Tommy Miller isn’t just Joel’s brother. He’s the ghost of who Joel could have been, and honestly, by the time the credits roll on the second game, he might be the most broken person left standing. We spend so much time dissecting Ellie’s trauma or Abby’s redemption that we sort of overlook the man who actually tried to build something real in the middle of a nightmare.
Uncle Tommy the Last of Us fans know him as the "fun" one early on, but that’s a surface-level read. If you look at his trajectory from the 2003 outbreak in Austin to the bitter, limping man on the farm in Part II, it’s a brutal downward spiral. He started as the moral compass. He ended as a cautionary tale.
The Man Who Kept His Humanity (Until He Didn't)
Most players meet Tommy in the prologue of the first game. He’s the guy driving the car while Joel holds Sarah. Even then, you see the dynamic. Tommy wants to help people on the side of the road; Joel tells him to keep driving. That gap between them defines the next twenty years of their lives.
After Sarah dies, Tommy and Joel survives the initial collapse, but they don't stay "good" people. We know from dialogue that they "survived" together in ways Tommy eventually couldn't live with. He literally tells Joel, "I got nothing but nightmares from those years." That’s a heavy admission. It’s why he joined the Fireflies. He was looking for a cause, a reason to believe the world wasn't just a graveyard.
When he eventually leaves the Fireflies and founds Jackson with Maria, he succeeds where everyone else fails. He builds a town with electricity, schools, and even Christmas decorations. He becomes the "Uncle Tommy" that Ellie needs—a stable, kind presence who isn't as suffocated by grief as Joel is.
Jackson and the Burden of Leadership
Running Jackson wasn't just about fixing fences. Tommy had to be a politician, a general, and a handyman all at once. He’s the one who welcomes strangers. He’s the one who offers Abby and her crew help near the ski lodge. And that’s the tragedy of it, right? His inherent decency is exactly what leads to Joel’s death. If Tommy had been as cynical as Joel, they might have walked into that basement with guns drawn. Instead, he introduced them by name.
📖 Related: The Borderlands 4 Vex Build That Actually Works Without All the Grind
"I'm Tommy. This is my brother."
Those words effectively ended the world they knew.
Why the Sniper Sequence in Part II Changes Everything
If you want to understand the shift in Uncle Tommy the Last of Us lore, you have to look at the Marina sequence. For most of the game, we see Tommy through Ellie’s eyes—as a guy who went rogue to protect her from having to seek revenge. But when we play as Abby and get pinned down by a lone sniper, we see the "Old Tommy."
He is terrifying.
He’s not just a good shot; he’s a predator. He uses the infected to distract Abby and Manny. He moves with a level of tactical precision that reminds you he survived the early days of the cordyceps outbreak just like Joel did. This is the moment the "Uncle" persona slips. You realize that beneath the sheepskin jacket and the friendly Jackson drawl, there’s a man who can be just as cold-blooded as his brother ever was.
👉 See also: Teenager Playing Video Games: What Most Parents Get Wrong About the Screen Time Debate
He loses an eye. He takes a bullet to the leg. He loses his marriage. By the time he shows up at Ellie and Dina’s farm, he’s a shell. He’s bitter. He’s mean. He guilt-trips Ellie into leaving her family to go back to Santa Barbara. It’s a hard scene to watch because you want to like him, but he’s become the very thing Joel tried to keep Ellie from becoming: a person consumed by a debt that can never be paid.
The Physical and Mental Toll
Tommy’s physical decline mirrors the decay of the world. In the first game, he’s sturdy, capable, and hopeful. In the second, he’s literally falling apart.
- The Eye: Losing his eye to Abby’s bullet isn't just a wound; it’s a loss of perspective. He can no longer see the "big picture" of Jackson. He only sees the target.
- The Leg: His limp makes him a liability in the field, which is why he has to beg Ellie to finish what he started.
- The Marriage: Maria is the one who kept him grounded. When they "take a break," he loses his last tie to the civilization he built.
Misconceptions About Tommy's "Softness"
A lot of people think Tommy was the "weak" brother because he wanted peace. That’s a total misunderstanding of his character. It takes way more strength to build a town like Jackson than it does to survive as a hunter in the woods. Tommy had to manage resources, people, and the constant threat of raiders.
He also stayed loyal to Joel even when they weren't speaking. When Joel shows up at the dam in the first game, Tommy’s first instinct is to protect him, even though Joel is bringing a "delivery" (Ellie) that spells nothing but trouble. Tommy’s loyalty is his greatest strength and his ultimate undoing.
How to View Tommy’s Legacy in the Series
If we ever get a The Last of Us Part III, Tommy is the biggest wild card. He’s still alive, which is rare in this universe. But what is he living for? He’s essentially become the "Joel" of the early days—bitter, alone, and driven by a dark history.
✨ Don't miss: Swimmers Tube Crossword Clue: Why Snorkel and Inner Tube Aren't the Same Thing
To truly understand his impact, you have to look at the nuance of his relationship with Ellie. He isn't her father, but he’s the one who taught her how to use a rifle. He’s the one who told her stories about the world before. He represents the bridge between the old world and the new.
Next Steps for Fans and Players:
To get a full sense of the Miller brothers' history, go back and read the optional dialogue and notes in the Jackson chapter of Part I. Specifically, look for the photo of Joel and Sarah that Tommy kept all those years. It proves that while Joel was trying to forget the past to survive, Tommy was the one carrying the memory for both of them.
Pay close attention to Tommy's tone during the "Farm" scene in Part II. It’s a masterclass in voice acting by Jeffrey Pierce. Notice how his voice has lost the warmth it had in the prologue. He isn't asking Ellie to go to Santa Barbara; he's demanding it as a repayment of a debt. This shift is the most important piece of character development in the series for anyone trying to understand the cycle of violence.
Stop looking at him as just a sidekick. He’s the mirror image of the entire series' theme: you can build a city, but you can’t outrun the person you were when the world ended.