ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7 BREAKDOWN - Ending Explained!

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

In this video, we dissect the season 2 finale of "The Last of Us." This episode delves into themes of community, revenge, and human nature, focusing on Abby and Ellie's parallel journeys. We also discuss key scenes, changes from the game, and the significant symbolism throughout. Join us as we unpack this powerful conclusion and set the stage for what’s to come in the next season. Don't forget to subscribe for more breakdowns!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I let you live, and you wasted it. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and this is all of the Easter eggs, references, and little things that you might have missed in the season two finale of The Last of Us. So this season finishes off with an episode that delivers a powerful message on community and human nature. It continues both Abby and Ellie's descent into their respective cycles of revenge, and shows us just how much they have in common despite their current beef. Again, it's like poetry, sort of if they rhyme. And we're going to break down all these similarities,

and what to expect in season 3. This episode starts with the intro right out the gate, returning to the single silhouette as we've seen since Joel died. The first thing we hear is Dina's moans in the theater, which are clearly from Dina struggling with the arrow that she took to the knee in episode 5. But the way they hide Dina initially almost makes it sound like she's giving birth, which is foreshadowing the brutal things that happen in the aquarium. Now, the game also has these two tending to each other's wounds in the theater,

but the roles are reversed, since Jesse is the one who's hurt after a bad wreck rescuing Ellie, and Dina is tending to his. his wound. He pushes the arrow all the way through rather than pulling it straight out, which is exactly what you're supposed to do with an impaled arrow, since pulling it out opens the wound further and causes more intense bleeding. He offers her some of his liquor to numb the pain, but she refuses, obviously due to her being prego. But why doesn't she just tell him? Well, probably because now isn't the best time.

When Ellie arrives, he asked the name of her horse to verify her identity and she confirms with, Shimmer, I'm alone. Open the fucking door. And it's pretty convenient that she even remembers his name, given that she had clearly forgotten about Shimmer, as Jesse points out later. Found a place you stashed Shimmer. She's still there. Doing all right. Not that you asked. We then see her catch up with Dina in the Green Room, the part of the theater that the artist and their groupies hang out in before the show, giving us a plethora of fun Easter eggs from the classic pre-2003 bands, such as the sign and message from Slipknot, alongside the various band posters, including ones for Van Morrison and Green Day. The Van Morrison poster is actually

the 1971 Seattle Opera House tour poster. And fun fact, that same year, Morrison performed at the Seattle Paramount Theater, which this theater, aka the Pinnacle, is based on. As Dina and Ellie tend to each other's wounds, Ellie shares the two small clues as to Abby's location that she received from torturing Nora. Well, then we are one. She also confesses her guilt at how easy it was to do this, which continues to distinguish Ellie from her video game counterpart. In the game, Ellie was undeterred by how dark she had to go and stacked up a mountain of bodies along the way. While she still has this moment with Dina, the show takes it up a notch and continues to

portray her in a much more humanizing light. But more importantly, it's the first step we see towards Ellie breaking the cycle that Joel put her in. Hey, wait a sec person, haven't you been saying the opposite of that all season? Well, I did, but see, this changes things. See, Joel never apologizes for what he does, unless, of course, it could potentially separate him from Ellie. So the remorse she shows here clearly distinguishes her from him and defines her path as her own, just like Gail said. If she's on a path, it's not one that Joel put her on. The guilt also leads her to confess the full details of what happened in Salt Lake to Dina, which is a massive change since they never talk about this in the game.

By doing this, Craig Mason and Neil Druckman give us an opportunity to see Dina weigh the Seattle mission with full context, which is more than enough to change her mind, despite how committed to the cause she was before. And I'll keep going if you want. We need to go home. Then we go to Day 3 in Seattle. Ellie and Jesse head out to rendezvous with Tommy while Dina barricades herself in the theater. Before doing so, she hands Ellie her homest.

a bracelet. Now, this is a Middle Eastern bracelet warns to prevent harm and bring good fortune. And, as we've pointed out in previous breakdowns, Dina has been wearing it all season. But here, she passes the luck over to Ellie, just like she does in the game, but with a slight tweak to the dialogue. It's for good luck. Not sure it's been working for you. I'm alive. As we've mentioned in previous episodes, Tommy heads to Seattle by himself in the game, which makes Ellie and Dina's trip more or less double as a reconnaissance mission for him. However, the show flipped this, making Tommy and Jesse the recon team for Ellie, who split up to cover more ground, which is fitting for the show's version of Jesse.

