| “ | We settled here about seven years ago. Just a handful of us back then.
―Maria Miller talking about the Jackson community.[1]
|
” |
The Jackson community is a group of friendly survivors in the first and second seasons of HBO's The Last of Us.[1]
History[]
Formation and growth[]
Around 2016, Maria and her group of survivors took over the area in Jackson, Wyoming, after it was abandoned during the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak. It gradually expanded into a functioning, self-sufficient community built on friendly collaboration, coordinated leadership, and sharing supplies. By 2023, it was home to over 300 people, including children and elderly citizens, and had working electricity supplied by a nearby hydroelectric dam. Tommy joined the community before this time, eventually marrying Maria.
To ensure the new settlement survived, a governing council was created with publicly elected members, of which Maria was one. Their society functioned like a self-reliant, pre-apocalyptic community, with people working jobs and running services and facilities like a bar & restaurant, laundromat, school, hospital, stores, and a mess hall serving meals and playing movies for residents. There was also a graveyard located ten miles outside of the town where the community buried their dead.
The community faced some threats from raiders and infected, but Tommy and Maria insisted these threats were of minimal concern, and easy to manage.
The patrolmen in particular worked to create a reputation for themselves as aggressive hostiles who slaughtered any who wandered into their area. Masked and armed with rifles, they would surround survivors wandering the area and check them with dogs, who would kill the survivors if they sensed they were infected with Cordyceps. They would even sometimes leave mauled bodies out in the open for other survivors to see, leading those in the surrounding area to deem the river too dangerous to cross for fear of encountering them. However, if survivors passed this inspection check and proved they were not hostile, they would be allowed access to the community. Despite this admittance, their weapons would be taken from them to ensure no violence could occur in the town. This drive to keep hostile forces away led them to become isolationist, although in recent years, the community has started opening up and allowing in more refugees seeking a safe haven for them and their families to live. Maria insisted radio contact with the outside world be ended, and only those their patrolmen scouted could be brought into the community.[1]
Events of HBO's The Last of Us[]
Season 1[]
The Jackson patrolmen surround Joel and Ellie.
Maria led one of the community's regular patrolling missions towards the creek some distance from the settlement. There, they spotted and surrounded Joel Miller and Ellie Williams. The patrolmen inspected the pair, using their patrol dog to confirm they were not infected. Upon Joel explaining that he was searching for his brother, Maria advanced, learned his name and correctly inferred he was Tommy's brother. The pair were then placed on horseback and rode back to the community. Once inside, Maria guided Joel and Ellie to Tommy, who was working on rebuilding a house with other workers. Upon seeing his brother, Joel called to him and the pair reunited in a hug.
A short while after, Maria and Tommy took the pair to their town hall to eat food. Here, Tommy and Maria revealed they were married to each other and offered the pair a tour of the town. They showed them their commune, the all-faith church, a farm and stables filled with horses. It was here Ellie met the horse Shimmer. The town even had Christmas decorations and a tree up in the center of the street, revealing they were able to celebrate Christmas here. Maria then offered to take Ellie to her house to freshen up after months of traveling on the road. Joel and Tommy separated to catch up at the Tipsy Bison. Inside, Tommy revealed how they were successfully brewing their own alcohol, had fires for heating and were only one breed of hogs away from securing their own supply of bacon. Joel was impressed but soon grew serious when Tommy mentioned Tess. He remarked instead about his mission to take Ellie to the Fireflies, asking Tommy to join him. Tommy refused, citing he had to care for the town, Maria and their expected child as she was pregnant. Angered, Joel stormed out. Elsewhere, Maria supported Ellie and gave her a haircut. She also gave her a warning about Joel, citing how people's history from the past meant they were capable of terrible things.
Children watching a film in the mess hall.
That night, Ellie watched a movie in the town hall with the other children while the adults, including Tommy and Maria, watched over them. Realizing Joel was not present, Tommy went to find him, fetching a new pair of boots for him. He found his brother working in one of their repair shops. Tommy apologized for his words earlier, but Joel changed the subject to reveal Ellie was infected. He confessed his troubles over the past few months, including losing Tess, nearly dying in Kansas City, and watching a man kill his own brother and then himself. Understanding Joel's pain, Tommy agreed to take Ellie from him. However, Ellie had been listening in the whole time, leading to a fiery argument with Joel back at a house the pair were sharing.
By morning, Joel had changed his mind and agreed to take Ellie on the rest of their journey instead. They said farewell to Tommy, borrowed one of their horses from the stables and left the town.[1]
Several months later, Joel and Ellie returned to the community, intent on living there after their ordeals they faced in Salt Lake City.[2]
Season 2[]
Jackson welcoming the refugees.
