Bella Ramsey leads The Last of Us season 2's cast following Joel's murder, and the series is still framed from her perspective. The most recent episode finally showed her catching up with Nora, one of the characters from Abby's group, who was present as Joel was killed. Ellie tried to extract information regarding Abby's whereabouts, but things quickly turned violent when Nora refused to give up her friend. While Nora sat there, turning into an Infected from the toxic spores in the air, her death already imminent, Ellie began viciously beating her with a nearby pipe.
Ellie's Violent Attack On Nora Makes Her Similar To Abby In The Last Of Us
Does Nora's Death Remind You Of Something Else?
Ellie has been The Last of Us season 2's main protagonist, and while she still is, her act of violence at the end of season 2, episode 5, is meant to remind audiences of what Abby did to Joel. Elie's course is guided by anger, and Nora's refusal to give up Abby and her claiming that Joel deserved to die in the brutal fashion that he did, triggered Ellie's complicated, unresolved emotions.
The confusion and sorrow surrounding Joel's death have led to unfiltered anger toward Abby, and Nora caught the brunt of it in episode 5.
A major component of The Last of Us Part II video game, on which season 2 is based, is how Ellie's journey transforms her into exactly what she hates. The game and the TV show aren't as one-sided as they might have seemed during Joel's murder scene, demonstrating how quickly the moral highground, if there even is one, can shift in a cycle of violence and revenge. It certainly won't be the last time our feelings shift.
Is Ellie Any Better Than Abby After Seeing What Was Done To Nora?
The Last Of Us Isn't About Right Or Wrong
Oftentimes, when it comes to a moral conversation such as this, there is no right or wrong, or good or evil; just varying perspectives.
Ellie had strong feelings about what Joel did at Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, massacring both soldiers and innocent people on her behalf. Still, her personal feelings of love and gratitude toward Joel made it so that she wanted him to live, despite the debatable morality behind his actions. Abby, on the other hand, doesn't know why Joel did what he did, or that her father was almost complicit in murdering a child (be it for utilitarian reasons), making him a clear villain in her eyes, worth killing.
Ellie & Abby's Revenge Stories Continue An Important Debate In The Last Of Us
Abby Is Commonly Viewed As A Villain, But That's Not Exactly Fair
Since The Last of Us Part II was released, there's been constant debate as to which of the main women was in the right or wrong. Abby is often considered a villain by fans of the game who played The Last of Us and saw Joel as a protagonist and video game hero, despite his moral complications. However, once one plays the chapters of the game that show Abby's perspective, it's easier to humanize her and to empathize with why she made the choices she made. Let's keep in mind that she was a child who lost her father.
The Last of Us is practically playing a trick; the story wants us to think Ellie and Joel are in the right, but then to be forced to question that supposition.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Already Turned Abby Into The Person She Hated The Most
Abby Became Joel, & Now Ellie Has Become Abby
The genesis of Abby and Ellie's feud in The Last of Us was Joel murdering the Fireflies and Abby's father. Abby saw this as a mindless act of violence committed by a monster, but the audience knows that Joel had his reasoning. Now, Abby has become Joel, killing a girl's father right in front of her, brutally beating him while Ellie watched. Ellie is then left in the aftermath in a pit of despair, struggling to cope with the loss of her father, just as Abby was in Salt Lake City.
Joel killed Abby's father, Abby killed Ellie's father, and now Ellie has killed Nora. From one act of extreme violence came two others, and this is only the beginning of the cycle. As we'll see in Seattle, the cycle isn't just between these two women, but between countless other characters. W.L.F. and the Seraphites are in a similar circle of violence, and that will only progress and become more dangerous throughout The Last of Us, just as Ellie and Abby's struggle will.
