The Last of Us Season 2: Why Abby’s Story Should Feel Familiar

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 1.

The Last of Us is a story about loss, grief, and the lengths someone will go to protect the people they love. Last season, we saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) grapple with the loss of his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) for decades until he met Ellie (Bella Ramsey). He went to great lengths to protect Ellie on their journey across the country, including slaughtering Fireflies in their Salt Lake City outpost to keep them from killing Ellie for a chance at a Cordyceps cure. But this season we learn that his actions aren’t without consequence, and after five years, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has come to Jackson to collect.

In the series, we first meet Abby in the aftermath of Joel’s massacre on the Fireflies. She and her friends have buried the dead, and Abby vows revenge against Joel. In HBO’s post-premiere featurette “The Last of Us Season 2: The Making of Episode One,” series co-creator and executive producer Craig Mazin says that Abby “is broken here, and if she reminds you a little bit, say, of what Joel felt like when he lost his daughter, well that’s not unintentional”

Both Joel and Abby’s stories begin with an unimaginable loss. Abby has lost her father, someone she clearly cares about deeply; someone she’s willing to go to the ends of the Earth to avenge. Joel loses his daughter at the start of the Cordyceps outbreak when a soldier opens fire on them, and it forever changes him.  “When we lose somebody who’s taken from us violently for reasons that don’t seem fair or logical, the chain reaction begins,” Mazin says.

In a world overrun with infected, with humanity having to fight to survive, it’s no surprise that law and order is left up to the people. We already saw this cycle of violence and retribution come into play in season 1. In Kansas City, Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) was ruthless in her pursuit of Henry (Lamar Johnson). Henry gave her brother up to FEDRA in exchange for lifesaving medicine for his younger brother, Sam (Keivonn Woodard), and Kathleen believed that that meant they both deserved to die. Joel killed a raider to defend himself and Ellie in Colorado. Then people from that community came after them seeking vengeance.

“This season is about the consequence of violence,” series co-creator and executive producer Neil Druckmann says. “How far will you go in that pursuit of justice, when you are feeling righteous and just?”

Abby and Joel both believe that the only way they can protect and avenge the ones they love is through violence. Joel wasn’t able to save Sarah, but in Salt Lake City he is able to save Ellie. He is able to finally atone for this mistake that has haunted him for decades. And as we see in “Future Days,” he still believes that this was the right course of action. He believes that all of the violence was worth it to save Ellie’s life.

According to Kaitlyn Dever, Abby is “riddled with grief.” Just as Sarah’s death continues to haunt Joel, “the loss of [Abby’s] dad has sort of really taken over her life.” Abby wants Joel to die slowly, painfully, so he can feel the intense pain that he has caused her by killing her father so callously. 

Obviously after spending so much time with Joel last season we don’t want anything to happen to him. But at the same time, it’s not hard to empathize with where Abby is coming from. We saw what Joel was willing to do at the mere mention of Ellie dying. If the Fireflies had gone through with it before he was able to stop them, it’s not hard to imagine that Joel would go on the most intense, scorched-earth revenge spree you’ve ever seen.

While we’ve yet to see in the show just how far Abby is willing to go to avenge her father, those familiar with the games know that this cycle of violence in response to violence is just getting started. When The Last of Us Part II first came out, a lot of people hated Abby for this reason. Hopefully this time around, people will be able to find some empathy for her character and realize that she and Joel have more in common than you think.

New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, culminating with the finale on May 25, 2025.

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