Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 finale and The Last of Us Part II video game.
This ending confirmed that the TV show will follow the same unique narrative structure as the game. The Last of Us season 3 will switch to Abby’s perspective to show the past three days from her perspective. I love Abby’s section of the game, and I’m loving Kaitlyn Dever’s interpretation of the character, so I can’t wait for this next season. Where Ellie’s arc is a revenge story, Abby’s is more of a redemption arc, showing how she regains her humanity after exacting revenge — depicted through Abby’s role as Lev’s protector.
8 Abby, Lev, & Yara Escape From The Woods
When Abby confronted Ellie at the theater, she had a rope burn around her neck, suggesting that at least one iconic video game moment is bound to happen in season 3. Abby gets that rope burn when she’s captured by the Seraphites and strung up on a noose in a dark woodland clearing. She reluctantly teams up with two Seraphite runaways, Lev and Yara, to escape.
7 The Sniper
The Last of Us hinted at this sequence in its season 2 finale when word came in that a sniper had the Wolves pinned down on the marina. Since sniping is Tommy’s specialty, Ellie and Jesse deduce that it must be him. This is when Ellie reveals that she’s still determined to find Abby. While Jesse goes to the marina to help Tommy, Ellie heads to the aquarium to find Abby. Abby’s section of the game later reveals that Abby is actually at the marina, taking cover from Tommy’s sniper fire.
An unseen shooter is a classic gameplay feature, and the reveal that this pesky sniper is actually Tommy is a great twist in the game that might not land the same in the TV show. But the TV show isn’t just confined to Abby’s point-of-view. Maybe it’ll show Tommy’s perspective of this sequence and completely change the way it plays out.
6 Abby & Lev Cross The Crane Bridge
All throughout the game, Abby has been established to have a debilitating fear of heights. That phobia comes to a boil when she’s forced to make her way across a narrow walkway hundreds of feet in the air. With a thick fog in the sky, a shredded American flag ominously billowing off the crane, and Abby’s palpable terror, this sequence has a chilling atmosphere that it’ll be tough for the show to replicate.
5 Abby & Lev Ride Through The Flaming Battlefield
The season 2 finale included plenty of references to the W.L.F.’s impending invasion of the Seraphites’ island. These on-the-nose hints were all there to set up Abby’s Day 3 adventure, where she has to escape from the war-torn island with Lev in tow. Since she’s a W.L.F. deserter and he’s a Seraphite runaway, the soldiers on both sides of the battle want them dead.
4 The Descent
After falling off the bridge that would’ve taken them to the safety of a service elevator, Abby and Lev have to go through the building. This bombed-out hotel turns out to be a festering hive of infected. The walls are crusted over with Cordyceps fungus and every single room is filled with clickers, bloaters, shamblers, and stalkers grown into the wall.
Dubbed “The Descent,” this is one of the scariest chapters in the game. It’ll be a haunting delight to see this sequence rendered in live-action in season 3. Based on the creature effects in the last two seasons, the TV show’s production team will surely knock it out of the park.
3 Abby Protects Lev From Isaac
While Abby and Lev are trying to escape from the Seraphites’ island, they’re confronted by some W.L.F. soldiers — and then Isaac comes along. Abby holds the Wolves at gunpoint and keeps Lev behind her to protect him. Isaac commands her to get out of the way so he can kill Lev, but she refuses.
2 Lev Inspires Abby To Spare Ellie & Dina's Lives
At the end of Abby’s section of the game, The Last of Us Part II comes full circle as it returns to the dreaded theater confrontation — this time, from Abby’s perspective. After Ellie puts up a good fight, Abby overpowers her and breaks her arm. She’s attacked by Dina, but Abby quickly overpowers her, too. Ellie pleads with Abby to leave Dina alone, because she’s pregnant.
But since Ellie just killed Abby’s pregnant friend, the way Abby sees it, killing Dina would be justifiable eye-for-an-eye punishment, so she’s still going to go through with it. And then, Lev stops her. Lev’s innocence inspires Abby to let Dina go and save herself from making the same mistake she made with Joel.
1 The Rat King
The Rat King has an important symbolic function. It’s an unstoppable killing machine tearing its way through a hospital, and Abby finds it in the “Trauma Center” — it’s a monstrous metaphor for Joel, and the trauma she’s still holding onto. Of all the Abby moments I can’t wait to see in The Last of Us season 3, this is the most exciting.
