Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 finale.
After the emotional flashbacks of the sixth episode, The Last of Us Season 2 returns to the story of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her quest for vengeance against those who killed Joel (Pedro Pascal). Using the penultimate episode of the series to show the last five years between Joel and Ellie only makes this finale hit harder, now that we fully understand everything that Ellie lost with Joel’s death. Now, she only has more determination to hunt down Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), despite the new love blossoming, the potential of her starting a new family, and people traveling long distances to try and stop her and bring her back home. In the closing moments of Season 2, Ellie finally comes face-to-face with who she’s been looking for, but it’s clear how much this journey will cost her.
Ellie Returns From Dealing With Nora
After last week’s episode of flashbacks, this final episode picks up in Seattle, as Jesse (Young Mazino) tries to get the arrow out of Dina’s (Isabela Merced) leg back at the theater. Dina tells Jesse she can’t die, while Jesse yells at her to calm down. Jesse pours some alcohol on Dina’s wound, but when he offers her the flask, she adamantly refuses to drink from it, which Jesse understandably finds weird before he pushes the arrow through her leg. Later that night, Ellie returns to the theater and immediately goes to Dina, ignoring Jesse’s questions. Dina is resting in the dressing room, newly bandaged up. Both she and the baby are OK, she confirms to Ellie.
Dina tells Ellie to take off her shirt so she can clean her wounds, and when Ellie does so, she’s covered in bruises, blood, and wounds from their few days in Seattle. Ellie reveals that she found Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and while she knew where Abby was, she only said two words: “whale” and “wheel,” but Ellie doesn’t know what that means. She also admits that she made Nora talk, and that she thought it would be harder to do, but it wasn’t. It was easy to keep hurting her. Ellie says she didn’t kill Nora, but she left her behind for the spores to finish her off. When Dina says she got what she deserved, Ellie replies, “Maybe she didn’t.” Ellie then tells Dina about what happened in Salt Lake City, how Joel killed the Fireflies to save Ellie even though they were trying to find a cure, and that he shot Abby’s father in the head. Ellie says she didn’t know who they were, but she knew what Joel did. Dina replies that they need to go home, as she lies back down to rest.
Two Dads Make Their Way Through Seattle
As the third day in Seattle begins, Jesse and Ellie are packing their bags, but Jesse is giving Ellie the cold shoulder. When Dina joins them, she gives Ellie a bracelet for good luck before Jesse and Ellie leave to meet Tommy (Gabriel Luna) at the rendezvous point. As they make their way down the streets of Seattle, Jesse gruffly tells Ellie that they searched for two days to find her and Dina, following their path and finding her horse, Shimmer (who is still fine and in the music store, a nice change from the game). When Ellie thanks Jesse, he turns around and mentions that last night, Dina said she couldn’t die, not that she doesn’t want to die, and that she refused the whiskey he offered her, which is strange since she never turns down a drink. Jesse’s also seen the way they look at each other, and that it’s different now — Dina probably tells Ellie things she won’t tell Jesse, like how she’s pregnant. Ellie replies “fuck,” before realizing that Jesse was guessing at the truth, and now she’s just revealed the truth. Jesse points out that since he’s going to be a father, he can’t die either, and because of Ellie, they’re now stuck in a war zone. Now, he just wants to get to Tommy so he can get him and his child out of Seattle.
As it starts to storm, Jesse and Ellie find shelter in a garage, but they soon hear gunshots. As they hide, they see a group of WLF soldiers holding up a Seraphite kid at gunpoint, as he prays while they beat him. Ellie tries to go and stop them, but Jesse holds her back, as the soldiers strip the Seraphite of his clothes and drag him away. Once the WLFs are gone, Ellie runs after them, but Jesse has to stop her once again, emphasizing that it would be six against two, and they aren’t going to die for someone else’s war. It’s another example of Ellie trying to run headfirst into a situation without thinking of the consequences.
