Though controversial for some on release, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II has established itself as one of the most mature, emotional and exceptionally well written stories in gaming history. Its narrative takes some massive swings at its audience but it asks for respect and time to tell its story and make those swings mean something. The game is around twice the length of the first game, telling a much meatier story with a lot of depth and nuance throughout. For me personally, it reaches the heights of the first game’s story, and even exceeds it at points, but I think the thing that puts it on such a high pedestal is how risk-taking and daring it is. I have nothing but respect for how little care Naughty Dog had towards making a crowd-pleasing sequel. It would have been so easy to just have a repeat of the first game, focusing on what works, but it is so different in its themes and even things like structure. The first game makes sense to make into a show because especially structurally, it lends itself well to that story-telling medium. The Last of Us Part II, however, is completely different and I think that inevitably, the second season of the show has not done justice to such a complex story.

The second season begins exactly where the first left off with Ellie just having confronted Joel about what happened at the firefly hospital. They go back to Jackson, the Wyoming settlement that Joel’s brother Tommy lives at, and settle down there after their long journey across the USA. We see Joel talking to his therapist about everything he has just lied to Ellie about, with his killing of the fireflies and stopping them from using Ellie to make a cure. The five year time jump then comes in and the status quo of everything has changed. Jackson is bigger and more vibrant, Joel and Ellie are settled in with new friends around them. But we do not see them with each other much and they are doing their separate things. There is a rift between them and part of this season is finding out exactly what that rift is. Additionally, an unknown threat comes into view, shakes the characters we know down to their very core and throws them into a much darker story where no one is safe.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE LAST OF US SEASON 2!

It has to be made clear that these are essentially my preliminary thoughts because as you are probably aware, season 2 only shows just under half of the game’s story. Things may come properly into fruition later on but I feel they have not set themselves up for success. Narratively, they have made quite a few changes that I personally believe do not work as someone who has played the game. The first massive one is the reason for Abby’s revenge quest and the subsequent killing of Joel. In the second episode where this whole ordeal takes place, she directly says to Joel and the audience that Joel killed her father and that is why she then kills him. In the game, we are left completely in the dark about this and we even find out after Ellie does. Purposely, the player finds out shortly into the perspective shift to Abby, that we get a taste of by the ‘Seattle Day One’ reset reveal at the end of the season. There we see the Salt Lake hospital from the end of Part I and we learn Abby’s father was a doctor that Joel killed during his rampage. Leaving this reveal is much more effective, especially since in the show, people are just going to disregard or outright forget Abby’s reasoning because she has just killed Joel straight afterwards. With the game’s approach, that adrenaline-powered resentment towards Abby slowly decreases through the game and the reveal comes at a time when players are not as angry. I have spoken to people that still hate Abby having seen only the show and it’s hard to blame them, considering that reveal is so poorly timed. Surrounding Joel’s death as well, why did they feel the need to have that huge infected raid on Jackson at the same time as the encounter? This was a strange decision because it takes the focus away from the huge story beat happening with Joel. It does not amount to anything for the rest of the season either so it was like the writers just desperately wanted another big set piece for the sake of it.

Another big load of changes is pretty much everything surrounding Seattle. It is criminal that Tommy does not go to Seattle before Ellieout of recklessness because that is exactly Tommy’s character. It is never specified the time between Joel’s death and anybody leaving for Seattle in the game but in the show, it is a whole month. You can infer that there is very little time wasted before Tommy goes in the game as he just wants to avenge his brother but the show version has Tommy being apart of the Jackson committee, voting as to whether they should go. Joel and Tommy’s relationship is clearly done a lot differently in the show as Joel did not even seem to tell him the truth about the Firefly hospital. This is not a change for the better though as fans of the game will know, Tommy’s recklessness and hatred towards Abby and what she has done is very important towards the end of the story. When we actually get to Seattle, Ellie and Dina’s adventure also just feels far too whimsical. Levity from the dark tone is one thing but changing the overall tone is really off-putting. By the time Ellie kills Nora for example, in the game she has killed many people and feels like an angry, hateful monster already. In the show, her anger just comes out of no where and is not built up to enough. It is like she has forgotten why she even came to Jackson. Her positive reaction to Dina’s pregnancy is also out of character because she is overjoyed and not annoyed at the fact she had not mentioned it beforehand. It has in turn endangered both of them and the reaction in game of her saying she was a burden is much more accurate to the situation.

My final big complaint is the order in which certain events have been moved, as this dramatically changes the story and therfore its meaning and gravitas. Some small, strange ones include the Seraphite scene before Ellie goes to the aquarium in episode 7. It is so clumsily shoehorned in and serves no purpose other than to remind the audience the Scars exist. The main one is to do with the infamous porch scene in episode 6. Showing this scene right now does not work and its place in the game is so crucial. This is the penultimate scene in the 25 hour game so the player really has to earn this one. It recontextualises the whole story and makes it clear Ellie’s hatred and resentment is not just about Joel’s loss and murder, it is more so her guilt and sadness that she did not get to forgive him. It is so effective in its placement in the game’s story and it hammers home its poignancy perfectly. It feels like a waste to have this moment already because when they do finally get to the end of Part II‘s story in the show, one of the pieces that makes that so powerful is gone.

This may seem like a massive rant but frankly, this season had a lot of problems. In fairness to the writers, the story is very daunting to tell across multiple seasons of TV, particularly since you have to keep the audience on board for so long. That still does not excuse some of the baffling changes that give the impression the writers did not understand their own story. There are some good things about it, do not get me wrong. The show looks wonderful consistently, it delivers on some of the story’s biggest moments and it adds some welcome new elements, like showing Joel’s childhood. Much like the first season, the new elements it brings in do work but changing some of the existing material rarely goes well. It is hard to not sound like a ‘the book was better’ kind of person when it comes to this, but when I have seen the potential this story has, it is hard to watch it fail to do it justice for a wider audience. Season 3 has been confirmed to explore Abby’s side of the story and I will still be intrigued to see how they deal with that, whenever that eventually comes out.