Here is a full quote of Druckman about Joel and the end.
"[Joel's] arc is all about this irrational love he feels for this kid. He would do anything to take away her pain and definitely anything in the world save her from harm. It's about how far this guy is willing to go to save Ellie. Clearly he's willing to give up his life (he frankly doesn't care much about it)," said Druckman.
"There are all these walls he's put around himself to try to protect his emotional state. He's willing to put all those down and put himself at risk because it's worth it. It's worth it to put himself at risk to have that love of your kid, even though you might have to deal with something horrible happening. He's even willing to put his soul on the line, damning the rest of man kind in exchange for this girl's life. What happens here with this lie and this emphasis on the lie, is that this has taken his journey to the end of the line," said Druckmann.
"Ellie starts off clinging to parental figures thinking she needs someone much stronger than her to survive in this world. It starts of with Malrene and quickly shifts to Joel as they start off this journey. She wants to be like Joel; she looks up to him and she kind of wants to win his respect… When Ellie's talking to Sam, she talks about how her greatest fear, more than anything, is ending up alone. But as the story develops, we find out she's quite capable and in fact she's been capable this whole time. At times she stands up to Joel and forces him to respect her as an equal…", said Druckmann.
"Then we come to that ending and that lie and that okay and what does that okay mean? It's definitely not a complacent 'yea I'll go along with you', in fact, it's the opposite. It's Ellie waking up for the first time, waking up and realizing she can't rely on him anymore. While she loves him for what he's done for her, she hates him for robbing her of that choice. She knows that she has to leave him and make her own decisions and mistakes."
