Who Are the Fireflies in The Last Of Us? Season 1's Final Boss, Explained

Joel and Ellie come across many groups on their journey across an apocalyptic United States on The Last of Us. Communities like Jackson welcomed people with open arms, upholding their morals even in the darkest of times. Others, like David's cannibalistic survivors, were simply unforgivable. One group that lied in the middle, gray area were the Fireflies, who weren't given much of a chance to redeem themselves.

The Fireflies are one of the few groups to be adapted from the video game to the show, being a staple of Joel and Ellie's story. The two survivors travel across most of the country to meet the Fireflies with hope for a better future in mind, only to find out that even people with the most sincere purpose don't always have good intentions. But this doesn't necessarily make the Fireflies bad -- only ethically ambiguous when the world is in their hands.

The Fireflies Led With a Promise to Save the World

Viewers and players alike meet the Fireflies pretty early on in both the show and the game through their leader, Marlene, who Joel nicknames "Queen Firefly." It's unclear in the game how far back Marlene's history with the Fireflies goes, and whether she was instrumental in their earliest days of formation. In the show, Marlene was the original founder of the Fireflies prior to 2023. The group was founded shortly after the Cordyceps virus outbreak (2003 for the show and 2013 for the game) as a response to the dissolving of the US government and the rising totalitarian rule of FEDRA's military in quarantine zones.

The Fireflies' main concern was democracy being threatened now that the military was in charge, and would eventually encourage civilians to stand up against their oppressors. If they were to succeed, there was hope that people would come together to rebuild society. They spread their message within quarantine zones by spray-painting the slogan, "When you're lost in the darkness, look for the light" and a Firefly symbol, or recruiting people through word of mouth. Two of those drawn to the Fireflies' enlightening purpose were Joel's brother Tommy and Ellie's best friend Riley, although Tommy left the Fireflies since his commitment to them put a strain on his relationship with Joel.

Despite their promise of a world that resembles a pre-apocalyptic society, not many civilians saw them as heroes. The Fireflies had controversial ways of defeating FEDRA in quarantine zones, such as recruiting vulnerable teenagers, torturing soldiers and blowing up checkpoints that would kill both soldiers and civilians. The Fireflies also made little progress on their promise, especially in terms of finding a cure for the Cordyceps fungal infection. Two decades after the fungus destroyed the world, people would rather accept that things would never go back to normal rather than fight for a cause that would never come to fruition. Due to their constant failures, the Fireflies were often branded as terrorists who attacked quarantine zones by both FEDRA and civilians.

The Fireflies Met Their End Just as They Achieved Their Goal

By the events ofThe Last of Us Season 1, the Fireflies were thinned out and researchers nearly gave up hope for a vaccination at the University of Eastern Colorado. A recording in the game reveals there was some success with a series of trials in 2028, but nothing came of it. Their last hope was Ellie, who went to Marlene after being bitten by an infected person but didn't experience any of the usual symptoms. Marlene paused the Fireflies' attacks on FEDRA for the time being to fulfill their mission of finding a cure, believing it was the greatest chance of achieving their goals.

Marlene entrusted Joel and Tess, the latter of whom would soon die, to smuggle Ellie out of the city and bring her to the Fireflies. It would take a year, but Joel and Ellie finally made it to the Fireflies' main base -- the Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City -- where a team discovered a cure for the Cordyceps infection through Ellie's immunity. However, the only way to reverse engineer a vaccine was to kill Ellie during brain surgery, an operation that Joel strongly objected to. He goes on a rampage in the hospital, killing the majority of the Fireflies, including Marlene and the head surgeon.

Where the Fireflies Stand in Season 2

Given that the Fireflies had bases in several cities around the country, including Atlanta and Boston, Joel's massacre doesn't necessarily mean the Fireflies are gone. But without Marlene's leadership, it would make it incredibly hard to regroup with whoever is left. It's best to believe that the Fireflies aren't a threat going into Season 2.

However, that doesn't mean they're erased from the narrative completely. One of the newest characters that is expected to lead a big chunk of the narrative in Season 2 is Abby Anderson, who was a young Firefly during the attack on Saint Mary's Hospital. Since the Fireflies' disbandment post-Season 1 finale, Abby and some of the remaining Fireflies migrate to Washington to join the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), led by Isaac. It's not an entirely dissimilar organization, but it's one that puts people's ideals into question when they're faced with war and oppression. Abby may have put her Firefly identity behind her, but she's still largely attached to their philosophy, whether she would admit it or not.

The Fireflies will also be haunting Ellie's storyline in Season 2 as a reminder of what could've been. Ellie believed her fate was to save the human race, and she was willing to sacrifice her own life if it meant fulfilling a greater purpose in her life. Her experiences as an orphaned child who grew up in a military zone and being nearly raped and killed by David made her lose the awe she had for the world. She wouldn't have wanted to die, but she would've felt obligated to give her life for a cure if it meant preserving what little of humanity's innocence there was left.

The Fireflies didn't give Ellie a say in the matter, but Ellie won't necessarily see it in that way. She knows Joel is lying, as evident by her disappointed face when he does so, and she interprets that as a personal betrayal because he knew how much it meant to her to help the Fireflies. If or when she discovers the truth about what happened to the Fireflies, it will be a wake-up call to Ellie. There are no good or bad guys in the world anymore. The Fireflies were just a warning of what is ahead in Season 2: most people are nuanced individuals that do terrible things in good faith, including Ellie herself.