If you’re watching The Last of Us, you would have heard the words “Fireflies” and “FEDRA” thrown around a lot. But who are they again?
The two groups are featured both in the Naughty Dog game and the HBO adaptation by Chernobyl director Craig Mazin and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann. But who are the heroes and who are the villains? The Last of Us intentionally blurs the lines between these concepts, leaving the audience or player to make their own call according to perspective. Episode 7 of the show, in which Riley (Storm Reid) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) unpack the pros and cons of the Fireflies and FEDRA and each side’s “propaganda bullshit” is the best example of how complicated this comparison can be.
“One of the things that Neil and I talked about a lot throughout the development of the show was never painting one side or the other as purely bad or purely good,” Mazin told HBO’s podcast.
Now, it’ll be impossible for me to tell you everything about the Fireflies and FEDRA — if you’ve played the games, you’ll have much more knowledge of what happens with both these groups and the people in them as the story continues in The Last of Us Part II. Trust me, there are plenty more raiders, smugglers, black market dealers, militant groups, and armed cannibal communities Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie come across in their travels.
Here’s what I can tell viewers of the HBO series about the Fireflies and FEDRA as it happens in Season 1.
Who are the Fireflies in The Last of Us?
Credit: Shane Harvey/HBO
The Fireflies are a highly-skilled, revolutionary militia group revolting against the U.S. government’s military arm FEDRA in the quarantine zones (QZs) across the country — there’s more about who FEDRA is below. Using repurposed (read: seized or smuggled) FEDRA gear and weapons, their goal is to liberate QZs from FEDRA forces and topple the military dictatorship — but they’re branded terrorists by the authorities. The Fireflies’ signature logo is an abstract design of a firefly, which the rebels spray all over the QZ walls along with written graffiti that reads, “When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light.” It’s the Firefly motto, one Joel instantly recognises when approached by a recruiter in the marketplace in episode 1.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Who is Marlene, the Fireflies’ leader?
When we first encounter the Fireflies in the first episode of the HBO series, we meet Firefly leader Marlene in the group’s Boston QZ hideout, giving orders to put Firefly teams in place across the city. Perfectly embodied by Merle Dandridge, reprising her role from the game, Marlene is referred to by Tess (Anna Torv) as “the Che Guevara of Boston.” She’s strategically ordered the blowing up of FEDRA targets over two weeks to enable the Boston Fireflies to leave the city, despite her second-in-command, Kim’s (Natasha Mumba) initial doubts.
“We are in a war against a military dictatorship to restore democracy and freedom,” says Marlene. “Fight for 20 years and get nowhere, you’re not a rebellion. Just spray paint.”
Credit: Shane Harvey/HBO
One of these explosions is the car bomb that interrupts Tess’ conversation with black market dealer Robert (Brendan Fletcher) — “Free Boston now, motherfuckers!” calls out a nearby Firefly sniper engaging FEDRA’s Incident Security Force. When Tess gets wrongfully arrested here, she screams, “I’m not a Firefly!” and gets sent to lockup.
What is the Fireflies’ plan?
The bigger plan for Marlene’s Fireflies is to leave Boston and take Ellie west to a group of Fireflies supposedly waiting at the old State House in another QZ in Massachusetts, then onto a Firefly base camp where doctors are working on a cure for the Cordyceps pandemic. “Whatever happened to me is the key to the vaccine,” Ellie tells Joel and Tess in episode 2. However, at the end of the episode, Tess, Joel, and Ellie find the Fireflies in the State House all dead and Infected, leaving the mission in their hands instead — and leaving Tess to make the ultimate sacrifice to get Ellie out of there.
Credit: Shane Harvey/HBO
In episode 6, Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), a former Firefly, sends Joel and Ellie to the group’s base in the University of Eastern Colorado, but by the time they arrive the Fireflies have packed up and moved to Salt Lake City, where Ellie and Joel aim for next — and that’s where everything goes to shit.