We then go to WLF headquarters, where Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) meets with Elise (Hettienne Park), who we last saw at the hospital mourning her son. With the storm coming, Isaac is planning an attack, and while Elise gives him a rundown of how the rest of the crew is doing, Isaac asks if there’s been any word about Abby, to which Elise says they haven’t heard from her since yesterday, and they still haven’t found Owen (Spencer Lord), plus Mel (Ariela Barer) is also missing. Isaac notes that it’s suspicious their entire crew disappears on that night, of all nights. When Elise says they still have Manny (Danny Ramirez), Isaac retorts that they have plenty of Mannys, Owens, and Mels, but there’s only one Abby. Elise doesn’t understand why Abby is so important to Isaac. But Isaac sits Elise down and says by the time the sun comes up tomorrow, there’s a good chance Elise will be dead, and an even better chance that he’ll be dead. But then what happens to the WLF if they’re gone? Who will lead them into the future? To Isaac, that future leader was Abby — but Elise states that since Abby has disappeared, maybe she isn’t the answer.
Ellie Chooses Vengeance Over Everything
Jesse and Ellie get to the rendezvous point, a bookstore where they’re supposed to meet Tommy, yet Tommy is nowhere to be found. Jesse says they’ll wait there until Tommy comes back, pointing out that once again, they’re trapped together waiting out bad weather. Ellie looks at the kids’ books, picking out The Monster at the End of This Book, and decides to take it with her for the baby. Ellie doesn’t know how to broach the subject of her and Dina’s relationship with Jesse, but Jesse says that with all the problems they have right now, he can take this one off the table. He admits that he loves Dina, but not in the way that Ellie does.
Jesse asks Ellie if she remembers a group that came from Alberta through Jackson. There was a girl among them, an artist who wasn’t good, yet Jesse bought four of her paintings. They fell for each other, but after two weeks, she decided not to stay, since it would mean abandoning her family in the process, so she asked Jesse to go with them. Even though Jesse wanted to go with her, he didn’t want to leave the people of Jackson behind, especially since everyone wanted him to become the town’s next leader — because Jesse says he was taught to put other people first. Ellie gets that this is a dig at her, but Jesse poses an important question: if he had gone with that girl, who would’ve saved her from the infected in Seattle?
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At that moment, the WLFs come through on the radio, talking about a sniper, which Jesse points out must be Tommy. The pair climb higher to try and get a better look at where Tommy could be, and they hear gunshots. Ellie uses her binoculars and locates a pier with a Ferris wheel, as well as an aquarium with a whale on it. Whale. Wheel. Ellie struggles to find an excuse to pursue her revenge instead, arguing that they don’t know the gunshots are Tommy’s, and that she knows Abby is in the aquarium, proclaiming that Tommy would want her to go after Abby.
Ellie adds that if more people on the council had voted along with Jesse, he’d be coming with her — but then Jesse reveals that he voted no to send a team to Seattle. When Ellie asks why, Jesse says that everything Ellie does, she does for herself, and that it wasn’t best for the community. Ellie can’t take this, tired of hearing Jesse talk about his community, adding that a kid died today because he wasn’t part of Jesse’s community, and screaming that Jesse thinks he’s good, and that she’s bad. But for Ellie, her community was beaten to death in front of her while she was forced to watch. When Ellie knows Jesse wouldn’t do the same if he were in her shoes, Jesse only responds that he hopes she makes it, and the two split up from there.
Ellie Has a Tragic Face-Off With Owen and Mel
With the storm raging stronger than ever, Ellie watches several boats, including one with Isaac, loading up with soldiers and heading towards an island in the distance. Ellie takes the one remaining motorboat. As she heads towards the Ferris wheel, a giant wave knocks her out of the boat, but she and the boat end up on the Seraphites’ island. She sees a young Seraphite boy and hears whistles from the woods, as several men come to grab her. They drag her into the woods where a noose is waiting. Ellie knows what this means, as they put the noose around her neck and begin to hang her, while a woman goes to her with a hook in hand, ready to cut her organs out. Just in time, an alarm blares from the village, and the Seraphites leave her to deal with whatever is going on. Ellie makes her way back to her boat, and despite almost dying, continues to yet again try and get to Abby. As she gets closer, she sees explosions coming from the Seraphite island she just escaped from.
Ellie finally makes it to the aquarium and sneaks in through a broken skylight. Inside, Ellie finds surgical tools and lots of bloody bandages. Whatever happened here was clearly not good. As Ellie makes her way deeper into the aquarium, she overhears voices and ultimately discovers two more members of Abby’s group who were in Jackson: Owen and Mel, who are having a heated conversation. While we don’t know what the conversation is about, Mel says Owen has a choice, and she’s choosing no “because it’s Abby,” while Owen says he’ll “do it on (his) own, like always.” Wherever he’s going, he claims he can get there and back in 30 minutes, and if Mel is still there when he gets back, she can get on board or not. Mel’s only reply is a “fuck you, Owen,” but as she goes to walk away, she sees Ellie standing in the shadows with her gun.
