What Happened to Joel's Wife? (Mystery Solved)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- Hey guys!
So for many years I've wondered what happened to Joels wife (Sarah's mother) in The Last of Us? For the longest time, this to me was one of the biggest mysteries of the first game, but in this video I have finally put together all of the evidence and solved this case! Let's dive into it!
Music:
The Last of Us - Mikel
Escape from the City 8 Bit Remix - Bulby - เกม
***Correction! (Spoilers)***
In the end I accidentally said that they weren't married, that's incorrect. They were married, but then she abandoned them pretty early into Sarah's life and didn't want to be a mother. Sarah and her never really had a relationship, it was just Joel and her. Dude never stops protecting the ones he loves!
Joel is da 🐐
I've always wondered this and now this makes sense for why Joel doesn't take abandonment well at all , he lost his partner decades ago, he lost Sarah , he loss Tess, Tommy left him for years until their reunion and now the possibility losing of Ellie at the end of the first game was far too much for Joel and he just snapped and he said fuck that I'm not losing anybody else come hell or high water I'm not losing anybody else and now that you know what happened between Joel and his ex it just makes Joel even more tragic
Totally!
Exactly
Honestly, with all these factors in mind, it almost makes sense why Joel had single handedly brought an entire faction (The Fireflies) crumbling to the ground.
The abandonment makes more sense since there’s literally no talk of her or pictures. We’ll never know if he even talked to Sarah about it. In some fics ; she died of cancer ; in another she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and abandoned them both when Sarah was a baby.
Totally! It adds to Joel's tragedy.
I always assumed that they had sarah in their teens and the mom just wasn’t ready to be a mother and dipped 😭
It's true! So sad for both of them.
She left Joel, moved to Boston near her childhood friend Marlene. She had another kid and got bitten right after she was born. Ellie is Sarah's little sister. There you go😂
Hahaha that would be wild!
That would be insane tho😳
I always assumed she died in child birth
That would have been really interesting!
Not in the 21st century
@@eclipsicalbluestocking1182 huh? What does that mean
@@TheMarine316 just that dying in childbirth is very uncommon in modern day America
@@eclipsicalbluestocking1182 it still happens, I wouldn’t say often but more then rarely, also she would’ve been born in late 90s or very early 2000s, they were more frequent then, modern medicine has come along way since then.
I think this bothered Joel almost as much if not worse than loosing Sarah. After Joel and Ellie left Tess, Joel told Ellie that “things happen and we move on”. That’s probably been his whole life. His wife left him, he moved on. He lost Sarah, he moved on. He lost his relationship with Tommy, he moved on etc. Joel’s entire life is just lost. When we first meet him, he’s even worried about loosing his job. We know he was a contractor which makes me think he was a blue collar worker which makes sense since he lost the opportunity to go to college because of his relationship that led to Sarah.
Totally agree!
"we have an answer from Niel Druckman from his Twitter!"
-Legends states that CurrentlylikeTDS is still waiting.
Talked about it in the video, Neil confirmed that she divorced Joel and completely abandoned him and Sarah when Sarah was really young.
Oh... (Imagine being able to play or see this part in a cutscene or smth 💀)
dude ive always wondered what happened to her!!!!!! thank you for finally clearing it up!!!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
It’s a theory but Joel’s ex and Sarah mother left them due to having Sarah at a young age remember Joel had Sarah when he was young and she left
Yep that's what Neil said, and that she completely abandoned them really earl into Sarah's life!
I've also always wondered about Ellie's biological Father. We know who her mom was Anna. But we don't know anything about Ellie's biological Father.
That's true!
Druckman has said that the post-apocalyptic book/movie The Road was a big inspiration for TLOU. In that story, the mother decides to leave the father and son, so maybe this was one aspect that he took from said story.
That's really interesting!
OH MY GOD. Imagine part 3 Ellie meets Sara’s mom. She meets her randomly and then she comes to find that it’s Joel ex wife. 😮 then they connect over Joel and Ellie has a new Paternal figure. ❤
That actually would be wild!
@@pixel8tedif this is true though i imagine tommy wouldn't be happy at all with seeing her again, they'd probably catch up, she'd ask abt joel and sarah, find out their dead, bond over that, but eventually i think it'd end with tommy being kinda sour with her or her dying near the end of the game
@@yourlocalghastyt285 who knows, Naughty dog always manages to surprise us soo I would expect something like Joel's ex killing Ellie and Tommy going for revenge...
