WArneing: This message contains spoilers for The last of us Season 2, episode 2.
Let’s go directly to it: in the second episode of season 2 of The last of usA woman named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) brutally murdered Joel (Pedro Pascal) in front of Ellie (Bella Ramsey). It can be a shock for those who do not know the game, but not for those who played both Ellie and Abby The last of us part II. Game enthusiasts (and enemies) have been waiting for the public only to television broadcasts and have been dealing with this red conspiracy point for years.
Here is an overview of what happened in the series, how he differs from the game, why the character of Abby sparked a little fire storm in the game community, and how this act of revenge sets up the rest of the series (without any spoilers after episode 2).
How Joel dies
Last season, Joel inaugurated Ellie at the hiding place of Salt Lake City of a rebel group called The Fireflies. There, they planned to study Ellie, who is protected from zombie bites, to create a remedy against the infection that jumped the apocalypse. But when Joel realized that the operation would kill her, he murdered 18 fireflies and a doctor to save an unconscious Ellie and take him to Jackson where Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) lived.
We meet Abby in season 2, episode 1. After Joel killed his father, the doctor who was supposed to operate on Ellie, she and her friends moved to Seattle, trained as a soldier and put themselves on a mission to track Joel. By episode 2, the old fireflies go to an area just outside Jackson and see how strongly the city is. While Abby is determined to make their plan to assassinate Joel, all his friends want to go back.
Abby leaves on a patrol and accidentally awakens a swarm of infected zombies. She is saved by Joel, who happens to be on patrol with Dina (Isabela Merced), Ellie’s friend and love interest. The group is too far from Jackson to return to the city, and Abby leads them to a lodge where his friends hide.
Meanwhile, the infected attacks the city of Jackson in mass. Thousands of zombies sprint through snow and ice to throw themselves against the high walls of the city. People inside repel zombies with explosive fuel tanks, shots and flame throwers. There is even an additional giant zombie that strikes the wall. Everything is very wights attacking the wall Game of Thrones.
Ellie and Jesse (Young Mazino), Dina’s ex-friend, decided to look for Joel and Dina when they don’t answer the radio. Meanwhile, in the lodge, Abby ordered his friends to drug Dina so that she was not aware for the murder of Joel. Abby then threatens Dina’s life to bring Joel to admit that he killed more than a dozen fireflies in Salt Lake. Abby then shoots Joel in the leg, beats him with a Gulf club and the bloody strikes. Ellie arrives just in time to attend the death of her paternal figure. The friends of Abby Désarment Ellie, then Abby assassin Joel before Ellie’s eyes.
It is not a spoiler to say that killing Joel brutally ahead of Ellie is a huge error and launches a bloody revenge cycle.
The scene sparked controversy around Abby in the game
As you can imagine, the murder of Joel Abby did not go well with the Fandom when it happened very early in the gameplay of The last of us part II. The game obliges players to play as Ellie and Abby, and the advance to meet between Abby and Joel is taken from the point of view of Abby. Essentially, this places the players in the place of a person who conspires to murder the beloved protagonist of the first match.
The great innovation of The last of us part II This change in the perspectives, which continues throughout the game. By playing both Ellie and Abby in different parts of the story, the player is supposed to understand where each woman comes when she tries to avenge the death of her respective paternal figure, while developing more and more horrified by the monstrous acts that she commits in this quest. But even if the game ultimately develops a certain empathy for Abby, it remains an extremely controversial character abjured by a certain subsection of players. The actor who expressed Abby received threats against her and her newborn son. Part of this hatred was rooted in misogyny and other biases, while some were simply born from frustration with the narration device.
In the game, Joel and Tommy save Abby from Infected during his patrol. In the show, Joel is on patrol with Dina instead when they find Abby. Abby’s friends are much nicer to Dina in the show than for Tommy in the game: they drugs it, as they knock Tommy by hitting him several times above his head with a bottle. In the match, Abby and his gang also eliminated Ellie after Joel dies, kicking her in his head.
The showrunners probably made Dina-Tommy exchange to welcome another change. In the game, there is no zombie attack on Jackson. But in the show, Abby accidentally put a horde of infected in the city, probably to add an additional action piece of action at the start of the season. Since Tommy is not on patrol with Joel when the foray occurs, he is able to help keep the city and protect its inhabitants.
Regarding Abby’s friends, more sick while looking at Abby Torture Joel, the creators of the series may try to strengthen more sympathy for the characters given the negotiation of the game public at the start of the game in Abby and his compatriots when the game was published.
What it means for the rest of the season
In the game, Tommy is as obsessed with the death of Joel as Ellie, if not more. Some detail changes suggest that Ellie will be the engine of their revenge mission in the show rather than Tommy. Not only was Tommy not present for the murder of his brother in the show, as he was in the game, but he also has paternal responsibilities in the television series. (He is married but has no children in the game.)
Consequently, it is possible that he adopts a more cautious approach to track Abby in the show than in the game, and it is Ellie who is largely responsible for the head of Seattle to follow the old firefighters.
As for Joel, I am ready to bet that we have not seen the last of him this season. Without spoiling anything, Joel appears briefly in play flashbacks, and it is difficult to imagine that he will not make one or two cameras in the rest of the series. Pedro Pascal is a movie star after all. You do not waste the precious time you have with him on the set.
In addition, there are a few hanging sons in the history of Joel. We do not know what exactly, broke the relationship between Joel and Ellie, whether progressive or if a specific incident triggered Ellie’s anger. To this end, the creators of the show presented Catherine O’Hara as the therapist of Joel Gail in the first episode of season 2. Gail is an entirely new creation. Surely, it will appear again. Perhaps may be more therapy parameters in the form of flashback. We also learned that Joel killed Gail’s husband when he infected. This is another moment that we could still see on the screen. And, of course, the writers could pluck Ellie’s memories for moments with Joel while she was crying her death.