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Ellie holds both Owen and Mel at gunpoint, demanding to know where Abby is. Owen attempts to lie, but Ellie knows they were just talking about her. Ellie then decides to use an old Joel tactic, ordering Mel to point to Abby’s location on a map first. Then, she’s going to see where Owen says Abby is, and they better hope that it matches. Owen’s convinced Ellie is going to kill them either way, but she insists she won’t because she’s not like them. Owen agrees to show her and goes for the map, but he reaches for a gun instead, and Ellie is faster and kills Owen with a single shot. However, the bullet also goes through Mel’s neck, and she starts to bleed out.
In her final moments, Mel reveals that she’s pregnant and asks Ellie for a knife. Mel tells Ellie to cut her baby out, but a shocked Ellie doesn’t know what to do. Mel tries to guide her hand, but she’s dying, and before Ellie can make the cut, Mel dies, with her last words being, “Is it out?” In the game, Mel was stabbed by Ellie, who only discovered she was pregnant afterward, and yet somehow, this version is even more heartbreaking. Ellie is left numb and crying, sitting with the two people she’s just killed for nothing, and unable to move from that spot. Tommy and Jesse ultimately find her there and take her back to the theater, but Ellie is shellshocked after what she’s just done.
Ellie Risks Losing Everything After Coming Face to Face With Abby
Later that night, Tommy and Jesse plan their way back to Jackson at the theater, and Ellie joins them. Tommy tries to comfort Ellie, saying that they had a part in it too, and they made their choices. But despite everything, Ellie points out that Abby still gets to live, and she’ll have to live with that. Tommy heads to the theater lobby to start packing, leaving Ellie and Jesse alone. Ellie thanks Jesse for coming back, and he admits that maybe he didn’t want to, and maybe Tommy made him. Ellie suggests it’s because Jesse is a good person, to which he agrees, but he also knows that if he were ever in trouble, Ellie would set the world on fire to save him, which Ellie admits is true. As they make amends, they hear Tommy screaming from the lobby, and they run to see what’s happening.
As soon as they enter the lobby, Jesse is shot and immediately killed, while Ellie finds cover behind a bar, shocked by the sudden death of her friend. Ellie hears someone ordering her to come out with her hands up, or she’ll shoot Tommy too. Somehow, Abby has found their hideout at the theater and is holding a clearly injured Tommy at gunpoint. As Ellie comes out of hiding, Abby is shocked to see her. According to Abby, Tommy killed her friends, but Ellie admits her part in their deaths, too. Ellie knows why Abby killed Joel, but she’s the one that Abby really wants. Abby angrily states that she let Ellie live, and she wasted it. Abby turns her gun on Ellie, and we hear a gunshot as the screen cuts to black.
In the season’s final moments, Abby is woken up on a couch by Manny, who says that Isaac wants to see them. Abby walks down a hallway and exits out the door to show that she and the team of WLFs are living in a massive town inside a stadium. Before the episode ends, the words “Seattle Day One” appear on the screen, implying that in Season 3, we’re going to see the last three days in Seattle from Abby’s perspective.
For those who have played the game, Season 2’s ending makes perfect sense for the story that Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin are telling. The first part of this story is certainly Ellie’s, but this narrative isn’t complete without seeing Abby’s side, which it looks like we’ll be getting in Season 3. While this ending might be frustrating for those who were hoping for a clearer, more concise conclusion to this season, it’s also a great way to set up the future, where we’ll get the whole picture of what this story is truly about.
The Last of Us Seasons 1 & 2 are available to watch on Max.
The Last Of Us
The Last of Us ends Season 2 with a gut punch of a conclusion, which also sets up a powerful Season 3 to tell another side of this story.
- Release Date
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January 15, 2023
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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Craig Mazin
- Directors
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Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Bella Ramsey is once again fantastic in an episode that has her finally reckoning with the result of her vengeance.
- The Last of Us, once more, takes the tragic moments of the game and make them even more difficult.
- The final moments leave this story in a great place, full of potential for where this narrative will go next.