In the games, Jesse was a bit more reckless and naive, heading out to rescue Ellie in Seattle just for the vibes. The show's Captain Wyoming version of Jesse is almost the opposite. He's not just a rising leader in the community, but he's next to take the mantle of leading the community. He's also incredibly smart, which is why he can put two and two together and guess Dean is pregnant. I'm not stupid and I'm not blind, and I bet she even tells you things she wouldn't tell me, like how she's pregnant.

In the games, we see him ask Ellie this in the theater. Is she pregnant? Yeah. But he doesn't play games about it then either. The show's version gives us much more insight as to how he feels about Dina keeping this from him, which makes his death all the more tragic. As they walk through Seattle, they see another portrait of the seraphite prophet, just like the ones we've seen throughout the season.

However, this depicts her as a black woman, rather than a white woman seen in previous murals, prompting Ellie to say, There's more than one of her? Right, here was the prophet again. Well, the prophet was the leader of the seraphites. She essentially started her own cult after she's survived the Cordyceps outbreak after she claimed to have seen it coming, or at least her followers

believe that she saw it coming. Her followers have since become a bloodthirsty Amish murder cult who mutilate themselves and others as we see with Ellie later on. Okay, so what? Is there like more than one prophet or something? There is not. See, after the prophet's death, the elders took over, so these murals are more than likely just different depictions of the same person that have shifted due to how her story has been passed down over the past decades. Kind of like Santa Claus, where she becomes so much larger than the person that historically she's based on, so that people interpret and visualize her differently. We see this a lot with messianic figures, such as race-swapping Jesus to white, despite the fact that the dude was very clearly from the Middle East.

The story of the prophet has been around so long that people don't really know what she look like, and likely just kind of go with the vibe. Either way, we don't really know, since this is something the show added, and clearly Jesse doesn't either. I guess so. I don't know. As they set out, we can see the beginnings of the storm on the horizon, a classic metaphor for the looming threat of confrontation. when the rain finally hits, we see that conflict firsthand. They run up on some WLF soldiers, where we see Isaac's second in command torture a seraphite soldier as they beg for mercy. Now, this hits even harder for the audience, as this is the same guy who Isaac saved because he hadn't lost himself to the fascism of Fedra. But here we see that he's just as brutal

as Josh Peck was in his brief cameo. This also ends up being a major breaking point for Ellie. It shows her that these arbitrary definitions of community ultimately only justify the most horrible aspects of human nature. He tries to defend it by saying, There's six of them in two of us. What do you think would have happened? Honestly, these are like laughably good odds for Ellie in the game, but HBO continues to keep their version of Ellie's hands clean. The apprehension from Jesse makes sense, given that he just learned that he was a dad. But Ellie's anger towards Jesse's complacency here is also one of the first signs we see of her breaking from Joel's cycle.

Joel doesn't see people in the outside as part of his community, which is why it was so easy for him to kill people like the fireflies or even innocent people like Eugene to keep his real community, his family, safe. Ellie, on the other hand, sees how this outdated idea of community is truly dangerous and divides us more than anything, as we see her bring up later with Jesse. The sacks a community! Then we get a meeting between Isaac and Elise Park and probably the best place to set up base camp, the Costco parking lot.

Elise forms Isaac that everyone in the Salt Lake crew has gone AWOL. Now, this is our first hint as to what Abby's been up to during these last three days on the Seattle trip, which seems like it's going to be the main focus of season three. Now, without getting into too many spoilers, it's clear that, Isaac is feeling the loss of one of his best soldiers. Elise even goes so far as to ask him, you in love with her or something? Which mirrors the same complicated attractions that Abby showed

when she hit on Joel before practicing her golf swing. Nice shot! They discuss their plans for the mass invasion of the Serafite village, the same one that we see play out later in the episode. Now in the game, this battle ultimately doesn't go well for either side, but there's no telling if HBO is going to go the same route. Isaac does offer us some possible insight as to why this well-regulated militia can be taken down by a bunch of crazy cultists with bows and arrows when he says...

