There’s a very thorny problem at the center of The Last of Us season 2. We’ve now seen the first two episodes of the season, and so far, they have been pretty faithful to the source material. The raid on Jackson Hole was invented to add some stakes to the show, but Joel’s death plays out in a remarkably similar fashion to the video game, albeit with some switches around who he’s with.
The show’s first season was also remarkably faithful to the video game it was based on, but one huge question lingers around the rest of season 2. Namely, will we see Abby again for the rest of the season? Let’s break down how the last five episodes of the season could play out:
The Last of Us: Part II is split almost exactly in half
We already know that the second season of The Last of Us will be seven episodes in total, and that the show will be back for season 3. It’s also unlikely that the series will tell story that the games have not already, which means that Craig Maizin and Neil Druckmann are likely planning to split the story of The Last of Us: Part II across multiple seasons.
The good news is that there’s an easy way to do that. The Last of Us: Part II follows Ellie for the first half of the game, and then backtracks to follow Abby through the same stretch of time. We’re rooted in one character’s perspective, and then the other’s, and we come to see just how alike the two of them are, even though Ellie is determined to kill Abby.
If the show followed this roadmap, though, it would mean dedicating the majority of a season to Abby alone, and basically leaving Bella Ramsey sidelined for that time. That seems unlikely, although the creators have been careful to avoid saying exactly how this adaptation is going to change the story.
There’s an issue with changing how this story plays out
The obvious alternative to switching perspectives and dividing the story neatly in half the way the game does is to, instead, shift focus regularly between Abby and Ellie. They can become the story’s co-leads, and we can watch what’s happening to them unfold basically simultaneously.
This is the most obvious approach, but also the most treacherous, in part because the game’s gambit is so successful in its original form. When you play as Abby, you spend hours with her and can, for whole stretches of gameplay, forget that Ellie even exists. There are also moments, particularly in Abby’s section, that will feel stranger without the distance from Ellie’s story that the game gives them.
One perfect example of this comes during a section when Abby and her friend Manny are pinned down by a sniper. This sniper is an unseen assassin, a man whose motivations are unclear. It’s not until the very end of the sequence that we realize that that sniper is Joel’s brother, Tommy, who travels to Seattle to get revenge on Abby before Ellie and Dina can do the same. The reason that moment works so well is because Tommy feels anonymous until, quite suddenly, he isn’t.
If we see Tommy trying to shoot Abby and Manny, effectively getting dueling perspectives on the scene, it becomes harder to ever fully immerse yourself in the experience of being Abby.
That’s just one moment, but it speaks to the way the shifting perspectives allow you to sympathize with a character who you already know has done something unforgivable. The Last of Us: Part II asks both its characters and whoever is playing the game to extend their empathy to characters who have done terrible things, and it does that in part by totally bifurcating its central narrative.
Of course, we don’t actually know what’s coming on The Last of Us. It seems possible that the show will pull a rabbit out of its hat and find a way to avoid splitting the narrative in half while allowing us to empathize with both of the central characters (having actors like Kaitlyn Dever and Bella Ramsey will certainly help).
As we look forward to the rest of the season, though, and to the third season, the biggest outstanding question is whether this show is going to be able to make us care about both of its leading ladies equally. That is, fundamentally, what the game is about, and the show is trying to walk in its footsteps. Here’s hoping it succeeds.
