HBO Had A Modern Classic On Their Hands, But 1 Decision May Have Ruined It Beyond Repair

Although The Last Of Us started out strong, the HBO show made a major miscalculation when it came to a huge twist in season 2, and this may derail the entire franchise down the line. HBO’s The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece that offers viewers an adaptation of the game of the same name that feels appropriately epic and immersive.

While the best opening scene in post-apocalyptic TV history still belongs to The Walking Dead, The Last Of Us gave that earlier hit a run for its money with its incredible opening salvo. It would have been tough for any show to follow up such a strong start, but The Last of Us season 1 succeeded with Joel and Ellie’s story.

Season 1 of the show followed Ellie and Joel across the US as they encountered various human survivors of the apocalypse and avoided the monstrous infected. Throughout this outing, the pair built a bond and learned to understand each other despite their differences, as well as observing and struggling with the ways humanity responded to its devastating destruction.

HBO’s The Last Of Us Was Off To A Great A Start

While viewers who had played the game always knew that Joel’s death was coming in season 2, this didn’t mean that the show’s handling of the plot twist was without its risks. For newcomers to the franchise, this represented a devastating, show-shaking shock. After all, Pedro Pascal’s character was the show’s lead character alongside Bella Ramsey’s Ellie.

Even as The Last Of Us season 2 introduced numerous new characters, such as Isabela Merced’s Dina and Gabriel Luna’s Tommy, the relationship between Joel and Elie remained pivotal to the show’s success. Thus, it was truly brutal when Joel’s death came at the hands of Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, but this didn’t derail the plot of the series on its own.

Joel’s death was an unavoidable canon event that shapes Ellie’s entire personality, so the series was never going to rewrite or discard this vital story beat. However, the way that the series handled the plot twist left some viewers bemused. Inexplicably, the motive for The Last of Us season 2’s villain Abby killing Joel was revealed the moment viewers met her.

The Last Of Us Season 2 Made One Fatal Mistake

In the source material, Abby’s motivations are a mystery for much of the story. Her brutal murder of Joel comes across as an act of wanton cruelty, making his death all the more pointless, and Ellie’s subsequent quest for revenge feel entirely earned. This comes back to bite players later on, when they learn the truth behind Abby’s attack.

Abby killed Joel because Joel killed her father years earlier while saving Ellie. Although the killing seemed entirely justifiable at the time, it reshaped Abby’s life and worldview and turned her into the remorseless killer viewers met when Joel faced his untimely demise. Only that’s not the case in the series, which goes out of its way to explain Abby’s motivations before she kills Joel.

The show revealed Abby’s motivation right from the start, perhaps in an attempt to make Joel’s death feel more meaningful. However, this was a profoundly bad decision for numerous reasons. For one thing, Joel’s The Last of Us death should have been a truly jaw-dropping and unexpected moment, as it is in the games.

The Last of Us is closer in tone to Game of Thrones or The Sopranos than a more upbeat and family-friendly show, so the brutal, sudden death of a main character wasn’t something that viewers were entirely unprepared for. Moreover, the death worked in the source game, where it came as a shocking surprise, and Abby’s motivations were only explained later.

Furthermore, explaining Abby’s motivations de-fangs Ellie’s quest for revenge and makes her entire character arc much more predictable. In the source games, Ellie only learns of Abby’s connection to Joel when she has decided to hunt down and kill his killer, and she’s too blinded by rage to care about perpetuating a cycle of violence.

Can The Last Of Season 3 Put The Show Back On Track?

It is hard for the player not to feel the same, since Joel and Ellie have been the heroes of The Last of Us until this point. Finding out about Abby’s justification of Joel’s murder later on forces the viewer to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the villain and her motives, revealing that she and Joel were never all that different.

By explaining Abby’s motives from the jump, season 2 robbed viewers of the opportunity to get invested in Ellie’s revenge on Abby. By justifying Abby’s murder of Joel, the show made her a less complex and inscrutable villain than she was in the source material.

It is tough to see how The Last Of Us season 3 will make up for this misjudged change to the games when the series returns to screens. While Abby and Ellie’s contrasting character arcs are still compelling, The Last of Us may have a hard time working around the major ill-advised changes the show made to the games in this plot.