In “The Last of Us” recap for the season 2 finale, Ellie lets vengeance fuel her hunt for Abby no matter the cost, the WLF plots a massive offensive and lives are lost that change the story forever …
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there was one general reaction to learning that “The Last of Us” season 2 was coming to an end with episode 7, the overarching theme was “already???”
Yes, the second season was only plotted for seven episodes and fans were left with one hell of a cliffhanger, especially knowing that season 3 is probably a year or two away at the earliest. That said, the finale was nothing short of shocking and explosive with more than a few moments that change the trajectory of “The Last of Us” forever.
The penultimate episode focused on flashbacks with Joel and Ellie living a happy existence in Jackson until the past finally caught up with them. Ellie realizing that Joel massacred an entire building full of Fireflies just to save her was a little more than she could handle.
Still, Joel coming clean gave Ellie the chance to absorb the information with hopes that she could eventually forgive him. Sadly, she never got the opportunity because a day later, Abby and her team arrived in Jackson, found Joel and viciously beat him to death for what he did to those Fireflies — most importantly killing Abby’s father in cold blood.
Now months later, Ellie is closer than ever to tracking down Abby with her chance to avenge Joel’s death but she’ll soon realize that everything comes at a cost — sometimes that means your life and other times it just means your soul. By the end of this episode, Ellie may have lost both.
With that said, let’s recap “The Last of Us” season 2 finale titled “Convergence”…
The Choices We Make
The episode picks up moments after Jesse rushed Dina away from the park after she got an arrow lodged in her leg while Ellie continued to pursue Nora with hopes that would eventually lead her back to Abby.
In the Pinnacle Theater, Jesse tends to Dina’s wound and tells her the only way to remove the arrow is literally pushing it through her leg — but she declines a shot of whiskey to help kill the pain. That definitely catches Jesse off guard but he continues his work and removes the arrow.
Hours later, Ellie arrives banging at the locked door and rushing inside to check on Dina. Jesse points her in the right direction and Ellie finds Dina asleep with her leg bandaged up from the wound.
Reunited, Ellie comes clean with what just happened after she found Nora. Not only did she track down the best lead she’s had thus far to find Abby but Ellie confesses that it was all a little too easy beating the truth out of her when Nora didn’t want to give up the information.
Even in her thirst for vengeance, Ellie is starting to realize she doesn’t like herself much because she’s capable of doing some truly horrific acts even if it’s supposedly a means to an end. Before succumbing to the Cordyceps infection, Nora did say two words — “wheel” and “whale” — before she was gone.
Ellie admits she didn’t kill Nora but left her for dead as her transformation into one of the fungal zombies was already underway. When Dina suggests that maybe Nora deserved everything that just happened to her, Ellie finally comes clean with Joel’s actions in Salt Lake City — how he gunned down an entire building full of Fireflies just to save her from certain death.
“He killed Abby’s father. He was a doctor and Joel shot him in the head to save me.”
~ Ellie
Hearing all this information is like a gut punch for Dina, who can only tell Ellie that it’s now time to go home.
The next morning — day three in Seattle — starts with Jesse and Ellie loading up to go to the rendezvous point to meet up with Tommy. They leave Dina behind to barricade herself in the theater since she’s the walking wounded with her leg still very much hurting her.
Outside, Jesse tells Ellie how he and Tommy were able to find them in the theater — it took two days of searching, avoiding WLF patrols and other dangers all because they wanted to bring her home. While Ellie tries to apologize, Jesse cuts her off because he realized something is happening with Dina.
While patching her up, Dina told Jesse “I can’t die” not “I don’t want to die” — two very different things and when she refused to take the shot of whiskey to kill the pain, Jesse recognized there was more happening here than he knew about. He eventually states that Dina is pregnant — and an unassuming Ellie confirms the information not realizing that Jesse was actually just fishing for answers.
Along the way, Jesse tells Ellie that he knows she has feelings for Dina and those emotions are being reciprocated by the woman carrying his baby. They obviously have a lot more to talk about with this situation but right now, they need to find Tommy and get back to Jackson.
After getting caught in a torrential downpour, Jesse and Ellie duck into a parking garage but soon have to dive for cover when members of the WLF converge on the location after tracking down one of the Seraphites. The young Seraphite begs and prays while the WLF soldiers are only concerned with how he slipped past their defenses.
