craniotomy and harvesting of tissues or samples are still under sterile drapes on another table, he seems woefully improperly equipped for the procedure he's about to start. But, more tellingly, despite Marlene's statement that Ellie was being "prepped for surgery," they missed Step 1 of prep for brain surgery: shave the patient's head. With an oversight that serious, it absolutely calls into question the general competency of the surgeon - and if he couldn't get something that simple right, it makes the whole nebulous plan about "duplicating chemical messengers" that much more dubious.
Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Episode 7 shows Riley, a new member of the Fireflies, stocking bombs in a mall. From a discussion between her and Ellie we learn that the Fireflies are used to bombing facilities to further their goals. It's unclear if civilians are harmed during those attacks or not. FEDRA propaganda says yes, Riley denies it.
Necessarily Evil: The Boston Firefly unit launched bombings and trigger shootouts with civilian casualties to distract FEDRA while they fled with Ellie.
Saving the World: Their stated goal is to use Ellie's immunity to create a vaccine to restore society.
We ARE Struggling Together: Despite having the same goal as FEDRA to protect what's left of humanity, the two groups are in opposition to each other.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: They want to save what's left of humanity by creating a vaccine.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Unlike the FEDRA who want to maintain order and destroy threats, the Fireflies wish to rebuild society as it was before.

Marlene

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/037c7513_d391_4077_bf11_2a742587314b.jpeg

Played By: Merle Dandridge

The leader of the Fireflies who's trying to smuggle Ellie out of the Boston QZ in order to get her out west to a team of doctors working on a vaccine.

Adaptation Expansion: Her relationship with Anna and her past with Ellie is expanded on in the final episode. Anna and Marlene have literally been friends all their lives. After Anna was bitten by an infected while giving birth to Ellie, she tells Marlene to take her daughter, promise to protect her, then kill Anna herself so she doesn't turn.
Adaptational Nice Girl: Played With. Marlene starts off as more irritable than her game counterpart when she’s first introduced. But once Joel arrives at Salt Lake City, and tries to break the news to Joel that Ellie will have to die for a potential cure to be made, she’s far more apologetic than in the game, whereas she was more-or-less patronizing towards Joel regarding how they take Ellie’s sacrifice. She’s also more fair in regards to letting Joel go, allowing him to take his backpack filled with supplies needed to survive.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After Joel shoots her in the gut, Marlene spends her final moments pleading with Joel to spare her life. He doesn't.
Anti-Villain: She's the leader of a rebel organization that performs terrorist acts that have killed not just FEDRA, but also any civilians unlucky enough to end up as collateral. However, her enemies are not only a dystopian police state but her goal is to both bring back democracy to the United States, and, more importantly, create a cure for the Cordyceps infection. She'll do whatever takes to accomplish this, even if she has to cross moral lines even she isn't comfortable with, like trying to sacrifice her best friend's daughter.
Boom, Headshot!: Joel finishes her off with one after incapacitating her first with a shot to the stomach.
Childhood Friends: When Anna asks Marlene how long they've known each other, Marlene responds by saying all their lives.
Deadpan Snarker: She has a very sarcastic sense of humor, even joking after being shot and waiting on Joel and Tess to agree to escort Ellie for her.
Marlene: You all talk it through but please remember that I'm bleeding out.
Everyone Has Standards: She clearly hates sacrificing Ellie's life to manufacture a cure for Cordyceps but views it as the only way to save the world. She also doesn't have Joel killed out of gratitude for escorting Ellie to Salt Lake City. Her mercy ends up being her undoing.
Foil: To Joel. Both of them were tasked with protecting Ellie as the dying wish of someone they loved. Marlene arranged for Ellie to be taken care of, but took no direct role in her life until Ellie's immunity was discovered, and despite not wanting to sacrifice her, eventually decides to if it means manufacturing a cure to save humanity. Joel tried to remain emotionally distant from Ellie but eventually grew to accept her as a surrogate daughter, and when the time came for him to decide between Ellie's life and saving the world, he chose Ellie's life.
Hair-Trigger Temper: She's very quick to anger and often snaps at anyone who remotely questions her. She attempts to rein it in around Ellie and other Fireflies, but she has no real compunction about berating and threatening Joel and Tess when they get on her nerves.
Hypocrite: She calls Joel out for denying Ellie a say in the lethal surgery that may lead to a cure, while ignoring that she didn't inform Ellie what the surgery entails before giving the order to go ahead with it.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's short-tempered, unnecessarily aggressive towards her allies, and complicit in genuine acts of terrorism, but she's kind to Ellie and her fellow Fireflies for the most part, and she genuinely wants to cure the infection.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: It would have been very simple to never let Joel wake up and safely leave, or she could have lied on what was happening to Ellie. She doesn't resulting in Joel massacring everyone and robbing humanity of its perhaps only chance for a cure.
Rebel Leader: She's the leader of the Fireflies and is willing to do anything to overthrow FEDRA to restore democracy.
Sole Survivor: She and Kim are the last members of the Boston Firefly unit with the others killed in the fight against FEDRA, the shootout with Robert's gang, and the Infected.
Staking the Loved One: After being infected, Anna begs Marlene to kill her before she turns, and while Marlene refuses at first, she ultimately goes through with her friend's request.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She and Joel clearly don't like each other, Marlene viewing Joel as a screwup and Joel viewing Marlene as a fanatic who brainwashed his brother, yet they make a deal out of mutual interest. When Joel manages to bring Ellie all the way to Salt Lake City, Marlene hates that of all the people she's indebted to, it's Joel.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's violent and has her troops commit terrorist bombings that kill countless civilians simply to keep FEDRA distracted, but she's doing it all so that they'll be a shot at a cure.
Would Hurt a Child: Though she clearly hates doing it, Marlene gives the order to have lethal surgery performed on Ellie in the hopes of manufacturing a cure for the Cordyceps infection.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Marlene and the Fireflies goal is to restore democracy to the country by overthrowing FEDRA's fascist regime. However, in order to do so she's not above setting off bombs or having her men engage in shootouts that end with civilians casualties. Ellie even calls Marlene a terrorist after the woman introduces herself, since that's what FEDRA calls them.

