(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Two wars leave a trail of dead in Seattle. One is rooted in differing ideologies, the other in revenge. It doesn’t matter who believes what in The Last of Us because the ongoing disputes seemingly have no end. Taking an eye for an eye approach is futile because someone will always seek retribution in retaliation.
The ongoing cycle of violence is the foundation of Sunday’s Season 2 finale, as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) comes face-to-face with Abby (Kaityln Dever) for the first time since Joel (Pedro Pascal) was killed. Ellie adds two more people from Abby’s crew to her body count, and Abby shoots Jesse (Young Mazino) in the face.
Jesse tells Ellie he wasn’t going to die in Seattle because it is “not our war.” Alas, Jesse doesn’t get a say in his fate because his presence means he is a player in Ellie’s ongoing vengeance plot. The cast turnover rate remains high, but Season 2 let relationships build before swinging the proverbial axe. A result of this additional time is that I have grown rather fond of Jesse, and his demise is a significant blow.
It is hard not to blame Ellie for putting others in the crosshairs. Yes, she watched Joel get beaten to death, but she also withheld pertinent details from Dina (Isabela Merced) about why Abby was there in the first place. Ellie describes Joel’s Firefly massacre, and Dina wants to go home because this revenge turducken started with Joel pulling the trigger, not Abby swinging a golf club.
Despite not knowing these particulars, Jesse radiates annoyance about this entire mission. Finding out Dina is pregnant only adds to his frustrations about this avoidable predicament. Jesse tells Ellie that he voted “no” when Ellie first proposed her mission to get justice for Joel. His reason? Because Ellie is selfish.
Jesse references the blizzard on the day Joel died. He probably doesn’t mean to almost crib a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City moniker: “You and me again in bad f—ing weather.” Who knew Jesse and Ellie were the Last of Us equivalent of Whitney Rose and Heather Gay?! They certainly bicker as much.
If you think Jesse is sprinkling his resentment with jealousy, he explains this is far from the case. He loves Dina, but it is a situationship. Though it would’ve been more powerful to see Jesse’s brief brush with romance rather than hearing him tell this story of the one who got away. With a tinge of self-righteousness, Jesse says he was taught to put other people first.
However, Elle thinks Jesse is a hypocrite because they watched the Wolves drag off a young solitary Scar without intervening. It would be great to save everyone, but they were outnumbered, and I am with Jesse on this (more so considering what happens later). Ellie is hellbent on avenging her community of one; she cannot see the bigger picture.
At this point, Jesse’s priority is finding Tommy (Gabriel Luna) so they can leave Seattle as soon as the storm is over. Ellie seems ready to call the hunt for Abby off until she discovers that Nora (Tati Gabrielle) was implying that Abby is at the aquarium. Ellie is not going to let the opportunity slip through her fingers (Tommy be damned) when the waterfront location is only a short boat ride away.
Of course, the raging storm and the gathering Wolves are obstacles Ellie has to overcome. The latter group is preoccupied with launching an attack on the Scar’s home base, but the waves are another story.
The nighttime sequence is tense, and it is hardly surprising when Ellie finds herself tossed into the water. Unfortunately, the shore she crawls onto is the same Scar Island. The community Ellie was keen to protect wants her dead, and she is close to getting disembowled. In a twist of fate, she is spared when the Wolves begin to blow s— up.
Instead of taking this as a sign to quit while she’s ahead, Ellie is back on mission. At the aquarium, she finds Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer) talking about whatever Abby has planned next. The pair is startled by Ellie’s sudden appearance. There is zero trust with Owen thinking that Ellie will kill them as soon as she gets Abby’s location. It doesn’t matter that Ellie assures them she won’t, because Owen has a split second to choose. He goes for a gun, and Ellie quickly reacts. It is a twofer: Owen is shot through the neck, and the bullet strikes Mel’s neck.
As if this terrible situation couldn’t get worse, Mel reveals she is pregnant and begs Ellie to save the baby before it’s too late.
What follows is more top-tier crying from Ramsey, who excels at showing the horror of this scenario as Ellie freezes with the knife in hand. It is too late when Tommy and Jesse burst in. Seeing a dead pregnant woman is a reminder of who is waiting at the theater, and Ellie knows it is time to go. Ellie has only been in Seattle for three days, but has seen (and enacted) enough horrors for a lifetime—even by apocalyptic standards.
Back at the theater, in a rare moment of sentimentality, Ellie thanks Jesse for coming back. He jokes that Tommy made him, and this duo is back to their teasing sibling dynamic. Jesse takes a beat to be sincere: “You would set the world on fire to save me.”
Ellie agrees that she would. Sure enough, they both leap into action when they hear noises from the lobby. Jesse runs through the door milliseconds before Ellie, and has zero time to react. Abby is the shooter, and it’s game over for Jesse: Ellie doesn’t get to play savior.
Abby, whose neck bruising looks like it came from a noose, is in disbelief when she sees Ellie. “I let you live and you wasted it,” Abby spits. A gun goes off at the same time as it fades to black. Did the revenge body count claim another?
Rather than smash to credits, Abby (minus neck bruising) is awoken by Manny (Danny Ramirez). Was it all a dream? No, The Last of Us isn’t opting for that cliche. We are seeing what Abby was up to on the first day Ellie came to Seattle. Get ready to watch these events unfold from the other side of the fight.
While the season would have benefited from being longer and doesn’t pack the same jaw-dropping punch of Joel’s actions at the end of Season 1, The Last of Us keeps up intrigue with this Abby tease. It is impossible to see an end to this storm, as the ramifications of Joel’s choice to protect his community continue. There is no cheat code for getting even—no matter how hard Ellie and Abby try.
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