By December 2028, Jackson remains a thriving community. They continue their construction projects, with Joel in charge of making new housing for the refugees which come in regularly. They also expanded their patrol routes, including members Jesse, Caleb, Dina and Ellie. Other notable roles in the town include keeping watch for wandering survivors or infected hordes approaching the community from the surrounding area. The town celebrated New Years of 2029 with a large party in the center of town. There was dancing and music and it was here where Ellie and Dina kissed for the first time. However, this caused conflict with Seth and Joel, leading to both leaving the party.[3]
The following day, Kylie and Max found a pile of infected frozen at Seven Cabins on their patrol. Having disturbed them, a group of thirty charged out from underneath the top layer, leading them to flee back to the town. The council put the town on alert, having everyone fortifying their defenses and the council members gave announcements to the sent out various patrols to check on infected, including Joel, Dina, Ellie and Jesse. A meeting was held to alert citizens to the danger and remind them all of the protocols to follow to ensure their safety in case of an attack. However, a large snowstorm erupted, disrupting radio communications between the patrols and town. Sensing danger, Tommy instructed a radio command be sent out to instruct all patrols to return and guard duties were massively increased, the town preparing for a potential attack.
The community of Jackson holding a meeting in Stiegiers Restaurant and Bar.
Meanwhile, workers disrupted cordyceps roots growing in disused pipes, which alerted a large horde of infected hidden under snow in the mountains to attack the town. The town mounted a defense, with the elderly, infirm and young hiding in barricaded basements while the patrolmen and all able-bodied adult fighters make a stand. They slaughtered dozens of infected until a bloater was able to breach the town, smashing down one of the walls. Tommy led a group of flamethrower users to fight on the ground while Maria and many gunmen shot at the infected from the roof of the buildings. In the skirmish, Tommy killed the lead bloater, and dogs were unleashed to help fight the horde off. Eventually, all of the horde was slaughtered but some Jackson members were either killed or infected, leading to others having to mercy kill them. Elsewhere, Abby Anderson had captured and murdered Joel.[4] Many of those wounded were also sent to the town's hospital to receive treatment, including Ellie, who had to spend three months there recovering. Many dead bodies were also brought into a morgue to be cleaned before burial, including Joel's.
By April 2029, the town had taken to rebuilding after slowly recovering from the horde's attack. Many of their dead were also buried ten miles south of the town in a field, with Dina remarking that the whole process of rebuilding and having funerals took weeks. By this point, children had started playing baseball again. Much of the town was clear of infected and the walls were mostly repaired. Now out of the hospital, Ellie and Dina revealed to Tommy their knowledge of where Joel's killers had come from. Tommy took it to the council, who arrange a vote the following day. Many in the town gathered to give their opinions on the matter, with Seth remarking on the need to do it to avoid appearing weak to violent outsiders, while Ellie remarked on the need to seek justice, as Maria had claimed she had done as a part of her job before the outbreak. Despite this, the council voted 8-3 against the idea. Therefore, with Seth's help, Dina and Ellie left the town that night to pursue Abby themselves.[5]
Government[]
The Jackson council.
Jackson's government operates as an autonomous, decentralized, isolationist commune. The community refuses to engage with the outside world to protect themselves from unknown threats and ensure their survival. However, they allow in outsiders who prove they mean no harm. Mutual respect and tolerance for other people's different religious faiths and personal beliefs are also present in their universalist, inter-faith church.[1]
The community does not have a singular leader and instead is run by a democratically elected council that governs the town. This council consisted of eleven members, including Tommy and Maria, and they regularly meet to discuss community policy regarding issues like taking in refugees, construction and dealing with infected.[3] This included proposals from the community, notably Ellie's request to send sixteen patrolmen to hunt down Joel's killers. The council would hear testimony from any members who had applied to speak during the debate and then cast their votes anonymously to be tallied. Votes of a 6-5 majority were needed to either pass the petition or reject it.[5] Although there was no official leader, Maria was considered by many in Jackson to be the community's de facto leader and several wanted Jesse to one day inherit that position from her.[6]
It was also the council's prerogative to put the town on high alert if a significant threat from raiders or infected was detected. In response, there was a clear system for handling such a threat: the young and old would hide in barricaded basements while the able-bodied adults would fight the threat. An alarm bell would sound to signal to the residents to follow this system if an attack was incoming. Against infected hordes, they would fortify the main gates with forklift trucks and tractors and the gunmen would shoot at them with shotguns, sniper rifles and automatic rifles atop the walls of Jackson Hole and rooftops of buildings if the horde breached their walls. To improve their defense, they also rolled barrels of gasoline on to the horde below to them ignite with torches, causing explosions to destroy as much of the horde as possible. If in dire need, they would also unleash their dogs from the kennels to fight as well. They also had a group of flamethrowers to use if the horde got inside, especially against bloaters. As councilmen, Tommy and Maria were responsible for commanding the town during such an attack and Tommy would multi-task as both a sniper and flamethrower user.[4]
Various resources such as livestock, agriculture, and other materials are publicly owned and controlled through self-managed collective ownership rather than any organized hierarchical management. Personal items like tools and other individual property are equally distributed and shared among the community. While there does not seem to be a consensus on any specific political philosophy, Maria describes the town's society as practicing a form of communism.[1]
Jackson patrolmen[]
The community also has an armed security force of volunteer patrolmen who protected the community from outside threats like raiders and infected, guarding both the perimeter of the town's walls and much of the surrounding local area against any potential hostile intruders.[3] Several of the older patrolmen were veterans of past wars from before the apocalypse, such as Eugene being a veteran of the Vietnam War and Tommy of the Gulf War; Owen recognized their patrols resembled the skills of those people with military training. Some were clumsy though, with Earl forgetting to put his safety on and shooting himself in the leg in December 2028.[4]
Tommy and Ellie, two of Jackson's patrolmen.
