HBO's adaptation of the genre-defining stealth game, The Last of Us is known for killing off characters in brutal ways ranging from gunshots to the Cordyceps brain infection, itself. The show picks pace on the outbreak day which features mass deaths caused by the chaos of the mutated fungus.
The Last of Us season 1, episode 1 "When You're Lost in the Darkness," besides other things, is home to an airplane crash that plummets people to their deaths. It also features brutal treatment including executions of the uninfected by FEDRA. While some of the devastating The Last of Us deaths were understandably inevitable, there are those that could have been avoided. Here's how.
8 Tess
Joel's smuggling partner, and the morally grey The Last of Us character, Tess is bitten on the shoulder by an Infected at an abandoned museum. She keeps mum but eventually reveals her bite mark to Ellie and Joel. She decides to stay back and provide them a safe passage to exit out of the dilapidated Capitol Building.
Tess could have avoided her fate had she been a little more agile during the confrontation with the Infected. In the end, she sacrificed herself to buy Joel and Ellie adequate time to escape and continued their journey.
7 Danny Adler
Joel and Sarah's neighbor, Danny Adler fell prey to his mother-in-law's attack on outbreak day. Danny was presumably caught off guard by Nana and could have avoided her attack by being agile like Joel and Tommy.
Nana was a frail, elderly woman, and Danny in comparison was a well-built man. He could have saved himself and his wife, Connie, had he seen it coming. Unfortunately, the Adlers met a disastrous fate in HBO's The Last of Us.
6 Connie Adler
Nana's second prey was Connie Adler. She attacked her daughter after she was done infecting Danny. When Sarah walked into the Adler household, she saw Danny bleeding through his shoulder. Connie was rendered helpless after Danny was bitten by Nana. She could have saved herself by running out of the house, just as Sarah did when she saw Nana.
Nana was frail and thus not as speedy as other Runners in The Last of Us. Connie was last seen in the Runner stage, charging at Tommy's truck, forcing him to run over her and flee.
5 Denise
Denise lived in Austin, and she was a neighbor to the Millers and the Adlers. She stayed on the street despite Joel's warning and witnessed Tommy run over Connie. Denise would have saved herself from Danny's wrath had she listened to Joel and gotten back inside her house.
While fleeing, Tommy hit Danny and ran over Connie, prompting Denise to rush for aid. Unsurprisingly, she was bitten by Danny who'd turned into a Runner by then. In the end, Denise suffered the same fate as Danny and is presumed to have died in the show.
4 Sarah Miller
One of the best characters in The Last of Us, Sarah Miller, unlike, the Adlers wasn't infected by a Runner but succumbed to a bullet injury. She left Austin with her dad and uncle in search of a safe shelter. Sarah was shot in the abdomen by a U.S. soldier who was acting on his senior's orders.
Joel was carrying Sarah in his arms when a soldier aimed at them. Had Tommy arrived in the nick of time, he would have saved Sarah and Joel, both.
3 Henry Burrell
Henry Burrell collaborated with the atrocious FEDRA for his brother, Sam. He traded the Kansas City resistance leader, Michael's information in exchange for a rare Leukemia drug that ended up saving his brother's life.
Unfortunately, Henry could no longer protect Sam once the latter was bitten by an Infected in The Last of Us season 1, episode 5 "Endure and Survive." Towards the end of the episode, Henry found out his brother had turned into a Runner and was forced to shoot him to save Ellie. Unable to come to terms with killing his brother, he shot himself to death. The only way Henry could have remained alive was if Joel had acted quickly and snatched the gun from his hand. While Sam's death was inevitable, Henry died by suicide. The commotion barely lasted a few seconds but left a devastating impact on Ellie and Joel.
2 Dr. Edelstein
Dr. Edelstein was shot in The Last of Us season 1, episode 4 "Please Hold to My Hand" by the ruthless KC resistance leader, Kathleen after he refused to divulge Henry's location. Edelstein was a FEDRA collaborator like Henry, but unlike him enjoyed a comfortable life in the QZ.
While Henry was forced to work with FEDRA due to Sam's illness, Edelstein maintained he snitched on his neighbors because the agents put a gun to his head. Edelstein lost his life trying to protect Henry and had he given Kathleen what she'd asked for, chances are high she would have let him live.
1 Kathleen
Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen's desire for vengeance was the cause of her own undoing. She was hell-bent on bringing the "rats" to justice, despite her advisor, Perry warning that she take things slow. Her priorities should have changed after she deposed FEDRA in Kansas City.
Kathleen was mauled to death by an infected girl whom she didn't see coming towards the end of The Last of Us season 1, episode 5. Instead of working towards creating some sort of order in her territory, Kathleen launched a city-wide manhunt for Henry and met her death at the hands of an Infected.