The biggest challenge facing The Last of Us season 2

Season 1 of The Last of Us is at an end, and what a ride it has been. Over the course of nine episodes, viewers traveled across the post-apocalyptic United States with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). After growing closer during the journey, they finally reached the Fireflies in the show’s season finale, hoping the revolutionaries could use Ellie’s immunity to create a cure to the zombie plague that had decimated the planet.

Except things didn’t quite work out that way. The Fireflies did plan to use Ellie’s immunity to create a cure, but the procedure would kill her. Unwilling to let that happen, Joel went on a bloody rampage to rescue her. He then lied to her about the whole thing, telling her raiders attacked the hospital and that the Fireflies had concluded that creating a cure was impossible after running tests on a bunch of other immune children, none of whom actually exist.

When we leave Joel and Ellie, we feel their relationship has changed, perhaps irrevocably. Ellie might not know what exactly happened in Salt Lake City, but it’s clear she senses something doesn’t add up with Joel’s story.

Future seasons of The Last of Us will cover the events of the sequel video game The Last of Us Part II. If HBO wants to do justice to that game, it’s going to have to overcome some very  particular challenges.

MAJOR SPOILERS for The Last of Us Part II follow below.

Why was The Last of Us Part II so controversial and what does it mean for season 2?

When The Last of Us Part II first came out in 2020, it inspired a wave of fierce, often ugly fan backlash. The complaints ranged from disliking the significantly darker storyline or being upset that Joel was killed off during the game’s opening act (especially since some of the marketing made it seem like he would have a larger role) to objecting to the presence of gay and trans characters in lead roles.

Then there was Abby Anderson, the woman who murders Joel. Notice that I didn’t call her a villain, despite the fact that she killed off such a beloved character? That’s very much intentional, because Abby is really the game’s secondary lead character after Ellie. The Last of Us Part II was revolutionary in how it built up Abby as an antagonist for the first half of the game, only to flip things and force players to live out many of those same events from Abby’s perspective.

This was another hugely controversial part of the game. Many people simply did not want to play as the character who killed the guy they played as in the first game, or watch Ellie go down a horrifically dark path on her quest for vengeance. It got bad enough that people sent Abby actor Laura Bailey death threats.

I’m firmly of the opinion that The Last of Us Part II is a brilliant game, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. That said, I do think the way the game handled Abby presents an enormous challenge for the television show.

The biggest challenge facing The Last of Us season 2

While the fact that The Last of Us Part II asks you to empathize with someone who killed a beloved character is challenge enough, the real elephant in the room is the complicated structure of the story. The Last of Us Part II features a bit of timeline trickery. While the player controls Abby and Ellie for a roughly equal amount of time, we play Ellie for the first half of the game and Abby for the second, until everything comes together for the big finish.

And herein lies the problem. If the show sticks strictly to the format established by the game, it means that viewers will have to spend at least half a season without Bella Ramsey appearing onscreen. It’s very hard to imagine the producers making that call, regardless of how well it worked for the game. The mediums are just too different; let’s not forget, a gamer can binge through Abby’s section in a few sittings, while on TV we’d be waiting weeks for new episodes.

How will HBO split up The Last of Us Part II?

It becomes even trickier once you take into account that HBO plans to adapt the events of The Last of Us Part II over multiple seasons. How will they split it up?

If they stick to the game, the place to split up the rest of the show is obvious. Most of The Last of Us Part II takes place over three traumatic days in Seattle, with players experiencing them almost in their entirety as Ellie before the script flips and they do it all over again as Abby. This structure works well for the game, and hits the player with some unexpected blows. For instance, as Ellie, you kill a number of people you don’t really think too much about, only to later get to know them as Abby and realize the gravity of what you’ve done.

Ending season 2 shortly after Ellie’s three days or the subsequent reveals about why Abby killed Joel would make sense dramatically, even if it would amount to leaving the season on an enormous cliffhanger. Season 3 would then start with Abby’s story, and before events converge in an epic finale. But that underlines the issue I already mentioned: that would mean half a season or more without Bella Ramsey ever appearing on screen.

The other option is that the show could jump between Ellie and Abby’s perspectives more fluidly, dramatizing both of their stories in Seattle at the same time. But that raises other issues. For instance, we wouldn’t slowly realize that the people Ellie killed on her quest for vengeance weren’t completely awful human beings after all, even if they had a hand in killing Joel.

I have confidence that the show will figure this out. After all, season 1 did a great job of building up complex character dynamics. The episodes set in Kansas City showed both side of a messy conflict, which is exactly the sort of thing the series will need to do when it adapts The Last of Us Part II, except on a much grander scale.

The show’s first season was proof enough that the producers knows what they’re doing. I have no doubt they’ll find some way to pull it off, I just wonder how exactly they’ll pull it off.

We’ll find out in 2024 or 2025 when The Last of Us season 2 hits our television screens and wrecks our emotions all over again.

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