She goes to the shop and then right home, not anywhere else, she doesnt take advantage of Joels trust in her.

Not only that but Joel doesnt ask her where she got it fixed and how, the only thing he wonders is where she got the money for it, and she tells him truthfully that she took it from him. There is so much trust between her and Joel,

and what makes me extra emotional is no matter how independent she is, how many things she does around the house, we see her be a kid and cuddle up to her dad with the softest smile and with ease, altough he is forced to let her be alone at home for longer hours he still takes the time to make silly faces at her, to be gentle and kind with her, because that's what a parent does,

I feel like at this moment Joel regrets burdening Tommy with all that he told him, for asking him to take Ellie instead of just taking her himself. I feel like he regrets opening up, he's clenching his hand, and stressed out of his mind. I'm looking way too deep into this I know, but people who have been put in an emotional caretaking position from early on tend to feel undeserving of having someone to listen to them, and when and if they do open up, they tend to let it out together. I feel like he originally was just planning to tell Tommy how he cant protect Ellie and that he should take her to the fireflies, but then he pauses and tells him about his dreams, about Sarah, about the loss. And now he's thinking, "why?", "why did I burden my brother", "I should've handled it myself", I feel like he's trying to read Tommys emotions in this scene, which again people with that position tend to do, they try to read the emotions of everyone around them. they put their feelings away, they dont talk about it, they stay strong, for too long, and then the tears stop, the emotions get blocked, and thats what happened with him in that scene, he gets teary eyed but he doesn't sob, and I know I have mentioned this before but I find it such a brilliant choice to not let him sob, emotional repression does that to a person.

the identical smile, lip scrunch.

The patchy beards

the in sync walking, the same wide stance, the same movement in the arms, and then that kind of pengiun walk where all your joints hurt. They both lean on both of their sides when walking.

I just know, I feel it in my bones, that if Henry didn't stop Joel, he would've pulled Ellie off the floor and right into his arms. You can see it in his eyes - it's like for a moment, even with all that just happened, all he sees is Ellie, his Ellie and she's scared, probably hurt and she's crying and all he wants to do is gather her in his arms and make sure she's okay. And if that happened, Ellie would've broken down right then and there and just clung to Joel with all she has left in her.

a conversation about ava's trauma

there's only really one true gripe i have about the show and it's how quickly that whole thing is dismissed and even sometimes used against ava in season 1

they call it selfish but when ava tries to explain to mary all that she went through in the cave, she's told 'you're not the only one with issues' or something to that effect and it's pushed aside

like when you really sit and think about what ava went through in her life, losing her mother in an accident that paralyzed her, being abandoned by the rest of the world, being abused and belittled by her caretakers, then being legit murdered by one who tried to completely erase her existence from the world - it's fucked up

no wonder ava ran, no wonder she pushed back against a bunch of nuns who constantly told her she wasn't good enough (except for bea) and some of whom just wanted to take the halo and let her die all over again