The wait for season three of The Last of Us has begun following the airing of the season two finale on HBO this Sunday. The episode offered much to consider, especially for those familiar wiht The Last of Us part II game. Showrunners craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann shared their insights into the episode’s conclusion and its implications for the characters.

Season two mirrored the approximate midpoint of The last of Us Part II. Ellie’s Seattle experiences, marked by the deaths of Mel and Owen, two of Abby‘s associates, appear to be drawing to a close, intricate further by Mel’s pregnancy.This unintended consequence leads Ellie,Tommy,Dina,and Jesse to consider returning to Jackson,despite Abby’s continued presence.

The situation escalates with Abby’s arrival, resulting in Jesse’s death and threats against the others, creating a cliffhanger. The narrative then shifts, flashing back two days to Abby awakening at a WLF base, setting the stage for her storyline in the upcoming season.

Mazin addressed the intended audience reaction to the season’s end at a recent press conference. He hopes viewers recognize that the characters are in transition, “aren’t where they were, but they’re not yet where they are going to go,” emphasizing the shifting dynamics of love, protection, and violence. He added, “sometimes violence must be done to save the innocent.Thes are tough moments. But of course,then there are times where sacrifice is called for. Where putting other people first is called for. Where creation does more than destruction.”

Mazin further elaborated on Ellie and Abby’s moral struggles, stating, “They are in moral trouble because their certainty is beginning to fail them… faced with the consequences of the thing she’s done and people that didn’t deserve to die dying,she’s starting to feel maybe a swing of the pendulum. And we don’t know where these two are going to end. But what I would hope the audience feels is that they are not done. They’re not done growing or they are not done falling.We’ll have to wait and see which it is.”

Druckmann added, “The question that we’re asking and the thing we’re interrogating in this story is: when you’ve committed such horrible things, depending on your circumstance, can you ever come back from that?” He highlighted Joel’s past and the characters’ current trajectories, noting, “now we have these two characters that are on this downward spiral, trying to do justice for the people that they love and we’ll see how far that goes.”

“What I want the audience to feel thematically at the end of the season is that [the characters] aren’t where they were, but they’re not yet where they are going to go.”