Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, and The Last of Us Part II.
Ellie swears revenge against Abby at the end of The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, “Through the Valley,” delivered the most shocking and heart-wrenching scene from The Last of Us Part II: Joel’s untimely death at the hands of a vengeful Abby. While out on patrol, Joel saves Abby from a horde of infected and she convinces him to ride back to the chalet where she and her friends are staying. There, she reveals who she is and why she wants to kill him.
Just like in the game, Ellie arrives just too late to save Joel. She sees his horse at the chalet and sneaks in to see what’s going on, but Abby’s friends hold her down and force her to watch Abby brutalize Joel with a putter. Fearing that there are more Jackson residents on the way, Owen implores Abby to “end it,” so they can leave. As Abby delivers the final death blow to Joel, a grief-stricken Ellie vows to kill her and everyone else in the room. But does she really kill Abby in The Last of Us Part II?
Ellie Does Not Kill Abby In The Last Of Us – Their First Encounter After Joel's Death Explained
Abby Tracks Down Ellie Before Ellie Can Track Down Abby
In the game, after Joel’s death, Ellie and Dina set off on a cross-country journey to Seattle to find Abby and exact revenge. The player follows Ellie on a relentless three-day rampage across the city. At the end of these three days, Ellie learns that Abby is hiding out at an aquarium. When she gets to the aquarium, Abby isn’t there, but her friends Owen and Mel are. After a struggle, Ellie kills both of them — but she’s horrified to learn that Mel is pregnant.
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Tommy and Jesse manage to convince Ellie that she’s taken her revenge mission too far and she needs to turn back and go home. But just as they’re about to leave their theater hideout and head back to Jackson, they’re confronted by Abby, who tracked them down after following the map that Ellie left at the aquarium while she was in shock. Abby kills Jesse, shoots Tommy in the head, and engages Ellie in a horrific fight. But ultimately, when Abby has the chance to kill Ellie, she doesn’t go through with it.
Why Abby Spares Ellie's Life In The Last Of Us
Abby's Young Ward Lev Convinces Her To Let Ellie Go
After the player has gone through Ellie’s three days in Seattle, the game goes back and chronicles the same three days from Abby’s perspective. Throughout Ellie’s story, her singular focus on exacting revenge causes her to gradually lose her humanity. Abby’s story parallels this by showing what comes next: the road to redemption. Abby has already exacted revenge and lost her humanity in the process. When we catch up with her on day one, she’s still haunted by nightmares of her dad’s death. Killing Joel just left her with an empty feeling.
Over the course of these three days, Abby takes two young runaways — Lev and Yara — under her wing and protects them. This dynamic is deliberately reminiscent of Joel and Ellie. Killing Joel didn’t make her feel better, but finding something else to fight for does. When Abby is about to kill Ellie, Lev appeals to Abby’s better nature and convinces her to spare Ellie’s life. She realizes she’s about to make the same mistake she made when she killed Joel, and she manages to stop herself, because her love for Lev is more powerful than her hatred of Ellie.
Why Ellie Doesn't Kill Abby When She Has Another Chance
She Realizes It Won't Fix Anything – And It's Not What Joel Would Want For Her
After being spared by Abby, Ellie returns to Jackson and fixes up a farmhouse with Dina. She wants to put her vendetta against Abby behind her, but she remains haunted by PTSD and visions of Joel’s death. When an equally vengeful Tommy stops by with information about Abby’s whereabouts, Ellie can’t help herself. Dina begs Ellie not to leave and continue this futile pursuit of revenge, but Ellie ignores her pleas and goes anyway. Ellie tracks Abby down to Santa Barbara and challenges her to a rematch.
She realizes that this isn’t what Joel would want for her — he wanted her to live a normal, happy life, not become a cold-blooded killer like him — so she lets Abby go.
But just as she’s about to drown Abby in the ocean, Ellie has a vision of Joel sitting on his porch, smiling at her. Since Abby is already as good as dead and Ellie feels nothing, she realizes that killing her won’t solve anything. And she realizes that this isn’t what Joel would want for her — he wanted her to live a normal, happy life, not become a cold-blooded killer like him — so she lets Abby go. The Last of Us’ TV adaptation probably won’t get to this until season 3 or season 4.
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
Joel Miller
Ellie Williams
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
- Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
- Franchise(s)
- The Last of Us
- Creator(s)
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
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