The Last of Us finale had a secret game actor cameo

The Last of Us season finale has come and gone, leaving a hollow pit where our hearts used to be. “Look For The Light” is a devastating conclusion to the cross-country journey taken by Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and by the time they leave Salt Lake City there’s a sense that things will never be the same.

It all comes down to Joel’s fateful choice in Saint Mary’s Hospital (beware SPOILERS to follow), where he decides to murder a bunch of the Fireflies rather than let them perform life-ending surgery on Ellie, even if it would mean developing a cure for the cordyceps plague. Joel’s rampage is one of the most iconic scenes form the 2013 The Last of Us video game, culminating in a brutal moment where he guns down the doctor who was about to perform the surgery.

Beyond just being a powerful scene, this is also a major piece of setup for the events of The Last of Us Part II, which we’ll see adapted in future seasons. In fact, one of the lead actors from The Last of Us Part II even shows up in the season finale.

Abby game actor appeared in The Last of Us season 1 finale

“Look For The Light” featured several actors from the video game series, most notably Ashley Johnson (who played Ellie in the game) as Ellie’s mother Anna, and the return of Merle Dandridge, who plays Marlene in both the game and the show. There was also another, more subtle cameo: one of the nurses in the surgery room with Ellie is Laura Bailey, who plays Abby in The Last of Us Part II.

Abby is such an important character that saying much of anything about her is a spoiler, but suffice it to say that she has a very specific connection to what happened in that surgery room. In addition to Abby, Bailey also voiced one of these very same nurses in the first The Last of Us game. There are layers and layers to this cameo.

“She was like, ‘Come on! Lemme do it. Lemme be in the show,'” showrunner Craig Mazin said during a virtual press conference, via Entertainment Weekly. “We were like, ‘We love you. Of course!’ I won’t tell you which one she is, by the way. The two nurses look very similar.”

Despite appearing in the season finale, Mazin and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann aren’t ruling out the possibility of having Laura Bailey return in a larger capacity during season 2. “Maybe we’ll do something else with in the next season,” teased co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who also directed the video games.

“I mean, she’s got a mask on, so we can make her anything we want in the next season,” Mazin added.

Laura Bailey (Abby) could return in The Last of Us season 2 on HBO

Joels horrible showdown with the Fireflies was filmed at an abandoned hospital that was scheduled for demolition in Grande Prairie, Alberta, in Canada. And just like with the mall setting in Episode 7, having an actual building to work in instead of a soundstage added an extra layer of immersion. Mazin recalled bringing Bailey onto the hospital set for the first time:

"She cried just looking at it. It was the same thing that happened the first time Merle put the Marlene wig on. She cried. It’s a common thing that the people that had come from Neil’s game world felt like they were stepping into this impossible, like the most amazing VR adaptation of The Last of Us ever."

Druckmann also weighed in: “ sent me this very, very funny picture that she took the day that they shot that scene, Because again, for those that know who she plays in the in the next story, it’s very much related to that operating room. So maybe when the season’s over, I’ll tweet that picture up for her.”

And tweet it he did:

The Last of Us season 1 finale is streaming now on HBO and HBO Max.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels