Last Updated on May 27, 2025 by Angel Melanson
Spoilers ahead for Season 2 Episodes 1-6 of the HBO show and the PlayStation game THE LAST OF US: PART II
Season 2 of The Last of Us is nearly over, and it’s fair to say it’s been a ride. Fans of the Naughty Dog game THE LAST OF US: PART II – on which the HBO show is based – were perhaps braced for the trauma of seeing Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) bludgeoned to death by ex-Firefly Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), but for many this moment, coming at the end of Episode 2 ‘Through the Valley’, rattled them to the core. It was however the inciting incident which defined much of what came after, leading Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) to leave Jackson and undertake a road-trip of revenge to Seattle. There the pair fell in love, fought against the infected, the religious cult the Seraphites and the paramilitary group WLF, and slowly closed in on Abby.
So, with the Season 2 finale dropping on May 25, what can we expect? We break it down before the episode airs.
Tragedy
The Last of Us has always been unafraid to grapple with themes of loss and grief, from the death of Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) in the opening moments of Season 1 through to his own demise in Season 2. However, fans of the game will know that the misery well is not yet dry, and there’s a cliffhanger at the end of ‘Seattle Day 3’ that sees a gut-punching lurch into new, uncharted territory. And with the Season 2 finale being co-written by Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross and Craig Mazin – the trio behind the script for season-highlight Episode 6 ‘The Price’ – we can expect the finale episode to go for the heart, and the tear ducts.
It’s all a matter of perspective
In PART II gamers almost exclusively play as Ellie and Abby, navigating the narrative from two opposing sides before ultimately empathising for both. “A big part of the theme of the second game is about perspective,” mused Druckmann in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly; “how someone's hero could be someone else's villain and vice versa.” We’ve already seen hints of this, with Ellie’s brutal takedown of Nora (Tati Gabrielle) at the end of ‘Feel Her Love‘ mirroring Joel’s murder. Expect more muddying of the water as the whole idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad guys’ gets completely dissolved.
Time keeps slipping
Both the game and show (to various degrees) adopt a non-linear, time-hopping structure. Whilst the main plot focuses on those three fateful days in Seattle as Ellie hunts down Abby, there are frequent flashbacks, dreams and memories which give more context and glimpses into past moments. Case in point? Episode 6 ‘The Price’ rewound all the way back to 1983 to offer insight into Joel’s own childhood, before revealing more about the inter-season years of how Joel and Ellie’s relationship suffered following his lie – and how they reached a tentative reconciliation just ahead of his death. It’s a device which packs incredibly cathartic punches: expect more of this to come.
Lady Vengeance
But despite such backward looking, Ellie’s revenge arc moves relentlessly forward. Chronologically, the last time we saw her was as she wailed-on Nora with a lead pipe before returning to Dina and Jesse (Young Mazino) at their theater hideout. We’ve yet to see how such remorseless violence has changed Ellie as a person, but as her mission in Seattle comes to a head – if it’s anything like the game – we can expect a soul-crushing crescendo.
Mirror images
The game is made up of countless dualities, repeatedly refracted through different characters again and again: most-obviously there’s Abby and Ellie as two daughters avenging their murdered fathers, but the synchronicity goes much deeper; Dina and Mel are both pregnant; best-friends Jesse and Manny rush to support Ellie and Abby in their respective quests, and there are more characters (yet to be introduced in the show) who continue to develop The Last of Us‘ central theme that we may have more in common with our enemies that we’d care to admit.
Abby
As mentioned above, the game is divided into two roughly equal sections where one plays as Ellie then Abby. Given that in the show Abby has been absent for most of Season 2 – having last been seen marching into a Wyoming snowstorm after lodging a golf club in Joel’s neck – we can expect her to return for the finale and beyond. Exactly how she re-enters the story, and what this means for Ellie et al, may shock and surprise.
Scar tissue
We’ve already been introduced to the Seraphites (aka the Scars), a cult last seen disembowelling a WLF soldier in ‘Feel Her Love’ before shooting Dina in the leg with an arrow. But in the game the group features heavily in Abby’s section too, particularly two key characters who have yet to be introduced to the show. Could they make an early appearance in the finale?
Big Bads
Aside from the Seraphites we’ve also been introduced to another key antagonist, WLF leader Isaac (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his role from the game). In PART II Isaac doesn’t appear until Abby’s segment, but the show has mixed things up, even fleshing out his origin story in ‘Day One’before showing him torturing a Seraphite hostage. Whether or not he appears in the finale is anyone’s guess, but you can bet we haven’t seen the last of him. And then there’s the mystery of what might be lurking in that hospital basement…
Ch-ch-changes
It’s not just Isaac’s introduction that is different in the show: from Joel killing Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), to Tommy coming after Ellie (in the game, he leaves first with the girls pursuing him), to Joel and Ellie’s porch-side reconciliation being brought forward (this is almost the final scene in PART II) showrunners Druckmann and Mazin continue to flip the script in a way which subverts expectations. Which means that when we come to the finale, expect the unexpected.
This isn’t the end
With over half the story from the game still to go and the show renewed for Season 3, one thing’s for sure: the Season 2 finale won’t be the end. In fact, it might be more accurate to compare it to the middle chapter of another famous saga. “I love The Empire Strikes Back,” Mazin confessed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter when that comparison was brought up. “The second act is the tough act. That’s when everything is challenged and characters go through these moments where they can’t be who they used to be, but they’re also not ready to be who they’re supposed to be. There’s a sense of feeling lost.” With Empire largely regarded as one of the best sequels of all time, precisely because it avoids neat resolution, it looks like Ellie’s third day in Seattle is going to lean even further into the dark side, and may be all the better for it.
The Last Of Us Season 2 finale premieres in the US on HBO Max on 25th April, and in the UK on Sky TV on 26th April.
