Despite my love for genre TV shows filled with action and drama, I have never been able to get into the popular HBO series The Last of Us. This reluctance cannot be attributed to the fact that I have not played the video game it is based on, as I have enjoyed other adaptations without prior gaming experience, such as last year’s Prime Video hit. Additionally, my admiration for the talents of actors like Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, whom I have cherished since their time on Game of Thrones, eliminates the possibility of disliking the show due to its cast. On paper, The Last of Us seems like a perfect fit for my taste, yet I find myself indifferent to it.

My realization came when watching an episode of Andor on Disney+, where I discovered that my issue with The Last of Us lies in my perception of the main characters, Joel and Ellie, portrayed by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. In my eyes, they come across as flawed individuals devoid of any moral compass, making them unlikable and unworthy of sympathy or support.

**Spoilers for Andor Season 2 Episode 10 “Make It Stop,” now streaming on Disney+ and The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 “Feel Her Love,” streaming on MAX**

I understand this now precisely because Andor Season 2 Episode 10 presents the moral and narrative inverse of Joel and Ellie’s story. It’s the story of a lost man and his adoptive charge who decide to give their all to a larger cause over selfish sentimentality. What Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) now represent to me are a version of Joel and Ellie where the lone wolf and cub pairing actually has something worth fighting, and dying, for. This specific episode of Andor works for me in every way that The Last of Us never has.

In case you’ve never seen The Last of Us, the first season follows hardened smuggler Joel as he escorts orphaned teen Ellie across a post-apocalyptic American hellscape. The world has been overrun by “Infected,” but Ellie is miraculously immune to their illness. Joel’s job, which he’s being paid for, is to get Ellie to a doctor in Salt Lake City who can make a cure for the disease from the girl’s DNA. The problem is Joel is defined by the grief he feels over his teenaged daughter Sarah’s tragic death. After he and Ellie form a close bond, Joel — unable to lose another “daughter” — decides to massacre an entire hospital’s worth of people to save the girl. Note, by doing so, he’s not just committed mass murder, but he’s doomed humanity.

The Last of Us is designed to make us root for these characters. They are our heroes. Which means, we’re supposed to be morally okay with their reprehensible deeds because they’re done out of love for one another.

Andor, thankfully, provides us with a more nuanced, more tragic, and much more heroic version of this relationship in Luthen and Kleya. Throughout the run of Andor, we’re led to believe that Luthen Rael is the mastermind behind the Rebellion. His closest ally is his assistant (or maybe daughter?) Kleya. However, Andor Season 2 Episode 10 blows this myth out of existence.

We learn through flashbacks that Luthen was once Sergeant Lear, an Imperial soldier shellshocked by his own shame. He’s hiding in a ship instead of continuing to participate in a genocide, only officially leaving that life when he discovers a young girl (April V. Woods) has stowed away. They embark on a new life as Luthen and Kleya. In all their business dealings, it’s Kleya who is in control. When they start officially targeting Imperials, it’s Kleya’s call.

“This young girl is actually the dominant one. She’s actually in control. Luthen’s not in control,” Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy told DECIDER. “Otherwise, it runs some risks that you can imagine, of manipulation.”

“You really had to find and design those scenes really carefully and then find a girl who could really believably bring the steel that older Kleya has.”

Andor Season 2 Episode 10 reveals this complex backstory against the end of Luthen and Kleya’s relationship. When ISB agent Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) attempts to arrest Luthen, in the hopes he’ll give up the secrets of the Rebellion, he stabs himself with a ceremonial knife. Dedra takes over an entire hospital to keep the man on life support. Kleya snaps into action.

Much like Joel in Salt Lake City, Kleya fights her way into a hospital to save the person she loves most. Unlike Joel, however, Kleya uses spycraft and subterfuge to sneak in, sparing as many lives as possible. She only fires on Imperials prepared to shoot her. When Kleya eventually gets to Luthen’s bedside, she doesn’t actually save his life. In fact, she tearfully takes him off life support. It’s a move that honors his wishes and preserves the Rebellion’s secrets.

Kleya lets Luthen die for a greater purpose, thereby proving she really loved him and all they stood for together.

The Last of Us has further muddied its lead characters’ relationship with morality in Season 2. Last week’s episode veers away from the video game source material by revealing that 19-year-old Ellie not only knows about the atrocities Joel committed on her behalf, but doesn’t care. She eerily affirms this to Nora (Tati Gabrielle) — one of the Fireflies who survived his rage, only to brutally kill him in TLOU Season 2 Episode 2 — just before she beats Nora to death.

Watching Kleya make the choices Joel simply couldn’t helped illuminate for me just how nihilistic The Last of Us is. Neither Luthen nor Kleya present themselves as heroes. They do the hard, awful, terrible things others won’t. However, Luthen and Kleya are doing all this in the name of fighting fascism and freeing others they’ll never even meet. Everything Joel, Ellie, and their cohorts do is in the name of hurt feelings. Everything that happens on The Last of Us is just about making life worse.

Give me what Luthen and Kleya have. Give me characters with purpose. Give me characters who know love isn’t selfish. Love is sacrifice.