Warning: This post contains spoilers for finale.
The cycle of vengeance continues in The Last of Us. It began with Joel () eliminating the Fireflies in Salt Lake City, escalated with Abby () torturing and , and then with Ellie () embarking on her own vengeful quest, culminating in a violent confrontation between Abby and Ellie.
Following a , the second season’s finale unfolded during Day 3 of Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie’s time in Seattle. After (Tati Gabrielle) was pressed for information about Abby’s location, Ellie and Jesse (Young Mazino) attempted to reach the rendezvous point agreed upon with Tommy (Gabriel Luna). Dina, wounded and pregnant, remained at the theater. After hearing a report on their stolen radio that were under attack by a sniper—Tommy—at the marina, Jesse urged them to change their plans.
While scouting the city, Ellie realized that Nora’s clues, “whale” and “wheel,” likely referred to the Seattle aquarium. She decided to go there to finish her mission. However, instead of Abby, she found Abby’s friends, Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). Ellie offered to spare them if they revealed Abby’s location, but Owen drew a gun. Ellie shot him, killing him instantly and also wounding Mel in the neck. The wound was fatal, but Mel revealed she was heavily pregnant and begged Ellie to perform an emergency C-section to save the baby. Ellie, devastated by her actions, wanted to help but didn’t know how to perform the surgery before Mel died. Tommy and Jesse arrived and took a distraught Ellie back to the theater.
Unfortunately for the Jackson group, Abby arrived at the theater as they prepared to leave Seattle. She quickly subdued Tommy and killed Jesse before recognizing Ellie. Ellie pleaded for Tommy’s life, but Abby instead aimed her gun at Ellie, stating that she had spared her life, which Ellie had “wasted,” before firing a shot. The show then flashed back to three days earlier in Seattle, showing events from Abby’s perspective, leaving Ellie’s fate unresolved until Season 3.
“Now, we’re actually in more of a traditional cliffhangery mode, where you’re telling a story, and then you end the season with something that says, ‘Whoa, this is going to change a whole bunch of things, and we’ll see you when we get back and pick it up from there,’” series co-creator Craig Mazin told . “I’m always thinking about, what are the things that only The Last of Us does? Let’s do those as much as we can. And then, you go for it and you make your decisions and mostly just try as best as you can to think about the audience experience and how they’re going to feel when they arrive at the end of something. Hopefully, we set them up to want to return when we come back for the next run.”
In the meantime, The Last of Us Part II video game can offer clues about future events in the show. If you don’t know what happens in the game, stop reading to avoid spoilers.
The cliffhanger signals a major shift in the story, marking the point where the main playable character switches from Ellie to Abby. While Ellie survives her encounter with Abby, this likely won’t be revealed until several episodes into Season 3, as the season will first show Abby’s experiences during those three days in Seattle.
The shift aims to show events from Abby’s point of view, encouraging empathy for her as well as Joel and Ellie. However, the game’s reception was mixed; some fans intensely disliked Abby, leading to harassment and death threats against Laura Bailey, the actor who voiced and did motion capture for the character, and her infant son. Isabela Merced revealed on a 2024 episode of the that HBO increased security for Dever during filming due to concerns about the toxicity directed at Abby. However, Mazin noted that Joel’s death was better received by show fans compared to the gaming community.
“They understood, ‘Oh, my God, no! Somebody that we loved is dead. What will happen now?’ It was not, ‘Let’s go stand in front of HBO and throw eggs or blame Kaitlyn Dever.’ No. People reacted like a normal audience would theoretically react,” he told Collider. There are people who are angry at the video game who will stay angry forever, and they will be angry at the show. If Neil [Druckmann] hands out free money, they’ll be angry about the denominations that the cash was in. It was amazing, actually, to see how many people were like, ‘I hate Abby. Kaitlyn Dever should win an Emmy.’ They understood what that’s about, and that was actually quite encouraging.”
The show’s approach to Abby’s perspective remains to be seen. However, Mazin stated that the Last of Us story cannot be fully told in just three seasons. “There’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season,” . “Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome.”
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