In the season finale, Joel and Ellie finally make it to Salt Lake City where they’re ambushed by Fireflies and brought to the hospital base. Joel wakes up alone here, where Marlene informs him Ellie is being prepped for surgery — and that she won’t survive it. In what is one of The Last of Us‘ most famous scenes, Joel decides to sacrifice the cure for humanity and save Ellie, meaning he kills countless Fireflies — including executing Marlene herself. It’s a shockingly cold death for the leader of the resistance.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
How did Marlene and Ellie meet?
So, what is Marlene’s connection to Ellie? In the finale, we learn that Marlene was childhood friends with Ellie’s mother, Anna (Ashley Johnson, who played the original Ellie in the games), and took care of Ellie immediately after her birth, a request made by Anna as she’d been attacked and bitten by an Infected.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
In episode 2, Marlene reveals she has known Ellie since her youth, and she actually enrolled Ellie in FEDRA’s military school to keep her safe. In episode 7, we see much more of Ellie’s past as a FEDRA cadet. We also learn that her best friend Riley ran away from FEDRA to join the Fireflies, after she was recruited by Marlene who had observed her in Boston sneaking back into the dorm undetected. FEDRA appears to be training its cadets to see Fireflies as “terrorists” as Ellie uses the term to describe them — Riley describes FEDRA as “fascist dickbags.”
During their wonderful but ill-fated date through the abandoned mall, Ellie finds out Riley’s been posted there by the Fireflies, guarding a stash of explosives — perhaps she’s part of Marlene’s plan to target FEDRA in the Boston QZ. But Riley’s about to be posted in the Fireflies’ Atlanta QZ hideout, a plan destroyed when she’s bitten by an Infected. But Riley also reveals Marlene didn’t allow Ellie to join her in Atlanta, without explaining why. In episode 2, Marlene had said she was the one who stopped Ellie from being killed after she was bitten by an Infected, but we never get to see this moment.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
How did Tess and Joel get mixed up with the Fireflies?
Joel, Tess, and Tommy have known the Fireflies for a long time through their smuggling networks in the Boston QZ. When attempting to find and pulverise Robert for screwing them over, Joel and Tess follow the trail to the Fireflies hideout, where Ellie has been held captive and monitored for signs of infection. As Marlene is shot in her bad deal with Robert, Joel and Tess take on the journey with Ellie.
As we learn in episode 4, Tommy joined the Fireflies after meeting Marlene in Boston, but later left and went missing, which means Joel doesn’t exactly have love for the group — and the Fireflies’ plan for Ellie projects Joel into the finale’s murderous rage sequence. But episode 6, in which Joel finds Tommy in the Jackson settlement, briefly reveals that Tommy ditched the Fireflies before meeting his future wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley), who let him join their commune.
Who is FEDRA in The Last of Us?
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
The Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) is the main authority in the U.S. following the outbreak of the Cordyceps fungus, a military arm of the government that has essentially replaced it.
You’ll see FEDRA warning signs dotted all over city buildings in The Last of Us, as markers of quarantine zones, rules, and regulations to manage the fungal pandemic. “Safety begins with you,” reads a FEDRA sign listing the signs of Cordyceps infection. “Report Cordyceps to authorities immediately,” reads another detailing how long it takes to full infection with a diagram. FEDRA also runs factories for making ammunition and pharmaceuticals, as the FEDRA officer tells Joel in episode 1 of a factory in the Atlanta QZ that supposedly only makes both.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
What is FEDRA’s job?
FEDRA acts as the law in the QZs, with surveillance marking the streets and perimeter in person or through security cameras. Patrols enact the QZ curfew of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. “to fight infection and insurrection,” as you can see specified on a sign Tess walks past in episode 1. FEDRA also has an Incident Security Force, which works to “secure areas,” within the QZs.
Wearing navy military armor with ballistic shield helmets, FEDRA officers patrol the entrances to QZs, making sure no one gets in or out. If people arrive at the gates of the QZ, they’re taken to a processing station, where they’re checked for infection. When we first encounter FEDRA in The Last of Us, an officer is questioning a child who collapsed outside the QZ. They’re scanned with FEDRA’s bio device, and when found to be Infected, they’re executed by injection.
