One of the things we love most about The Last of Us is that it’s never easy. Things happen, and people say stuff that can’t be easily defined or categorised. It’s a show that lives in the grey areas of life. No one is completely good, no one is completely evil, and neither side is right or wrong. It’s up to us, the audience, to figure out how we want to view it.
This season, that complexity has taken a back seat at times, with so much of the story laser-focused on the burgeoning love between Ellie and Dina as the pair set off across the country to get revenge on the people who killed Joel. However, in the season two finale, all of the beautiful nuance that makes the show so good came back in a big way. It was an edge-of-your-seat hour of television where the tension and stakes become almost unbearable, leading to an ending that might be a little confusing, but we’ll break it down.
And so now, for the last time this season, let’s recap an episode of The Last of Us.
When last we left our Seattle invaders, Ellie had probably beaten a woman to death, and Jesse was trying to bring Dina to safety after being shot in the leg with an arrow. He gets her back to the theater, where he tells her the unfortunate news that he has to push the arrow through the leg instead of pull it out. Jesse pours some whiskey on the arrow and wound to disinfect it and offers a sip to Dina, who refuses. In TV and movies, two things automatically mean a woman is pregnant: if she vomits at an unexpected time, or refuses to drink alcohol. Jesse clocks that but moves on and successfully gets the arrow out.
Ellie returns from her violent little adventure and checks in on Dina. Dina says, despite her injury, the baby is okay, and proceeds to check on Ellie. Ellie takes her shirt off and Dina starts to tend to her very bloody and bruised back. She tells Dina that she found Nora and that the only info she gave about Abby’s whereabouts was “whale wheel.” Then, in a cautious whisper, Ellie says, “I made her talk. I thought it would be harder to do, but it wasn’t. It was easy.” Her scary whispers are intercut with footage of Ellie beating Nora and everyone —us, Ellie and Dina—realizes this is a new Ellie. She’s changed. She’s done something she didn’t even think was possible.
Trying to be comforting, Dina tells Ellie that maybe Nora got what she deserved. Which is Ellie’s cue to tell Dina the truth about why Abby and her friends came to Jackson and killed Joel. Dina is speechless as she processes the information, which she clearly is not able to reconcile. “We need to go home,” is all Dina can muster. It’s her way of saying maybe Abby was warranted in killing Joel, and maybe now they are even. It’s also important to note that through this whole, crucial conversation, Ellie is not wearing a shirt. She’s as vulnerable and naked, literally, as she’s ever been physically and emotionally.
The next morning is “Seattle, Day Three,” according to our crucially important on-screen calendar. Dina stays back at the theater as Jesse and Ellie see if they can meet up with Tommy so they can all go home together. On the way, Jesse kind of tricks Ellie into admitting that Dina is, in fact, pregnant and that he is, in fact, the father. He explains how the news changes everything because he can’t die. Like Dina, he now has to live because he’s responsible for this child. And yet, because of Ellie, they’re all stuck in the middle of a war zone. Ellie continues to see how her actions impact others and wrestles with whether or not that changes her story.
The rain starts to come down in Seattle and, as we’ll soon learn, this is one of the worst storms in ages. On their way to find Tommy, Jesse and Ellie hide from some WLF soldiers chasing down a Scar. The Scar is basically a teenager and, against six WLF soldiers, doesn’t stand a chance. Ellie wants to help the kid, but Jesse begs her not to, knowing it won’t end well for them. “This is not our war,” he tells her, but it’s not clear she agrees.
After that brief reminder of the war between the WLF and Scars, the action takes us to a WLF base at a nearby Costco. Sgt. Park, whose son we saw die two weeks ago, tells Isaac about the storm, but he has something bigger on his mind: Abby. He wants to know where she is; apparently, she has disappeared along with several members of her crew. Park doesn’t understand why Isaac is so fixated on Abby so he explains that, tonight, odds are both he and Park will die. Why or how? We don’t know quite yet. If that happens though, he had hoped Abby would be the person to take over the WLF. But, apparently, she’s got her own things going on. Things that remain a mystery. And yet, for the first time on the show, we get to hear some praise and positive connotation around Abby which feels a little weird.
Jesse and Ellie arrive at the designated rendezvous point but there’s no sign of Tommy. So, with a quick break in the action, Ellie and Jesse discuss how he still loves Dina, but Ellie loves her in a different way. He knows that because he fell for a girl passing through Jackson a few months back and, while he wanted to go with her, he felt beholden and in debt to the people of Jackson. Just then, a message on the radio explains that a non-Scar sniper is taking out WLF soldiers and they need help. They both know it’s Tommy.
