SUMMARY
- The Last of Us Part II strays from the vaccine narrative and focuses on revenge, leaving little room for a return to the immunity arc.
- Dropping the search for a cure completely in The Last of Us season 2 would feel strange given the first season's mission.
- The TV series should keep the search for a cure as an eventual goal, as there are hints of a different approach to the cure/immunity plot line in future seasons.
Spoilers ahead for the ending of The Last of Us Part II and the potential future storylines in HBO's The Last of Us.
In order to succeed as a TV series, HBO's The Last of Us season 2 needs to make one big change to the second game's ending. As is the case with the first game, Joel (Pedro Pascal) slaughters everyone in the facility and leaves with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) after realizing that the Fireflies' doctors will kill an unconscious Ellie in order to make the cure. Unable to lose another kid, Joel puts Ellie above all else, though his actions also take away Ellie's ability to choose a fate. Instead of being honest, Joel lies to Ellie, though he does confess his actions to his brother, Tommy, in The Last of Us Part II's opening.
In the sequel game's present-day timeline, Ellie (voice of Ashley Johnson) knows the truth and isn't on good terms with Joel (voice of Troy Baker). Early on in the game, Joel is murdered by Abby (voice of Laura Bailey), an ex-Firefly who takes Joel's life to avenge her former comrades. In turn, Abby's actions prompt a revenge-obsessed Ellie to leave the relative safety of Jackson, Wyoming for the militia-controlled streets of Seattle. Undoubtedly, The Last of Us season 2 will be a totally different show. For one, Ellie's revenge plot leaves little room for Part II to return to the immunity arc — a misstep HBO's adaptation can't afford to make.
The Last Of Us II Ends Ellie's Story Without A Cure
Even though The Last of Us Part II opens with Joel confessing his actions to Tommy, the game never really returns to the cure thread. Instead, Joel's divulgence frames the sequel's revenge elements, which lead to some of Ellie's worst scenes in The Last Of Us 2. While The Last of Us Part II doesn't dwell on the vaccine narrative, it pulls from the incident to further Joel and Ellie's dynamic: Ellie can't forgive Joel — he took Ellie's agency and, by extension, the meaning in her immunity. Ellie still diligently covers her bite mark with a tattoo, and only tells her partner, Dina (voice of Shannon Woodward), about her immunity when it's unavoidable.
It's possible that gamers (and viewers) are supposed to think along the same lines as Joel and Ellie: the Firefly doctors were the only ones who could've created a cure and, now, there's no hope. At the end of the game, Ellie gets word of Abby's whereabouts and abandons her family — Dina and their son — to confront Abby one last time. Like Joel, Ellie makes a terrible decision that has an enduring impact. Although Ellie spares Abby's life — a kind of Joel-proxy forgiveness — Ellie returns home to find no one. Some proposed The Last of Us season 2 changes would make things worse, but re-centering the search for a cure could imbue Ellie with new purpose.
Why The Last Of Us Season 2 Shouldn't Drop The Vaccine Story
The Last of Us Part II keeps the focus on just how much a revenge quest can take from a person, trading any glimmer of cure-related hope for something much more harrowing. Unless a third game in the series returns to Ellie's immunity and the search for a cure, there's no material left, with regard to that thread, for the HBO series to draw from. Given that Joel and Ellie's season 1 mission revolves around getting her to the people who will create a cure, it would feel strange to drop that notion completely in a sophomore season.
It's not clear yet if The Last of Us season 2 will follow the second game's narrative structure, or if it will tell Ellie and Joel's story in a more chronological manner. This decision could greatly impact what the show chooses to focus on or wrap up. However, as it stands, it would be wise to keep the search for a cure an eventual goal in the TV series. The season 1 finale implies that Ellie is immune because her pregnant mother was bitten. Notably absent from the game, this backstory hints at a different approach to the cure/immunity plot line in future seasons of HBO's The Last of Us.
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