The second season of The Last of Us had several problems, though it also had good moments. The creators made several changes to adapt the video game content to its television version and, although their decisions can easily be explained—and often justified—the end result doesn’t vindicate them.
I mean, I support this kind of approach. I like when changes are made during a medium transition, but that doesn’t mean they’re always successful (they were in the first season, and some even worked in the second—mostly those related to side plots).
Spoilers follow.
The biggest problem in the second season, in my opinion, is the handling of Ellie’s revenge arc—though it's not the only issue.
So, the last episode begins with a change to the game’s events: Ellie openly tells Dina what Joel did at the hospital. Thus, Dina learns why Abby killed him. In the game, no one knew the exact reason—not even Ellie herself (Abby never told her; she just pieced things together and reached her own conclusion).
And then what? “Let’s go back.” Sure, it seems like a logical decision. Having all the information about Abby’s actions and having seen what lies ahead, the only sensible choice is to return. The problem is that Ellie doesn’t seem capable of making decisions—nor does the show convince us of her inability.
One moment she breaks down and agrees to end her revenge quest; the next, she remembers Abby and leaves to find her alone. In general, the writers did a poor job building Ellie’s emotional foundation—they didn’t manage to make her feel like a real, complete, and consistent character.
In the game version, it made less sense for her to give up, since within the gameplay context we’ve seen Ellie kill everyone in her path without hesitation. She’s far more determined and furious. In the series, though, things are different.
Anyway, they continue their journey, searching for Tommy with Jesse, and Ellie constantly seems like a child who needs help. In fact, her decisions are sometimes downright odd: she sees a young man being captured and rushes in to help him—something that clearly goes against everything she’s learned and what has kept her alive in this world.
And now we come to another major problem in the series: the constant exposition. Isaac appears and explains that Abby has gone missing, and then goes on to explain just how important she is.
She may just be a young woman, and we may not have seen much of her yet, but Isaac lays everything out in detail because others ask with confusion—playing the role of the audience: Why is Abby so important? Isaac explains that if he dies, he wants Abby to replace him as the group’s leader.
Pointless exposition. Rushed. An approach that treats viewers as if they can’t focus for more than five minutes. They could have found a way to show us all this. For example, they could’ve shown Isaac actively looking for Abby, so we’d sense something’s going on—and deduce the rest ourselves.
At one point, he says he has many soldiers, but only one Abby. That alone was enough to make us understand her importance—even without further explanation. In fact, having him explain everything to characters who theoretically already know how important she is becomes unbearable (and this is something season two does repeatedly).
Also… sorry, but how fit is Abby to be a leader? She’s barely an adult who dragged her team into danger, risking everyone’s lives for the sake of revenge—against someone she didn’t even know—and had no real plan (luck was on her side and things just happened to work out). Even when her team expressed doubts, Abby pushed forward. Overall, she doesn’t come across as calm or leader-like.
And here we hit yet another issue: Abby’s absence. I understand what the show is trying to do, but due to certain decisions, the approach doesn’t work.
After killing Joel, Abby vanishes completely and isn’t seen again until the finale. The game did the same—more or less—but with a big difference: we had no idea who Abby was. We didn’t even know why she killed Joel.
She was a mysterious figure, made more imposing through her absence—a narrative technique used many times to amplify a character’s presence (like Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2, or Bella Baxter in Poor Things).
But in the series, this doesn’t work because Abby isn’t all that mysterious—not after the monologue where she explains her motives to Joel before killing him. Here, Abby isn’t mysterious—she’s simply absent. And by their absence, the infected shine too—in the finale.
Then there’s the tone: from one scene to the next, season two of The Last of Us jumps from light, casual humor to Ellie’s dark, brutal journey. Not once is this transition convincing, and I’m now convinced it’s not the acting—it’s the writers’ approach.
One thing the series still does extremely well is the world-building: once again, even in the finale, we see beautiful shots—especially outdoors. Also, good work on the dialogues between Ellie and Jesse—especially during the more serious parts.
Anyway, Ellie continues to seem indecisive about revenge and, although this could be acceptable in this alternate version of the story, I don’t think her development has been executed properly—I don ’t feel that it works when the script tries to explain her motivations.
What’s more, the episode crams a lot of events into about 45 minutes—events that could’ve (and should’ve) been spread out. It moves very, very quickly, jumping from one dialogue or character to another, from one location to the next, without giving scenes enough time to breathe. Especially if you haven’t played the game, you might get lost in the info-dumps—some of which feel unnecessary (e.g., the war between the factions feels disconnected from everything else, for now). At least there are enough changes to keep up the suspense, even if you know exactly what’s supposed to happen.
Also, the finale includes a scene that’s both pointless and very irritating. Ellie takes a boat, fights the waves, capsizes, ends up in the water at night, but manages to reach the other side. And there, she’s captured (she always fails—she’s covered in bruises… from what?), and they’re about to hang her.
But… at the last second, something happens and they all rush off—and NOT ONE of them says, “Are we seriously going to leave this armed woman here while we’re at war with the others?” Why don’t they kill her? Why don’t they do anything except the one thing they did—just ignore her and leave, without even knowing why she’s there?
An unacceptable scene, and once again, Ellie is saved by sheer luck and writer intervention—not by her own wits or skills (Jesse keeps saving her, basically teleporting in whenever she’s in danger).
At the same time, there’s a clear effort to tone down the violence—to reduce the bloodshed at Ellie’s hands. In the game, both in gameplay and cutscenes, we see her slit throats, kill dogs, mow down people and infected. In the series, she hasn’t done much so far, and the tone remains more light-hearted.
This is probably done to make Ellie more likable—so the audience can empathize with her and not see her as a monster consumed by vengeance and bloodlust. But… if the core story isn’t significantly changed… it would be better if we saw her that way. We’re supposed to feel like she’s lost in the cycle of violence—like she’s beginning to lose herself.
So then we come to another violent scene, when Ellie kills Owen and Mel. In the game, she kills them after they attack her—she fights back with her knife (she stabs a lot of people in general), and the camera focuses on the right moments to show her expressions at just the right time.
In the series, she shoots clumsily, again appearing indecisive, and kills both at once, in self-defense. Yes, the following scene with the baby is indeed harsh and difficult, but Ellie never embraces violence—and I fear that essential core themes of the story are being altered.
They’re trying to make Ellie more sympathetic by reducing the violence while still keeping the key messages—but I’m not sure they can pull it off. Already, the result feels rather “lukewarm” in many places.
That scene should have been pivotal; it should’ve shown Ellie at her worst—diving headfirst into her own violence and rage. But what we got was an Ellie who accidentally killed two people, practically shaking the whole time.
Anyway, in the end...
I felt that the finale didn’t deliver what it should have—neither emotionally nor narratively.