So then what happens to that entire army out there who, despite their bad-ass name, are very much sheep. The phrasing, of course, makes them seem like sheep in Wolves' clothing, which flips the traditional saying. It's also incredibly ironic, given that they are at war with a cult. As much as Isaac wants to believe the scars are crazy, his followers are just as blindly delusional as we saw earlier. Isaac discusses Abby's unique place in the WLF, at least before her recent falling out,

saying, And enough Owens and Mel's, but only one Abby. Which coincides with the reputation as... Isaac's top scar killer. That she maintained end game. And I think, guys, we should just pause and take a moment to remember the fallen with these new designs that we just made at our Merge store. We have this Firefly look for the like graffiti shirt and this broken watch to commemorate

Outbreak Day 2003, where were you and that happened? Or you can become a member of the Alpine Clicker Patrol. Links for all of these are below. And now you can become a store member to earn rewards and get free stuff. And also, don't forget, you can now listen to Screencrush on Spotify, Apple, and anywhere you get your podcast. So then we cut back to Ellie and Jesse who find out that Tommy isn't at the rendezvous point

in the library. Jesse calls out their unique tradition of getting stuck together through storms when he says, You and me in bad fucking weather. Which is a fun way for the show to poke fun at its own changes. We see some baby books that peak Ellie's interest,

including some classics like, I Love You Forever, Is Your Mama, I Spy, a piece of home, We Sing, and Eric Carls from head to toe. But the one she ends up picking up is Sesame Street's the monster at the end of this book. Now this book is about Grover describing a monster at the end of the book and cautioning the reader not to go forward

only to discover that the monster was never there all along. Now, in a way, this sheds light on Ellie's own internal struggle with her quest for revenge. She is under no obligation to repeat Joel's cycle of trauma by pursuing Abby. You know, that monster that doesn't exist, yet it compels her to move forward anyways. Except in this case, the monster at the end of the story is Abby herself. And as we're going to see next season,

Abby is just a human being who is very much motivated by the same revenge impulses that are motivating Ellie this season. Now notice the mirror on the back here reads, everything's got immoral if only you can find it, which feels like a lighthearted spin on the darker themes we've seen this season. Essentially, it's saying that every story has a reason, a purpose, a justification. But justified action has been at the heart of the non-infected violence we've seen thus far. Right, what are you mean, person? Well, this whole season has shown us how brutal humans can become when they feel justified in their actions, and how different groups or perspectives can drastically shape that justification. The apocalypse offers plenty of reasons

to feel justified in abandoning your morality. So, seeking that or finding that in others may do more harm than good in the post-apocalypse. And then we get another moment that we never got in game where Jesse relieves Ellie of any guilt she may have had over him and Dina's relationship, even going so far as to say... Yes, I love her, but not the way you do. Ellie opens up more about her thoughts on Jesse, saying... Got it. So, you're St. Jesse. of Wyoming. Now, the fact that Jesse was destined to become the next leader parallels the recent insight we got from Isaac on Abby, since they were both destined to become leaders before they

were cut short. After hearing a distress call from the WLF about a sniper, they assume that it's Tommy and they pursue, just like Ellie and Dina do in the game. A sniper, it started to tell me. Loomel trespasser? Tommy. As they look out over the piers, Ellie spots the aquarium hideout next to the Ferris wheel after spotting the whale on the wall. The whale. Without getting too far into spoilers, this. This is not only a hideout for the Salt Lake crew, but an area that holds a lot of significance for Abby,

a lot like Ellie's connections to the Science Museum. Ellie wants to redirect away from Tommy and go after Abby, and she tries to reason with Jesse by saying, Jesus Christ, if three more people have voted with you, you'd be coming with me. Now, when we did our breakdown of episode three, we actually guessed that Jesse would have voted no on Ellie's proposal to get revenge against Abby,

and he confirms that here. I voted no. But his reasoning why is even more telling, as he explains, Because everything you do, you do for you. Now, not only is he right, but him calling out her selfishness has to hit Ellie even harder, given the fact that she gave Joel the same speech the night before he died as we saw last episode. Because you're selfish.

