The Last of Us factions: Who they are and what they want

Living in The last of us is difficult, to put it extremely, extremely softly. Traveling anywhere is tough and involves siphoning 20-year-old gasoline from abandoned cars. Zombies are everywhere, in increasingly terrifying forms. No one will laugh at your pun book. Perhaps worst of all, there is danger everywhere, even from the other people around you.

The Last of Us universe is filled with factions, all clamoring to dominate in one form or another. Just about everywhere Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) find themselves, they find groups posing a threat, trying to employ them, threatening them, or worse. In a world with so many contingents, one might wonder: what is the difference between all these factions? What do they all want? And what exactly is there to fight about in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?

The short answer is power. They all want it, most are willing to kill to get it, and the difference is who has it, or how far they can exercise it. As a collective, The last of usfactions advance the show’s (and game’s) objectives, each its own exploration of how connections with others pose their own threat in this world. But the actual purpose of each group within the story is a bit different, hence all the division.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers through episode 8 of The Last of Us.]

FEDRA

What they want: Ostensibly being a government agency and also governing the people (possibly by brute means; see below).

The Federal Disaster Response Agency is the dominant governing authority The last of us‘ United States. It is a militarized government that oversees the quarantine zones and is in charge of cities across the United States with penal power. FEDRA clearly has some kind of unifying structure, but it seems that individual chapters are given a lot of leeway, like in Kansas City (again, more on that later).

At least in Boston, they work with lofty goals (even if they still seem to fall short). As a captain tells Ellie, “I care because no matter what anyone out there says or thinks, we’re the only one holding this all together. If we go down, people in the zone will starve or kill each other, that much I know.’

While they are ostensibly the highest authority on the show (or at least the figures with the most organized power, including crafting necessary goods), The last of us does not feature them prominently. Usually they are a force in the story, with soldiers lining the streets of Boston in the early episodes, sometimes attacking or trading with Joel as part of his smuggling work. Yet we’ve heard how harsh they are: Neither Ellie nor Joel seem to take much credit for their teaching work, and when Frank (Murray Bartlett) complains that Bill (Nick Offerman) thinks the government is all Nazis, Bill shouts, “The government Are all Nazis!

Frank’s refutation — “Well, yes, now! But not Than!” – does not paint a rosy picture of what FEDRA is doing in the The last of us2023. But in Episode 7, “Left Behind,” we at least get to hear the other side a little bit. It’s not entirely optimistic; Ellie’s time at FEDRA school is basically military academy, complete with being put “in the hole” for misconduct, and being groomed to become a FEDRA officer if she doesn’t flush.

As you would expect from an authoritarian regime, that life has its advantages. Being an officer gives her privileges that seem unique in the world of The last of us: Eat well, find a bed, stay at a comfortable temperature, and don’t go on patrols.

Fireflies

What they want: To overthrow FEDRA and restore something closer to pre-breakout government authority.

While at this point in the season we usually think of the Fireflies as a small faction rebelling against FEDRA’s rule, the guerrilla network has groups all over the country and they seem to be working together, at least to some extent (possible more than FEDRA, again, it’s hard to say). The Fireflies have been flagged as terrorists by the federal government and have largely failed, though there are a few cities where they’ve had victories. In addition, they have graffiti everywhere – “If you are lost in the darkness, look for the light” – and possibly the most powerful trump card in the world: a person who is immune to zombie bites.

It’s unclear why the Fireflies would want to keep that a secret and not immediately use it to bolster their profile against FEDRA. But it gives reason to throw Joel and Ellie together and take them to Colorado. Plus, we know that at least sometimes they’re better connected than FEDRA — at least the way Ellie seems to show off when she eats the chicken given to her by Boston Firefly leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge).

They recruit like any good post-apocalyptic guerrilla organization does: observe rebellious teens like Riley (Storm Reid) prowling around and then ask what they think of FEDRA (“fascist jerks”). And they behave as one would expect from such an organization, with Riley acknowledging that they Doing still bomb places like warehouses (even though she insists they don’t “when civilians are around”).

Hunters

What they want: To overthrow Kansas City FEDRA (specifically, at least to begin with).

In Episode 4, we are introduced to the Hunters (as they are called in the game), a group that drove FEDRA from their city. Though Kansas City has only now come under attack, the Hunters already control many fearsome machines – such as the “RUN” Squad – and are quick to violence to assert their rule. They are led by Kathleen (Yellow jacketsMelanie Lynskey), who is eager to hunt down Henry (Lamar Johnson).

According to Joel and Henry’s conversation in Episode 5, Kansas City FEDRA was bad, even for a governing body that was considered authoritarian. “Monsters? wild ones? Yes, you heard right,” Henry completes Joel’s thought on KC’s FEDRA chapter. “For 20 years raped, tortured and murdered people. And you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get the chance, they will do it right back to you.”

And indeed, brutality seems to be how Kathleen runs things. Episode 5 begins with the Hunters knocking over FEDRA, dragging bodies down the street and beating people. Kathleen questions FEDRA informants about Henry’s whereabouts before telling Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) to shoot them all and burn the bodies. By the end of the episode, Kathleen has said she is willing to kill Ellie and Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard) simply because they are associated with Joel and Henry.

It’s a particularly venomous villain, but when a little clicker girl comes out of nowhere to kill Kathleen – while the rest of her men are torn apart by a horde behind her – it seems the Hunter inner circle has been knocked out. Whatever fills the power vacuum left behind — well, Joel and Ellie aren’t sticking around to find out.

Jackson

After many, many miles, Joel and Ellie arrive in Jackson, Wyoming, and find Tommy (Gabriel Luna). The Jackson community he’s a part of is straight out The last of us part 2, where it’s also run by Maria (played on the show by Rutina Wesley), at least in part. “No one is in charge,” she tells Joel and Ellie.

“I am on the council – democratically elected, where I serve 300 people, including children. Everyone participates, we rotate patrols, food preparation, repairs, hunting, harvesting.

Everything in Jackson – greenhouses, livestock, etc. – is shared through what Tommy calls “collective ownership.” Although he tries to reject Joel’s “communism” label, Maria is unafraid: is that, literally. This is a church; we are communists!” Between actual electricity powered by the nearby dam and a peaceful, relatively normal existence, the Jackson faction exists in direct contrast to most of the other groups on this list. It’s an example for Joel and Ellie of how post-apocalypse doesn’t to have to mean post-decency (although Maria notes that they are in the middle of nowhere and keeping a low profile helps them keep out the “wrong people”).

The cannibals

The most unfortunate type of faction to find themselves in a post-apocalyptic situation: a group of religious cannibals! Additionally, in Episode 8, they are revealed to be the group Ellie and Joel encountered in college, meaning many of them want revenge on Joel (and possibly Ellie).

We don’t know much about the day-to-day lives of the group, other than what we see in the very limited, very bleak period where they overlap with Ellie. Led by David (Scott Shepherd), the group is something of a fundamentalist and have been camping for a while at a lakeside resort.

The particularly cold winter left them without food, and – at one point – the group resorted to eating humans (although David and his right-hand man, James, have hid that fact from the larger group).

While David initially appears paternal and caring, he slowly becomes a bit of a monster: he tries to attack Ellie, slaps a member of his herd for going against him, and, of course, eats people.

As we see at dinner halfway through the episode, he also enjoys hearty portions of humans, with his humans settling for just a few lumps in their soup.