I think I know when The Last of Us Season 2 will end and it's perfect

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

I think I understood when The last of us Season 2 will end - and it will be the perfect stopping point for the ambitious adaptation of the TV series Part II. Since HBO's The last of us Confirmed to be splitting the story of the second game into more than one season, there has been a lot of discussion about when the TV show will take a break. There are several options; If it follows the adventures of Eli and Abby simultaneously in Seattle, it may break when they cross paths unwanted in the hospital.

Now that The last of us Season 2 has released a full trailer, the shape of the adaptation is becoming a little clearer. With a couple of tweaks aside, the TV show seems to be sticking as faithfully to the second game as it did to the first game in season 1. As an avid player of the games who has sunk over 500 hours into the franchise, I'm delighted that The TV adaptation seems to stay game-accurate as it dives in Part II. And one key shot from the trailer seems to suggest where season 2 will end.

I think The Last of Us Season 2 will end with Abby's Backstory Reveal

The TV audience needs a reason to care about Abby

Over the production of The last of us Season 2, a handful of leaks and photos from the set hinted at how much of the game would be covered. There were set photos covering all three of Eli's Seattle days, from the battle on Capitol Hill with Dina to her trip to the aquarium with Jesse, and there were almost no photos with Abby actor Caitlin Dever. This suggested that the TV show would follow the same story structure as the game, covering Eli's entire journey through Seattle before going back to show Abby's perspective of the same three days.

The natural stopping point would be when Abby arrives at the theater to confront Ali. There's even a built-in cut-to-black that would see the season 2 finale. But the more I think about it, the more This seems like a dissatisfying place to end the season. It is one thing in a video game where the player can continue the story immediately, but it will be a different experience when TV viewers have to wait two years for season 3. Since there are still no answers when Abby arrives in the theater, viewers Would probably be disappointed by the cliffhanger.

Based on the trailer shot of Abby grieving at her father's grave, I'm convinced season 2 will end shortly after the theatrical confrontation with the series of flashbacks explaining Abby's backstory. This is an awesome rug-pull in the game. You spent hours as Ellie, relentlessly tracking down Abby and killing all her friends along the way in the ugly pursuit of revenge, and then the flashbacks reveal that Abby had a solid reason for killing Joel. This will make for a more satisfying season finale (and drum up more excitement for season 3) Like a normal cut-to-black after a shocking twist.

Why The Last of Us Season 2 Shouldn't End in the Theater

The shock value would be undermined by the unanswered questions

There would certainly be some shock value in the end The last of us Season 2 in theaters. After Ellie has spent three days trying to find Abby, Abby comes to her. She knocks Tommy down, she kills Jesse, and she holds Eli at gunpoint, eager to pull the trigger. It would make for a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, but the surprise factor would ultimately be undermined by the unanswered questions. At this point, there are still no answers to any of the mysteries - Especially Abby's identity and why she killed Joel - So it could be a disappointing ending for season 2.

The disappointment would be even worse two years later when the trailers for season 3 arrived teasing an entire season of Abby. If season 2 ends in the theater and the audience still has no idea who Abby is beyond Joel's sadistic killer, then they will be given no reason to empathize with herSo they won't be too thrilled that season 3 is mostly from her perspective. Instead, season 2 should use the flashback montage to explain who Abby is and why she did what she did.

Resolving the mystery of who Abby is before the finale is over would give season 2 a sense of closure that would be missing if it ended in the theater. Viewers who have been wondering who Abby is the whole time that Ali has been hunting her will finally get a satisfying answer to that question. And when the season 3 trailers arrive promising to show Abby's perspective of the Seattle days, viewers will be more excited to find out more about her.

Set Abby's zebra scene in the Season 2 finale would parallel Ellie's giraffe scene in the Season 1 finale

The two animal scenes show that Ellie and Abby are not so different

The first of the Abby flashbacks goes back four years to show her in a park with her father, Jerry, trying to find a pregnant zebra that escaped from a nearby zoo to help her give birth. They find that the zebra has already had her baby and is caught in a barb-wire trap, so they free her and follow her back to her baby, where their location is finally revealed: St. Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. Apparently the zebra escaped from the same zoo as the giraffes that Joel and Eli saw in Part I.

Joel and Ellie have just arrived at the hospital, and Jerry is the surgeon planning to turn Ellie's immunity into a cure. Not only does the scene finally explain why Abby killed Joel (and with good reason); It also highlights the similarities between Eli and Abby. They both love their father and want nothing more than to avenge him after he was killed. To hammer home the similarities, Abby's zebra scene draws a parallel with Eli's giraffe scene — and putting it in the season 2 finale would make a nice parallel with the season 1 finale.

Why the Last of Us TV show mirroring the structure of the game is a huge risk

The Last of Us Part II has been criticized for pacing issues

Mirroring The Last of Us Part IIThe disjointed non-linear structure in the TV adaptation is a huge risk as the play has been criticized for pacing issues and for taking too much time away from Ali. The TV show could have fixed the pacing issue by showing Eli and Abby's Seattle perspectives simultaneouslyBut that would have been too conventional and taken away from the unique power of this story. The whole point is to get the audience as singularly focused on killing Abby as Ali is; Which wouldn't work if it kept cutting away to Abby's redemption arc.

The break between seasons 2 and 3 could help in this case. In the game, it's a drastic change of pace to go from Ellie driving through a flooded city to kill her arch-nemesis to Abby eating a burrito in the safety of a sports stadium. But after a season break, it would make sense for The last of us' season 3 premiere to slow down a bit after a climactic, action-packed season 2 finale.