So this is where Ellie shows, yet again, that she has the potential to break Joel's cycle, when she finally says out loud, She calls out how Jesse's Us versus Them mentality only does more damage in the long run. This is a massive step up from Joel's secular view of community. which only really included his small circle and nothing outside of it. In this case, Ellie's convinced herself that she's justified and doing what's truly right by her community. Yeah, but person, isn't that what Joel would do? I thought you said she was breaking the cycle. Well, yeah, but at least she's willing to admit it and call out the hypocrisy and others who would try to hide it.

Now, while she's still stuck in that violent cycle that Joel's death set her on, this shows yet another small step toward her breaking that cycle. Regardless, it's more than Jesse can debate as they split ways, which is a bit ironic given that he just gave her a speech about protection the community. This sends Ellie on a solo quest for Abby, mirroring Abby's solo journey after Joel, despite the rest of the Salt Lake crew not wanting to go along with her. Ellie spots a boat only to discover that it's WLF property. In the game, Ellie steals a boat in Seattle as well, but the majority of the challenge around getting it is taking out the people who are guarding it. The show makes the main challenge surviving the open waters of Elliott Bay versus the smaller inner city streams that we see

her traversing endgame. Eventually, a massive wave crashes on the shore, which is another parallel to Abby's journey to kill Joel in episode two, since both are interrupted by massive forces of nature. She sees a seraphite child who runs away immediately followed by, which is the seraphite whistle for engaging the enemy. And shout out to this awesome video from Daniel Nightcraft for pointing that out. And this whistle is followed by, which signals moving forward. While Ellie never gets strung up like this in the game, Abby does,

which we can see evidence of due to the bruises on her neck when we see her toward the end of the episode. And it is creepy as hell to see the seraphite kid order the death of Ellie, because there's no seraphite kids in the game. Right, the game doesn't show any seraphite kidders? Well, no, because most of the serifites you encounter are enemies you have to kill. And killing kids in games is a big no-no, even for a game as dark as the last of us. Like, even GTA won't go there. But, you know, the show has more freedom with this kind of content. The first kid we saw in episode three was meant to humanize the scars.

But this kid shows us how they are just as lost in their blood cult as their parents. Ellie is saved by the WLF's attack on the Sarafite Village, allowing her to make her escape before the big bombs go off and head toward the Seattle Aquarium. As we said earlier, Abby has her own journey that she goes on during these past three days in Seattle, and we see hints of that story as Ellie enters. We can see three beds for each member of the Salt Lake crew showing how they've been there for a while, as well as discarded medical equipment, including a bloody saw. Without getting into spoilers, we know this is an area used for massive operations, as one would assume. And we should see more about how that plays out in season three. Now, Mel is pretty pissed with Abby when Ellie finds her, saying, And I'm choosing no also because it's Abby.

Again, without getting into spoilers, Ellie is interrupting them during a critical planning stage. And Mel doesn't want to go along with Abby due to a complicated romantic relationship that mirrors Ellie and Jesse's situation, which I'm sure is going to be fully explored next season. Ellie then tells them to point to the same spot on a map, threatening to shoot them if they don't line up, which is a torture technique that we know that she learned from Joel in the game. Owen decides to take the first stab at it, but of course he goes for his gun instead and ends up causing Ellie to shoot in a way that takes out both Owen and Mel, which is distinctly different from how they go down in the game. Immediately, Mel tries to get her to do an emergency C-section, which is not only another massive change from the game, but it also brings a lot more impact to Mel's death. It forces Ellie to realize the gravity of her actions and traumatizes her into imagining this happening to Dina.

By having her fail to save the baby, the show provides much better context for her brain. breakdown than the game ever did. She is absolutely paralyzed when Tommy finds her, meaning she doesn't nearly shoot him like she does in the game. Back at the theater, Tommy tries to console her, saying, They were part of it too. They made their choices. It's all there's to it. But happy gets to live. Are you able to make your peace with that? Which seems hypocritical, given how much the show's version of Tommy has been pretty discouraging.

