Ellie is responsible for some shocking kills in The Last of Us season 2 finale — including a pregnant woman — but the TV show cut an even more shocking kill from the video game. The Last of Us season 2 killed off a lot of characters: Gail’s husband Eugene got infected, Ellie tortured Nora to death at the hospital, and, of course, Joel’s brutal murder is what kicked off the entire story. Half of the season’s major character deaths happened in the finale. Abby shot Jesse in the theater during the final confrontation, and Ellie killed two of Abby’s best friends.
At the end of The Last of Us season 2, after abandoning Jesse, Ellie infiltrates the aquarium, where Nora told her Abby was hiding. Abby isn’t there, but her friends Owen and Mel are. While Ellie attempts to use Joel’s interrogation technique to get Abby’s location out of them, a firefight breaks out. Owen’s shots miraculously miss Ellie, but she manages to hit both of them. Owen drops dead instantly, while Mel spends her final moments begging Ellie to save her unborn baby. This is a really dark sequence, but it could’ve been even darker if it’d followed the game.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Finale Skipped The Video Game Moment Where Ellie Kills Abby's Dog Alice
Ellie Is Attacked By Alice While She's Sneaking Through The Aquarium
In The Last of Us Part II video game, when Ellie is sneaking into the aquarium, she crawls through an air vent. When the vent collapses into a hallway and she comes tumbling out, she’s attacked by a Belgian Malinois. As the dog tries to maul Ellie, the player is implored to press the square button to fight her off. Eventually, Ellie takes out her switchblade and stabs the dog to death. When the game switches to Abby’s perspective and she’s sent out to the F.O.B., she collects this dog from the stadium’s kennel to join the patrol.
We learn that the dog’s name is Alice and she’s a really good girl. She’s fiercely loyal to Abby and her friends, attacking clickers and Seraphites (and, eventually, Ellie) to protect them. As we get to know Alice throughout Abby’s storyline, we start to feel pretty bad for killing her as Ellie. And that’s by design. It’s part of the game’s overall thesis that there are no good guys and bad guys; there are sympathetic human beings on both sides of any conflict — it’s all a matter of perspective.
How The Last Of Us Part 2 Game Divided Gamers With Alice's Death
It's The Only Dog That Players Have To Kill
Alice’s death proved to be one of the most controversial moments in the game, because players can’t avoid it. In almost every encounter with the Wolves, Ellie has to contend with their pesky attack dogs following her scent. But if you’re good at stealth, you can sneak through these encounters without having to do harm to a dog. If you’re not so good at stealth, then the dogs will spot you and you’ll have to start shooting them. By the time the player is attacked by Alice, they might’ve killed dozens of dogs, or they might not have killed any.
Alice is the only dog that the game forces the player to kill. All the other dog kills are optional — you can stealth around them — but if you don’t kill Alice, she kills Ellie and the plot won’t progress. Some players did not enjoy being forced to stab a dog. They’ll happily slaughter dozens upon dozens of humans, but killing a dog is different.
Why The Last Of Us Season 2 Cut Alice's Death
The Creators Didn't Want To Torture The Audience
Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had a good reason to skip the Alice scene. Screen Rant was at a press conference recently, where Mazin joked that you only get “one dog-murdering episode a lifetime.” He killed off a lot of irradiated dogs in his Chernobyl series, so putting Alice in The Last of Us might’ve turned him into the dog-killing showrunner. He explained that “don’t kill a dog” is a cardinal rule in Hollywood. Anchorman brought Baxter back to life after being kicked off a bridge to appease test audiences.
The Last of Us is streaming on Max.
