After Controversial Season 2, Bella Ramsey Shares What Makes Them 'Really Happy' About The Last of Us

When The Last of Us Season 2 came along, it was merciless. And the shoot wasn't easy for Isabela Merced, who was at that point still finding her way towards the stardom she has now.

The whole season focuses around one horrific act of violence... the killing of Joel (Pedro Pascal) at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Merced's character Dina is present but unconscious when the killing happens and Dina embarks on a quest for revenge alongside Ellie (Bella Ramsey) who is enraged beyond belief at the murder of her father figure. That made for some pretty harrowing scenes, and Merced has explained to Rob McElhenney during a panel discussion (via GoldDerby) how she handled them. One co-star helped her find her way.

“Bella gave me everything I needed in every single scene to be able to do what I did,” she said. “It wouldn’t have been half as successful or complete had it not been for our work together. There were just moments where I felt like I was losing it and Bella was the only person I had to support me because Bella was the only one who really understood, so there was solidarity and support in every take. Our performances relied so heavily on the other person.”

Ramsey too dived deep into how dark the story got, focusing on the broken trust between Ellie and Joel after she discovers he hid a mass murder from her. “I think [Ellie] was someone who already struggled to trust,” they said. “To have that taken away from her by the person she loves the most, I think that really altered her brain chemistry a bit. So she comes into this season, particularly after [his death], and she has a single-minded focus of, like, this person she loved so much who hurt her so much, she just has to do anything to try and heal from the grief of all of that. I think if she just loved him so much and didn’t also hate him so much for what he did, I think it’d almost be simpler for her, but I think because of how complex that relationship has become she’s so driven for justice to be done, sort of beyond justice, and it gets into dangerous territory with her.”

Fans Rooted For This One Relationship

But in among all the darkness of The Last of Us, there was one bright spot. The relationship between Ellie and Dina won fans over because of how sweet and carefully considered it was. Ramsey gave a shout-out to those fans during the panel discussion.

“If you saw yourself in that, then it really was for you,” they said. “Even though that relationship gets sort of dark, I hope that it was a light and a joyful kind of touch to The Last of Us and I think that the way it was so masterfully woven into the story didn’t feel like a checkbox exercise or representation for the sake of it. It was actually just two people in the apocalypse falling in love and they both happened to be women, and I love the way that story is represented. So yeah, if you saw yourself in that, I’m really happy.”

Ramsey and Merced will both be back for The Last of Us season 3, although a lot of it will also focus on Abby and show audiences more of her motivations.