Kim Tembo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/86033cc0_7165_449e_9111_75406f429966.jpeg

Played By: Natasha Mumba

The leader of the Boston QZ Firefly unit.

Ear Ache: One of her ears gets shot off during a firefight with Robert's gang, which Marlene bluntly notes when Kim insists she can still act as Ellie's escort.
Marlene: Kim, you don't have a fucking ear on your fucking head! Could you please?
Everyone Has Standards: She's the only member of the Fireflies who questions why Marlene has them committing various terrorist bombings that do nothing but kill random civilians. She backs down when Marlene tells her it's to distract FEDRA from finding out about their plans to smuggle Ellie out of the city.
Jerkass: She's fairly confrontational and aggressive, and unlike Marlene is very gung-ho about killing Joel and Tess to cover up their escape. She does draw the line at the unnecessary killing of civilians, though she'll go along with it if there's a tactical reason for it.
Uncertain Doom: Marlene says she lost nearly all of her people on the journey to Salt Lake City, and since Kim isn't shown in their base, it's implied she was one of the casualties.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: In contrast to Marlene's cynicism, Kim believes the Fireflies can beat FEDRA regardless of the fact the two factions have been at a stalemate for 20 years with neither gaining any significant ground.

FEDRA

In General

The Federal Disaster Relief Agency is the last remaining part of the pre-outbreak U.S. government still in operation, ruling over the quarantine zones set up in major cities. In the years since the fungus ravaged humanity, their rule has grown outright dictatorial and has inspired resistance against them.

