[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 7 — the Season 2 finale. For additional coverage, including previous episode reviews, check out IndieWire’s “Last of Us” landing page.]
“Maybe she got what she deserved.”
“Maybe she didn’t.”
To open “The Last of Us” Season 2 finale, Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) share the above exchange about Nora (Tati Gabrielle), the member of Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) posse who Ellie chased down, tortured, and left to die at the end of Episode 5. But by the end of Episode 7, viewers may very well be repeating the debate about Ellie, whose ultimate fate makes for an agonizing cliffhanger that won’t be resolved until Season 3 premieres (at least).
Did Abby shoot Ellie like she shot Jesse (Young Mazino), R.I.P.? Did she wound her? Did she miss? Of course, I’m desperate for Ellie to survive, but “The Last of Us” already killed off one of its leads this season and, more importantly, it’s clear co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (who cowrote the Season 2 finale with Halley Gross) want viewers to consider not just what they want to happen, but what these characters have chosen for themselves.
Sans sentiment, Ellie’s moral report card is grim. She tortured and killed Nora. She shot and killed Owen (Spencer Lord), as well as Mel (Ariela Barer), the latter of whom was pregnant when she died. Sure, Mel’s death was an accident, but that’s hardly an excuse when Ellie’s entire plan is built around murdering people.
On the other hand, Ellie’s ethical judgement showed signs of improvement in Episode 7; that her experience in Seattle (and lingering memories of Joel) may be steering her away from vengeance and toward mercy. Saying “maybe she didn’t” about Nora deserving to die (and be tortured), as well as telling Dina why Abby was so fixated on finding Joel to begin with, is a good sign for Ellie’s level of bloodlust. If she’s open to considering other opinions, instead of just finding Abby at all costs, that’s progress. (Her revelation also drives a wedge between her and Dina, which speaks to how hard — and how important — it must’ve been for Ellie to divulge.)
Granted, Ellie suffers a setback when she realizes where Abby is hiding. (The only words Nora said to Ellie were “whale” and “wheel,” so when she spots them both by Seattle’s Aquarium, the dead-end suddenly becomes an open door, and she can’t stop herself from walking through.) Long before her interrogation of Abby’s crew goes so quickly sideways, it’s clear Ellie should’ve gone with Jesse to help Tommy (Diego Luna). Tommy came to Seattle to help her. He cares about her, and she cares about him. He’s part of her community, and he’s still alive.
Joel isn’t. And if Ellie’s decisions really were dictated by what Joel would want, there’s no way he would rather Ellie kill his killer than save his brother. (Back in Episode 3, Tommy even said as much: “He’d be halfway to Seattle to save my life,” Tommy said, when Ellie tried to argue Joel would go to Seattle to avenge Tommy’s death. “But when we lost people, no. It would just break him, like it was his fault. I saw that time and time again.”) But Ellie isn’t hearing it. There’s too many variables. “Fuck the community!” Ellie screams. “You let a kid die today, Jesse. Because why? He wasn’t in your community? Let me tell you about my community. My community was beaten to death in front of me while I had to fucking watch.”
To be fair, Jesse didn’t “let” anyone die. There was no way they could’ve saved the Scar who was trapped by W.L.F. soldiers. Ellie and Jesse vs. a literal army? Sorry, but they’re taking an “L” on that one. But the selective responsibility Ellie points out does bring up one of the show’s thornier subjects: Where do you draw the line when it comes to helping others when doing so comes at great personal risk to yourself?
With the Scar boy from earlier that day, it’s a relatively easy choice. But Jesse and Tommy already made a harder choice — to come to Seattle to save Ellie and Dina — and Jesse, as he explains to Ellie, already sacrificed his own romantic happiness to stick in Jackson and help the townsfolk, which includes Ellie. “I go with that girl to New Mexico,” he says, “who saves your ass in Seattle?”
Despite Ellie and Jesse accusing (and then, later on, supporting) each other, the difference between them is clear. In Jesse’s scenario, neither road available to him is actively harmful: If he goes with the woman to New Mexico, maybe he makes her happy, himself happy, and the people of New Mexico happy. Sure, everyone in Jackson would miss him, but they could’ve found another leader-in-waiting. Still, he chose to stay. Maybe he’s less of a romantic, or maybe — as it’s implied here — he’s less selfish than Ellie. That doesn’t mean “better”; sometimes you need to be selfish. Ellie just took it too far.
