After more than two years, The Last of Us is back for its sophomore season. This season is set to adapt half of Naughty Dog’s 2020 game The Last of Us Part II. This is a much steeper task than the first round, considering the game’s complex revenge plot, changing player character perspectives, and the sheer size of Part II. As the TLOU universe unfolds further on screen, more departures from the source material are expected than preservations. So, we are going to break down the biggest moments and elements from the games that The Last of Us season two adapts from the games.
Jump to: Episode 1 // Episode 2
The Last of Us Season 2’s Biggest Elements and Adapted Moments From the Games – Episode 1, “Future Days”
The Introduction of Abby
In “Future Days,” The Last of Us season two honors the cinematic nature of the second game. But it crafts its own legacy, with certain scenes and sequences occurring at different points. The first scene opens with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) mourning her father in front of a set of graves alongside her former Firefly peers. This scene takes place in the open field near St. Mary’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. This is a familiar setting to those who remember the season 1 finale.
But one may recall that this scene never takes place in the game. There, we met Abby with her WLF comrades after their arrival in Jackson. The show does not waste any precious time before throwing viewers in the deep end to meet the antagonist. (Or, she’s the second protagonist, depending on how you approach the material). However, in the series, her motives are immediately clear: she will avenge her father.
Ellie & Dina’s Love Story
The lifeline of the second game, amid the tragedy, is the burgeoning romance between Ellie and Dina. Thankfully, the series shows this in spades. The seeds of this arc stem from as early as season 1 episode 6 “Kin,” in which Ellie notices a girl matching Dina’s physical characteristics in the Jackson canteen. The girl is staring at her, and subsequently screams, “What?” to scare her off.
In this episode, many of Ellie and Dina’s scenes from early in the second game get such stunning visual accuracy. They include the patrol on horseback in the snowstorm and cleaning out the abandoned supermarket of infected. Most importantly, there’s the Jackson dance. In the show, this scene gets a rewrite to be the 2029 New Years Eve Party.
Watching the dance scene side-by-side with its video game counterpart underscores the show’s commitment to preserving what is a truly special moment. It is forever in the minds of longtime fans. We see this down to the fairy lights strung throughout the hall, the exact music playing, and the iconic line that Isabella Merced’s Dina richly delivers: “Oh Ellie, I think they should be terrified of you,” followed by their first kiss.
Just as in the game, Seth, the owner of the Tipsy Bison, lances a slur at Ellie and Dina. However, Joel’s response changes in the show: instead of an aggressive shove, Joel bodies Seth, punching him in the face—a cinematic victory.
The Last of Us Season 2’s Biggest Elements and Adapted Moments From the Games – Episode 2, “Through the Valley”
Jesse and Ellie on Patrol
While Ellie’s story in the The Last of Us—Part II game begins the morning after the Jackson dance, this The Last of Us scene comes in Episode 2. Much like in the game, Jesse wakes Ellie with a knock at the door of the garage found on Joel’s property, and the scene plays out almost exactly as it does in the The Last of Us—Part II, but this time, Ellie’s going on patrol with Jesse instead of Dina. As viewers, we learn this is due to the fact that Dina already left on patrol with Joel, which further shuffles the characters who are involved in key scenes that follow. In The Last of Us—Part II game, it’s Tommy who goes on patrol with Joel that day, versus, as mentioned Dina in the series.
While on patrol, Ellie and Jesse come across Eugene’s abandoned marijuana greenhouse which also exists in The Last of Us game, but in the series, it is housed within a disused 7-Eleven in place of the library basement. Despite the change, the setting looks very much the same: marijuana leaves hang from the ceilings, dried out and browning on the edges, belongings scattered on a green futon. In The Last of Us—Part II game, Ellie discovers this locale with Dina, and they have a love scene; this is marked as a “calm before the storm” in the game, but there is not as much levity in the show, with an eeriness permeating the entire patrol. Ellie is more inundated by the weight of Joel’s actions with the Fireflies, she carries much more grief on her shoulders; this is made evident when she comes across Eugene’s firefly pendant, as she and Jesse discuss his death in The Last of Us series. “That was a raw deal, Joel having to put him down […] What are you going to do? Couldn’t be saved.” Eugene says. This line suggests that Joel killed Eugene because he had been infected, that it was not out of malice but of obligation, tying back to Gail’s previous conversation with Joel.
WLF
On a mountain top overlooking the city of Jackson, we are reintroduced to members of the Fireflies-turned-WLF: Abby, Owen, Mel, Manny, and Nora. These The Last of Us scenes play out very similarly to how they do in The Last of Us—Part II game, but with more of a preamble, as Abby has already made her intentions clear as of the first episode: she is going to kill Joel. These scenes feel more lived-in than they do in the game, as the team tries to push through in the biting cold and snow, and fear that their operation will fail due to how developed Jackson is below; Abby’s confidence also wavers more on the show than it does in The Last of Us game—her grief feels more real.
The Last of Joel a.k.a. Joel’s Death Scene on The Last of Us
On patrol with Dina, Joel comes across swarms of infected, and naturally, they offer help to the girl trying to fend the massive attack off. This girl is later revealed to be Abby back at the cottage, where she takes Joel and Dina (instead of Joel and Tommy), and this looks all too familiar to The Last of Us—Part II game.
In the series, Abby, Joel, and Dina ride up to the gates on horseback, approaching the WLF members who are armed and ready to defend themselves against any intruders. At this point in The Last of Us show’s second episode, Abby has not shown her hand yet; she brings Dina and Joel in to the cottage to warm up and treat Dina’s frostbite, and she doesn’t give her fellow comrades any indication that the man in their presence is anything more than the person who saved her from hordes of infected, which stays true to the game. She even urges Owen to “help them too,” after he wraps a blanket around her.
However, as soon as she introduces Joel and Dina to her comrades, they spring into action—Dina is anesthetized, and Joel is shot in the knee. While this scene from The Last of Us series is very similar to that in The Last of Us—Part II game, it plays out with heavier emotions. Abby makes her motives clear in the series immediatly, which happens much later in the game: she’s there to avenge her father, the Firefly surgeon whom Joel murdered to save Ellie’s life.
“An unarmed doctor you shot in the head. Yeah, that was my dad.” The violence, though graphic, is not much of a departure from the game, and the golf clubs are present in both. Ellie’s reaction is a change from the game, though, as she clings to Joel’s dead body while the others clear out in The Last of Us series. The connection between father and daughter is clearer in this scene now more than ever. It’s painful to see Joel, on the brink of death, try to lift his head to see Ellie.
Stay tuned for more key moments and elements from the game that we see in The Last of Us season two.
Originally published on April 16, 2025.
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