‘The Last of Us’ Season 2: What are the differences between the game and the HBO show?

While sticking to the main narrative and established character arcs of The Last of Us, Season 1 of HBO’s Naughty Dog adaptation made a few notable changes. It’s what made the show such an excellent adaptation, with creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann expanding the world of The Last of Us by pulling on specific threads from the game. 

So, how is The Last of Us Season 2 different from The Last of Us Part II?

We’re going to dig in every week, updating per episode, to analyse the changes we’re seeing onscreen. There’ll be a few spoilers from the game for analysis’ sake, so if you’d rather the narrative remain a mystery, turn back now. For the rest of you, let’s get into it.

Tommy and Maria have a son.

In Season 2, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) are back living in the town of Jackson, Wyoming, and have reunited with family — namely Joel’s brother, Tommy, (Gabriel Luna) and Tommy’s wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley), two of Jackson’s leaders. But with this pair comes a new character to The Last of Us, one who didn’t appear in the Part II game: their son, Benjamin (Ezra Agbonkhese).

Joel goes to therapy.

In Season 2, episode 1, Joel attends one of his therapy sessions with a whisky-drinking, weed-smoking psychotherapist named Gail (Catherine O’Hara) — a fabulous character written for the TV show. A man who truly would benefit from such treatment, Joel does not have the opportunity to process his trauma in this post-apocalyptic nightmare in the game. Instead, we do get a scene at the very beginning of the game in which Joel confesses his actions in Salt Lake City to Tommy (the show has decided to omit this scene from episode 1, instead having Tommy tell Ellie not to talk about her immunity).

In the show, Joel’s therapist admits she hates him for killing her husband Eugene, a character who’s mentioned in the game as a Jackson resident, electronics whiz, and weed-loving mentor to Dina who left his family to join the Fireflies and died at 73 of a stroke (a rarity in this world). In the show, he died younger than that and at Joel’s hands, probably because he was Infected.

We’re glad the show included Eugene’s secret weed basement in episode 2, but in a change, Ellie takes shelter here with Jesse (Young Mazino); in the game she’s with Dina and more than weed-smoking occurs — the show has moved this moment for Ellie and Dina to episode 4 in the cinema.

There’s Cordyceps in the pipes and an attack on Jackson.

Uhhhh, you see that Cordyceps growing in the pipes near Jackson? That’s not in the game. Druckmann and Mazin included this fungal infiltration in the series in episode 1, setting up one of the most stressful episodes of the series to date.

The Last of Us Season 2, episode 2 blowtorches the candle at both ends. At the same time as Joel’s final moments in the mountain lodge, Jackson finds itself under attack by not only waves of Infected, but smart Infected who change tactics during the siege. It’s an entire sequence written for the TV show and it’s a true nail-biter.

We learn Abby’s motive very early in the season.

By the second episode of Season 2, we know exactly why Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has plans of revenge for Joel. We first meet Abby and her crew in episode 1 at the site of the Fireflies’ massacre in Salt Lake City, a scene that makes it clear why they’re hunting Joel. In episode 2, the series clearly shows us Abby’s motive: Her father was the surgeon who was about to operate on Ellie before Joel killed him.

Why does this matter? Abby’s association with the Fireflies and the site of Joel’s massacre isn’t revealed until later in the game — and it’s a crucial plot point and motivation behind her character. To reveal this so early in the series is an interesting move by Mazin and Druckmann, one that gives Abby’s actions more context right from the start.

Joel’s death itself has changes.

Unfortunately this traumatic narrative turn happens in both the game and the show, but there are a few differences. The events leading up to Joel’s death are almost exactly the same between The Last of Us Part II and the HBO series, but there are changes — including Abby’s pivot from bludgeoning to a final stab and the fact that Dina is present in the show (Tommy is there instead in the game). Through this switch, the show has Dina later give Ellie the full list of names she’ll need to hunt down Joel’s killer in episode 3; in the game Tommy, Ellie, and Dina piece together the crew during their journey.

Mashable’s Belen Edwards has an entire explainer on the differences between the game and the show’s treatment of Joel’s death.

Seth does slightly better than “bigot sandwiches.”