With Ellie, if she had stayed in Jackson, Dina would have been safe. Ellie would have been safe. The people of Jackson would still have two of their best patrol members, Tommy would still have a de facto niece, and Jesse would have been able to see his baby be born. Going had a single best case scenario: Abby would be dead. One more person on this planet would be gone. And for what? Abby isn’t a known threat to anyone now that Joel is gone. Ellie’s revenge is for her. It’s selfish. It’s meant to be healing, but it’s only sewing more destruction.
Now that destruction is all around her. Nora, Owen, Mel, and Mel’s baby are dead. Jesse is dead. Tommy and Dina are wounded, and it’s hard to imagine Abby letting them live. Ellie may be gone, too, although — without knowing what happens in the games — I have to imagine her story will continue. Her nature, her soul, is still forming. She hasn’t hardened into a monster or softened enough to find mercy. But fate doesn’t wait around for you to be ready. Whether she lives or dies, she chose the path that led her here.
Grade: B
“The Last of Us” Season 2 is available on HBO and Max (which is soon to be HBO Max… again). The series has been renewed for Season 3.
Stray Tendrils
• Speaking of monsters, a brief word on the book Ellie picks out for Dina’s unborn baby: “The Monster at the End of This Book,” written by Jon Stone with illustrations by Michael Smollin. The children’s book, first published in 1971, tells an innovative meta narrative in which Grover (the “Sesame Street” character) reads the title of the book and gets scared about what sort of monster is waiting for him at the end. From there, most of the book’s “story” is just Grover begging the reader not to continue, so he doesn’t have to encounter the monster, but (spoiler alert) the monster at the end of the book is… Grover.
For kids, the lesson is clear: The scariest monster is the one you build up in your mind. Expectations and reality don’t always match up, and sometimes a monster is just… misunderstood. Take that reading a step further (not unlike comedian Gary Gulman’s does in his 2024 stand-up special, “Grandiliquent”), and the monster at the end of the book is the reader themselves, or more accurately, whatever anxiety, trauma, or scarring event from the reader’s past they can’t seem to escape — and shapes how they see the world. Gee, I wonder how that would apply to Ellie?
• And speaking of presumed leaders who abandon their posts, what the heck is going on with Abby, Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), and the W.L.F.? During “Seattle Day 3,” she’s M.I.A. Isaac sits down with Sgt. Park (Hettienne Park) and complains that Abby and her whole team are missing on “tonight of all nights.” Later, we get an idea of that night’s significance when the W.L.F. sets off a massive explosion at the Seraphites’ village. It’s unclear who lived and died, what was destroyed, or if anything was accomplished, but it’s implied — both by Isaac and by Owen, who doesn’t seem to know where Abby is before Ellie walks in on him — that Abby was supposed to be on those attack boats, and she just… wasn’t.
Isaac tells Sgt. Park he was planning for Abby to take over someday as the W.L.F. leader, so what happened to make her abandon that trajectory? We’ll surely find out in Season 3, considering the final scene flashes back to “Seattle Day 1” to share what’s going on from Abby’s perspective. But given the emphasis placed in Season 2 on Jesse’s planned ascension in Jackson, as well as Ellie stepping into Joel’s shoes, there’s a growing emphasis on generational transitions in “The Last of Us.”
Jesse’s succession would’ve been relatively smooth, given how much he aligned with the current leadership, Tommy and Maria (Rutina Wesley). But Ellie’s attempts to follow in Joel’s footsteps are bumpy at best. The longer she tries to play the badass avenger, the more she doubts whether that’s who she is (and if that’s who Joel wanted to be) . Could the same thing be happening to Abby? Could completing her quest for revenge have rattled her enough to drift from the person she was before? Might “The Last of Us” actually see hope for a better future in a generation of kids so ill at ease with the actions of their elders that they run in the opposite direction?
• For a show that took more than two years between Seasons 1 and 2, it’s hard to sit with Mazin & Co.’s chosen endpoint. For one, Season 2 is only seven episodes long, as opposed to Season 1’s nine-episode arc. But on top of that, this arc feels incomplete. Ellie’s left halfway through a transformative moment. Everything happening between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites feels half-formed, and Abby has barely been fleshed out enough to build anticipation around seeing more of her in Season 3. I enjoyed the time I spent with “The Last of Us” Season 2 — and I hope you did, too, dear readers — I just wish there was more closure before another long break.
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