The Firefly Lab
The Firefly Lab is the second-to-last chapter, set inside Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where the Fireflies have their base. It is a single section played as Joel, and its five collectibles include the recordings that explain what the Fireflies have learned from Ellie.
- Type
- Story
- Region
- Salt Lake City
Storylines
Part 11 of 12 in Main story
Found in
- Saint Mary's HospitalSaint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City is the Fireflies' main base and lab, the destination of Joel and Ellie's whole journey. You fight through it in The Firefly Lab, the last full chapter, which has one section, The Hospital, and 5 collectibles.
- Salt Lake CitySalt Lake City, Utah is the last stop on Joel and Ellie's search for the Fireflies. It is an abandoned quarantine zone where the Fireflies hold Saint Mary's Hospital, and you play the Bus Depot and The Firefly Lab chapters here in spring 2034.
Good to know
- Chapter 11 of 12; the night of April 28, 2034.
- One section: The Hospital.
- 5 collectibles: 4 artifacts (Marlene's journal, Marlene's recorders 1 and 2, and the surgeon's recorder) and Stewart-Seume's Firefly pendant.
- Stewart-Seume's pendant is the last pendant in the game, in a shiv-locked room behind the sixth-floor reception desk.
- The surgeon's recorder lies on that reception desk, at the top of the first stairs to the sixth floor.
- Marlene's journal is in a tent marked with the Firefly logo on the sixth floor; her second recorder is in room 608, in Pediatrics.
Sections in order
The Hospital is the only section. It starts with Joel waking in a hospital bed, moves up through the building to the sixth floor and the operating room, and ends down in the parking garage.
Waking up
Joel comes to with Marlene at his bedside, who apologizes for the knock on the head and asks how they made it. He tells her Ellie fought hard to get there and asks to see her. Everything after this conversation is a major story spoiler.
Marlene's planSpoilerShow
Marlene explains that the infection in Ellie's brain has mutated, which is why she is immune, and that the doctors want to study it to make a vaccine. Joel realizes the surgery will kill her. Marlene has a guard, Ethan, walk Joel out with orders to shoot if he tries anything. Joel disarms him, forces out that the operating room is on the top floor, and kills him.
Through the hospitalSpoilerShow
The Fireflies are now the enemy, and you can sneak past or fight them floor by floor, sealing off the West Wing on the way. On the top floor the recordings reveal the surgeon's view of Ellie's immunity and Marlene's doubts about sacrificing a girl she promised to protect. Joel bursts into the operating room, kills the head surgeon, Jerry Anderson, when he blocks the way, and carries Ellie to the elevator.
The garageSpoilerShow
Marlene is waiting in the parking garage and tries to talk Joel into handing Ellie back. He shoots her, puts Ellie in a car, and then kills Marlene as she pleads, saying she would only come after Ellie. Driving out, he tells a waking Ellie that there were many immune people and that the Fireflies have given up on a cure.
- AnnaAnna is Ellie's mother, known only through a letter Ellie carries and a few remarks from people who knew her. You can read her letter, the Note from mom artifact, from Ellie's backpack at the start of Lakeside Resort.
- Ellie WilliamsEllie Williams is the 14-year-old girl Joel is hired to smuggle out of Boston, and your companion for most of The Last of Us Part I. She was bitten weeks earlier and never turned, so the Fireflies believe her immunity could lead to a vaccine. You play as her in the winter chapter and in the Left Behind DLC.
- EthanEthan is a Firefly soldier at Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. In The Firefly Lab he finds Joel and Ellie after they arrive, and Marlene later puts him in charge of walking Joel out of the building.
- Jerry AndersonJerry Anderson is the lead doctor of the Fireflies at St. Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, the man in charge of their research into a cure. You only meet him near the end of the game, in the chapter The Firefly Lab, and his part in the story is best discovered by playing it.
- Joel MillerJoel Miller is the man you play for almost all of The Last of Us Part I. A hardened smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, he takes a job escorting 14-year-old Ellie out of the city, and the drop-off turns into a year-long trip across the country to find the Fireflies.
- KariKari is a Firefly surgical assistant at Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. You meet her in the operating room at the end of The Firefly Lab, where she is helping the surgeon Jerry Anderson.
- MarleneMarlene is the leader of the Fireflies, the militia fighting the military in the quarantine zones. Wounded in Boston, she hires Joel and Tess to smuggle Ellie out of the city in The Quarantine Zone, and you meet her again at the Fireflies' hospital in Salt Lake City near the end of the game.
- Marlene's journalMarlene's journal is an optional artifact in the Firefly tent on the sixth floor of St. Mary's Hospital. Walk to the far section of the tent marked with the Firefly logo and take it from the table on the left, next to the microscope.
- Marlene's recorder 1Marlene's recorder 1 is an optional audio artifact in an office on the sixth floor of St. Mary's Hospital. After the first flight of stairs, turn right, go through the open door on the right and pick it up from the desk.
- Marlene's recorder 2Marlene's recorder 2 is an optional audio artifact in Room 608 of the hospital's Pediatrics ward. After you enter Pediatrics and barricade the door, go into the room on the right and pick it up from the table against the back wall.
- Stewart-Seume's Firefly PendantStewart-Seume's Firefly pendant is the 31st and last pendant, on a desk behind a shiv door on the sixth floor of the hospital in The Firefly Lab. It belonged to Bryony Stewart-Seume.
- Surgeon's recorderThe Surgeon's recorder is an optional audio artifact on the sixth floor of St. Mary's Hospital in The Firefly Lab. After the first flight of stairs, it is on the reception desk right in front of Joel.
Related missions
Image: Naughty Dog / PlayStationStoryLakeside Resort
Lakeside Resort jumps to winter and puts you in control of Ellie near Silver Lake, Colorado, hunting with a bow and searching for medicine. She runs into two strangers, David and James, and for part of the second half the game switches you back to Joel.
Image: Naughty Dog / PlayStationStoryThe Quarantine Zone
The Quarantine Zone starts the story proper 20 years after the outbreak, inside Boston's military-run zone in August 2033. As Joel, now a smuggler, you and his partner Tess slip outside the wall to track down Robert, a dealer who owes them guns, and end up taking a new job from the Fireflies.
Image: Naughty Dog / PlayStationStoryBus Depot
Bus Depot opens in the spring of 2034 as Joel and Ellie walk into Salt Lake City, aiming for the Fireflies at Saint Mary's Hospital. The route runs along a highway full of dead cars, through the Logan James bus station and an abandoned quarantine zone, and down into a flooded tunnel full of infected.
- Story
Mallrats
Mallrats is the second chapter of Left Behind and the first full flashback: Ellie and Riley dodge a patrol in Boston, cross the rooftops and slip into the abandoned Liberty Gardens mall. It is a calm, story-driven chapter with Halloween masks, a brick-throwing contest that unlocks a trophy, and a breaker switch that brings the mall's lights back.