The Real Reason Why Ellie Put Coffee Beans on Joel’s Grave in The Last of Us

The following story contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 3, “The Path.”

WE’RE RIGHT THERE with you. The Last of Us let us down gently after the brutal happenings of the second season’s second episode, leveling the playing field and letting us know what’s coming down the road (quite literally) next. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) have decided to hunt down Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her group, the Washington Liberation Front. Whether they get the support of the Jackson, Wyoming community—which includes Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Gail (Catherine O’Hara), and Jesse (Young Mazino), among others—is beside the point.

Ultimately, after a spirited town hall session, Jackson decides against sending a militia to Seattle to take revenge on Abby—who just brutally murdered Joel (Pedro Pascal) in front of Ellie’s eyes. But that doesn’t stop Ellie, who decides to head out of town with just Dina for a chance at vengeance.

But first, a chance to grieve. Tommy tells Ellie where the dead are buried in Jackson, and on their way out of town, Ellie heads out and says goodbye to Joel.

Why did Ellie put coffee beans on Joel’s grave in The Last of Us?

When Ellie arrives at Joel’s grave, she pours a handful of coffee beans on the dirt as a tribute to the beverage he always loved (and one that she never understood the appeal of). In a way this is her acknowledging, in her own unique way, that their love transcends whatever petty problems they’d been dealing with. She doesn’t like coffee—but it was important to him, and, as a result, knows that this is the perfect way to pay tribute to a good (but complicated) man who the community has lost.

It’s stunning to think about how much Joel has been through over the course of the show—losing his daughter, Sarah, losing Tess, becoming a violent person overall, and, eventually, murdering all the Fireflies—and to then think about how he was at the very beginning of the very first episode. Joel was a regular guy. He was a guy who liked action movies, worked a working class job, hung out with his brother, and, yes, loved drinking coffee. As the apocalypse hit and everything changed, that love never went away; Throughout the show, we saw Joel drinking coffee at all different times, knowing, just like alcohol, it had become a commodity in this new world. By pouring the coffee beans on his grave, Ellie is making a sacrifice to his memory that not only has emotional meaning, but also is literally of increased value in their version of the world.

Ellie has a solemn moment at Joel’s grave. Though their relationship had become strained—most of which we didn’t see in the show’s five-year time jump—Ellie still considered him a surrogate father, and knew that Joel felt the same way about her. In knowing him, though; Ellie also thinks she needs to pay tribute not only to the man himself, but how she suspects he would’ve handled the same situation himself. She doesn’t even know about the situation at the hospital with the Fireflies, but she’s correct in suspecting that Joel would’ve chosen violence. It may have wracked him with guilt and created his own demise via a dose of quite literal murderous karma, but she knows Joel at his core. And by seeking revenge, she’s following his same path.

But first: Saying goodbye. And that means leaving him with a handful of those coffee beans.