The Last of Us Confirms a Controversial Game Moment Is Happening in Season 3

The Last of Us Season 2 focuses on Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) quest for revenge. After five years of living peacefully in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she loses the most important person in her life, Joel (Pedro Pascal), when a group of former Fireflies rolls into town and kills him. The town votes on whether to go after the fiends, but the motion doesn’t pass because there’s too much rebuilding to do after the infected attack. However, Ellie’s mind is already made up, so she heads to Seattle with Dina (Isabela Merced) to hunt down Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and the rest of her crew.

It quickly becomes apparent that Ellie and Dina are in over their heads, with the conflict between the Washington Liberation Front and the Seraphites tearing Seattle apart. Ellie pushes forward anyway and gets so close to achieving her goal. She comes up just short, though, which opens the door for a controversial moment from The Last of Us Part II to come to life, and it does just as the season ends.

Ellie Passes the Torch in The Last of Us Season 2 Finale

When Dina and Ellie arrive in Seattle, things don’t seem that complicated: they’re hot on the trail of Abby’s group and, through the first couple of episodes, make good progress on learning more about the WLF. But coming across the remains of battles between the WLF and Seraphites changes the vibe. There’s clearly a lot going on in the background that the show doesn’t want to reveal. Ellie and Dina only pick up clues about the gravity of the situation, and in reality, they don’t have time to do more digging because Dina takes an arrow to the leg, forcing her off her feet.

With the walls closing in, Ellie accelerates her timetable and leaves Jesse to fend for himself in the Season 2 finale. She learns that the aquarium is Abby’s hideout from Nora and makes a beeline for it when the opportunity presents itself. It’s not an easy journey by any means, with the WLF traveling on the same body of water Ellie has to cross to launch an attack against the Seraphites. Ellie ignores all the explosions on her way over and even has a brief encounter with a group of Seraphites who aren’t looking to make friends. None of that matters, however, because Ellie reaches the aquarium and appears close to finding Abby.

Unfortunately, Joel’s killer is nowhere to be found, and Ellie has to bargain with Owen and Mel for information. Owen thinks he can take control of the situation and grabs for his gun, forcing Ellie to kill him. The bullet also hits Mel, who is pregnant and pleads with Ellie to get her baby out. Ellie isn’t able to do it, and once Jesse and Tommy arrive, she leaves in shame and heads back to the theater to pack up. But before the group from Jackson can get out of dodge, Abby arrives, shoots Jesse, and fires another bullet as the screen cuts to black. The Last of Us Season 2 then concludes by revealing that the next outing will focus on Abby’s story during the same three days that Ellie was in Seattle.

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The Last of Us Season 3 Will Borrow From Part II‘s Most Controversial Section

Like in The Last of Us Season 2, Abby doesn’t appear much after killing Joel in Part II. Ellie goes on her rampage in Seattle, killing Wolves and Seraphites to get closer to Abby. However, despite learning more about her enemy and hearing about her in passing, she doesn’t cross paths with her again until the theater. Abby goes on her own journey while Ellie kills her friends, which sees her make new allies, have brushes with death, and reconsider her place in the Seattle conflict.

The point of Abby’s section in the game is to drive home the core theme of The Last of Us games: perspective. It’s hard to see Abby as anything but evil early on because she kills the main character from the first game, but her story is much more complicated than that, and the only way to prove it is for the game to make her playable. Gamers spend hours experiencing the world through Abby’s eyes, and while many refuse to embrace her because of her actions, by the end of the game, she’s every bit as relatable as Ellie. The Last of Us Season 3 will now follow in the game’s footsteps and force viewers to rethink their opinion of Abby’s character.

The Last of Us Season 2 is streaming on HBO Max.

Are you looking forward to seeing Abby’s story in The Last of Us Season 3? Do you think your opinion of her will change? Let us know in the comments below!