{"id":135835,"date":"2025-05-27T11:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T11:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/135835\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T11:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T11:52:15","slug":"the-last-of-us-spoilery-thoughts-on-season-2-and-where-the-series-could-go-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/135835\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Of Us | Spoilery thoughts on season 2 – and where the series could go next"},"content":{"rendered":"

With The Last Of Us season 2 done and dusted, let\u2019s dive into the spoilery stuff, shall we? Some thoughts on this season and what comes next.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warning! Lots of spoilers to follow for all of The Last Of Us season 1 and 2. We\u2019ll also dive into the entirety of The Last Of Us Part II video game and what to expect from season 3 and even 4, but we\u2019ll add another warning for that in the piece.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a strange sense of emptiness when a TV show you\u2019ve religiously been watching \u2013 and in my case, writing and podcasting about \u2013 comes to an end. That\u2019s certainly true about The Last Of Us, HBO\u2019s high-profile video game adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. What am I supposed to do now that I can\u2019t talk about Ellie and Joel\u2019s relationship on a weekly basis? Should I just move on with my life, as if the series hasn\u2019t dominated it for the past seven weeks?\u00a0<\/p>\n

What makes the emptiness even worse this time around is that The Last Of Us season 2 was a rocky affair. It was much more ambitious and adventurous in its take on the source material compared to season 1, but it didn\u2019t always work, leaving viewers like myself conflicted. I liked the season, but I\u2019m still trying to figure out if I loved it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem with The Last Of Us season 2 was always going to be the structure of The Last Of Us Part II. There was no way co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann could fit the entire story into just seven episodes, so we were always likely to get just half a story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what we got. Season 2 ended on a shocking note as Abby ambushed our heroes at the theatre, mercilessly shooting Jesse in the head and holding Tommy, Dina and Ellie at gunpoint while seething with rage. In all fairness, Ellie did slaughter most of her friends, so it\u2019s easy to see why she\u2019d be a little pissed off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Episode 7<\/a> highlighted all of the season\u2019s weaknesses. The Last Of Us season 2 has rushed through major plot points and moments and, just like Ellie, the series has become blinded by the search for a resolution rather than focusing on what effect all of this has had on our characters. Episode 7, the shortest of the lot, included strange moments like Ellie briefly ending up on the Seraphite island, which took away from the heft of other moments, like Ellie killing the pregnant Mel who begs Ellie to cut out her unborn child as she\u2019s bleeding out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I often make notes on the films and TV shows I cover. They\u2019re usually ineligible scribbles, made in the dark without my eyes ever leaving the screen, but they\u2019re just there to strengthen and compile my thoughts. For The Last Of Us episode 7, they\u2019re even more scattered and frustrated as I was trying to keep up with the story and make sense of it, and understand what Ellie was going through. After the episode, I felt breathless \u2013 in need of a strong cup of coffee (or maybe something stronger).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video games and TV are very different, of course, and what works in one wouldn\u2019t necessarily work in another, but even then, trying to tell Ellie\u2019s half of the story in just seven episodes was always an ambitious, perhaps impossible task. The Last Of Us season 2 has been driven by plot rather than story; more emphasis has been placed on what happens on screen than what it tells us about the world Ellie and her friends inhabit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve still thoroughly enjoyed this season and I respect a lot of the choices made by Mazin and Druckmann this time around. Episode 2<\/a> was a particular highlight of the season, showing a major attack on Jackson as well as including the controversial killing of Joel at the hands of Abby. It was a stylish episode that got the balance right, but after that, the delicate balance between action and emotion was lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"theCredit: Sky<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the road towards Ellie\u2019s revenge became rocky. Episode 3 was mostly filler and the end of episode 5, perhaps the most imperial episode of the season, felt light in its execution. You might even wonder why I\u2019m calling the episode imperial \u2013 and if you do, you\u2019re only proving my point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Episode 5<\/a> introduced the spores into the story, but more importantly, it features Ellie fully moving to the dark side by killing Nora. Not just killing her, either, but brutally torturing her with a pipe before abandoning her in the basement of a hospital to die. As the finale showed, albeit lightly, Ellie isn\u2019t quite the same after this. Such cruelty represented a point of no return for the character, who has now become the very thing she\u2019s hunting; spiteful, sadistic and blinded by her need for revenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The final episode ends with Abby pointing the gun at Ellie and the screen cutting to black as a shot rings out. We then jump back in time to Seattle Day One as Abby wakes up at the WLF base, signaling that next season will follow those same three days from her perspective, just like in the game where the player is forced into the shoes of the very woman they\u2019ve been hunting for the past 12 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve played the game, you knew this was coming, and where the season would likely end. I found myself still a little shocked, or perhaps just rattled, by the decision to end things here. This is mostly because we will be waiting for season 3 at least a couple of years. To end the second season of one of the biggest TV shows of recent years on a cliffhanger like that is a bold move, but what comes next?<\/p>\n

Season 3 is happening for sure, but Mazin recently also confirmed<\/a> that the series would need a fourth season to complete the story. But is it really necessary?<\/p>\n

From here-on out, we\u2019ll be diving into the second half and ending of the video game so if you\u2019re not familiar with it, you might want to return to this article at a later date.\u00a0In other words, spoilers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"theCredit: Sky<\/p>\n

As revealed at the very end of episode 7, The Last Of Us season 3 will focus mostly on Abby as we follow her through the same three days as we did with Ellie. Like with the game, Druckmann and Mazin are asking for our empathy and for us to consider Abby as more than just a villain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The turnaround in the game was met with hate from fans when The Last Of Us Part II was released in 2020. Things got so nasty that Laura Bailey, the actress who portrayed the character in the game, received death threats, including some for her child. It was always a gamble to ask gamers (a notoriously rational bunch) to adopt a character they\u2019ve been trained to hate over 12 hours of intense game play, but the reaction from some was still shocking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the initial shock of having to play as Abby, the rest of the game turned out to be a heck of an experience. As you step into Abby\u2019s shoes, you come to appreciate her physicality, her sense of righteousness and her morals. But TV works differently. Watching TV, even when you engage critically with what you watch, is a passive action, whereas playing a video game is a much more active one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where I fear The Last Of Us season 3 will falter. Will we ever be able to relate to Abby and hate Ellie for her actions? Season 2 has seemed a little scared of making us truly hate or despise Ellie \u2013 will we be able to see her from Abby\u2019s perspective, as the villain of her story?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Season 4, if officially greenlit by HBO, will likely cover the game\u2019s final section after Ellie and Dina have settled on a nice, peaceful farm, but Ellie, barely surviving an encounter with Abby, struggles with PTSD. Her need for revenge still hasn\u2019t died down and she\u2019s about to push away Dina and her family in order to seek it once more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a short, but powerful segment and it certainly could warrant a whole season to itself. Pacing might become an issue though. We still don\u2019t know how many episodes season 3 will have, but if we assume all seasons will have less than 10 episodes, season 4 would be a lot slower than the previous seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans have already expressed their worries that telling the game\u2019s story in three seasons would make it feel stretched and unnecessary. Mazin and Druckmann still have plenty of time to crack the perfect recipe for the next two seasons of The Last Of Us, but we have a feeling it\u2019ll be a proper challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All episodes of The Last Of Us season 1 and 2 are now on Sky and NOW.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With The Last Of Us season 2 done and dusted, let\u2019s dive into the spoilery stuff, shall we?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[4097,989,382,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-135835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-streaming","9":"tag-the-last-of-us","10":"tag-tv","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114579658852277165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}