[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 7, “Convergence.”]
The Final of Us Season 2 got here to a startling conclusion in its finale episode as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) got here face-to-face within the closing moments, however loads of bloodshed and heartbreak occurred within the moments in between their revenge-driven reunion.
After she reunited with Dina (Isabela Merced) and Jesse (Younger Mazino), Ellie resolved to return to Jackson and set out with Jesse to seek for Tommy (Gabriel Luna), who had joined him on the journey to Seattle. As they realized how harmful Seattle was, as they witnessed WLF troopers assault a Seraphite, Ellie and Jesse hunkered down on the bookstore the place he and Tommy had camped earlier than Jesse discovered Ellie and Dina.
With Tommy nowhere in sight, the duo’s time spent collectively was disrupted by combating on the street. However earlier than they went to examine if it was Tommy concerned within the gunfire, Ellie observed the aquarium within the distance resembled a clue a couple of “whale wheel” Nora (Tati Gabrielle) had shared earlier than she was overcome by spores within the hospital’s basement.
As Ellie realized Abby was inside attain, she resolved to maneuver ahead together with her revenge mission, towards Jesse’s needs, and the pair finally parted methods. On Ellie’s journey to the aquarium, she was briefly held hostage by Seraphites who have been fortunately distracted from gutting her when an alarm sounded with WLF closing in.
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Left behind, she managed to flee and proceed her journey throughout the water. As soon as she infiltrated the aquarium, she discovered Mel (Ariela Barer) and Owen (Spencer Lord) in dialog. She threatened the pair to level her within the path of Abby, even citing a way beforehand utilized by Joel (Pedro Pascal) in Season 1 by telling them to level to Abby’s location on the map, and it needed to match.
Whereas it appeared as if they’d comply, Owen reached for a gun, and Ellie fired, killing the person with a shot to the neck, however the bullet went by him, and likewise left Mel bleeding out. As she realized the severity of her wounds, a largely pregnant Mel begged Ellie to chop the infant out of her, to let the kid have an opportunity at life.
Ellie was so overcome with the predicament that she was unable to finish the duty as Mel tried to speak her by the process together with her dying breaths. As Ellie started to unravel emotionally, Tommy and Jesse discovered her, and collectively they returned to the theater they’d arrange as their very own base camp.
It was agreed that they’d return to Jackson with Ellie having to just accept that Abby would go free. It was a troublesome tablet to swallow, however one Ellie would go together with to protect her discovered household. As she and Jesse went to exit the efficiency space of the theater, upon listening to gunfire within the foyer the place Tommy and Dina have been, Jesse obtained a deadly shot to the top from Abby, who had hunted them down.
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“I allow you to dwell and also you wasted it,” Abby mentioned with a lot emotion earlier than she went to tug the gun on Ellie, the sound of a shot fired earlier than the display screen went black. However that wasn’t the tip, because the present flashed again to Day 1 in Seattle, however now we’ve begun to see it from Abby’s perspective.
The stunning and tragic nature of Season 2’s finish was additional highlighted by the seeming undeniable fact that Ellie had begun to loosen her grip on the necessity for revenge, however do sequence creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann agree with that notion? When TV Insider participated in a press convention with the duo, we posed the query, Ellie’s been pushed by her want for revenge, does that totally disappear when she killed Mel and Owen?
“In case you take away the phrase ‘totally,’ I might agree with that assertion,” Drukmann responded. “However there may be an obsession there that, in our conversations, the metaphor has all the time been drug dependancy. Which you can recover from it, and you’ll launch, and the query is, can she totally recover from it?”
“Yeah, it’s one of many issues I’ve to remind myself of,” Mazin started so as to add. “As a result of… as Ellie strikes by Seattle, her focus is so clearly on Abby. Even that second when Dina tells her their names, Abby is the identify she repeats as a result of Abby is the one who did it. That is sensible. However in that horrible scene the place Joel dies, Ellie says, ‘you’re all going to effin’ die,’ not ‘Abby, you’re going to die,’” Mazin additional identified.
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“And there’s something type of prophetic about that, it’s nearly as if she put that hex on the market that she might not management. And I feel it’s clear to her that Mel didn’t should die,” Mazin continued. “Mel didn’t harm her, Mel didn’t maintain her down, Mel didn’t harm Joel, and we noticed much more than that. Earlier than Ellie exhibits up within the room, Mel is attempting to assist Dina, is horrified by what Abby is doing, and tries to cease it, however fails, which is her personal disgrace.”
As Mazin additional famous, “Ellie says ‘So, she will get to dwell?’” about Abby, “and Tommy says, ‘Make your peace with that,’ and he or she says, ‘I suppose I’ll must.’ That’s fascinating as a result of what if one thing adjustments and also you don’t must, now what? I don’t suppose the story’s over,” Mazin concluded.
In the meantime, Jesse’s stunning dying has barely had time to register with viewers, however how will it register with Ellie and Dina after the evolution of their Season 2 romance? “I imply, how might it not have a drastic impression, particularly when he’s the daddy of this child, but additionally a really shut buddy, a former romantic associate. Yeah, it’s going to imply an entire lot.
“I imply, how might it not have a drastic impression, particularly when he’s the daddy of this child,” Druckmann instructed reporters. “But in addition a really shut buddy, a former romantic associate… Yeah, it’s going to imply an entire lot.”
“It’s an fascinating state of affairs as a result of Jesse dies partially due to Ellie. However Ellie doesn’t pull the set off; Abby does,” Mazin added. “And we invested fairly a bit, going all the way in which again to Episode 1, the primary time Joel appears to be like up and says, ‘Hey, kiddo,’ it’s to not Ellie, it’s to Dina, that’s how we introduce her. And we perceive that Dina has this nice relationship with Joel. He talks about it with Gail (Catherine O’Hara), that it’s like she’s my child or one thing. Dina loves Joel, and Dina has not one of the baggage that Ellie has [with him]. She doesn’t know in regards to the issues that went on; she simply met this good man who’s a contractor. And he or she was there when Joel died. She needed to endure together with him, and he or she has gone in pursuit of Abby out of a way of justice for that.”
“So, now the query is, who does she blame? And I’m an enormous believer that when you begin asking, who do I blame, you’re already down the incorrect path,” Mazin mentioned. “So, we all know that when Ellie gave her this details about… what Joel did… it adjustments issues for her. Jesse’s dying goes to vary issues for her, however how we play that out? We’ve got to attend and see,” Mazin teased.
An added layer to all this, Druckmann identified, was, “If [Dina]’s self-reflecting, she was complicit in Ellie coming [to Seattle].”
Viewers should wait till Season 3 arrives to see which path Druckmann and Mazin take the video game-inspired sequence. Within the meantime, tell us what you considered Season 2’s finale within the feedback under, and keep tuned for Season 3 particulars as they’re revealed.
The Final of Us, Season 3 Premiere, TBA, HBO and HBO Max