Each group was assigned a patrol captain to follow. The size of patrols varied, from upwards of ten[1] to as few as five[3] or two.[4][7] They also used to do solo patrols. These patrols were sent out if preliminary hunts by snipers like Tommy noticed a growing presence of infected in distant areas. Each patrolman was assigned a horse, knife, pistol and shotgun.[3] Some also tended to wear masks to cover their faces and have dogs with them to check any survivors they found for signs of infection,[1] but this wasn't always the case.[3] Some even carried radios with them to communicate back to Jackson's radio station ran by Amy and notify them if they found significant danger or were losing visibility so had to return to town.[4]
Jackson patrolmen with their dogs.
There is a clear code of conduct patrolmen are meant to follow on patrol. Notably, they are meant to follow the commands of their patrol leader, stick to their patrol routes, note findings in the logbooks and report back to Jesse if they encountered any infected during their patrol. Tommy, a member of the council, remarked that was so he and Joel could take care of it. However, if it was one or two runners, then the patrol was permitted to handle it themselves.[3] If there was a significant threat they detected, for instance discovering a group of thirty infected, then they would return to the town and alert the council that a potential horde attack was imminent.[4] If any patrolmen were infected when during their patrol, they it was the duty of their partner or other patrolmen to execute them to prevent them from spreading the infection back at the community. While some, like Ellie, argued against strictly following this, others such as Joel adhered to this protocol without exception.[7]
Patrolmen should also use a clear signal to act as a sign to others if they see anything dangerous by showing green or display it is safe by showing yellow. This didn't stop people, like Ellie and Dina, ignoring the rules though, which landed them in trouble with the community council. The patrolmen were assigned to follow routes, which in December 2028 included Alpine to Hoback and Creek to Teton Valley[3] mountaintops, Cottonwood, and Copper Mine.[4] Joel would mark on a whiteboard who the patrol leader for each route was and what level of emergency the area was in based on the patrol leader's report: zero for no danger, one for a need to prepare for danger, two for moving to respond to the danger, three to recover the area from the threat and four to evacuate the area because the danger was too much to risk losing lives over.[3] Patrolmen could also be sent out to leave Jackson and pursue foreign threats if the council voted for it.[5]
Known members[]
- Adam
- Amy
- Amy-Beth
- Benjamin Miller
- Caleb
- Carlisle
- Charlie
- Danny[8]
- Darren[8]
- Dina
- Dominique
- Dr. V.
- Earl
- Ellie Williams
- Eugene Lynden (deceased)
- Gail Lynden
- Gillian[8]
- Hitoshi[8]
- Jeanine
- Jesse (council member; deceased)
- Joel Miller (deceased)
- Joyce[8]
- June
- Kat
- Kylie
- Lindsay[8]
- Louie
- Maggie[8]
- Maria Miller (council member)
- Marshall
- Max
- Melina[8]
- Michelle[8]
- Rachel
- Sarah[8]
- Scott
- Seth
- Shimmer (horse)
- Stephen[8]
- Tommy Miller (council member)
- Vanessa
- Vanessa's mother
- Seth's grandchildren
Gallery[]
Season 1[]
.png "Jackson Community (HBO series).png (2.84 MB)")
Season 2[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 HBO's The Last of Us season 1, episode 6: "Kin" (transcript)
- ↑ HBO's The Last of Us season 1, episode 9: "Look for the Light" (transcript)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 HBO's The Last of Us season 2, episode 1: "Future Days" (transcript)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 HBO's The Last of Us season 2, episode 2: "Through the Valley" (transcript)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 HBO's The Last of Us season 2, episode 3: "The Path" (transcript)
- ↑ HBO's The Last of Us season 2, episode 7: "Convergence" (transcript)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 HBO's The Last of Us season 2, episode 6: "The Price" (transcript)
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 Jackson community debate list
