‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2 Ending Explained – A Messy But Mostly Effective Finale

The Last of Us already peaked in Season 2. It was in the penultimate episode where some minor storytelling changes improbably improved the original version. That instalment was the most like Season 1, which is probably why it worked; this show is better at contained, character-driven horror than it is at sprawling interstate adventures from multiple perspectives. That point is really hammered home in a messy ending that works in some ways, doesn’t in others, but mostly just felt – at least to me – like the showrunners having bitten off more than they can chew and not being totally sure what the best way to handle any of it is.

As I’ve reiterated multiple times, it’s very difficult for me to view this season through the lens of the average TV viewer, which is why I keep returning to how different it is from the game. And I’m going to keep doing that here, so apologies in advance if that annoys you. But it’s interesting to see not only what has been changed but also ponder why. Unfortunately, the most viable theory I can come up with is that the show’s audience is being patronized a little bit, which has been a concern since way back in the premiere.

Starting at the End

To make this point, you’ll have to indulge me in covering the episode almost in reverse, because the very end of The Last of Us Season 2 is most indicative of this tendency to spoon-feed us details that in the game were handled with more subtlety and nuance. Much like the show opened by revealing Abby’s motivations, made them even more explicit during Joel’s death, and relocated the dance and porch scenes back in Jackson – both very late flashbacks in the game – much earlier in the story, it can’t resist giving us a really obvious tease for Season 3 instead of lingering on its effective cliffhanger.

So, after clubbing Nora to bits and leaving her for dead last week, in Episode 7, Ellie kills a couple more of Abby’s friends – Owen, and the heavily pregnant Mel. We’ll get to this specific scene in a minute since there are some things to discuss, but generally, what matters is that Abby turns up at the theatre looking for revenge (again) just as Ellie, Tommy, and Jesse have decided to leave Seattle and let her be. She badly hurts Tommy, unceremoniously shoots Jesse dead, and then turns her gun on Ellie. She shoots, and we cut to black.

This is a brilliant ending for Season 2, cribbed right from the game, and was the perfect place to leave things. After the shock of killing off Joel, those unfamiliar with the game would have probably bought into the idea of killing off Ellie, too. But then we end with a tease that explicitly spells out that Season 3 is going to begin Abby’s story from Day 1 in Seattle, showing us her and her group’s version of the events leading up to this moment. It’s no surprise for fans of the game, but why ruin that for viewers of the show?

Kaitlyn Dever in The Last of Us Season 2 | Image via WarnerMedia

Making It Work

There are lots of elements that have been introduced in this season – Isaac and the WLF/Seraphite conflict, primarily – that are mainly of concern in Abby’s storyline. I’ve always found it a bit odd that so much of this was crowbarred in amongst Ellie’s journey through Seattle, since it would have made more sense to explore these ideas with Abby instead. And the finale still does this, I think to its detriment.

For instance, there’s a scene with Isaac spelling out that Abby was being groomed for leadership of the WLF and that her group has recently dropped off the grid, right ahead of the big blowout conflict with the Scars. I just can’t see any reason for this to be here other than to make some of the weirder elements of the narrative’s internal geography – like why all of Abby’s friends aren’t with the main force, why she isn’t with them, and so on and so forth – fit together. But there would have been nothing wrong with leaving this unaddressed until it retrospectively made sense in Season 3. That would have felt much more organic.

Similarly, there’s a bit where Ellie briefly gets swept off to Scar Island, a major location in Abby’s story, mostly just to let us know that the Scars have an island. Again, this would have been better addressed from Abby’s perspective when it’s time to actually go there for a meaningful period of time, with much more context. It contributes to the feeling of The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 7 feeling messy.

Kaitlyn Dever in The Last of Us Season 2 | Image via WarnerMedia

The Stuff That Works

I don’t want to be too harsh and nitpicky because, as in the penultimate episode, some of the changes really work well, and the key one here is when Ellie kills Owen and Mel. This is similar to how it plays out in the game, but for some minor details. For one thing, they totally omitted the scene where Ellie stabs Abby’s dog to death on her way in, which is fine by me. I think we can make the same points without having to go that far; it always felt like one of the most try-hard scenes in the game.

And the show is clearly doing something just a little bit different with Ellie. In the game, by this point, she’s just a dog-shanking psycho, and in her showdown with Owen and Mel, she shoots Owen – just like how she does here – and then stabs pregnant Mel in the neck. In this version, Mel gets nicked by the bullet that kills Owen. It’s a minor difference, but it lets her stay alive long enough to instruct Ellie to save her baby by cutting her free, which she completely fails to do. She also visibly struggles with it, is immediately regretful of her actions, and is overall just more contemplative than she is in the game.

I don’t mind this. It hasn’t been handled brilliantly well, mostly because Ramsey’s performance has wavered tonally, but it’s a worthwhile idea to make her a bit more human in this retelling. It’s almost a shame that we’re going to have to spend an entire season – at least! – exploring Abby’s perspective, and likely won’t return to Ellie’s point of view until we’ve mostly forgotten about where we left things. But I really like Abby’s story – sorry, die-hard fans! – and, thus far, I really like Kaitlyn Dever’s interpretation of the character, so we’ve got that to look forward to. In many ways, it feels right to leave such a mixed season here, on a mixed finale. I just hope Season 3 has a little more trust in its audience to figure out what’s going on for ourselves.