The Last of Us season 2 finale delivered a real gut punch. After watching Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) kill Jesse (Young Mazino) and seemingly shoot Ellie (Bella Ramsey), the screen cut to black. Then it jumped back three days earlier. We were still in Seattle, but now we were going to see Abby's side of the intense story. This creative move mirrors some of the big choices made in the original video game The Last Of Us Part II. In that game, players switch between Joel, Abby, and Ellie's points of view. This helps us understand the awful human cost of everyone's revenge plans.
So far, the TV show has focused on Joel and Ellie. The change to Abby's story is a big deal. For a while, Abby disappeared from the series after killing Joel in episode 2. She stayed in the background as Ellie started her revenge trip through Seattle. Abby was also absent for most of the finale, returning only for a cruel ending sequence. She shot Jesse in the head held Tommy at gunpoint and then seemingly shot Ellie too. Abby had spared Ellie’s life earlier at the lodge outside Jackson. Now three of her friends are dead because of her mercy.
The finale episode "Convergence" directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado was another brutal bloody finish for The Last of Us. Just like the season one conclusion it packed a lot into a gripping episode. It might have been better with more time. The season had seven episodes and the finale was just under 50 minutes. Lives were lost truths came out and the war between the WLF and the Seraphites got super intense. Amid all that chaos the show highlighted its biggest theme for the season and maybe the whole series: Revenge always has a price.
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Before we got back to the dramatic moment between Ellie and Abby the episode showed what happened earlier during a busy third day in Seattle. After the previous episode reminded us of the relationship and future Ellie lost when Abby killed Joel "Convergence" showed us a focused Ellie. Her purpose was clearer than ever. She told Dina that she forced Nora to give her Abby's location. Nora only said "whale" and "wheel." Then Ellie just let the infection take Nora. Ellie said staring into the distance "I thought it would be harder to do. But it wasn’t. It was easy. I just kept hurting her." This shows how much Ellie has changed.
The more time Ellie and Dina spend in Seattle the more obsessed Ellie gets with making Abby pay for what she did to Joel. She does not care how much danger it puts her or her friends in. At the same time Ellie’s sense of right and wrong gets more blurry. She might not even realize it. She still has some of her old saving complex but she is also trying to make decisions like she thinks Joel would. When Ellie and Jesse leave a recovering Dina at the theater to find Tommy Ellie almost put them in danger to save a young Seraphite from Wolves. This choice highlights her conflicting feelings.
Not long after Jesse cleverly tricked Ellie into confirming Dina’s pregnancy, which made his survival more important as a soon-to-be dad, Ellie tried to step in. Several WLF soldiers were about to execute the Seraphite. But Jesse stopped her. He told her "Ellie, these people are shooting each other, lynching each other, ripping each other’s guts out. Even the kids. I am not dying out here. Not for any of them. This is not our war." This exchange shows the growing tension within their group.
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Ellie Faces Her Darkest Moments as She Confronts Abby's Friends
As a background to the violent cycle of revenge that Abby and Ellie have continued this season the WLF and the Seraphites keep doing awful things to each other. Jesse’s point about staying out of the war makes a lot of sense. Especially in this situation where it was stupid for the often reckless Ellie to risk their lives when they were greatly outnumbered. Yet their talk about what is right and wrong did not stop there.
Later Ellie and Jesse figure out where a mystery sniper is attacking the WLF. They think it must be Tommy. But at the same moment Ellie sees an aquarium in the distance that has a Ferris wheel and a whale painting. She realizes what Nora’s clues meant. Ellie tries to convince Jesse to leave Tommy behind to go after Abby. During their argument Jesse tells her that he voted against the Jackson council’s decision to send a group after Abby and her crew. Jesse explained "Ellie, it wasn’t in the best interest of the community."
"Forget the community!" Ellie yelled back. "All you do is talk about the community. You hypocrite. You think you’re good and I’m bad? You let a kid die today, Jesse. Why? He wasn’t in your community? Let me tell you about my community. My community was beaten to death in front of me while I was forced to watch." This dramatic conversation felt a bit forced. But Ellie’s outburst basically sums up what keeps tearing this dying world apart. Maybe even more than the infected. It is tribalism. From season one groups like Kathleen’s raiders and David’s cannibals showed how isolated communities try to protect their own people. Even if it hurts others. That idea became even clearer in season 2 with the WLF and Seraphites fighting each other. And as Ellie points out Jackson is not much different. Well except for its lack of religious killings.
With all that said Ellie’s argument felt pretty weak in a few ways. The show quickly created another fight with the Seraphites to prove Jesse’s point. After Ellie and Jesse went their separate ways Ellie stole a WLF boat. She crossed the stormy water to reach the aquarium. But a huge wave hit her boat. When she crashed on the shore of a nearby island she found an even younger Seraphite kid. This kid quickly gave her up to be hanged. But just before the Seraphites killed Ellie they heard a warning of an attack on their village. They just left her behind. As Ellie found her boat to keep going she saw explosions far off. She was saved by the same war Jesse told her to stay out of. What a twist.
