I'm Fully Invested In The Last Of Us' Ellie Vs. Abby Story, But One Storyline Created For The TV Show Is Losing Me

Spoiler Warning: The following article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2. If you’re not fully caught up, please take a step back and watch all available episodes with a Max subscription.

Ever since its debut a couple of years ago, The Last of Us, for the most part, has been a tremendous video game adaptation of the beloved (and highly divisive) franchise of the same name. I’ve been down for a lot of the changes made to the overall story, despite some minor complaints here and there. But, unlike a lot of my peers, there’s one storyline created for the show’s second season that keeps getting in between me and what I came here to see: Ellie going after Abby to avenge Joel’s brutal murder.

What storyline am I talking about here? Well, none other than Jackson. Though the walled-off community was a part of The Last of Us Part II (as well as its predecessor) back when the game came out five years ago, I feel like the show is spending too much time in the exposition phase of this revenge thriller, and I’m losing my patience. Let me explain…

I'm A Massive Fan Of The Last Of Us Part II, And The Conflict At Its Core

After years of having an Xbox 360 as my main gaming system, I traded it in for a PlayStation 3 in 2013 solely because of The Last of Us. I blew through its campaign on the original hardware, again the following year when the PlayStation 4 remastered version came out, and then a few years after that when The Last of Us Part I came out on PlayStation 5.

And, it’s a similar story with The Last of Us Part II, which my wife and kids bought me for Father’s Day back in 2020. Though I’ve stayed away from much of the online discourse about the game, I’ve played it a few more times over the years and have always been captivated by the conflict at its core.

Not your typical good vs. evil story or even a game with traditional heroes and villains, the game was about past mistakes, revenge, redemption, and hope, as told through the brutal revenge story centering on Ellie avenging Joel’s death by hunting Abby and everyone she loves. How the game makes you reevaluate and recontextualize the revenge narrative is nothing short of astounding, and I really can’t wait to see how it untfolds in the HBO series.

Though The Ellie Vs. Abby Story Is Still A Major Part Of The Last Of Us Season 2, I Feel Like The Show Is Wasting Time

Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving the whole Ellie vs. Abby story, and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds in the four remaining episodes of The Last of Us Season 2. However, I can’t help but feel like the show has been wasting a lot of time getting it going.

I’m fully aware that this drama isn’t just for those of us who played the games, and we have to ease our way into one of the most upsetting deaths in TV history, but I feel like the season premiere and second episode could have been combined into one. There was so much about the happenings in Jackson throughout the first two episodes that felt unnecessary and could have been summed up in a line of dialogue.

I mean, Joel doesn’t die until the end of the second episode, and Ellie doesn't go after Abby until a little more than halfway through the following chapter, but we have time for a town council meeting, a ridiculous battle sequence, and so much talking that I’m starting to get lost.

I Appreciate What They're Doing With The Expansion Of The Jackson Story, But A Lot Of The Scenes Feel Like Filler

Though I’m not totally on board with the expanded focus on Jackson (again, I know it’s a major location in the games), I can totally see why the show’s creators – Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin – took this route and I kind of appreciate what they’re doing. I can also see how Druckmann, the co-creator and director of the games on which the show is based, would want to expand certain things or take a different approach to a plotline years after Part II hit store shelves. However, a lot of the Jackson stuff is nothing more than filler, at least in my eyes.

I’m still having a hard time understanding why so much was changed about the timeline of the story. In the game, Joel is killed in late March, and Tommy goes off to find his killers the next day, with Ellie and Dina not far behind. But in the show, Joel dies in January, but Ellie doesn’t go on the hunt for Abby and the W.L.F. until the spring. Instead of fast action, we have the recovery from the infected attack on Jackson, a town council meeting to decide the best course of action, and so much talking. It doesn’t have to be this way…

Though It Looked Cool, The Whole 'Game Of Thrones' Style Battle In Episode 2 Was So Unnecessary

I love a big battle sequence as much as the next guy, but I cannot get down with the Game of Thrones style battle that took up a large chunk of The Last of Us Season 2’s second episode. Yeah, there are some tense moments in the game where you have to escape large groups of infected, but this was just so much. When I saw the battle teased in one of the various trailers hyping the season, I initially thought I had put on the wrong video.

I will admit that the nighttime battle did look cool in execution and offered some great moments for Tommy, but it felt so rushed and unnecessary for a show that has long focused on small moments between a few characters. I don’t know if Druckmann and Mazin wanted to include this or if it was HBO wanting to add more to the season, but I just didn’t like it.

I Know The Last Of Us Part II Is Being Split Into Multiple Seasons, But There Has To Be A Better Way

With Part II being a massive game (24 hours to beat the main story, per HowLongToBeat.com), I was not surprised at all when I read a Variety interview where Mazin said the story would be told over two seasons instead of one like the first game. It makes sense, considering so much happens throughout the game and so many characters are brought in (one of those major characters hasn’t even been introduced at this point in the series).

That said, there has to be a better way of stretching out the story and adding more to the Ellie vs. Abby dynamic without unnecessary battles, multiple town council meetings, and drawn-out scenes that don’t really need to be there in the first place.

Despite my various complaints with The Last of Us Season 2, three episodes in, I’m still totally invested in what’s going on between Ellie and Abby, and I cannot wait to see how the show handles their eventual run-in way down the road on the 2025 TV schedule.