Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Episode 6 of The Last of Us.In Episode 6 of The Last of Us, "Kin," Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is given the opportunity to watch a film in a movie theater during her temporary stay at a commune in Jackson. Having grown up in energy-poor, FEDRA-controlled Boston, this might be the first she's ever seen, but her curiosity about what Joel (Pedro Pascal) is up to has her leaving the theater prematurely. In spite of this, enough of the film is shown to know what it is, and there are certainly some connections between the movie and Ellie's ongoing struggle.
So far, the HBO series has been particularly attentive to imbuing subtext in every song, joke, and comic book, and this film is certainly no different. Here's everything you need to know about the film, why it matters, and what Ellie could have possibly done differently if she had stayed and watched the whole thing.
What Is Jackson's Movie Night Pick About?
The film shown on movie night in the Jackson commune is the 1977 Oscar-nominated The Goodbye Girl. It might seem like an odd choice for the citizens of Jackson to screen for their kids, but it is the perfect one for The Last of Us creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to utilize. The film so perfectly underscores Joel and Ellie's relationship and upcoming conflict that had Ellie watched it, the episode might have ended a little differently.
The Goodbye Girl is a romantic comedy that follows a young girl named Lucy (Quinn Cummings) who lives with her single mother, Paula (Marsha Mason), in a Manhattan apartment when an aspiring actor, Elliot (Richard Dreyfuss) stumbles into their lives. He's somehow sublet the very apartment they live in. The three are forced into strained cohabitation rife with conflict, but, all the while, Elliot and Paula begin to nurture a romance. All things considered, it is a strange film to end up in a post-apocalyptic drama. Perhaps, the people of Jackson just don't have many movies on film to choose from. However, it is in the emotional turmoil of young Lucy that some deeper subtext is brought to the narrative of Ellie.
Why 'The Last of Us' Episode 6's Choice of Film Is Important
Like Ellie in The Last of Us, Lucy has had to learn to cope with a great deal of abandonment. The men that have come into her and her mother's lives seem to disappear right around when Ellie starts to cultivate a more meaningful connection with them. Quinn Cummings' performance is so captivating that she became, at the time, the youngest actor ever nominated for an Academy Award. The sudden arrival of Dreyfuss, who was also nominated and won an Oscar for his role as Elliot, sends Cummings character back into the cycle of developing a father/daughter-like relationship with an older man who might ultimately abandon her.
To add to the dimensionality of a comparison between Lucy and Ellie, Lucy is incredibly endearing and forthright. She has a comedic tendency that just sucks the viewer into the movie. When discussing Elliot with her mom she says, "I think he's kinda cute. He reminds me of a dog that nobody wants." There's no doubt that if Ellie had stuck it out in the theater, she would have identified, at least slightly, with the outspoken young Manhattanite. While Dreyfuss's character, Elliot, couldn't be further from Joel, there's a shockingly similar emotional development between Elliot and Lucy that just perfectly mirrors that of Ellie and Joel. This is especially poignant when Elliot's acting career takes a downward spiral. Like Ellie and Joel, Lucy witnesses Elliot's failures and finds him more and more vulnerable. Until the undeniable connection between them becomes the source of reigniting fears that he, like all the other men in her life, will ultimately abandon her.
'The Goodbye Girl' and 'The Last of Us' Episode 6 Have Similar Endings
Ellie leaves the movie theater during the first act of the film. She barely gets to see Lucy and Elliot meet, when instead she decides to follow Joel's brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) out across the commune. Had she stuck it out, she might have felt a little differently later when her fears of abandonment by Joel come out into the open. "Everybody I have cared for has either died or left me. Everybody, fucking except for you!" She yells at Joel during their spat oddly reminiscent of a suburban father/daughter tiff, complete with childhood bedroom, door slamming, and angsty diary reading against a window.
Similarly, in The Goodbye Girl, an acting job presents itself for Elliot on the West Coast that will force Elliot to part ways with Lucy and Paula. Referencing the last man who left by writing a letter that she and her mother read together, Lucy says, "At least we didn't get a letter this time." Having only just opened up with Elliot and shared her love for having him in her life, Lucy is already certain that she will never see him again. Her abandonment cycle is seemingly perpetuated by a trip west. This is then further solidified by a fight between Elliot and Paula just before he somberly walks away. In the final, scene of the film, she and her mom begin to go down the same ritual after a man leaves them, when all of a sudden, the phone rings. Elliot and Paula make up. He invites her to come along to California, but instead, she stays with Lucy, the two of them certain that he will come back. Their temporary parting doesn't have to be the last time they see each other, and is, perhaps, Lucy's first step towards overcoming her fear of abandonment.
In The Last of Us, Ellie and Joel's fight becomes the catalyst that will change Joel's mind and have him, rather than Tommy, accompany Ellie on the remainder of the journey to the fireflies. Despite his fear of letting her down, or, you know, getting stabbed and leaving her stranded on the side of the road in the dead of winter while he potentially bleeds to death. Perhaps, if Ellie had just simply watched The Goodbye Girl she might have learned that not every goodbye has to be permanent.
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