Absolute Xenophobe: FEDRA's standard policy towards people who do not live in the QZs is to kill them. Justified (from FEDRA's perspective) as the QZs can't accept everyone due to their limited resources and allowing people to roam free has a risk of them potentially joining the ranks of the infected or raiders.
Adaptational Badass: A minor case. FEDRA in the games was pretty evidently on its last legs, lacking resources to keep control in most of its quarantine zones and only having a single one confirmed as still active. The FEDRA of the TV series, in contrast, explicitly not only has multiple surviving QZs under its control, but a significant resource base, mass producing at least ammo, pharmaceuticals, and fuel.
Asshole Victim: The FEDRA forces in Kansas City get brutally wiped out by the Revolutionaries but given that they were psychopaths that used Kansas City as a playground for their sadism, no tears will be shed.
Blatant Lies: A leftover sign in a containment cell in Kansas City shows that FEDRA was promising a lawyer, medical attention, family visits, food, and clothing to anyone they detained. Kathleen wonders aloud if said cell was where FEDRA troops beat her brother to death. Though again, the Kansas City FEDRA were the worst out of all of them so the jury is still out on if the sign is a lie.
Cold Equation: In the early days of the outbreak, they would shoot any refugees that couldn't be taken into a quarantine zone regardless of infection status, as they considered this a better alternative than A) the refugees using up scarce resources and starving out entire quarantine zones or B) the refugees becoming infected and overwhelming the defenses.
The Dictatorship: FEDRA is explicitly stated to be undemocratic and doesn't allow elections.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: FEDRA doesn't appear to discriminate by race or gender when recruiting. One officer at the boarding school (who is of Asian descent) tells Ellie that she could graduate as an officer if she would just behave herself and live up to her potential.
Fascists' Bed Time: The Boston QZ has a strict curfew of 6 PM to 6 AM, set up early enough in the outbreak for formal signage to be around.
Forever War: FEDRA has been fighting the infected for more than 20 years but it has not made any significant territorial gains during that time period and the infected still present a major threat to the survivors.
Never My Fault: According to Ellie, the FEDRA school that she was placed in refuses to discuss how the U.S. government utterly failed to contain the pandemic or the extreme measures they took to stop the spread of the fungus.
Order Versus Chaos: In the Boston QZ, the FEDRA officer overseeing the boarding school where Ellie was enrolled sincerely believes that they are the only thing stopping the QZ from descending into a chaotic hellscape of murder and starvation. Considering how quickly things in Kansas City fell apart after FEDRA was eliminated from the equation there, he may have a point.
Public Execution: Episode 1 shows that FEDRA frequently organizes public hangings for rule-breakers.
The Remnant: They're the only part of the U.S. government that still exists in the post-apocalyptic landscape.
Repressive, but Efficient: Life in the QZs is fairly miserable under FEDRA's rule and they ruthlessly crack down on anyone who opposes them, but they are absolutely dedicated to keeping any possibility of infection out. Case in point, FEDRA in Kansas City managed to drive the Infected underground and keep them there for fifteen years, and barely a few weeks after the people of the city rise up against FEDRA and wipe them out, the city is overrun with Infected due to the disorder of the rebel militia.
Sucky School: FEDRA runs a military boarding school in the Boston QZ and presumably other areas, which is meant to provide an education for orphaned children and churn out future soldiers. Ellie is very disparaging about her time there, calling it "shitty" and mentioning how FEDRA doesn't teach the students anything about the infected or how their government failed to contain the pandemic. It's also very likely a Boarding School of Horrors, considering Ellie's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior and sadistic tendencies.
Vestigial Empire: Once ruling over a vast and prosperous nation, in the present day they only rule over walled-off enclaves in the major cities and abandoned the ruins in between to raiders, slavers, and the Infected.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: FEDRA is ruthless and oppressive to the people living in QZs but they seem to genuinely believe that this is the only way to protect the remnants of humanity from extinction.
Would Hurt a Child: They are all too happy to shoot anyone who might be infected regardless of age (including Joel's daughter Sarah). Later, they are seen euthanizing an infected child who wandered into the Boston quarantine zone.

Lee

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9950af8d_d0dd_4ef3_a307_a8d078046a99.jpeg

"C'mon. Or I could just shoot you."

Played By: Max Montesi

A corrupt FEDRA soldier in the Boston QZ who has dealings with Joel.

