'The Last of Us' Season 2's Biggest Mistake Failed Ellie

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 and the video game, The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us Season 2 was almost always guaranteed to be a divisive season of television. Not only was it adapting The Last of Us Part II, which saw Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) beaten to death, but it was going to go to some dark, dark places. A significant portion of the game revolves around Ellie (Bella Ramsey) seeking revenge against the people who killed Joel, with the major twist that their leader, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), had a personal vendetta against him.

In the process, Ellie winds up committing some horrible actions, which feed into The Last of Us's narrative about how violence becomes a vicious cycle. The Last of Us Part II drew an ugly amount of discourse upon its release, and that's spread to the television show. One genuine criticism that I'll agree with is that The Last of Us isn't willing to let Ellie go to the dark places the game does.

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Took Away Ellie’s Edge

Throughout The Last of Us Part II, Ellie exacts bloody vengeance on Abby's friends. She's willing to torture and/or kill them for what they did, despite others urging her to let go of her vendetta throughout the game. It's a terrifying thing to watch, as the teenage girl who players protected in The Last of Us Part I has grown to be just as bloodthirsty as her father figure. However, in The Last of Us Season 2, this impact feels somewhat diluted, as key moments from the game have been either altered or omitted. A major one concerns Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced), who slowly develop a relationship in Season 2. When Dina reveals that she's pregnant to Ellie in the episode "Day One", Ellie has a euphoric (and hilarious) reaction, saying "Holy shit, I'm gonna be a dad." This is a far cry from the game's version of the scene: Ellie reacts with shock, then grows angry as she feels Dina should have told her, feeling like she's a "burden" on their quest. It's a surprising moment, especially since the game had built up their romantic bonds, but it shows that Ellie is human — she won't always say or do the right thing.

This is a stark contrast to how Joel is portrayed in The Last of Us Season 1. He's allowed to be a complex character, as his bond with Ellie is heartwarming, but the actions he takes in the Season 1 finale, "Look For The Light," are utterly horrifying. While fans have grown connected to Joel thanks to the father/daughter dynamic in Season 1 and Pedro Pascal's immensely compelling performance, the fact of the matter is that Joel did a horrible thing. He shot an unarmed doctor in the head, who turned out to be Abby's father, and doomed the world to save Ellie's life. So the question is: why couldn't Ellie be afforded the same courtesy?

There's actually a scene from The Last of Us Part II that's missing from the show; when Ellie and Dina first get to Seattle and encounter a dog named Alice, Ellie stabs it to death. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin said that Alice's death would have been "very disturbing" to include in live-action, but I feel it should have been kept in. If you wanted to show how determined Ellie is to get her revenge, that one scene is all the proof audiences would need. Everything about The Last of Us is "very disturbing."

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Felt Too Short, Even By "Peak TV" Standards

There's another reason why Ellie's characterization feels less fleshed out in The Last of Us Season 2 than The Last of Us Part II, and that's because Season 2 is only seven episodes. Once again, this is a stark contrast to Season 1, which had nine episodes; it allows the story to unfold, while also enabling the narrative to take different paths that the game didn't (a case in point is the phenomenal "Long, Long Time"). Season 2 doesn't have an episode of that quality, but what's even worse is its finale, "Convergence."

In the final moments, Ellie and Jesse (Young Mazino) return to the theater where they, Dina, and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) were sheltered...only for Abby to kill Jesse and hold Tommy at gunpoint. After Abby lifts her gun at Ellie and fires, the screen goes to black and then shifts to Abby's point of view. While this is true to the game, it feels immensely jarring and pulls away from Ellie just as the narrative is getting to the good part. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have both confirmed that Season 3 will take place from Abby's point of view, but given how the show's barely scratched the surface of Ellie's vendetta, it feels like Season 2 needed one or two more episodes to give her the same depth that Season 1 gave Joel.

There’s One Pivotal Scene From the Games That ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Should Have Adapted

Prior to Ellie and Abby confronting each other, "Convergence" features a scene where Ellie travels to an aquarium and finds Abby's friends Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). In the conflict, Ellie shoots Owen and fatally wounds a pregnant Mel, but once again, this is different from the games. When Ellie confronts the pair, she has a brief struggle with Mel before sinking a knife into her neck; it isn't until Mel is dead that Ellie learns she's pregnant. This is the tipping point for Ellie's journey, and it's baffling that Craig Mazin and Neill Druckmann didn't keep it in the episode.

What makes this absence egregious is that in the episode "Feel Her Love", Mazin didn't pull any punches once Ellie corners Abby's friend Nora (Tati Gabrielle) in a hospital corridor. Ellie savagely beats Nora with a pipe and leaves her to be infected by Cordyceps spores, and in "Convergence," she confesses to Dina about how it affected her. Another major scene has her tearing into Jesse for leaving a Seraphite boy to die when he tries to tell her her quest for vengeance is selfish, and that's the energy we needed more of. The Last of Us Part II is a story about revenge, the cycle of violence, and the descent into darkness. However, Season 2 was afraid to commit to those themes, leaving Ellie in a state of limbo. And that is far worse than anything the games ever did.