Spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2 Episode 7 ahead.
Turning “The Last of Us Part II” into a grounded, prestige TV show was always going to be difficult. After all, for every touching line of dialogue and brutal narrative twist, there’s a platforming puzzle to solve or a combat challenge that doesn’t translate easily from PlayStation to HBO.
However, one of the biggest issues facing the writing team of “The Last of Us” was undoubtedly how to deal with the game’s unique narrative structure. Based on the Season 2 finale, it looks like the HBO show has already failed to meet that challenge.
The Video Game’s Brilliant Twist
In the game, you play through the first half of its roughly 24-hour experience as Ellie while she embarks on a mission of vengeance to find and kill Abby. But at the story’s midpoint, when the two characters finally come face-to-face, it dramatically shifts perspective. The game suddenly forces the player to control Abby instead, as we learn what she’s been up to during the same stretch of time.
In the context of a video game, where you have to physically control your character for the story to progress, this works brilliantly. When the shift first happens, players may be repulsed at the thought of helping Abby through her own adventures. But by the end of the game, it’s no longer clear which character is the hero of this story — or which is the villain.
In a 2020 interview with IndieWire, the game’s creative director, Neil Druckmann, explained the thinking behind this approach.
“There’s something interesting that happens when you’re not in alignment with the character and the game makes you do something that you don’t want to do,” he said. “You wrestle with those decisions in a different way than you would be able to in a passive medium.”
This makes sense. In a video game like “The Last of Us Part II,” the experience of playing as a character you’ve grown to hate felt unique and innovative. But in the more passive format of television, it’s not exactly a new idea. Villains and anti-heroes have been the focal point of prestige TV shows for decades. HBO even helped define the concept with “The Sopranos,” proving audiences could learn to love a vulgar murderer — if the writing was good enough.
So while HBO’s “The Last of Us” isn’t heading into uncharted territory, it still feels like a missed opportunity to live up to the game’s level of creativity.
How The Show Adapts That Twist
At the start of Season 2, “The Last of Us” made a few changes to the story. Most notably, while the game kept Abby’s identity and motives shrouded in mystery over many hours of play, the HBO show spelled them out for its audience early on. In a later episode, the series also gave us more info about a pivotal conflict between the militarized Washington Liberation Front and the cult-like Seraphites than the game would have at that point.
These subtle narrative changes felt like a sign of things to come. Maybe the series wouldn’t rely so heavily on the same types of twists that fueled the game. However, now that we’ve reached the season finale, it’s clear that was never the plan.
The final shot of “The Last of Us” Season 2 flashes back several days in the story, while shifting the perspective from Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). It’s clear we’re about to see the same few days play out in Season 3, but now from Abby’s perspective instead of Ellie’s, ultimately bringing us back to their confrontation in the Season 2 finale.
While it’s an intriguing cliffhanger, it’s a disappointing reveal for anyone hoping the show would find a new way to retell the game’s story.
To be clear, Abby’s adventure is a great one. It’s full of complex characters and powerful emotional beats that rival anything we’ve seen so far on “The Last of Us.” I just wish HBO had been more willing to mix up the way its narrative unfolds. Because while it works in the video game, I’m still not convinced those same tricks can carry over to prestige TV.
“The Last of Us” is streaming on Max.