(SPOILER)For all of you who thought that there was a chance Joel was telling the truth (seriously, were you even paying attention?), Naughty Dog has confirmed in interviews discussing the ending that Joel was lying. It was meant to be obvious that he was lying. Originally, the ending had been written that Ellie believed him wholeheartedly and they rode off into the sunset together, but they rewrote it slightly when they realized that Ellie had too good of a nose for sniffing out bulltrout to entirely believe him.