If they made it so that Joel’s ex is in part 3 I think it could cook especially when Ellie is at a loss of Dina Joel Jesse and nearly Tommy.
I feel like Ellie being back with Dina and Tommy but also being almost a surrogate daughter to Joel’s ex could be the greatest thing part in 3 and her learning about Joel and what he did to keep Ellie alive
That would be wild if she was still alive!
That would be cool but Neil Druckman is usually not a fan of "bringing back" people they saw once or talked about. I love that about the game because it makes it realistic.
Appreciate the work and explanation
Thank you!
I’ve wondered this for so long thank you
Happy to help!
I have this tlou fanfic where this kid called Alex was born thinking his mom died and lives with his father but during the outbreak he found out his mom was actually alive, she just abandoned them after she gave birth to him
Actually there is a picture of an unfamiliar face of a women among 2 others (one of them could be Joel's wife but i'm not too sure didn't look into meticulously). You can find this picture and see clearer in photo mode on a table near the front door as you walk down the stairs of Joel's house in the prologue, right before Sarah picks up Joel's phone to see Tommy's missed calls and texts. The whole house has framed pictures of familiar people and this one with the three women was the only one that wasn't OHH and and one picture in Joel's room with Tommy and a little boy fishing, could've been Tommy's son? Who knows, that besides the point. Anyway hopefully that was helpful!!
Interesting!
4:38 i love this moment so much honestly.
Shows so much growth between the two of them!
this is one of the reasons I dislike joel's age retcon in part 1. joel says he never went to college because he had sarah too young so it's implied it was teenage pregnancy, and everything adds up if you do the maths. joel originally was told to be in his late 40s so I assumed 48-49, the outbreak happened 20 years before, when he was 28-29, sarah was 12 by then which makes joel 16-17 when sarah was born, that's young enough for him to not be in college yet, but if we use the same logic with his retconned age of 52 that makes him 20 when sarah was born. that's still young enough to be a father and not be in college yet but doesn't work so well imo
when they released the HBO series i was acutualy hoping that some day they add like some sort of special season where you see Joel during the time between the break out and the game later (how i tried to get along and dealing with his recently passed daughter) and then at some scene you see him with his Family where you find out about his Wife and it just goes back and forth like they did in TLOU:Left behind where you also jump between 2 stories of different times
That could be cool to do!
Hmm, I’ve always wondered what happened to Abby’s mom, and since Abby is very similar to Joel, I wonder if her own mom abandoned her and Dr. Anderson? Because there is no mention of her at all in the game and Abby has no reaction when Lev/Yara talk about their mom, so it would make sense that it would happen when she was fairly young.
This was a great video, thank you for finally finding the answer! :)
That's very interesting!
So cool, thank you for the video!
Still it's weird that Joel states that he was married for a while. Maybe the story with Sarahs mom happened and then Joel later found a woman, maybe married her out of the wish to have safety and a funcioning family but it didn't work out. I mean it's been about 10 years from Sarah's birth until the breakout. That woman never had a deeper relationship to Sarah, Sarah might not even have liked her. So there is no need to bring up photos or mention her or even worrying about her. And when Ellie asked, Joel felt overwhelmed by either the loss he experienced or the fact that this story is quite complicated and he didn't want to think about it.
That's my new theory thanks to you! Keep it going.
I left a correction in the comments, they were married after she got pregnant with Sarah, but very into Sarah's life she divorced Joel and abandoned the two of them!
also ellie’s parents, W video btw
Thank you!
Mom being a deadbeat is a surprise. You’d think they would have gone with the “oh she died, that’s why she’s not around anymore” storyline that so common in stories like these, but The Last of Us really loves to subvert expectations, even with things that kind of are irrelevant narratively. It’s good that Joel and Sarah were able to move on and have a somewhat healthy relationship and life despite everything. And I say somewhat healthy because Sarah’s letter implies that he wasn’t the best dad, even though he was a good dad. Probably the best dad he could be given the circumstances.
Totally!