Ellie wants to jump out to save the boy but Jesse refuses to let her get involved in this fight. As the WLF soldiers drag the half-naked boy back out into the streets, Ellie tries to leap into action but Jesse reminds her this isn’t why they came to Seattle much less why they’re desperately trying to get out again.
“This is not our war.”
~ Jesse
Jesse and Ellie eventually make it to a book store, which is the rendezvous point but Tommy isn’t there yet. Inside, Ellie sees a stand filled with children’s books and she picks one out — the “Sesame Street” classic “The Monster at the End of This Book,” which shows Grover telling the reader over and over again to stop turning the pages or risk running into a monster at the end of the book. When the reader finally gets to that final page, you realize that Grover was the monster all along. It’s a telling narrative when considering all the choices Ellie is making for the sake of avenging Joel.
Maybe Ellie is actually the monster in her own book, too.
While at the bookstore, Jesse tells Ellie about an encounter he had with a girl who came through Jackson several months back when her group was there to trade before moving on. In the few weeks they spent together, Jesse fell head over heels in love with this girl and he wanted nothing more than for her to stay but she had to go with her family as they attempted to make it to Mexico.
Instead, she asked Jesse to go with them but he ultimately declined.
Jesse knew his responsibilities were in Jackson and those people were counting on him just as much as he had counted on them over the years. Because Jesse knows he’s being groomed to take over for Maria one day. Because Jesse was taught to put other people first.
The moral of the story gets across because Ellie has been told repeatedly that this mission she’s on is purely selfish — she needs to avenge Joel and it seemingly doesn’t matter who gets caught in the crossfire.
Their conversation is interrupted when the WLF radio Ellie took starts chirping rather loudly. The soldiers are shouting about being under heavy sniper fire. That’s enough for Jesse to know it’s Tommy that’s got the WLF soldiers pinned down but time is running short because they’ve already called for backup.
Jesse and Ellie rush upstairs to get a look out into the city to figure out the direction where the shots are being fired, which will allow them to find Tommy. But while looking around with her binoculars, Ellie spots a Ferris Wheel and an aquarium — and the light goes off in her head.
The “wheel” and the “whale” that Nora was muttering while being tortured was actually Abby’s location. Ellie is ready to spring into action but Jesse reminds her that they need to go after Tommy — he may have the WLF soldiers pinned down now but with reinforcements on the way, he might not make it much longer.
But Ellie believes she needs to do this — she has to get across the bay to the aquarium so she can finally kill Abby. Ellie tells Jesse that this is what Tommy would want — and if not more three more votes against her back at the town hall meeting, they’d all be part of this same mission right now.
That’s when Jesse drops the bomb on Ellie — he voted against her during that meeting.
Jesse explains that as much as everyone wanted to get the people back for killing Joel, the needs of the larger community were more important and they couldn’t let revenge make decisions for them. Jesse isn’t going to feel bad about choosing Jackson that day and he won’t feel any worse for going after Tommy now, which leaves Ellie on her own to find Abby.
The Monster at the End of This Book
Back at the WLF headquarters, Isaac is preparing for an offensive that’s about to launch and Elise Park — one of his commanding officers we met two episodes back — has arrived to discuss the plans. Right now, Isaac is more concerned about finding Abby because she’s disappeared along with her friends.
When Elise wonders if maybe old man Isaac has started having feelings for the much younger Abby, he informs her that’s not the case. Instead, Isaac explains that this planned offensive they’re about to engage could easily end with him dead and the same goes for Elise.
Despite a catchy nickname like the “Wolves” as the WLF — Isaac knows that most of the soldiers under his command are just sheep. If he dies during this planned attack, Isaac believes that Abby is destined to lead in his place but now she’s missing and he’s not sure what will happen if he dies during this mission.
Back out in the storm, Ellie draws near a port with a boat that she plans to take to get to the other side where the Ferris wheel and aquarium are located, thus she’ll finally get to Abby. Before she can take the boat, Ellie watches as numerous ships arrive to load up and then head back out into the ocean — and we get a brief glimpse of Isaac on board, which means this is the offensive he’s been planning all day long.
Once those ships fade out into the blackness of the night and rain, Ellie jumps in the last remaining motorboat and heads out into choppy waters. She soon realizes this wasn’t a great idea when the little boat gets tossed in the waves and she’s left scrambling for a shoreline to survive.