They get some elevation, hoping to see where Tommy is from above when Ellie sees a huge Ferris wheel next to a whale. “Whale wheel.” It’s an aquarium and that’s where Abby is. She excitedly explains to Jesse that they need to go there but Jesse disagrees. It leads to an incredibly tense conversation where we learn Jesse did not vote for Ellie to go to Seattle. He thinks she’s selfish, and Ellie doesn’t appreciate that. She yells about how he only cares about Jackson and was happy to let an innocent boy die just earlier that afternoon. It’s one of those gray area conversations where we see both sides of the argument and are left to make up our own minds. But this is Ellie’s show, so Ellie decides to go to the aquarium and Jesse tells her he hopes she makes it. He goes after Tommy.
Ellie makes her way to the coast and realizes the fastest, safest way to get to the aquarium is by boat. Even though the weather is getting very bad, she’s about to make a break for it when a ton of boats appear near her location. Isaac is on one of them. The boats dock and load up ammunition before heading toward a dark island just off the coast. We realize that tonight is the night the WLF has decided to make its all-out attack on the Scars and the fact that it’s happening in the opposite direction of the aquarium is music to Ellie’s ears.
She sets off in a rinky-dink boat and is quickly flipped over by a massive wave. Ellie washes up on an unknown shore and is instantly spotted by a young boy. He turns away and the whistles start. This is Scar territory and, basically, it’s over for Ellie. The Scars string her up, get the okay to kill and and just as she’s about to die, horns go off. The Scars realize their village is being attacked and leave Ellie in the woods. She goes back to her boat and heads toward the aquarium as a bunch of explosions go off in the background. What is happening? We don’t know yet. But we do know that this aside felt very out of place in the context of the episode. Was it really important to see Ellie in peril for two seconds? It leaves us wondering why this scene was in there at all. Maybe we’ll learn more next season. After all, Ellie life’s was very much just saved by the WLF, even if they don’t know it.
Ellie sneaks into the aquarium and takes out Joel’s gun. The gun she brought specifically to kill Abby with. She seems certain she’s going to find her there—only, she doesn’t. What she does find is Owen and Mel, two of Abby’s friends who were in Jackson and are very much on Ellie’s list. She overhears them talking about Abby so when she confronts them and asks for Abby’s whereabouts, she knows they’re lying when they say they don’t know where she is. They’re in shock, though. Clearly, they don’t know Nora is dead yet or that Ellie was around. Ellie tries to reason with them, saying if they give up Abby’s location, she’ll let them live. Owen doesn’t buy it. He quickly grabs a gun but Ellie shoots first. Her bullet goes through Owen’s neck, killing him, and into Mel, who we now realize is pregnant. Mel begs Ellie to help her cut the baby out before it’s too late and Ellie tries but doesn’t have the time or nerves. “Is it out? Is it out?” Mel whispers as she and her baby die.
This is not what Ellie wanted, especially after the conversations with Jesse about selflessness. She’s going to be a parent soon and, in a world that has been decimated, every life counts. The mistake destroys Ellie, and she starts crying. At that moment, Tommy and Jesse find her. Each is shocked by the scene they’ve walked into but knows there’s no time to waste. They grab Ellie and get out of there.
Back at the theater, Tommy tries to console Ellie about what has happened. They realize it might be time let Abby live and, hopefully, Ellie can live with that. She then thanks Jesse for coming back. He pretends like it wasn’t his idea but Ellie knows it was. Because he’s a good person. A person who, he admits, knows Ellie would do anything to save him if the roles were reversed. She agrees. Just then, they hear a commotion in the lobby. They run to see what’s happening and BOOM, Jesse catches a bullet in the head. He’s dead. It’s Abby. She’s found them and tells Ellie to put down the gun or she’s killing Tommy too.
Only, Abby didn’t know it was Ellie. “You!” she says as Ellie comes out. It makes sense, of course. Basically all of Abby’s friends who would know who Ellie is are dead. Ellie quickly tries to tell Abby that she knows her story now and Joel killed Abby’s father for her. She begs Abby to spare Tommy by saying she’s the one Abby wants. “I let you live,” Abby says in disbelief. “I let you live. And you wasted it.” Ellie screams, a gun goes off and the show cuts to black.
What happened? Who lives? Who dies? We don’t know. What we do know is that the next shot is Abby waking up. She seems calmer, as if she is over the incredibly heated events we just saw her in. But as she wakes up to start her day at a major WLF base, three words come on the screen. “Seattle. Day One.” We’ve jumped back in time two days and are about to see what Abby has been up to as Ellie and Dina were looking for her. Cue the Soundgarden song, “Burden in My Hand.”
It’s a moment that happens almost exactly as it does in The Last of Us Part II. In the game, you play as Ellie going after Abby for hours. Then, you reach that moment in the theater, it cuts to black, and now you’re playing as your sworn enemy: Abby. Why would the show do that? What can seeing Abby’s point of view tell us? We’ll find out probably in 2027 when The Last of Us returns for season three.
What did you think of the finale and the season? Was the ending satisfying for you? Are you mad at it? Where’s your curiosity level about Abby’s story? Let us know below. And, most of all, thank you for reading along for another season of The Last of Us.
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