Asshole Victim: He doesn't come off as particularly sympathetic before his brutal death. Not only is he a corrupt enforcer of a fascist regime, he also tries to shake down Joel in exchange for not turning him in and doesn't hesitate to try to gun down a teenage girl (albeit one who did attack him), the last of which results in his death.
Dirty Cop: He's a FEDRA soldier, but he's also corrupt, being complicit in Joel's smuggling operation. When he finds Joel, Ellie and Tess sneaking out of the QZ he attempts to shake them down for more in exchange for not turning them in to be executed.
Faux Affably Evil: He's friendly with Joel, but it's clearly an act and does little to disguise how slimy he is.
Functional Addict: He's a pain pill popper, and a repeat customer of Joel's. It doesn't seem to interfere with his FEDRA duties, however.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Lee comes off as smug and weaselly even when he's trying to act nice, but he expresses what seems to be a genuine concern for Joel, telling him to stay indoors due to FEDRA cracking down on the Fireflies. Then when he finds Joel, Tess and Ellie outside the QZ, he threatens them with execution unless they bribe him, and makes it clear he'll gun down Joel too if he doesn't let him kill Ellie.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He's beaten to death by Joel when he threatens to shoot Ellie, causing Joel to flashback to the night of the outbreak when a soldier murdered Sarah.
"Not So Different" Remark: While buying drugs from Joel, Joel says he guesses that Lee needs the pills to sleep at night after killing so many people. Lee's response is sarcastically emphasizing Joel's use of the word "guess" since Joel's killed plenty himself.
Smug Snake: He knows his authority as a FEDRA officer gives him carte blanche to do what he wants, and he loves it. He insults Joel to his face multiple times, and when he holds him, Tess, and Ellie at gunpoint he's very much convinced that they don't pose a threat to him. Joel proves him wrong in the most brutal manner possible.
Would Hurt a Child: Ellie stabs him in the leg during the middle of a scan to stop him from finding out she's infected, and Lee tries to gun her down in revenge. The soldier threatening to shoot a defenseless girl in front of Joel triggers his memories of Sarah's murder and causes him to rush Lee then beat him to death.

Knapp

Voiced by: Jason Burkart

A FEDRA foreman who oversees survivors who do work in the QZ.

Brutal Honesty: Doesn't mince words about which jobs are the worse.
Flat Character: Not much is known about him.

Captain Kwong

Played By: Terry Chen

A FEDRA officer who works at the boarding school in the Boston QZ.

Adaptational Nice Guy: He serves as a nicer and reasonable stand-in for Corporal "Dickhead" mentioned in the Left Behind DLC and seen in The Last of Us: American Dreams.
Brutal Honesty: He tells Ellie that she is destined to be a grunt working under people like her bully doing the worst jobs in terrible conditions if she keeps misbehaving.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Kwong is largely understanding and encouraging to Ellie, hinting that he thinks people like Bethany are awful and that he wants her to succeed, as he sees promise in her. And rather than inflict another harsh punishment on Ellie after she assaults Bethany (which he felt wouldn't have worked anyway), he tries to incentivize her to behave by pointing out the perks of being an officer instead of an ordinary grunt.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: FEDRA's tactics are unrelentingly brutal and oppressive, but Kwong believes that without them, the QZ wouldn't survive. Considering how Kansas City barely lasted a week after overthrowing their own FEDRA government, he may not be entirely wrong.

Others

Anna

Played By: Ashley Johnson

Ellie's deceased mother.

Adaptation Expansion: According to Druckmann, the show is using content from a planned animated short that would have starred Anna but never ended up coming to fruition.
Casting Gag: Ashley Johnson played Ellie in the games. Here, she plays her mother.
Childhood Friends: According to Marlene, she and Anna have known each other their entire lives.
Death by Childbirth: She dies shortly after giving birth to Ellie. She doesn't die as a consequence of labor, though, but shot by Marlene to prevent her from turning into an Infected.
Face Death with Dignity: She's fully prepared to do this, calmly telling Marlene to shoot her so she doesn't turn. She resorts to begging and screaming when Marlene initially refuses, only to return and carry out Anna's wishes.
For Want Of A Nail: Had Marlene not been late to meet her, Anna wouldn't have been bitten and Ellie would not have been exposed to cordyceps and become immune as a result.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: After being infected, she begs Marlene to kill her so she doesn't turn. The fact Anna's unarmed and had given away her knife may have something to do with it, as she showed a willingness to stab herself in the throat with it if she turned before Marlene and the others could find her and Ellie.
Mama Bear: She's fully prepared to kill herself if she senses herself turning rather than endanger the life of her newborn daughter. When Marlene finds her, Anna's been holding a knife to her own throat for presumably hours.
Mercy Kill: Marlene shoots Anna as per her Last Request, as she had been bitten shortly before giving birth.
Pregnant Badass: Anna managed to escape through a forest to a remote farmhouse while being pursued by infected and actually kill a stalker while in the middle of labor.
Tragic Keepsake: Ellie's switchblade once belonged to Anna, and was entrusted to Marlene along with baby Ellie until she was old enough.
Unseen No More: Anna doesn't appear in either game and is only mentioned a handful of times.