But it actually fits with both the show's version of Tommy and word for word, his lines from the game. They got what they deserved. But she gets to live. Is that okay? As they pack their bags, Ellie and Jesse get a chance to rekindle from their fight earlier, where Ellie makes it very clear that Jesse is part of her family,

which is enough to let Jesse crack one more half smile before the sweet moment is violently interrupted. Jesse represents a sense of idealism that, frankly, just doesn't work in the apocalypse. And in the end, he was punished for it when he takes a shot to the head from Abby, going down just as abruptly as he does in the game. In fact, not only does every line here play out just like it does in the game,

but even the camera angles and the score do as well. I know why you killed Joel. He did what he did to save me. There is no cure because of me. I am the one that you want. I know why you kill Joel. He did what he did to save me. I'm the one that you want. Here we can also see Abby has the bruise around her neck that we mentioned earlier, which will surely be explained when we see her full story next season. The final moment we see in day three of Seattle comes as Ellie condemns Abby, saying,

I let you live and you wasted it. Right or get it. Wouldn't she do the same thing? Well, yeah, of course, Doug, but the beauty of these characters is the fact that they're too stubborn to see how they really are exactly the same person.

The finale ends by resetting the story three days back, bringing us back to the beginning of yet another cycle that we've seen as a prominent theme this season. Abby wakes up in the WLF compound, kicking off the beginning of her first mission with her that you play through end game. She is reading a book called Thieves at the City by Ben Davidoff, which seems like a parody safe knockoff of the real book,

City of Thieves by Dave Benoff, which is the book that Abby is reading in game. The book is about two survivors during World War II who survive all these horrible people and atrocities and even cannibals, but then they're able to form a bond despite initially hating each other. Neil Druckman specifically cited the book as a major inspiration for the game and Ellie and Abby's relationship in particular. We also see that she's wearing a very similar watch to Jules,

which is not something we see in the game, and it could be a potential hint at the way that HBO intends to add this story in the next season. Now, her walk is much shorter than it was in the game, mostly due to the fact that Manny wasn't shacking up in her room, and she even passes by a Metallica poster on her way out. Again, we're seeing parallels between her and Ellie's love of music. The final shot ends with the panoramic view showing us the inside of the Soundview stadium, which the WLF has converted into their own commune. Now, this gives us our first real look at the WLF's numbers, or at least how big they were three days ago. The finale closes out

with the song Burden in My Hand by Soundgarden, yet another Seattle-based Grunge band. The lead singer of this band, Chris Cornell, said the song mostly came out of the guitar's rhythm, a perfect song choice as Joel and Ellie's guitar played a prominent role this season. The song itself is about a destitute guy who lost his cool, much like Ellie this season. The song ends without any resolution. The person crying out, I lost my head again, Would You Cry for Me? Mirroring the ending of this season. Ellie doesn't get any resolution after all she went through, if anything, she actually lost her grip completely. And in a meta way, we as the viewer don't get any resolution either, as the show just ends with a...

So next season's really going to try to make Joel's killer a hero? Well, maybe not a hero, but certainly the main focus. It wouldn't be very loyal to the game if it didn't do that. In fact, a full third of the game is played through Abby's perspective. Forcing the player to play as Abby was a major controversy for the game. It was a massive creative risk, and it paid off. big time for those who love the series, but that certainly wasn't everyone. HBO made this pivot a bit more digestible by allowing us to get our introduction to Abby this season,

but then primarily focusing on Ellie's development and how she responds to trauma. This gave us some grounding, humanizing moments with Abby before diving into the bulk of her story in season 3. There's even talk about expanding this story into four seasons, which seems like a lot given how much story is left in the game. But who knows? Maybe we'll get a last of us part 3 in the meantime to give us more story. But that's everything we caught in the finale and in this season of the last of it. It's been an absolute blast covering this season with you guys, and I am so grateful that you chose to come to us for all of the Easter eggs, references, and little things that you might have missed. And also, huge shout out to Dodson's Sites for writing these videos. You can find a link to his YouTube channel down below.

But what do you guys think? How did you feel about this season, and are you excited for the next one? Are there any details that we missed? Let me know down in the comments below or at me on Twitter, Blue Sky, or Threads at Ryan Airy, or find me on our free to join Discord server. The links are down below. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. I'm going to be.