This article contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” season 2.
Those who’ve been watching “The Last of Us” on HBO now know what fans of the original video games have known for years — that Joel (Pedro Pascal) doesn’t exactly get a happy ending. Quite the contrary, he suffers the same grim fate on the show as he does in the games: being brutally beaten to death by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) with a golf club. The big difference is that in the game “The Last of Us Part II,” Abby shows up with no fanfare or explanation, whereas the series reveals at the start of season 2 that she is the daughter of the doctor Joel killed to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in season 1.
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If you haven’t played the games, you may now be wondering what ultimately happens to Abby in that version of the story. Just be warned: “The Last of Us” has stayed pretty loyal to the source material so far, so it’s safe to assume that her arc will be essentially the same on the show. If you don’t want spoilers for “The Last of Us” season 3 or the potential season 4 (depending on how HBO splits things up), you probably shouldn’t read any further.
With that out of the way, it’s safe to say that Abby’s arc likely doesn’t go how you might expect after watching “The Last of Us” season 2, episode 2. In “The Last of Us Part II,” she is a co-protagonist alongside Ellie, with the player controlling her for major chunks of the story. And Ellie’s ensuing quest for revenge against Abby has plenty of twists and turns of its own.
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Abby has her own story in The Last of Us Part II
In “The Last of Us Part II,” Abby returns to Seattle with her crew after killing Joel. There, she resumes her role in an ongoing war for the city between the Washington Liberation Front — a militia in which she is an active member — and a religious cult known as the Seraphites. In time, though, Abby becomes disillusioned with the war and eventually stumbles into the role of protector for a young Seraphite boy named Lev, who is trying to escape the group’s brutal lifestyle.
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After an encounter with Ellie that ends with them both still alive, Abby decides to leave Seattle for good and tries to regroup with the remaining Fireflies in California, taking Lev with her. However, the two are then captured by another brutal faction, where they’re tortured and enslaved.
In the end, Ellie tracks Abby down yet again to finally get her revenge, only to end up saving Abby and Lev from their captors instead. In the game’s final moments, Ellie forces Abby to fight her to death, and she even has an opportunity to kill her and finally avenge Joel. In spite of this, Ellie ultimately can’t go through with it and allows Abby and Lev to go free rather than continue the cycle of violence.
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Will Abby’s arc be the same in the Last of Us show?
So far, HBO’s “The Last of Us” has stayed pretty true to its source material. There have been additions, like the extra backstory for Frank (Murray Bartlett) and Bill (Nick Offerman), and changes, like the infected attack on Jackson in season 2, which doesn’t happen in the games. But the major beats are the same, and some scenes, like the big Jackson dance where Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie kiss, are taken verbatim out of the games.
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The show has already made a few tweaks to Abby’s characterization, casting her against type and establishing that in this version, her friends aren’t nearly as gung-ho about brutal vengeance as she is. Even so, it’s hard to imagine HBO making too many big changes to Abby’s arc. In the game, you see Ellie’s side of the story, and then Abby’s followed by a final Ellie section to wrap things up. It will be curious to see if the show keeps that strict division in place or if it adopts a more traditional structure by jumping back and forth between the two in Seattle. Either way, we won’t be getting all the answers in season 2, what with “The Last of Us” season 3 having already been confirmed by HBO.
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New episodes of “The Last of Us” drop Sundays at 9pm EST on HBO and Max. Solana Token Creator
