We are at the finale of an incredibly (intentionally) short season of The Last of Us. For those who have played the game, it should make sense why they are stopping here. And for those who haven’t, strap in and prepare for the unexpected!
We took a break from the narrative last week to spend some final moments with Joel in, perhaps, arguably the best and most beautiful episode of the season. Per Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, this needed to happen so the viewers could understand why the love between Joel and Ellie matters, and why this quest Ellie has set upon is so important to her. The intensity of that love and the heartbreak of a chance for redemption and forgiveness lost needs to be understood in order to sympathize with a thirst for violence and vengeance so dark, it turns good people into monsters.
Such is the case with Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey).
The episode starts out with poor Dina (Isabella Merced) enduring the pain of having an arrow shot into her leg. And poor Jesse (Young Mazino), having been pulled into the tornado caused by Ellie heading to Seattle on her own, having to deal with treating his ex’s serious condition. Thank God for Jesse or these two would have been so dead by this point. Jesse is able to push the arrow clean through Dina’s leg, offering her alcohol to dull the pain, which she refuses (for obvious reasons). This seems odd to Jesse but he respects her wishes. There’s more going on in this scene than is being telegraphed considering the history between these two, and the episode digs into this more later.
Ellie arrives after her the monstrous events of violence and spite against Nora. She goes and checks on Dina, who, thankfully, is mostly ok and recovering. In a very sweet moment, Dina tends to Ellie’s wounds. Merced and Ramsey seriously have sweet chemistry, as we’ve seen throughout this entire season. And Dina, even after being shot, proves to be such a terrific and caring character that, in many ways, Ellie doesn’t really deserve. Ellie confesses that she tortured Nora to get two words out of her before letting her die of the infection. The words were “whale” and “wheel.” Ellie admits how easy it was to hurt her. We’re starting to see Ellie’s humanity slowly peeling away as her appetite for retribution consumes her.
Ellie reveals to Dina what Joel did in Salt Lake City, much to Dina’s shock. Ramsey’s performance in this scene and throughout this season has been wonderful as she really plays the complexity and conflict Ellie feels about the situation soulfully. Dina’s response is appropriately perfect, realizing that as much as we may hate Abby and her friends, they did have a justified reason for doing what they did. She just wants it to end, which is completely understandable.
The next morning, Jesse and Ellie decide to grab Tommy (Gabriel Luna) so they can get the hell out of Seattle. A lot of emotions flare up between Jesse and Ellie, and with good cause. Not only have Ellie’s actions put everyone there in immediate danger, including the woman they both love, but also the way in which Jesse finds out Dina is pregnant with his child is simply horrific. It’s a lot to deal with all at once in the midst of just trying to get out of the city alive. There’s an added layer of responsibility on top of a man who already has the responsibility of Jackson on top of him. So naturally this poor character is pissed, scared, and tired, having to keep everything together for everyone. Your heart absolutely breaks for Jesse.
Ellie and Jesse hear gunshots, and take cover immediately, finding out that a group of WLFs are chasing a young Seraphite. Hiding out of sight, Ellie and Jesse witness the WLFs brutally murdering the child; something Ellie feels compelled to try and stop but thankfully Jesse, knowing that’d be suicide, stops her. Ellie is pissed that they just let it happen, but Jesse insists this is not their war, and they can’t die for this cause. He’s right, and she’s being incredibly naïve here. The cycle of violence has started between these groups and there’s just no stopping it, and they have bigger problems to attend to for themselves.
We get a moment away from Jesse and Ellie to revisit Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) at the WLF camp. We begin to understand that Abby means a lot to Isaac because he sees her as the perfect leader for their WLF operation. Abby represents the future of the WLF army to Isaac, similar to the way Jesse represents the future of Jackson. However Abby has gone missing, along with Owen and Mel, which Isaac is suspicious of, especially following what happened to Nora.
Jesse and Ellie make it to the rendezvous point to wait for Tommy. They have a frank conversation about Ellie and her actions. Jesse knows Ellie truly loves Dina, even more than he does, and he’s actually ok with them being together. We get to know Jesse and the sacrifices he’s made for a life of his own just so he could inherit the responsibility of looking out for Jackson. He sermonizes to Ellie the importance of putting one’s self over others, which admittedly comes across as pretty self-righteous. He’s not wrong, but it does come across incredibly condescending, which Ellie doesn’t take well. They hear through the WLF radio that a sniper is attacking a group of WLFs — Tommy. However, as they make their way to a vantage point, Ellie spies an aquarium with a mural of a whale in front of a ferris wheel. This is what Nora was talking about.
