The Last of Us Season 2 episode one makes a big change to the chronology of Abby’s revelation, and I’m not sure about it

The second season of The Last of Us kicked off this morning, with its opening episode setting up several story beats for later in the series.

Please be aware of spoilers for The Last of Us (both TV show and the games) below.

The Last of Us season two begins right where the first season ended. We see Joel and Ellie – played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Rasmey respectively – on a hillside near Jackson. Ellie looks Joel straight in the eye, and says: “Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true.” He replies, “I swear.” Unlike series one, however, we now see the two characters continue on their way, with a sense of uneasiness around them both.

However, this is not what I want to talk about right now. What I want to talk about is what, and who, the series shows us next. Rather than taking us to Jackson where The Last of Us Part 2 the game kicks off, we are instead taken back to Salt Lake City, where the sun is shining and the giraffes are still walking through the grounds. The scene pans to a group of young people standing over some crosses. They’re who are left of the Fireflies following Joel’s massacre at the end of series one.

This relatively brief scene introduces viewers to Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever. While her friends are feeling clear sadness at the devastation that has befallen them, she is experiencing a very different emotion: anger. She is determined to find Joel. She doesn’t know where he is, but she knows enough about him – she believes – to be able to get going. “Fifties, grey, beard, six-foot tall, scar on his right temple. And, oh yeah, they say he’s handsome,” Abby pushes as her friends try to reason with her, suggesting they should head to Seattle instead where a man named Isaac would take them in.

Abby eventually agrees to go to Seattle with her friends, where they will hopefully be able to gather both resources and a lead as to where Joel could be now (he has several days head start on them, and took the Fireflies’ only working vehicle). Before the scene cuts to the opening credits, though, the group promises Abby they will help her find Joel and when they find him, they will kill him. Abby then hangs a Firefly pendant over a cross and says with tears in her eyes and rage in her heart:

“Slowly. When we kill him. We kill him slowly.”

This short scene does two things for the viewer. First of all, it sets up who Abby is and the reasons for her actions much earlier than in The Last of Us Part 2. In the game, we don’t discover her motivations for wanting to kill Joel until much, much later in Part 2’s narrative. The revelation that Abby was a Firefly with personal connections to those Joel murdered comes as a huge shock, and suddenly the player – who had come to regard Abby and the sequel’s main antagonist – is given a whole new perspective on a character they perhaps loathed for her actions.

While I understand why we are meeting Abby in this way so early on in the show, it has removed some of the suspense and the ‘gut punch’ moment players felt later in the game. I would love to see how someone who has not played the games reacts to this scene, now knowing that Joel’s life is in more danger than he realises.

This scene also shows the closeness that Abby has with Owen, played in the show by Spencer Lord, compared to the others within her group. It is Owen that first assures Abby he will follow her to find Joel, as he tenderly holds her hand. It is Owen that calms Abby’s initial spit of anger. It is Owen that Abby is confident she can depend on.

So, when we see Abby, Owen and co turning up near Jackson at the end of the episode, we know exactly why they are there and who they are loyal to.

The second specific point I would like to highlight from the first episode of The Last of Us season two is the introduction of Gail, played by Catherine O’Hara. She is Jackson’s resident therapist, but her character is more complex than the trailers led me to believe. She is not just a narrative device there to service Joel’s inner turmoil. She has her own background and stories.

When we meet Gail, she reveals it is her first birthday without her husband in over 40 years. She also smokes pot, and drinks whisky. Meanwhile, rather than being an overly maternal type with a soft, fluffy way about her, Gail shows Joel some toughness. She calls him out for lying to her, she tells him she isn’t going to validate him. She also reveals this clanger – Joel killed her husband Eugene, and she is angry at him.

“You can’t heal something unless you are brave enough to say it out loud,” Gail says, before admitting while fuelled by alcohol that she hates Joel for his actions. She says she knows he had to do it, but the way Joel killed Eugene makes her “so f**king angry”. Gail is ashamed, she says, that she feels this way, but she had to get it out.

The showrunners previously said Eugene’s story was going to be expanded upon for the show, with an episode akin to season one’s Bill and Frank episode, so I assumed this meant they would be telling Eugene’s story of leaving his family to join the Fireflies. However, I now think it will focus more on his life in Jackson with Gail, and why Joel had to kill him (in the game, Eugene died of a stroke).

A few other points from the first episode of The Last of Us season two I would like to call out. First, the infected. The showrunners previously said there would be more infected this season, and so far they are living up to that promise. These lot though, are evolving, and one rather tense scene showed Ellie being stalked and lured by one rather sprightly infected. It made me feel uneasy, and even though I know Ellie is immune it made me anxious for her safety.

Second, I really like the little Easter eggs scattered here and there that fans of the game will appreciate but which won’t feel super jarring for those who are only here for the show, such as Ellie cleaning her gun at a work bench or using a bottle to distract an infected.

Also, I love that The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla pops up playing the banjo at Jackson’s new year’s eve party. Meanwhile, other moments and conversations are beat for beat just like the game, and the cast brings them to life really very effectively, which brings me to –

Third, Isabela Merced. She is brilliant as Dina, and her chemistry with both Rasmey’s Ellie and Pascal’s Joel is immediately apparent. She oozes charisma and warmth. Merced’s Dina is magnetic in every scene she is in, and if I were ever to be in a situation where I have to patrol for infected mushroom-men, I would very much like to have her by my side.

Fourth, I enjoyed how quickly Rutina Wesley’s Maria shut down Tommy’s casual and perhaps inadvertent sexism. When Tommy, played by Gabriel Luna, quips to Ellie and Dina it would be different if he and Joel had gone after some infected alone, Maria looks at him and questions why. Tommy, aware he has just been put on the spot by his wife for suggesting two females shouldn’t act the way two men can without it getting called out, doesn’t really have an answer.

There are six more episodes left of series two, and I am looking forward to how the showrunners continue to adapt and evolve The Last of Us Part 2’s story for TV.

What did you think of the second season’s debut?

Naughty Dog and HBO have already confirmed The Last of Us will be back for a third season, with showrunner Craig Mazin stating:

“We approached season two with the goal of creating something we could be proud of. The end results have exceeded even our most ambitious goals.”