Beautiful, brutal, but begging for more.
If you’ve been watching The Last of Us Season 2 while clutching your DualSense like a comfort blanket, welcome to the club. I’ve been playing through The Last of Us Part II on PS5 alongside each episode drop, which added this whole meta layer to the experience. Especially because I’ve been watching it with my partner Nathan — who hasn’t played the game and knew nothing about the story going in.
And yes, I was that annoying gamer bf.
“Bull! That’s just like the scene in the game!”
“Wait — that wasn’t in the game.”
“Wait—where’s that part?”
I tried to rein it in. Honestly. But it’s tough when you’ve played the source material 3 full times, and this show keeps remixing key moments like it’s DJ Naughty Dog.
Season 2 adapts the first half of The Last of Us Part II, jumping between Ellie’s hunt for Abby [for reasons, c'mon - we can do spoilers now, can't we?). We get the Jackson flashbacks, Nora’s fate, the hospital infiltration, and that emotional gut-punch museum scene with Joel and Ellie.
BUT — a lot of gameplay and side moments are either shuffled around or straight-up left behind. The hotel generator puzzle, the synagogue fuel run? Gone (for now). Do they make riveting TV? Maybe not. But those moments helped flesh out the character depth. At least we got the red flare subway chaos — complete with a horde.
They did expand the Jackson timeline, though — adding fresh, non-game backstory for Ellie and Joel’s post-Part I lives. That bit worked surprisingly well, giving more emotional context and filling in blanks for new viewers and game fans alike.
Watching with Nathan was fascinating. I knew what was coming. He didn’t. I found myself mentally juggling, trying not to say “don’t worry, that scene’s coming later that will explain X” too often, because in this adaptation? It might not be.
Episode 6 is a great example — the Joel + Ellie museum flashback was one of the most beautiful moments in the game, originally placed just before Ellie’s violent confrontation with Nora. On the show? It aired right after Nora’s arc, slightly breaking the momentum of Ellie’s rampage. By the time Episode 7 arrived, the emotional fallout had cooled—two real-world weeks later for viewers—and it felt that way.
The finale had a similar issue. It crammed a lot of big moments into a short runtime. Nathan didn’t mind the journey, but he definitely clocked the pacing whiplash. “Why are they suddenly here?” he asked more than once. A single extra line of dialogue could’ve clarified so much.
Seven episodes. That’s all we got.
And now… we wait.
One year? most likely two in true HBO style. Season 3 isn’t even filming until 2026 according to the actors.. Which is just… bananas. The creators love this world (and it shows) and they get to live and breathe day-to-day while they work on it, but for us plebs? Seven episodes every few years just isn’t it. It’s like reading a book, pausing mid-chapter, and being told to come back in 2027.
To make things worse, Season 3 will likely shift focus (just like the game did), and there’s a real risk viewers won’t emotionally latch back on when that happens.
Playing the game alongside the show was a reminder of just how much has been trimmed. Gone are long stealth sections, puzzle-solving moments, and constant enemy encounters. And while cutting gameplay makes sense for a TV show, it’s those moments that often added tension, character motivation, and world-building in the game.
IGN said it best in their S2 finale review:
“We’re made to feel some sympathy for Ellie in the show’s version of this event, when really, it should be the point at which we fear her most.”
That sums it up. The actors — all fantastic, by the way — are doing the absolute most. The issue is the writing, the editing and the final output. They’ve chopped and rearranged the narrative so tightly, it sometimes undercuts the emotional gut-punch of the story.
It's not bad by any stretch. It’s beautiful, emotional, and has some standout episodes. But it absolutely feels like Part 1 of 2. And that potential long wait? It’s going to kill the momentum.
Still — seeing this story play out again, even with some tweaks, was powerful. I just wish we had more of it.
🖥️ The Last of Us: Season 2 is now streaming on HBO MAX
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