She and Jesse reach a heated impasse. He wants to go after Tommy, she wants to continue her quest for vengeance against Abby. As selfish as Ellie is being, she does bring up an emotional and fair point. She and Joel only had each other, even before Jackson and within Jackson. That was her community, and his death traumatized her. So as much as it makes sense for Jesse to embrace the utilitarian philosophy of putting the needs of the community of Jackson ahead of their own needs, in an instant, everything Ellie had was brutally beaten to death in front of her. While Jesse may be right here, you simply cannot blame Ellie for wanting to carry on with her mission, knowing everything Joel meant to her.
They split up, and Ellie continues her dangerous mission towards the aquarium. After almost getting caught by the WLFs, she hijacks a boat, and drives it through the tumultuous waters of a storm, getting knocked ashore in the process by a giant wave. She is found by a Seraphite child who rats her out to his community, and they capture her and decide to hang her, thinking she’s a WLF. This is important for a few reasons: 1.) we see the type of evils that can be committed in the name of “community,” and 2.) we also understand that just because someone is a child, doesn’t mean they’re not capable of committing wrong, especially when indoctrinated into violent and vengeful philosophies (much like Ellie herself was). Thankfully, Ellie is able to cheat death after an explosion rocks the Seraphite community, and the soldiers trying to hang her run off to save their camp.
Ellie is able to get the hell out of there and finally makes her way to the aquarium (rather conveniently), where she encounters Owen and Mel, who are stunned to see her there. She holds them up at gunpoint, demanding to know where Abby is via Joel’s old “match the same point in the map” trick. Owen makes a move for a gun, and Ellie shoots him straight through the throat, killing him almost instantly. Regrettably, she finds the bullet went straight through him grazing past Mel’s throat, cutting it deep enough that she begins bleeding out. Mel reveals to Ellie that she’s pregnant, and as she dies, begs for Ellie to remove the baby. Unfortunately with zero medical expertise and Mel dying rapidly, she’s unable to do anything to help the baby. As much as we hate this group it’s truly one of the most tragic moments we’ve seen in both the game and the series. The consequences of Ellie’s actions have literally led to the death of a pregnant woman and her child, which shakes Ellie to her core. She breaks down just as Tommy and Jesse find her and take her back to the theater.
Feeling the weight of everything she has done up to that point in the name of vengeance, Ellie relents and agrees to take Dina and her baby, and go back with Tommy and Jesse to Jackson. Tommy assuages her guilt saying that Abby’s friends made their choices, but she has to live with Abby living. She has a nice moment with Jesse, thanking him sincerely for coming back for her, and recognizing how good of a person Jesse is, while he acknowledges that he gets Ellie’s commitments to the ones she loves. The moment is shattered once more by gunfire and violence coming from the lobby of the theater. They rush out to find out what’s happening, before a gunshot to the head tragically kills Jesse instantly. Can I just say that it’s a bummer that one of the most useful and sympathetic characters on this show/game, who is also an Asian character, gets a really abrupt and shocking death he didn’t deserve at all? Really guys? C’mon! RIP Jesse, and thank you Mazino for your terrific performance.
They discover Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has found them, has just killed Jesse, and is holding Tommy hostage. “I let you live, and you wasted it,” she says before pointing the gun at Ellie. We hear a gunshot as the screen abruptly cuts to black leaving the fate of our heroes up in the air (for everyone except those who have played the game).
From there, as expected, the episode ends with the narrative switching over to Abby’s point of view. The camera (evocative of the game’s third person perspective) follows Abby down the hallway of a WLF camp, as the screen informs us we have flashed back to Seattle Day One of Abby’s story. And that’s where we will be continuing next season.
This was a very controversial aspect of The Last of Us Part II. It is the most logical place to end the season, for sure. However, forcing the players to play as a character who killed Joel turned many folks off of the game, and is one of the primary drivers behind the ridiculous review-bombing behavior we’ve seen for both the series and the game. That being said, it is absolutely crucial to the point of this story: the understanding that there are multiple sides to every conflict, and when the cycle of violence begins, it persists forever until someone is willing to end it. There’s a good reason why Isaac says in the episode “there’s only one Abby.” And we’re about to find out what that reason is next season.
Overall Score for 2×07: B+
We hope you’ve enjoyed our weekly recaps of The Last of Us this season. We’d love to continue doing this throughout the series, whenever Season 3 comes out. However, for now, that’s a wrap on Season 2! Check out our recaps of Episode 2×03 here, 2×04 here, 2×05 here, and 2×06 here.
Thank you all for taking this heavy, emotional journey with us! We couldn’t have done it without you!
Binge both full seasons of The Last of Us now on HBO Max!