Credit: Shane Harvey/HBO
Infected are not the only ones executed by FEDRA, however. Joel witnesses a public hanging in the Boston QZ of people accused of violating FEDRA’s law, and Riley mentions public hangings to Ellie in their mall escapade. In these cases, unauthorised entry or exit in a quarantine zone. Each person was “tried in a court of military justice” and found guilty offscreen, but we’re not privy to how fair these trials were.
FEDRA has a list of jobs out for people in the QZ to sign up for, including street sweeping and sewer maintenance, of varying pay levels. In fact, FEDRA hires people to burn infected bodies (and probably not infected in there too) to avoid further spread, for which they can earn ration cards — Joel Miller is one of these people.
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Was Ellie in FEDRA?
Ellie was training in FEDRA’s military academy at the time she was bitten by an Infected, and we get to see more of her experience there in episode 7 — as well as a look inside the facilities and power structure. Cadets sleep in two-bed dorms and undertake rigorous training including early morning drills “where we learn to kill Fireflies,” Ellie reminds Riley. Eventually deployed as patrol units in QZs, and they can rise through the ranks to officer, then captain. Recruits get their assignments when they turn 17, but as we learn from Riley, all posts aren’t made equal. “Sewage detail,” she explains. “Standing guard while people shovel shit. That’s what they think of me.” Ellie’s unit in the Boston QZ is led by Captain Kwong (Terry Chen), who sees potential in her as a FEDRA captain one day.
Whether a product of the “propaganda bullshit” of FEDRA or not, Ellie defends the organisation to her Firefly best friend.
“I don’t know if it’s that simple,” Ellie says. “I mean either way FEDRA kind of holds everything together.”
Are FEDRA the villains?
However, with great power comes great corruption. We’ve seen FEDRA raids in action before: in episode 3, armed officers swarm Bill’s (Nick Offerman) town as he sits watching the whole thing from his basement. (“Not today, you New World Order jackboot fucks.”) And yes, FEDRA is responsible for the mass murder of non-Infected civilians Ellie and Joel come upon as they’re travelling to Bill’s.
“Not today, you New World Order jackboot fucks.”
In episode 4 and 5, Henry (Lamar Johnson) tells Joel, FEDRA’s Kansas City officers drove the infected underground successfully, however, they then terrorised the QZ residents for decades, abusing their power.
“We always heard KC FEDRA were…” Joel starts.
“Monsters? Savages?” Henry interjects. “Yeah you were right. Raped and tortured and murdered people for 20 years. And you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get a chance they do it right back to you.”
Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
This constant violence led to a revolution by a militia group of Hunters led by new character Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and her brother Michael, who was tortured and killed for information on the rebellion. It becomes clear Kansas City QZ residents were either threatened by FEDRA to snitch on their neighbours with any whispers of the resistance, or they traded information for medicine, alcohol, or as Kathleen puts it, “fucking…apples!?“ The rebels ratted out were either imprisoned or hanged. Kathleen interrogates and kills these informers — including her former doctor, Dr Edelstein (John Getz), who was helping Henry.
Ultimately though, using all FEDRA’s gear and weapons, Kathleen ends up running the Kansas City QZ just like FEDRA did, with armed patrols and snipers monitoring the streets, enforcing curfew, and hunting for trespassers like Joel and Ellie, who they believe to be associated with their main target, Henry. Why Henry? In episode 5, we learn he gave up information on Kathleen’s brother to FEDRA in return for medicine for his brother Sam (Keivonn Woodard), who was battling leukemia.
Essentially, FEDRA are the military authority in America in The Last of Us and the main focus of the Fireflies’ rebellion. And there’ll be more to each faction as the series progresses.
The Last of Us is now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
https://mashable.com/article/the-last-of-us-fireflies-fedra-hbo
