Summary
- Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us has overall been a disappointment for fans.
- A scene in the season 2 finale, involving Ellie and the Scars, especially irritated viewers.
- The unnecessary inclusion of the scene made viewers feel like the writers underestimated them.
Much like the games, HBO’s The Last of Us has fans split. While there are those that have been complaining about the casting, especially Bella Ramsey as Ellie, many fans are unhappy with the writing of the show. Season 2 especially has been getting a lot of flack due to the dramatic change in the narrative progression, which will now develop over three more seasons.
Related
The Last Of Us Part 2 Was Never Going To Work As A TV Show
As the second season of HBO’s adaptation comes to an end, its take on Ellie and Abby’s journey is brought into doubt.
While The Last of Us Part 2 told Ellie and Abby’s stories parallelly, the show has dedicated a season to each of them. Things have gotten so bad that the finale of season two saw a 55 percent drop as compared to that of season one. It seems one scene in particular has annoyed fans, as it adds absolutely nothing to the plot.
What Was The Point Of The Scars Scene In The Last Of Us Season 2 Finale?
Spoilers for The Last of Us TV show and video game ahead
Towards the end of the episode, we see Ellie making her way to the aquarium where she suspects Abby is holed up. She commandeers a boat in terribly stormy weather, but a giant wave washes her up onto the Seraphite island. She gets captured and strung up by some scars, but is saved by the offscreen invasion of the WLF. She then proceeds to get back in the boat and head to the aquarium in the exact same manner.
The scene lasted about five minutes, and the whole point was to convey that there’s a war going on. But we already knew that thanks to the scenes with Isaac at the WLF headquarters and the preceding scene with all the boats heading to the island. It seems the writers needed to drill down the fact that there was an invasion going on, and this has annoyed many viewers.
“I genuinely cannot fathom the reason behind the inclusion of this scene. It serves zero narrative purpose,” said a Reddit post by one viewer. “Ellie being captured in the first place makes no sense, why didn’t she try to shoot them?
“Also, if this was to showcase her vulnerability or have her lose, it sucks at that too because she suffers zero consequences for it. They literally let her go because the village horn goes off. It would take 5 seconds to cut her open and leave but nope “Leave her!”. Then, afterwards, Ellie literally just leaves and continues her original path. It’s so stupid.”
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HBO’s The Last Of Us Shouldn’t Have A Fourth Season
At this point, I’m not even sure it should have had three.
“They think the audience are dummies, so they felt the need to spell out that there’s a war going on on the island,” noted one comment. “It was a stupid and unnecessary choice that underestimates viewers’ intelligence.”
It’s true that the scene served no other purpose than establishing the invasion, but you wouldn’t have missed anything if you simply skipped ahead. There have already been complaints about the writing and pacing, but this scene even managed to annoy defenders of the show like myself.