Here’s what I always thought happened Joel and his wife met during when she was attending university. Like you shown in the video of Joel telling Ellie. Joel’s wife might gotten pregnant during that time, they get married because of it, but like with Joel said it was only for a little while. They separate after Sarah is born so she can continue her education without having to worry talking care of a child. Or many other reasons. This will still make sense for Joel and Sarah not having any pictures of her or mentions of her. As Sarah never met her and even if Joel told her Sarah about her mother, it’s mostly likely they had no way of contacting her.
Interesting theory!
To me, it wasn't something I thought too hard about. It's obvious she probably left. Because if she had died there'd be pictures at least (and I feel like the game pays too much attention to detail to not have some random photo in the back of a woman at some point)...because of Joel's (assumed) age I just thought he had her in his late teens...which y'know makes sense because they probably weren't married soooo she bounced. Plus it explains the abandonment issues...or at least adds to it. he couldn't lose Ellie too
Edit: (It's also possible they got married due to the pregnancy and it just didn't work out so it ended shortly)
Totally!
I would have liked to see Neil's tweet. Did he explicitly said what happened to his wife or did he just pointed this dialog and told us to ignore all the others?
He specifically answered!
That’s just depressing. Joel experienced so much sad stuff. I don’t fault him at all for killing the Fireflies. If your girlfriend abandoned you leaving you to raise your daughter on your own, have your brother fall out with you and abandon you, have your daughter die, have a failed suicide attempt and your partner die I think it’s totally justified what Joel did. I always thought it was justified but now even more so. He’s lost so much and losing Ellie would have broke him.
Dude experienced so much abandonment and trauma!
And to add the poop sundae on top of it all he also lost the modern world. I mean, yes that's something every human in this world lost, but given his life experiences it's just another massive amount of misfortune for him. Not to mention before the outbreak Joel never went to college and was literally broke.
wait, he attempted suicide???
@@its.clxver We don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did. If the world went to shit like that then I'd off myself too.
@@its.clxver in the hbo show he did, in the game that's never mentioned but needless to say he went through hell still
Crazy, this is what I’ve always thought
You were correct!
Well doesnt make sense as joel confirmed himself he was married for a while! If neil really did say that he most likely made it up on the spot which is why he doesnt talk about it ever again!
I made a mistake and corrected it in the comment section. They were married, but she abandoned Joel and Sarah very early in their marriage, and wanted nothing to do with them!
I just saw apologies
This is very interesting I love it. I did just think of something.
Sarah abandoned Joel and Sarah which had Joel build a bigger bond with Sarah and he was able to focus on her and not a wife. When Sarah passed he was so close with her and he felt like he was alone and the only thing that he had was gone. And when Joel decided to leave Ellie with Tommy and walk away in his mind he didn’t wanna be how the mother was to Sarah and Joel. He felt like that he didn’t wanna leave the best thing he had again and not getting to see Ellie grow up like he was a father to Sarah and wants to be Ellie’s father cause she doesn’t have a mother or father. If Ellie really went with Tommy Joel wouldn’t be able to be there for Ellie just like how Sarah’s mom wasn’t there for her.
That's a cool connection!
Her dying (possibly during birth) is most probable to me.. why Sarah doesn’t seem to talk about her, Joel is very very touchy about the topic of her… I always thought she died
According to Neil she and Joel got married but quickly divorced and she chose to have nothing to do with him or Sarah!
@@pixel8ted didn’t know about the official lore until now, thanks 😄 interesting tho I’ll definitely keep it in mind for the next play thru
Yep. Typical case of " i dont love you anymore. Stay away from me." Poor joel.
Dude had it rough!
Joel literally just admitted that he was married for a bit.. who’s lying here on the original intention of this story line? Lol😂
Check the comment section, I made an error. Neil said they were married, but she left early into Sarah's life and completely abandoned them!
@@pixel8ted Okay, respect. Thanks for the update boss man.
I thought she was dead just because she was never brought up. By seeing how touchy he was about his late daughter being talked about. I put 2 and 2 together that way.
Totally!
I mean, his daughter died in his arms. That’s traumatic on its own, and definitely traumatic enough to not want to talk about it.
I thought Joel and Sarah’s mum divorced and he got full custody because the mother was not interested in raising a child.
Oh that's a good possibility!
i always considered the last two, she died or she left, they both made sense to me. like if she had died id think the reason why theres no pictures of her was like maybe it was too hard for joel to have pictures of her around the house but i would also think like "or maybe she just left" lol
According to Neil she left!
