The Last of Us Season 2 Finale, Explained

Warning: This submit accommodates spoilers for The Final of Us Season 2 finale.

The vicious cycle of revenge is biking on in The Final of Us. What started with Joel (Pedro Pascal) wiping out the Fireflies in Salt Lake Metropolis, progressed into Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) torturing and killing Joel, and extra just lately advanced into Ellie (Bella Ramsey) setting out on her personal warpath, has now resulted in Abby and Ellie coming head to head in a blaze of violence.

After a penultimate episode made up totally of flashbacks, the finale of the present’s second season performed out over the course of Day 3 of Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie’s keep in Seattle. Within the aftermath of Ellie torturing Nora (Tati Gabrielle) for details about Abby’s whereabouts, Ellie and Jesse (Younger Mazino) spent the next morning attempting to make it to the rendezvous level Jesse had agreed on with Tommy (Gabriel Luna) whereas a wounded and pregnant Dina remained behind on the theater. However after listening to a report on their stolen radio that the Wolves had been beneath assault by a sniper—i.e. Tommy—on the marina, Jesse pushed to vary course.

Within the means of surveying the town, Ellie realized the 2 phrases Nora had given up, “whale” and “wheel,” had been probably in reference to Seattle’s aquarium, and determined to as a substitute make her method there to complete what she’d began. Nevertheless, it wasn’t Abby she discovered on the aquarium, however Abby’s pals, Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). Though Ellie insisted she would allow them to reside in the event that they advised her the place Abby was, Owen tried to drag a gun on her and Ellie fired off a shot that went straight via Owen’s throat, killing him immediately, earlier than additionally nicking Mel’s neck. It was a deadly wound, however Mel was nonetheless alive for lengthy sufficient to disclose she was closely pregnant and attempt to persuade Ellie to carry out an emergency C-section on her to avoid wasting the newborn. It was clear Ellie was devastated about what she had finished and needed to assist, however had no concept tips on how to do the surgical procedure earlier than Mel bled out. Tommy and Jesse then confirmed as much as deliver a distraught Ellie again to the theater.

Sadly for the Jackson crew, simply as they had been on the point of get the hell out of the warfare zone of Seattle, Abby lastly confirmed again up and did not waste any time getting right down to enterprise. After subduing Tommy and killing Jesse, she acknowledged Ellie and realized who she was coping with. Ellie begged her to let Tommy go and he or she responded by as a substitute pointing the gun at Ellie and telling her that she had let her reside and Ellie had “wasted it” earlier than we hear her fireplace a shot. Nevertheless, we did not see if the bullet hit its mark, because the present flashed again in time to 3 days earlier in Seattle—besides this time we had been seeing issues from Abby’s perspective. The episode then minimize to black, that means Ellie’s destiny will stay up within the air for a number of years till Season 3 ultimately rolls round.

“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,'” collection co-creator Craig Mazin advised Collider. “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.”

Within the meantime, nonetheless, The Final of Us Half II online game can present some perception about what’s more likely to come within the present. So, for individuals who do not already know what occurs within the recreation, now’s your likelihood to cease studying earlier than we get into some spoilers.

This cliffhanger ending heralds a serious switch-up within the Final of Us story, because it marks the controversial second within the recreation when the primary playable character flips from Ellie to Abby. And whereas Ellie does survive this encounter with Abby, it is probably that will not be revealed within the present till at the least a number of episodes into Season 3, as we’ll first have to see all the pieces that occurred to Abby throughout those self same three days in Seattle.

The change is meant to point out you issues from Abby’s perspective and make you empathize together with her in addition to Joel and Ellie. Nevertheless, that is not all the time the response it prompted within the recreation, seeing as some followers hated Abby a lot that the actor who voiced and supplied the motion-capture efficiency for her within the recreation, Laura Bailey, was subjected to significant harassment and demise threats directed not solely at her, however at her toddler son. On a 2024 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Isabela Merced revealed that HBO additionally felt the necessity to enhance safety for Dever throughout filming as a result of considerations over the toxicity directed at Abby. Nevertheless, Mazin has stated he was pleasantly stunned by how a lot better Joel’s demise went over with followers of the present than it initially did with the gaming neighborhood.