Neuman

Played By: John Hannah ^{Other languages}

A renowned mycologist invited on a talk show who explains about the phantom dangers of the fungi in 1968.

Canon Foreigner: He's an original character created for the show.
Cozy Voice for Catastrophes: He never loses his calm tone of voice, even as he goes into excruciating detail about just how utterly fucked humanity would be if fungi were to evolve enough to cause an outbreak.
Deadpan Snarker: He makes a few witty remarks during his interview.
Ignored Expert: He accurately predicts the possibility of an apocalyptic fungus outbreak a full 35 years before it happens. Though the studio audience is disturbed by his words, it's pretty clear nobody in power actually did anything to prevent his predictions coming true.
Mr. Exposition: His purpose is to inform the viewers - both in and out of universe - about the potential catastrophic danger of the fungi lifeform to human beings.
Properly Paranoid: He posits his hypothesis of the danger of a fungal outbreak 35 years before that fear becomes a reality. He also predicts the danger of global warming half a century before it became a major issue, due to it making the threat of fungi much more likely.
Storyboarding the Apocalypse: His entire scene involves him detailing at length what would happen in the event of a fungal outbreak and it is absolutely chilling.

Florence and Marlon

Played By: Elaine Miles (Florence) and Graham Greene (Marlon)

Two survivors who live in the mountains of Wyoming, near Jackson.

Actually Pretty Funny: Marlon asks why Joel and Ellie need directions if they have a map. Ellie snaps they missed all the street signs in the enormous fucking forest, causing Marlon to let out an awed, "Ho-ly," and Florence to laugh.
Brutal Honesty: Based on what they've seen past the "River of Death", they tell Joel if his brother is there, he must be gone. When Joel asks for advice on the safest way to travel west anyway, Marlon tells him to "go east."
Canon Foreigner: They don't exist in the games.
Casual Danger Dialogue: When two strangers break into their house and hold them at gunpoint, the couple reacts with mild annoyance and answers all of their questions with a heaping helping of sarcasm. It helps that Joel and Ellie are just looking for information and aside from keeping their guns trained on them, never actually make a move to hurt them.
Comically Missing the Point: When Ellie asks if they know about the Fireflies, Florence says they get those in the spring. Ellie says she isn't talking about bugs, she means the people. Florence catches on at this point but pretends not to.
Florence: There are firefly people?
Both Marlon and Florence laugh
Cool Old Guy: The pair of them are probably the coolest old folks a person could hope to run into during a post-apocalypse. They dish out sarcastic jabs, brutal honesty and useful advice in abundance. Florence even made Joel and Ellie soup after they took her hostage because it was cold out.
Cozy Catastrophe: Because the couple had already been resident in their cabin for decades by the time the outbreak happened, they've managed to have a pretty good life for the past twenty years by staying up in the mountains.
Deadpan Snarker: The pair of them are incredibly snarky, managing to keep up with Ellie.
The Hermit: Marlon snarks that they moved to the cabin before Joel was even born to "get away from everybody." Florence chimes in immediately afterwards that she didn't want to. They're so isolated that they've apparently never even heard of the Fireflies (although that might just have been Florence trolling Ellie, and they are naturally aware of the infected).
Like an Old Married Couple: Florence and Marlon are an old married couple. They don't just dish out sarcastic jabs to Joel and Ellie, but to each other as well, even though it's abundantly clear the couple truly loves each other.
Marlon: Came here before you were born, sonny. Get the hell away from everybody.
Florence: I didn't want to.
Marlon: [makes a dismissive gesture at her] Ehh.
Only Sane Man: Marlon is this, as he's understandably frustrated with the fact that Joel and Ellie showed up and Florence not only didn't do anything to fight back, she actually made the people holding her hostage soup. To be fair, Florence points out that the gun was entirely out of her reach when Joel showed up; she likely realized immediately that cooperating was the safest play.
The Pollyanna: Florence is this, as she's honest and feeds Joel and Ellie when they show up. Then again, one could easily argue that this is the smartest course of action to take when you have no backup and two strangers pointing guns at you.
Token Minority: They are the only Native American characters in the show.

