Tess

Tess

Tess (English Tess) - the character of the game The Last of Us. A smuggler who survives the Cordyceps cerebral infection pandemic and is in a business and possibly romantic relationship with Joel. Annie Wersching provided motion capture and voice acting.

Biography

Tess is about 35 years old and a resident of the 4th Boston Quarantine Zone. Their relationship with Joel is based on strong trust in each other. With various contacts in the underground world, along with firm business principles, the duo have gained a reputation as ruthless smugglers. At a certain period of their lives, they meet Bill, the only inhabitant of the town of Lincoln near Boston. He procures supplies for them to bring into the quarantine zone.

Events in The Last of Us

The first meeting with Tess occurs when she arrives at Joel's apartment after she is attacked by people sent by Robert, a dealer who does not want to give up the promised shipment of weapons. She manages to convince her friend that it is possible to return the stolen goods, however, the path to Robert in the neighboring area is blocked by a surprise attack by Cicadas at the nearest checkpoint. Tess uses her connections to sneak underground tunnels to Robert's territory, where, much to the annoyance of his partners, it turns out that he sold all the weapons to the Cicadas. An enraged Tess kills the businessman, when suddenly the wounded leader of the Cicadas, Marlene, appears before the couple and offers a deal in the form of delivering some cargo to the nearest base of the group in exchange for the missing weapon with a fair increase on top.

Marlin introduces them to Ellie, a fourteen-year-old girl whom she takes care of. It is required to quietly lead it outside the quarantine zone to the Capitol building to the group of Cicadas waiting there - at this point the mission will be considered completed. Not without doubts and mistrust of each other, Joel and Ellie leave, leaving Tess, who helps Marlene to bandage her wounds and reach her own, showing the promised weapon along the way.

Making their way through the ruins of the city to their destination, the reunited trio by nightfall recklessly comes across a patrol. During a standard scanner check for infection in such cases, Ellie suddenly stabs a nearby military man in the knee with a knife. Taking advantage of the created hype, the partners manage to kill the patrol, which makes the girl dumbfounded, who just wanted to escape without unnecessary casualties. Looking at the scanner, they discover that Ellie is infected and, fearing for her life, she talks about a three-week-old bite that should have turned her into a monster, which implies that the girl is immune to the fungus. Joel does not believe her words, but there is no time for reflection due to the fact that another military patrol is approaching.

Deciding to go to the Capitol through a tilted, dilapidated skyscraper, the heroes encounter runners and clickers that live there. Together they manage to deal with the infected and get to the museum, where a collapse separates the group. After making a detour, Joel finds Tess attacked by the infected, with whom he quickly cracks down, at the same time coming to the aid of Ellie.

After some time, all three manage to reach the target, but, entering the building, they find that the Cicadas that were waiting for them have been killed by the military. Joel wants to turn back, but Tess, with feverish persistence, continues to search for any clues among the corpses that point to the current location of the Cicada base. Joel is trying to dissuade Tess from a case that no longer concerns them, when Ellie suddenly realizes the reason for the woman's strong excitement and interest: an hour ago she became infected. Refusing to accept this, Joel demands to see the bite marks and Tess doomedly shows the wound on her neck. She asks Joel to promise that he will take the girl to the Cicadas for a vaccine. The partner hardly agrees, but there is no time for regrets: trucks with soldiers drive up to the Capitol. Detaining the military, Tess enters into an unequal battle and, having shot two fighters, she herself dies. Having received time to escape, Joel with the girl from the second second floor manages to take a last look at Tess's body.

Skills and abilities

Tess is a natural leader, being the brains behind Joel's muscle in their partnership. She is also well-connected and respected and even feared by many people in Boston.

Like most hardened survivors, she is skilled in combat, having killed many infected over the years. She was able to kill runners and clickers with just a 9mm pistol and fists, and even two armored soldiers in the same way. She was skilled enough in hand-to-hand combat to kill two on her own, despite being wounded and taken by surprise. In addition, she was quite secretive, killing a person with a knife by sneaking up on him. However, she was not invincible; the runner successfully bit her, causing her to become infected and later killed by a troop of soldiers, despite the fact that she managed to kill two of them.

Character traits

A hardened survivor living in one of the last remaining quarantine zones, Tess works on the black market in a city under martial law. As Joel's partners, they became known in the underworld for their cruelty. Streetwise, smart and confident, Tess is a skilled strategist and negotiator. Her ability to come up with sound plans to secure smuggling for their trade is unmatched. Tess and Joel share the same "dog eat dog" philosophy. They survive by being willing to do what others cannot. Her faith and devotion to Joel is very deep. However, she secretly asks if Joel shares the same emotions she has for him. ” is a description of Tess by Naughty Dog.

Tess is the leader; she easily guides Joel and befriends many people she meets along the way. She has a wide circle of acquaintances and is universally respected and feared by the residents of the Boston area. Tess, like most survivors, is ruthless and doesn't flinch at the thought of killing people, but instead is quite kind to Ellie, more so than Joel was originally, and does her best to comfort and protect her. Tess seems to be just as cruel as Joel; it is hinted, and later confirmed upon hearing a conversation between two other smugglers, that Tess killed two thugs hired by Robert to kill her. Tess also seems to have as much patience as Joel; she decided to shoot the man hired by Robert instead of talking to him.

However, after being bitten, Tess becomes short-tempered, aggressive, and stops appreciating small things. Also, she becomes possessed and desperately tries to find the Fireflies. However, she does little in this behavior, as the nature of the infection makes the host hostile and angry. On the other hand, the obsession apparently stems from her reluctance to transform before they reach Ellie's drop point. Another part of her insistence is the suggestion that she believes bringing Ellie to the Fireflies will bring a cure to the world, and she immediately latches on to it despite the fact that Joel didn't believe it at all. In Tess's opinion, this would mean some kind of forgiveness for what she and Joel had done. Her guilt for all of this is revealed when she tells Joel that they are "shitty people" and that they "have been that way for a long time". For Tess, bringing Ellie to the Fireflies would be peace of mind for her, and this is shown in her last request to Joel.

Tess is brave; she accepts Ellie without complaining and meets her death with a humanity rarely seen since the outbreak. She doesn't even tell Joel and Ellie that she's been bitten, selflessly not wanting them to worry about her until there's an alternative. Coming to the realization that she was on the verge of becoming an Infected, Tess shows selflessness and love for Joel and Ellie, convincing Joel to take her to the Fireflies for a chance to save the broken state of the world. She sacrifices herself for them, in stark contrast to her previous "doggy world" philosophy she shared with Joel, showing that true humanity has not yet died in their world.