The Last of Us Part 2 almost ended with Ellie killing Abby. The Last of Us is one of the most revered and successful video games of all-time. Not only was it a critical hit, it was a massive commercial success and seemingly changed the way PlayStation approaches games going forward. On top of that, it resonated so strongly, that Sony deemed it worthy of an adaptation and quickly began trying to figure out how to turn it into a film before making it a show on HBO that was also a massive hit. The Last of Us Part 2 became one of the most anticipated games in the run up to its release as a result of a lot of this, but believe it or not, it didn’t get the same unanimous praise as the first game. The story was very divisive and a lot of that was thanks to a character named Abby, someone who kills beloved protagonist Joel in the opening hours of the sequel that many thought would see Ellie and Joel go on another long adventure in. That wasn’t the case, sadly.
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Players spend the rest of the game on a quest to avenge Joel and kill Abby, causing tons of bloodshed in the process. When Ellie finally overtakes Abby after several encounters, she submerges Abby in a body of water and is about to drown her… but ultimately, she gives up. She realizes revenge isn’t the answer, it’s not what Joel would probably want, and this inhumane quest for revenge is futile. She lets Abby go. This really angered a lot of players who had a somewhat understandable lust for revenge as they were motivated in the same way as Ellie, but since they are not Ellie, they are their own person, some didn’t feel as strongly about her decision to let Abby walk away and that really frustrated some players. This was almost completely avoided, though.
In The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, players can play through the story with a commentary track from director Neil Druckmann and some of the cast, including Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey. In it, Druckmann reveals that Ellie would’ve killed Abby at the end of the game in an earlier draft of the story. At that point in the story, both Lev and Yara would have already died, leaving Abby completely by herself. Co-writer Halley Gross noted that Ellie is able to retain a small piece of the innocent kid from the first kid by not killing Abby, giving her the chance to be revitalized in the same way that Abby has been at this point in the story.
It’s all a very interesting ‘what if?’ scenario and will almost certainly dramatically change what The Last of Us Part 3 could have been and what it will be. Whether or not the upcoming adaptation of the game in the second (and likely third and maybe even fourth seasons) of the TV show changes any of this remains to be seen. Either way, it’s a fascinating piece of insight.