The Infected

Human beings infected by a mutated cordyceps fungus, which mind-controls them into animalistically spreading it to other humans

Adaptational Intelligence: One Infected calmly approaches and "kisses" an infected Tess with the tendrils in its mouth. It's unclear if this is just an Infected acting composed, or if it is mimicking social interactions from its past life, but either behaviour is beyond the Infected in the game. ^note
Adaptational Badass:
- Clickers have hearing sensitive enough to hear Joel reload his revolver, whereas in the games it was safe to reload near one.
- Zigzagged with the Bloater, which has little to no reaction to having an entire magazine of assault rifle rounds emptied into it, while in the game that would at least damage it and cause it to react angrily. However, the show version of the Bloater lacks the ranged spore attack of its game counterpart.
Adaptational Superpower Change:
- Unlike in the game, the Infected are connected through fungus tendrils. When resting, a group of them will roll in sync, and they can notify each other from great distances of disturbances and threats.
- Stalkers don't appear to display the stealthy hunting abilities of their game counterparts, instead acting more like tougher Runners.
And I Must Scream: Episode 2 shows that, when they're not in zombie-horde-mode, they swarm in groups connected to the mycelial network, screeching and shambling on the ground in visible agony.
The Berserker: They do not think, they do not plan, they only mindlessly lunge at their victims.
- This is especially the case with Clickers, who the second they pick up on something become mindbogglingly violent and relentless. Joel and Tess recognize a killing as done by a Clicker rather than a normal Infected by the fact it had been savaged, as if by an animal.
- Bloaters are even worse, able to use their brute strength in horrifying ways. They charge into, smash, and throw human survivors with lethal force and are able to tear a person's head off with its bare hands.
Body Horror: Many of their bodies have rotten away over the years and the fungus has become stronger that it grew and started coming out of their brains, covering up or utterly consuming the upper half of their face.
Disability Superpower: As the fungus grows, it splits the heads of the infected open and destroys their eyes, but can also command them to echolocate as an alternative, which in turn makes them better at navigating in the dark. Fungus also hardens enough to stop a few bullets.
The Dreaded:
- All Infected are dangerous, but Joel and Tess (both toughened and extremely capable survivors) are visibly afraid when they find evidence a Clicker has been nearby. Henry considers the fact that Joel and Ellie have faced a Clicker and not died as proof alone that they are badasses.
- The Bloaters are horrifying enough that stories about them have traveled around the U.S., even if barely anyone has seen one and survived. Perry, an experienced and heavily armed survivor, realizes quickly that standing up to one is tantamount to suicide.
Elite Zombie: The bloater that emerges from the crater is an unstoppable lumbering beast, with enough strength to rip a man's head off with its bare hands and enough fungal armor to shrug off a burst from an automatic rifle. In the podcast after the episode in which the Bloater appears, Mazin and Druckmann explain that only the largest and strongest infected turn into Bloaters, as most Clickers eventually succumb to the fungus as it eats through their bodies.
Facial Horror: The fungus takes root in the head of its hosts. The early stages of infection are disgusting, with tendrils emanating from the host's mouth, but the heads of Clickers and Bloaters have split apart from the inside from the growing fungus.
Hive Mind: As part of the above-mentioned Adaptational Superpower Change, nearly all of the infected are connected via a mycelial network with tendrils burrowing underground, some of which extend for kilometers.. Merely slightly touching one of these fruiting bodies is enough to alert all Infected connected to the network, which can easily number in the dozens if not hundreds. It goes without saying that killing any Infected who are still connected is just as bad, as Joel learns in the second episode.
Immune to Bullets: The Bloater is so monstrously tough that Perry's bullets from his assault rifle bounce off its toughened skin. The most the bullets do accomplish is piss the thing off, as the bloater makes a beeline to Perry to kill him.
The Juggernaut: The Bloaters are nigh unstoppable.
Lightning Bruiser: The majority of them are extremely fast, strong, and hard to take down.
Made of Iron:
- The Clickers are durable enough that one can take a small axe blow and a rifle shot to the head and keep going. A second shot put it down for good. Part of it seems to be the fungal growths acting as natural armour and protecting vital spots like the brain from trauma, requiring excessive violence to tear through enough to kill the host.
- Bloaters are even tougher than Clickers. The fungal growths that were once confined to the head now cover the entire body, and are thick enough to be impervious to even an extended burst of assault rifle rounds.
Mighty Roar: A Bloater announces its presence with a guttural roar instead of the moaning, screeching, or clicking of lesser Infected.
No Name Given: The in-game names of the first two stages of Infected (Runners and Stalkers) are not used in the show. Clickers were only named in the credits until Henry uses the name after Ellie provides a description, and the name "Bloater" was only provided in the credits as well.
Non-Malicious Monster: The Infected aren't evil or ill-intentioned - they're entirely ordinary people whose minds and bodies have been taken over by something terrifying. Even the fungus itself isn't consciously trying to destroy humanity or civilization. It's just an organism that evolved to spread under specific circumstances, just like every other species on Earth, and is just doing what it does. From the perspective of the fungi, this isn't an apocalypse - it's an evolutionary success story.
Not Using the "Z" Word: They are only ever referred to as the Infected. Justified as they are not dead. The cordyceps can't infect a corpse, after all.
Our Zombies Are Different: Cordyceps is a real fungus that really infects hosts and induces zombie-like behavior — albeit in ants and other small insects. The show (like the game) posits what would happen if cordyceps evolved to infect humans.
Sense-Impaired Monster: The more advanced forms have fungal plates erupting from their skulls, growing over their eyes and rendering them totally blind. To compensate, they use a crude form of echolocation; the Clicker infected are so named for the sounds they emit to navigate and find prey. The heroes can evade them using stealth tactics.
Stronger with Age: The more advanced the Cordyceps infection is, the stronger the Infected.
Super-Strength: All Infected are athletic and strong, but a Bloater can rip a man's head apart with its bare hands.
Technically-Living Zombie: They look and act like typical zombies (at first), but the "virus" is actually a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. They're still alive, just unable to control their own bodies. After a year the fungus completely subsumes their bodies, turning them into Clickers. The production team emphasized that they never call them "zombies" because they are not undead, just a different form of life. Joel also mentions that in the panicked initial days that the Quarantine Zones were set up, the military massacred anyone they couldn't bring with them into the QZs, specifically because the dead can't be infected, nor can an infected person re-animate.
Tragic Monster: They are not zombies - they are innocent, hapless victims who have been infected by a virulent fungus that has taken over their brains and stripped them of all of their humanity. When they're not chasing down prey, they spend their time lying down connected to the mycelial network, moaning and screaming the whole time, implying that even in late-stage infection, they have just enough humanity left to experience agonizing, indescribable pain as the fungus continues to ravage their bodies.
Undead Child: In "Endure and Survive", Ellie encounters a Clicker who's just a little girl and tries to attack Ellie, who fortunately escapes. Sam also becomes infected later in the episode and has to be put down by Henry.

