Spoiler Warning: You are about to walk into a story bursting at the seams with spoilers from The Last of Us Season 2. If you aren’t caught up on HBO or with a Max subscription, please turn back now…
I’m not going to lie – I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Last of Us Season 2. From various pacing issues to diversions from the source material to performances that left me wanting more, I kept going back and forth with the 2025 TV show. I’m not mad about it, because it’s just the way things go sometimes. Though I have a lot of issues with the series’ sophomore effort, I can’t sit here and act like Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann didn’t give some of the most perfect TV moments of the year.
Instead of focusing on the bad and going on about The Last of Us Season 2 not being perfect, I’m going to give the show its flowers, at least when it comes to these absolutely stunning scenes that were at times outrageously exciting and others, utterly heart-wrenching.
Joel's Brutal And Heartbreaking Death
Having played The Last of Us Part II when it was first released back in 2020, I knew exactly where the TV adaptation was headed long before Season 2 kicked off. And then the show went there. It actually went there with Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) heartbreaking death at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in the second episode.
Was it pretty? No, much like in the game on which the show is based, the slow, methodical, and brutal killing of the series protagonist was watched with my hands over my mouth. Not in shock, but in awe because Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had the guts to kill off a fan-favorite just as the season was getting started.
The Seattle Tunnel Sequence
Another one of my favorite moments from The Last of Us Season 2 came in the fourth episode, titled “Day One,” where Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) escape a group of WLF soldiers by traveling through the Seattle subway system, which is filled with infected. Though the show made some slight changes to the sequence compared to the game, those deviations actually worked in this case.
The intense gunplay, the sneaking, Ellie revealing to Dina that she’s immune after being beaten during their escape, all of it worked together to create not only a tremendous reimagining of one of my favorite parts of The Last of Us Part II, but also some must-see TV. This episode was my turning point for this season, and I like to think that’s all because of this thrilling and highly emotional series of events.
Joel And Ellie's Birthday Trip To The Museum
The Joel and Ellie story hit new highs and suffered some terrible lows throughout the flashback-heavy The Last of Us Season 2 penultimate episode, “The Price.” Before I drag things down and force everyone reading this (including myself as I write it) to revisit perhaps the second-most traumatic death of the show so far, I have to talk about the absolutely beautiful scene where Joel and Ellie (several years in the past) take a trip to a museum for Ellie’s 16th birthday.
When I first went through this section with The Last of Us Part II, it felt like the 2020 game’s version of the famous giraffe sequence from its predecessor. The beauty, the simplicity, the fact that Joel is still alive and not beaten to a pulp in a lodge overlooking Jackson, and the pure joy were all perfect. I mean, the look on Ellie’s face while wearing the space helmet, acting like she’s an astronaut, worked then, and it works now. It's the show at its best and pure perfection...
Eugene Looking Out At The Lake And Mountains
When I was watching “The Price,” I knew the other shoe was going to drop sooner or later, and that came when Joel encountered Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) while taking Ellie out on her first patrol on her 19th birthday. As soon as the injured Jackson resident lifted his shirt and exposed a bite mark, I had a feeling we were headed towards one of the show’s signature heartbreaking moments. And I was right…
Joel making the decision to kill Eugene before the infection set in was the right call, but how he went about doing it really got to me. Wanting nothing more than to say goodbye to his wife, Eugene begged Joel to hold off a little while longer and not kill him in the wilderness. While that wish was left ungranted, the doomed man’s final moments were astonishing. The peace that overcame him while he came to terms with his fate, the visual of the mountains and lake in front of him, the birds flying away in silence as the gunshot ended his life, all worked together to create a truly unforgettable moment.
Ellie Taking A Boat To The Aquarium
The Last of Us Season 2’s finale was one of the most intense episodes of the season, and one that was filled with one intense moment after another. One of those came partway through the episode when Ellie attempted to reach the Seattle Aquarium in hopes of confronting Abby once and for all. While the two wouldn’t cross paths until later in the episode, the sequence did recreate one of the most memorable scenes from the game. Yeah, I’m talking about that terrifying boat ride.
The way director Nina Lopez-Corrado brought this scene to life in “Convergence” was nothing short of brilliant. The darkness, the storm, the massive waves, the hatred fueling Ellie to push herself to the breaking point, all of it was incredible and a major feat in storytelling. Much like the original level from The Last of Us Part II, I won’t get this out of my head for a long time.
Abby Walking Into Lumen Field In The Season 2 Finale
One thing I’ll never forget from my first playthrough of The Last of Us Part II was shifting from controlling Ellie to Abby following their confrontation in the Seattle theatre. Having no idea going in that I would be playing as a character who had been the main antagonist up to that point was quite jarring, and it appears as if the series will be taking that direction heading into The Last of Us Season 3.
In the final moments of “Convergence,” Abby gets off a couch and walks through the upper hallways of Lumen Field to reveal just how big of a presence the WLF has in Seattle. It was pretty much a shot-for-shot recreation of this moment as Abby walks out of a suite and into the open air to see a massive community down below. All I could think in that moment was “Here we go.”
Who knows how long we’ll have to wait before The Last of Us returns, but these moments, and others like them, will hold me over while I count down the days, weeks, months, and years.
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