This article contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” season 2, episode 7.
Just two episodes into its second season, “The Last of Us” killed one of its two main characters when Pedro Pascal’s Joel died in moment of pure, pit-of-your-stomach horror. While the season has understandably struggled to follow this early intensity spike with similarly punishing scenes, it has nevertheless delivered many moments that will no doubt linger in the viewers’ minds for a long, long time. One of them comes in the intense, flashback-driven episode 6, “The Price,” which reveals the dark truth about Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) and adds an extra scoop of heartbreak in Joel’s death by showing that his broken relationship with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was starting to improve just before Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) killed him.
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“The Last of Us” season 2, episode 7 wraps up the dark, complex sophomore season with a tense mission at the Seattle Waterfront Aquarium. After a perilous journey to the dangerous location controlled by the Washington Liberation Front, Ellie comes face to face with two members of Abby’s Joel-hunting party. As her confrontation with Nora in episode 5 revealed, Ellie’s dual desires to get back at Abby and protect the pregnant Dina (Isabela Merced) are turning her into quite an avenger, but even she isn’t ready for a moment that challenges both of her driving motivations. When she comes face to face with Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer) in her search of information about Abby’s whereabouts, things take a bloody turn when the former attempts to attack her. In the aftermath, only Ellie remains standing, and a mortally wounded Mel — who’s pregnant — first begs and then outright orders the protagonist to cut her open in an attempt to save the unborn child.
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The Last of Us season 2 finale forces Ellie to make the hardest choice yet
“The Last of Us” season 2 runs on Ellie’s desire for revenge and, in later episodes, her wish to embrace parenthood. “The Price” even ties both concepts together with a late-game revelation that during their final conversation, Joel explicitly asked her to become a better parent figure than he ever was, should she ever get the chance. The season finale continues to muddy the waters between ruthless revenge and protecting a child with the mood whiplash that comes with Mel’s desperate final request.
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The shift from Ellie fighting Team Abby to her being tasked with a last-ditch attempt to save an unborn child in the goriest way possible is extremely “The Last of Us,” and it ties a neat, bloody bow around the entire season’s themes. Notably, the corresponding moment in Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us Part II” doesn’t feature this final dialogue between Ellie and Mel, so even the viewers who are familiar with the game are caught unawares with this crossroads moment and our protagonist’s response: Ellie doesn’t even attempt to save the child.
The season 2 finale juxtaposes Ellie’s actions with Joel’s decision to save her in season 1
Ellie’s moral dilemma in the Mel scene bears similarities to the choice Joel makes in the season 1 finale, though the decisions they make are vastly different. Where Ellie opts to avoid the possibility of saddling herself with a prematurely born baby, Joel was willing to doom the entire world and kill countless people just to save one child. Granted, there are mitigating factors — Joel spends the entire season 1 slowly bonding with Ellie, while Mel is little more than a faceless enemy to Ellie. Still, it’s an interesting juxtaposition between the two oh-so-different protagonists.
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Another thing that’s hardly a coincidence is, of course, the way Abby eventually turns up to exact (what from her point of view is) bloody justice upon both characters. (Spare a thought for poor Jesse, who gets unceremoniously gunned down the second he bursts through that theater lobby door.) Since HBO has already confirmed “The Last of Us” season 3 and Ellie’s story from the source material is far from over, we can be fairly sure that Abby’s shocking gunshot will not mark the last we see of our protagonist. However, if it wasn’t clear from Joel and Ellie’s relationship reveal in the previous episode, the season 2 finale shows that the series is taking Ellie’s quest for revenge in a more nuanced direction than “The Last of Us Part II” thanks to Mel’s final request. But just a heads up: It may be a while until we see more fruits of that creative decision, since the season ending effectively confirms that “The Last of Us” season 3 will at least initially focus on Abby while Ellie’s story is put on the back burner.
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The first two seasons of “The Last of Us” are now streaming on Max.