I got almost all of it right, I assumed she abandoned them but I also assumed she probably cheated on Joel early on while Sarah was a baby. So to me it explained why she never ask for her mom or cared about her because her mom left so early on so Sarah doesn’t have any attachment to her and I also assumed Joel never bothered to keep up with her so he doesn’t know anything about here fe she left. So even if he wanted to look for her he wouldn’t have any leads to go off of.
Life is rough for Joel!
I’m dying over the lo-fi Last of Us theme 😂😂😂
It's a jam haha!
Imagine she’s still alive and she meets Ellie…
That would be wild!
Do you have a link to the Neil Druckman tweet?
🙏 thanks!
You're welcome!
I always kinda assumed that Joel had a one night stand with somebody and it resulted in Sarah being born and the mother leaving immediately, the way Joel talked about it at the university made me think "Oh okay, so his wife left him right when Sarah was born?" But then all these other theories about them being divorced or her passing away just confused me.
Neil confirmed that they were a fling, but got married after they found out they were pregnant. But shortly after Sarah's birth Joel's wife divorced him and abandoned both Joel and Sarah. Tragic story for my boy!
Another answer could be that she could've been thrown in prison or something shortly after Sarah was born.
It's possible, but now we officially know!
I want to know about Ellie's dad. Good post
Thank you!
Dude I’ve never had a theory and it be right-- I’m so proud of myself right now cause that’s always what I guessed when I thought of her mom
You were right!
Didn't she pass away before the events of the game? I think it's odd that Joel never mentions her, and there are no pictures of the two of them in the house.
Not according to Neil, she abandoned Joel and Sarah very early into Joel's life, neither of them had a relationship with her afterwords!
I do believe that Joel has abandonment issues but I think it started with Sarah’s death. I think it’s possible that Joel cheated on her or vice versa, but Joel’s dialogue even thirty years after the eel ended seems to indicate that he was the one who cheated. Considering Joel’s track of selfish and brutal actions, (which is an excellent way to humanise him) it’s possible that he wasn’t above cheating before because he was a 20 years old dude who got his girlfriend pregnant, likely due to lack of birth control and possibly had an affair with other women. Sarah’s mother was likely absolutely devastated by this so she left then immediately after she gave birth to Sarah. That’s why she doesn’t have any photos because Joel wants to erase her memories because she left them, especially leaving Sarah to grow up without a mother. Additionally if she passed, Joel would certainly have a picture of her for Sarah to see.I think Sarah’s birth and death made Joel change his ways. That correlates with his relationship with Ellie, too. Sarah before and after brought humanity and selfishness within Joel as did Ellie.
I always thought she had died of childbirth.
That was a theory but it turns out to be untrue!
@pixel8ted I also never really thought about it as much either, but the whole abandonment thing does make more sense.
Joel is a w for this one fr fr 🐐🐐
He has been through a lot!
i always assumed she died, possibly during childbirth
That's a theory I've seen many people assumed!
Wondering if we ever get a 3rd game, and if we get the 20 year gap with Joel and Tommy if they will expound upon this
Neil confirmed we are getting a 3rd!
I assumed she died.
Many did!
So sad
It really is!
I don't think too hard about this.
It's always fun to dive into these little details in my opinion!
Most people don’t given it doesn’t matter to the narrative or all that much to Joel’s backstory. All that matters is that Joel had a daughter and she died.
@@pathetic2399 indeed
I just thought jus was a died
Nope!
I could be sara’s stepmom🥲
I think marlene is sarahs mom
I thought then said in tlou 2 she died.
Idk
rip joel
What the hell are you mean
Dude is always in our hearts!
Well it makes sense why its never brought up. The answer isn't really that interesting.
According to the TV series, Joel's wife was white and then became black.
Yall I'm fine im right here teehehe
I got Joel pregnant
Why do people say "Joel's wife"? Joel never indicated he was ever married. Just because Sarah exist doesn't mean he had a wife.
Neil has confirmed he was married!
Joel never had a wife he's a fake character in a fake video none of them are real.
Why is Sarah half black in the show? We all have questions.
The actress is not half black😐
Because some characters go through race lifts sometimes when adaptations happen. It doesn’t matter what race she is since she fulfilled her purpose as the character regardless.
Do you have proof of this tweet?