She lets them go. Abby and Lev disappear into the water. The hate that has kept Ellie company since Wyoming is suddenly without its object, and what it leaves behind is not peace — it is the space where mourning would live if there were room for it. The hate was not a replacement for grief. It was a postponement. Now the grief is available and she is alone with it.

Mourning Joel was never possible while the hate was present, because the hate required Joel's death to remain a wound rather than a loss. A wound you tend. A loss you carry differently. The game ends with Ellie learning the difference, which is not the same as the game providing comfort. It is just the truth of where she is.