It’s not entirely a redemption arc, but it’s damn better than a few breakfast rolls. Jackson’s resident homophobe Seth (Robert John Burke) is given more opportunity to make it up to Ellie and Dina in the show, after he throws a slur at them in episode 1 for kissing at the New Year’s Eve dance. We’ve got a breakdown of how Seth improves on his “bigot sandwiches” in the show — but just know it’s actually Maria who helps Ellie and Dina leave Jackson in the game.

It’s Tommy who goes after Abby first in the game, then Ellie.

In the game, it’s Tommy who leaves Jackson first to go after his brother’s killers (remember, he was there when Joel died), with Ellie and Dina following in his footsteps knowing he’s on the way to Seattle. He leaves a note for Maria reading, “I wish I could let it go but I can’t. I have to bring these people to justice. Ellie’s going to try and come after me but stop her. Take her guns. Lock up the horses. Maybe lock her up. Buy me some time so I can end this.”

As Ellie and Dina search Seattle for the group, they find several WLF members, some of whom have been brutally killed by Tommy in his hunt for Abby — it’s a merciless side of the character we don’t see in the show.

In the show, it’s Ellie and Dina who leave first, with Seth’s help instead of Maria’s, following the failed Jackson vote. And speaking of…

There’s no Jackson vote in the game.

In Season 2, episode 3, Jackson takes a town hall meeting and a vote over Ellie’s proposal to send a squad to track down and execute Joel’s killers. It’s a whole storyline over the episode, in which Ellie asks for Tommy and Jesse’s support, then delivers one hell of an inspiring speech to plead with her neighbours to agree to the pitch. The vote falls against the motion, though Ellie decides to leave the town to hunt Abby and her crew anyway. But the addition of the scene allows the town of Jackson one more moment to debate what the right thing to do in such a situation is — and to give Ellie more fuel to hit the road.

Ellie doesn’t put coffee on Joel’s grave in the game

This deeply moving moment in the HBO series is entirely written for the show. When Ellie visits Joel’s grave in the show, she leaves a handful of coffee beans — Mashable’s Sam Haysom explains why she does this.

Dina and Ellie’s romance is more slow-burn in the TV show

While the HBO series perfectly replicates Ellie and Dina’s kiss at the dance, there’s a few differences in how their romance unfolds between the game and the show. It’s basically about TV pacing and new characterisation for Dina.

In the game, Ellie and Dina kiss at the dance after Dina and Jesse break up, but this moment is quickly followed up with Ellie and Dina getting high in Eugene’s secret weed basement and having sex (the show moves this moment to the cinema in episode 4). From this event in the game, including throughout Ellie’s grieving of Joel, Ellie and Dina are pretty clearly into each other, reflecting on other moments when they should have kissed and calling each other babe on the road to Seattle.

In the show, it’s a slower burn for Ellie and Dina. The first three episodes make it unclear whether Dina is actually into Ellie beyond a drunken kiss, especially as the weed basement scene features Jesse and Ellie instead. “You’re gay, I’m not,” Dina says to Ellie in the tent in episode 3 when they’re rating their kiss. However, episode 4 gives Dina the chance to explain her fears around being openly bisexual (her mother wouldn’t hear of it) and gives Ellie and Dina their moment of intimacy.

The series also gives Dina more of a connection to Joel than the games, with the first two episodes demonstrating their bond, then putting Dina in the room when Joel is killed. These changes give Dina a deeper reason to hit the road to revenge with Ellie beyond her loyalty to her crush, but the show thankfully doesn’t erase the romantic storyline altogether.

Still no spores?

In The Last of Us games, characters constantly have to don masks to avoid inhaling infectious spores produced by the Cordyceps infestation. But in the show, Druckmann and Mazin decided to omit the airborne threat, instead opting for realism. “If we wanted to treat it realistically, and there are spores near, characters would wear gas masks all the time,” Druckmann told Polygon of Season 1. “Then we lose so much, which is maybe the most important part of the journey, is what’s going on inside behind their eyes, in their soul, in their beings. For that logistical reason, we were like, Let’s find a different vector.”

Spores play a major role in The Last of Us Part II, mainly for how Dina finds out Ellie is immune; in the show Ellie gets bitten defending Dina, while in the game Ellie’s gas mask gets broken in the spore-filled subway tunnel.

However, we spied spores in the trailer for Season 2, so perhaps we’re in for some atmospheric danger? 

The Last of Us Season 2 is now streaming on Max. New episodes air weekly on Sundays 9 p.m. ET on HBO.