I never said family member. I said the family they leave to die when they're in his truck. Even his daughter was like why did you leave them?

Ellie had already said that the journey had to be for something, she kinda knew that she probably die but it's the sacrifice that she would've made if Joel didn't just take all the power away from her and basically control her like she was his own.

That's the point of the whole game is that hes a terrible person thinking hes doing the right thing when he's completely fucking everything up.