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The Last of Us season 2 finale doesn't merely conclude a vicious and emotionally draining chapter, it opens up a tricky question about where the show goes from here. When the final seconds dissolve to black with Abby pointing her gun at Ellie's head, audiences are left with more than mere shock.
The tension and ambiguity that are percolating just under the surface indicate The Last of Us season 2 may have made some narrative decisions that will make it difficult to tell the storytelling threads of season 3, particularly regarding character motivations and emotional alignment.
With the show still going through The Last of Us Part II, the second season tried to replicate the emotional heft of the game's middle section. But in the process, it also changed the texture of Ellie's journey, diluting her growth from troubled teenager to vengeance-fueled adult.
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This change, along with some premature spoilers and unbalanced pacing, is such that The Last of Us season 2 may have set itself into a narrative trap that won't be easy to rectify in Season 3.
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The Last of Us season 2’s finale could complicate season 3 by leaving Ellie’s arc underdeveloped and Abby’s redemption prematurely in motion.
How does The Last of Us season 2 make season 3 more complicated?
The greatest question The Last of Us season 2 leaves with is how to depict Ellie's character. Throughout the game, Ellie slowly degenerates into a toughened, merciless version of her former self, still sympathetic, yet unmistakably tainted by her one-track-minded desire for revenge.
On the show, though, she appears indecisive and rash, frequently without the emotional resonance or interior motivation that made her struggle so powerful in the source material.
The finale compounds this problem, having Ellie fumble into the worst moment of her story, unintentionally killing a pregnant woman, without ever seeming fully invested in the course of action that led her there.
This one-sided depiction might make it harder for audiences to relate to her in season 3. In the game, Ellie's fall creates room for Abby's redemption, a strong mirror-image story.
However, The Last of Us season 2 accelerated through important steps in Ellie's breakdown. Rather than allowing her to spiral into darkness with full understanding of her actions, the show makes her a victim of circumstance more than a force of her own destruction.
That's a failing, since without an adequately established "Ellie breaks bad" storyline, Abby's eventual redemption might not be as emotionally impactful as it's meant to be.
What has already gone off track in The Last of Us season 2?
One of The Last of Us season 2's most divisive decisions was just how early Abby's motivations were made known. In the game, the twist of playing as Abby following Joel's murder is intended to punish players for their actions, making them sympathize with the character they've come to despise.
But in the TV series, Abby's history is given to us much too early. By the conclusion of The Last of Us season 2, we already know why she murdered Joel, and the foundations for her redemption have secretly started, before we've even fully switched on Ellie.
This takes away from the dual narrative framework that made The Last of Us Part II so effective. The idea is to allow us to walk through the grays between hero and villain, to watch one character fall and the other slowly ascend.
However, with Ellie's fall being underdeveloped and Abby's humanity already established, The Last of Us season 2 has rendered the story coming up in season 3 as already resolved.
Another is how violence was treated. While the series isn't afraid to show gore, Ellie's actions never quite carry the seriousness they need. Her murders come across as accidental or emotionally detached, she kills Owen and Mel out of self-defense, not because she's too far gone.
And her emotional response, as it is understandable, doesn't equate to the calloused state of a person who's devoted to this bloody path. In Season 2 of The Last of Us, she's still a child stumbling around in trauma, not the deeply wounded woman consumed by an all-encompassing desire to complete what she began.
What to expect in The Last of Us season 3?
Season 3 now has the challenging task of healing the emotional balance between Abby and Ellie. That would mean deeply investigating Abby's narrative, presumably including her existence inside the WLF, her bond with Lev, and her internal culpability, while retroactively enriching Ellie's evolution as well.
With The Last of Us season 2 ending on such a vague note, the showrunners have to determine whether to bring the spotlight more directly onto Abby or try to reassemble Ellie's trajectory into something darker and more resolute.
Flashbacks might be able to course-correct Ellie's development, providing insight into her guilt, grief, and inner anger. But it's a difficult solution. A lot of the tension in The Last of Us season 2 was fueled by the emotional payoff of revenge; once that tension is busted, it's difficult to recapture the stakes.
Ellie's survival in the finale leaves the possibility open for a final confrontation with Abby, but without a more solid grounding, the inevitable rematch can feel forced instead of earned.
Interested viewers can watch season 2 on HBO.