Earlier in the episode Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac the WLF leader returned. He had a scene with Elise Park. Elise was the WLF officer who had to sacrifice her son in the infected hospital basement in episode 5. Elise told Isaac about the final preparations for the attack. She mentioned the huge storm they were using to cover it. They did not talk about specific plans. But it was clear this battle was everything for the WLF. Isaac was ready to die in it. Still he was more worried about where Abby was. One of his best soldiers and possible future WLF leader had gone missing at the most important time.
The WLF’s attack on the Seraphites’ island brings season 2 full circle. Ellie’s current revenge mission looks just like Abby’s actions in Jackson. Abby used a snowstorm and an infected horde to find and kill Joel. Now Ellie is using another weather event and a battle to go after Abby. But first she had to get through Owen and Mel. In The Last of Us Part II Ellie’s killing of Owen and Mel is one of the most upsetting parts of the whole game. The HBO series made it even more heartbreaking.
When Ellie arrives at the aquarium Owen and Mel are arguing about Abby. Ellie steps out of the shadows with her gun. She used an old trick Joel used to get information from captives. She tells them to point to Abby on a map so she can check their answers. But Owen grabs his gun to shoot her instead. Ellie fires her weapon. She kills Owen instantly while accidentally hitting Mel’s neck. Only after Mel falls to the floor and unzips her jacket revealing her pregnant belly does Ellie realize Mel is expecting a child. This happened just one day after Ellie learned Dina was also pregnant.
As blood poured from her neck Mel begged Ellie to bring a knife and tried to tell her how to do an emergency C-section. In seconds Ellie went from being Mel’s questioner to her makeshift doctor. She tried hard to follow Mel’s instructions to deliver the baby. But she was too scared to cut into Mel’s stomach and too shocked to do anything. So Mel dies along with her unborn child. Her last words were "Is it out?"
This was a devastating act even though it was an accident. Ellie was completely shaken by it. She had told Dina how easy it was to hurt Nora. But Ellie is still trying to keep her humanity as she loses herself after losing Joel. All she can do is sit on the floor next to Mel’s and Owen’s bodies. Then Tommy and Jesse arrive to take her back to the theater.
What Lies Ahead for The Last of Us and Its Future Seasons

The HBO Series Teases Abby's Perspective and Hints at a Longer Story
As tragic as Abby’s friends’ deaths are, that scene was not the episode’s last upsetting moment. Soon after Ellie, Tommy, and Jesse meet up with Dina at the theater, they get a visit from a surprise guest: Abby herself. When Ellie and Jesse hear a struggle in another room, they rush out. Jesse gets shot in the face as soon as they open the door. Abby holds Tommy at gunpoint. Ellie throws her pistol aside. She finally faces Joel’s killer. She puts her fate in Abby’s hands again.
"No, I did," Ellie says. "I was looking for you. I didn’t mean to hurt them. I know why you killed Joel. He did what he did to save me. I’m the one that you want." After Abby reminds Ellie of her earlier mercy she points and fires her gun in Ellie’s direction. The episode seems to end there. It is an awful cliff-hanger. But another scene follows.
Just like the previous two episodes "Convergence" finishes with a quick hint of what is next on The Last of Us. But instead of waiting only a week for the next episode viewers will have to wait until season 3. The final scene shows Abby abruptly woken up by Manny to meet Isaac. As she leaves the building and it starts raining we see the WLF’s huge operation in a stadium. Finally as the music gets louder text appears on the screen. It says "Seattle Day One." This sets up the coming change in perspective for season 3. The Last of Us is ready to become Abby’s story.
If the HBO series follows the game’s story which it seems to be doing season 3 will probably show the same three days in Seattle that season 2 did. But from Abby’s view. The season finale is exciting in many ways. But it is also a bit hard to watch. So much information is kept from us on purpose. And it has been a long time since we saw some of these characters. Isaac and Elise hint at the WLF’s big attack on the Seraphites. They talk about how Abby and her friends have gone missing. But we do not see any of that action on screen. As the episode ending suggests all that context will come later. When it does it will surely make us see the finale’s events in a new way. But not until next season. The show is staying true to the game’s pacing. But the long wait for the payoff in season 3 will need extra patience from the audience.
The Last of Us season 2 had some amazing parts. Its shocking second episode was remarkable television. It is still one of the best shows on TV. This is thanks to its stunning sets prosthetics special effects and great cast. It also deeply looks at love and how dangerous it can be. But season 2 also showed the problems of adapting the harder parts of Part II. According to Mazin season 3 might let the creative team spread the story out over more episodes than they could in season 2. And instead of rushing to finish the story in the next set of episodes the showrunners might even extend it to a season 4.
"There’s a good chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2, just because the way that story is told and the chances it gives us are a little different," Mazin told Collider. "The thing about Joel’s death is that it’s so powerful. It’s such a narrative bomb that it’s hard to move away from it. We can’t really take a break and go off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. But certainly, there’s no way to finish this story in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll do well enough to come back and finish it in a fourth." Even though Joel is gone as The Last of Us starts a new chapter there is still a huge amount of rich story to cover. And maybe even expand. Because even after all the lives Ellie and Abby have taken from each other and the pain they have caused those closest to them their rivalry is not over yet.