‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Finale, Explained

Things have been pretty messy and even weird in The Last of Us’ season 2 controversial finale. Even though the HBO series still (inconsistently) followed the original video game’s plot line, some completely new events were the last thing fans expected and, honestly, wanted to see.

However, the storyline quickly came back to its roots, paving the way for yet another major death of this season since Joel’s passing in episode 2.

Here’s what The Last of Us’ season 2 ended on — and how it sets up the show’s next season.

What Happens in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Finale?

This instalment’s last episode picks up the story from the previous episode’s final sequence where Ellie is seen arriving in the Seattle theatre, although it still flashes back to sometime before, showing Ellie and Jesse’s fallout before setting out their voyage to the aquarium.

Eventually, Ellie goes all alone and finds a boat which she can potentially use to get to the other side of the river where the aquarium is; her initial plan, however, is thwarted by a storm that strands her to the shore of an isolated island.

There, she’s quickly noticed by a Seraphite kid and is taken to the forests where the rest of the community plans to hang her, though a mysterious signal drives Seraphites away and, eventually, they abandon Ellie.

She then is seen getting to the aquarium only to encounter Abby’s friends Owen and Mel there.

While initially not planning to kill them at all, Ellie does accidentally murder them when Owen tries to ambush her; dying Mel begs Ellie to cut her unborn baby out of her belly, though Ellie hesitates until it’s too late.

By the end of the episode, Ellie reaches the Seattle theatre where she, Tommy, Jesse and Dina plan to return back to Jackson. However, they’re suddenly ambushed by Abby who instantly kills Jesse and threatens to murder Ellie as well.

The episode ends with a flashback where Abby witnesses a football arena being turned into the WLF’s barracks.

What That Final Scene in Episode 7 Suggests About ‘The Last of Us’ Season 3, Explained

It might not yet be clear what happens between Ellie and Abby after the latter pulls the trigger and the screen cuts to black, but the flashback scene that follows right after is already confirmed to become a major shift in the show’s storyline focus.

“There is another side to this story that we have yet to really delve into. There's no question that Abby is the hero of her story. Kaitlyn Dever is the hero of a story, always. If you have a Kaitlyn Dever, you use a Kaitlyn Dever. So I think where we go next, all I can say is it will always be centering somebody, whether it's Ellie and Dina, or whether it's Abby and Abby's relationship with Owen or new relationships. If you played the game, you probably know what I'm talking about. But if you want to boil it down, everything is under the cloud or sunlight of Joel, what Joel did to Abby, and what Joel did for Ellie. That will never change”, The Last of Us’ co-creator Craig Mazin revealed at a press conference ahead of the second season’s finale release.