This article contains spoilers for the entirety of HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2, and the events of The Last of Us Part II up to this point in the story.
There’s something very stigmatizing about being labeled a “hater”, especially when you’re “hating” on something that’s so universally beloved. The label suggests that you’re incapable of objectivity or seeing both sides. That things need to be exactly how you want them or it’s an inferior product in your eyes. That’s been my struggle with Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us.
For the past six weeks, I’ve not been shy about airing my grievances with the show and lamenting that one of my favorite video games of all time has been completely butchered. At the same time, I’ve been quick to preface most of these complaints with a, “Hey, there are things I also like about the show! See? I’m not a hater!”
With the finale, however, I have come to my senses. Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us might be a perfectly serviceable TV show (debatable) for those who have never played the games, but it’ll never come close to replicating the depth and complexity of the original story.
The Butchering of Ellie
Let’s get straight into the heart of why Season 2 has failed so spectacularly. HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us Part II demonstrates one of two things: either the writers have a very deep, fundamental misunderstanding of Ellie’s character, or they felt they just couldn’t risk having an unlikable protagonist who does some truly heinous things.
Game Ellie and Show Ellie are two very different people. The former is focused, cold-blooded, and unimaginably sad and depressed. The latter is constantly getting talked down to, wastes time fawning over new relationships, and just comes off as an incompetent fool who bumbles around and fails upwards to her objectives.
Game Ellie doesn’t have time to waste. Dina’s pregnant? Well she’s a burden now, isn’t she? Dina’s triangulating but can’t quite figure out Nora’s position yet? Well then, guess. The Scars and Wolves are fighting? Good. Let them kill each other. She doesn’t want to hear anything about turning back. She goes an hour feeling happy and content with Dina, then immediately feels guilty about that because she thinks she deserves to die and she isn’t allowed to be happy before she avenges Joel.
Show Ellie, on the other hand, flip flops between two different personalities and it’s very jarring. Dina’s pregnant? “I’m gonna be a dad!” Dina’s triangulating? Let’s make jokes about protractors and reinforce how stupid Ellie is because she didn’t pay attention in school, and then have Jesse jab at her again later about how stupid she is because he didn’t think that she could’ve done any triangulating. The Scars and Wolves are fighting? Show Ellie stands up for the Scar and puts herself and Jesse at risk again, even though this is the perfect opportunity to slip past both factions and get to Abby.
Outside of the excellent Nora scene — which was really just a 1:1 recreation of the game scene, but arguably worse — and the bit where she decides to leave Tommy to go find Abby, everything Ellie does is antithetical to her entire character arc. By the time we reach the finale, I’m not convinced Ellie even remembers her original mission.
Ellie is supposed to be a terrifying killing machine. She’s supposed to be so consumed by rage and depression that she’ll do anything to get to Abby, even if it means pushing away the people who care about her. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about Ellie at some point, and we should want her to stop what she’s doing. The TV adaptation doesn’t seem to want to explore those ideas though. So instead we get this completely different version of the character who makes eyes at her girlfriend right before they fight a bunch of infected, and says all sorts of goofy things to lighten the mood that also make her look silly. When she does get her serious moments, they feel unearned.
Minor Changes that End Up Snowballing
While I believe that the criminal mischaracterization of Ellie is what ultimately killed The Last of Us Season 2, it’s worth pointing out that the little changes made here and there have also helped to derail the story.
I’ve talked about these things before so I won’t rehash them again, but highlights include the following:
- Ellie and Dina’s relationship starts in Seattle, instead of before, which forces the show to make time to celebrate them getting together, resulting in tonal whiplash and Ellie’s lack of focus.
- Dina is the main driver of the revenge quest, which could result in thematic problems down the road.
- Tommy arrives in Seattle after Ellie, instead of before, which results in him losing a lot of agency and character development as someone who’s also just as monstrous as Joel.
- The Porch Scene’s placement in the flashback episode, which could result in other thematic problems and narrative payoffs down the road.
These changes sound small on the surface, but when you start putting all of them together, you create bigger problems for the story to work around. Eventually you’re left with a totally different journey that kinda loses the message of the source material.
Tell, Don’t Show
HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 also seemed to love overwriting its dialogue instead of keeping things subtle. We have scenes of Gail telling Tommy that Ellie’s a vengeful girl, Dina explaining to Ellie what their game plan should be before fighting the infected, Abby monologuing at Joel like a cartoonish villain, Nora explaining to Ellie what Joel did in the hospital, Ellie retelling that same story to Dina later on, Ellie telling Dina that she just kept beating Nora, Joel telling Ellie he loves her like a daughter, Ellie telling Joel he did what he did because he’s selfish…
I mean, just give it a rest already, we get it. What made the games so great was how underwritten the dialogue was. I never needed Joel to tell me that Ellie reminds him of Sarah — just a quick, meaningful glance at his watch is enough. Similarly, I didn’t need Ellie to give me all the gory details about how she tortured Nora. “I made her talk” would’ve been enough.
HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 has been a spectacular disappointment. From the second episode, I clocked that the show seemed afraid of alienating its audience by presenting us with morally grey characters who do evil things. That’s been the through-line of Season 2. Every step of the way, it was clear that the show wanted to play it safe. There’s still hope that the show can turn things around with Abby’s story in Season 3 — it’s more linear and palatable which should hopefully mean that it’s harder to mess up — but for now, I think it’s fair to say that Season 2 has been a complete miss.
The Last of Us is now available for streaming on HBO Max.