The Raiders

Survivors have gained a reputation for attacking other survivors and stealing supplies. One group decides to raid Bill's compound for supplies.

Adaptation Name Change: A minor one, bandit-type characters from the games were called Hunters (the same name being used to refer to Jackson bandits in the second game) but here, they are universally called Raiders.
Composite Character: The Raiders take the place of the Hunters and Bandits from the first game.
Cruel and Unusual Death: One of the Raiders attacking Bill's compound gets set on fire and then falls into an electric fence. Needless to say, that had to hurt.
Curbstomp Battle: The group that attacks Bill's compound gets easily wiped out by Bill's traps and Bill himself.
The Dreaded: They are infamous throughout the Fallen States of America.
Flat Character: Not much is known about them and their motivations.
Humans Are Bastards: Start raiding other survivors after society collapsed.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: They are considered worse than the Infected due to their sadism and depravity.
Man on Fire: Some of the group that attacks Bill's compound get burned alive by Bill's trap.

Characters / The Last of Us (2023)

Protagonists

Miller Family

Austin, TX

Boston, MA

Jakarta, Indonesia

Lincoln, MA

Kansas City, MO

Kansas City Revolutionaries

Others

Jackson, WY

Silver Lake, CO

Fireflies

FEDRA

Others

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Index

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Characters / The Last of Us (2023)

Edit Locked

Protagonists

Miller Family

Austin, TX

Boston, MA

Jakarta, Indonesia

Lincoln, MA

Kansas City, MO

Kansas City Revolutionaries

Others

Jackson, WY

Silver Lake, CO

Fireflies

FEDRA

Others

Previous

Index

Next