When she gets there, Ellie is immediately snatched up by a group of Seraphites, who presume she’s one of the WLF soldiers so they quickly string her up, put the noose around her neck and hoist her into the air. But before Ellie can strangle and suffocate, the attack from Isaac is launched and the Seraphites are forced to scramble to escape, which means their prisoner is left behind as well.
Ellie removes the noose and makes it back down to the shore where she retrieves her boat and takes the last bit of the journey until she arrives at the aquarium.
Inside, Ellie quietly works her way through the building until she finally happens upon two people looking over a map and mentioning Abby’s name. Ellie springs into action, pulls her gun and tells Owen and Mel that they’re going to give up Abby’s location or else.
Ellie follows a lead that Joel taught her some time ago when she tells Mel to point at the map to show her where Abby is located and then Owen needs to do the same — if they contradict each other, they both die. Owen believes they’re doomed anyways but Ellie tells them that she’s not a monster like them — she’ll let them live if they tell her where Abby is hiding.
Owen agrees to help but then he attempts to pull a gun on Ellie, which results in her unloading on him first. A second later, Owen falls dead to the floor and then Mel turns to see the bullet went through him, through her neck and then into the lockers behind them.
As blood spills out of her neck, Mel falls to the ground and Ellie is horrified to see that she’s actually pregnant.
Ellie tries to tend to her wounds with Mel — who is a doctor — attempting to walk her through an emergency C-section to save her baby. As Mel fades from consciousness, she gives instructions and tells Ellie she’s doing a great jab before finally expiring.
Through it all, Ellie just remained panicked and didn’t make a single cut to save the baby.
That’s when Tommy and Jesse burst through the door — they tracked down Ellie but they need to go because it won’t be long before the WLF regroups and finds them.
They make it back to the theater where Ellie is understandably shaken. She’s beaten one woman viciously and left her for dead and now she’s killed another man plus a woman just weeks away from giving birth. Ellie can’t help but wonder if her need to avenge Joel has already cost way too many lives.
But Tommy tries to reminder Ellie that those people that she killed stood in that same room while Abby tortured and tormented Joel before stabbing him through the neck with the shard of a broken golf club used to beat him into submission.
“You know, they were part of it, too. They made their choices. That’s all there is to it.”
~ Tommy
Tommy tells Ellie and Jesse that he’s going to go start packing the gear so they can begin the long trip back to Jackson. Left alone, Ellie wonders why Jesse bothered coming back for her, especially considering how vehemently he was against her going after Abby in the first place.
Jesse says perhaps he didn’t volunteer to go after her — maybe Tommy told him to do it but Ellie isn’t buying it. For better or worse, Jesse wasn’t going to let Ellie die out there on her own — the same way Jesse knew deep down if he was in the same situation, Ellie would do anything to help him.
“But also the thought did occur, if I were out there somewhere lost and in trouble, you would set the world on fire to save me.”
~ Jesse
The moment between them is interrupted when they hear Tommy shouting and a gunshot rings out. Jesse and Ellie pull out their weapons and race through the theater before bursting out the doors.
A split second later, a bullet rips through Jesse’s face and he falls dead to the floor. A shocked Ellie hides when she hears Abby’s voice commanding her to step out or she’ll kill Tommy.
Ellie does as she’s told and Abby is stunned to see her, especially with the way their last encounter ended. Ellie begs for Tommy’s life and tells her that Joel only killed her father as way to save her. Ellie then confesses to killing Owen and Mel and if anyone else has to die, it should be her.
“I let you live. I let you live and you wasted it.”
~ Abby
Abby then points the gun at Ellie as she screams and the scene fades to black.
Seattle Day One
Before the episode ends, we go back in time again.
Now we’re with Abby as she awakens in a WLF stronghold and she’s told that she has a meeting with Isaac and better not be late. Abby gets up from her couch and heads outside and we see that the WLF headquarters is actually the inside of the Lumen Field — where the Seattle Seahawks play — and it’s been converted into farming areas and a staging ground for the entire WLF army.
Abby looks out over the stadium and we’re informed that this is Seattle Day One — the same time that Ellie and Dina first arrived there looking for her. Yes, we are now going to see this story told through Abby’s point of view when “The Last of Us” returns for season 3.
When we’ll get “The Last of Us” season 3 remains to be seen but the show has already been renewed and then we’ll find out what happened with Abby’s gunshot and her perspective during those three days leading to the fateful encounter with Ellie.
