This article contains major spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2.
When The Last of Us Part II originally released, it divided the fan base. I mean, people really hated this game. Joel died. People hated Abby. People hated her so much they straight up sent death threats to Abby’s voice actor, Laura Bailey. It was pretty nuts.
HBO’s TV adaptation has finally caught up to that one polarizing moment where Joel gets killed off in the story. Before Season 2 started airing, there was much hubbub around Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Abby on TV, and whether she’d receive as much backlash as Bailey did just for playing the character that kills our beloved Joel.
The good news (so far) is that Dever seems to have largely avoided the backlash. The bad news, though, is that the showrunners have taken some liberties with the story and I can’t help but feel like it was done to minimize the potential backlash and criticism viewers might have levied against it.
Abby’s Motivations
In The Last of Us Part II, we take control of Abby right at the very start. We don’t know her. All we know is that she’s near Jackson with some friends, and they’re looking for someone. As far as we’re concerned, she’s just a survivor like Ellie and Joel.
When she links up with Joel, it’s an exciting moment. This is it, we think. This is where the two worlds collide and maybe Abby’s going to be our third protagonist. But of course, things don’t turn out the way we want, and she ends up brutally murdering Joel. The player is left in shock. We’re left wondering what the hell just happened. Who is Abby and how could she murder Joel like that?
These questions don’t get answered till much later in the game. We’re left to stew in our rage and confusion, and that’s exactly the kind of mindset the developers want us to have when we embark on our revenge quest with Ellie.
In HBO’s adaptation, Abby’s goals are made clear right from the very beginning. The show opens with a shot of Abby and her friends standing at a gravestone, and we immediately learn that they’re Fireflies. In my view, this drastically lessens the dramatic impact of Joel’s death. When we learn about Abby’s motivations, we’re invited to empathize with her. This makes Joel’s death hurt just a little bit less, but is that really what’s best for the story?
To make matters worse, Abby has the added disadvantage of being a new face, so chances are good that viewers have zero empathy for her even after learning that she’s a Firefly. And if we have zero empathy, then what was even the point?
Abby Needs to Be Less Talkative
In episode 2, before Abby kills Joel, we get the full picture of why she’s so obsessed with killing him. As it turns out, the doctor Joel shot was actually Abby’s dad. Again, same principle as before. If you empathize with Abby, Joel’s death feels less impactful. If you don’t empathize with her, it feels meaningless.
At one point during her monologue, Joel tells her to shut up and just get on with it already. Again, if you didn’t have any empathy for Abby in the first place, this quip from Joel severely weakens her position and makes her look, well, kinda lame. And as a huge Abby fan, let me tell you that game Abby is anything but lame.
Honestly, the monologue made her come off like a cartoonish villain. If players already hated game Abby (certified badass, by the way), I can’t imagine this silly little monologue would do her any favors.
Game Abby wouldn’t waste her breath monologuing about her dead dad. She’s here to do a job. She’d just get to work and start beating Joel to death without bothering with any sort of explanation. It’s almost as if the showrunners were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to understand Abby’s perspective that they felt they had to beat us over the head with her motivation. As a result, that makes both Abby and the story feel weaker.
I haven’t even talked about the actual script yet. I mean, what is with Abby remarking on how “good-looking” Joel is? This description comes up in episode 1 when Abby laments the fact that all they know about her father’s killer is that he’s a tall old guy. Oh and apparently he’s good-looking.
I’m sorry, what? Who in the Fireflies is describing the mass murderer who obliterated their entire organization as good-looking? Going even further than that, who in the Fireflies is telling Abby that the man who killed her father is good-looking? When Abby brings it up again when she finally meets Joel (“You actually are good-looking. Congrats on that.”), I cringed off the face of the Earth. Who let the Pedro Pascal simp into the writer’s room? I’d like to have a word with them, please.
Anyway, the point is that HBO’s The Last of Us reeks of fear. Fear of backlash from the viewers. Fear that we won’t understand Abby. Fear that we’ll stop watching because our beloved Pedro Pascal is no longer in the picture. And to that I say, stop treating your viewers like children. The showrunners need to trust in the strength of the story, and trust that the viewers will get it.
Or they won’t. And that’s fine too. Brilliant art is often divisive.
The Last of Us Part II was emotionally and mentally exhausting, and that’s a compliment. That game knew what it was setting out to do, and it did it in the most self-assured way possible. HBO’s adaptation can still turn things around, but I won’t be holding my breath.
The Last of Us is now available for streaming on Max.
