We’re only one episode into The Last of Us’ second season, and it’s already taken some creative liberties with the source material. Similarly to the start of the game, “Future Days,” the first episode of HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us Part II’s revenge story, mostly takes place in the Jackson settlement where Joel and Ellie live. However, the episode also included several scenes that originally featured much later in the narrative, shown here as flashbacks. Given the show is playing with the original story’s structure, fans are now concerned about one scene it seemed to skip over entirely.
At the end of the first episode of the second season, we see Joel (Pedro Pascal) sitting on his back porch and playing guitar. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) locks eyes with him, then walks right past without a word. Game fans will know that’s not how things played out in The Last of Us Part II, as the two have a pretty significant conversation on that porch. So what’s going on here? Is the show skipping it entirely, or are there plans to include the scene at a later point? Some folks are concerned the show could be leaving out one of the most important scenes in the series, while others feel confident the moment will appear at the end of the season (or whenever the show gets to the end of Part II’s story in a future season).
The first episode of The Last of Us’ second season seems hellbent on taking all the mystery and tension out of the story, so removing one of the most pivotal moments from the early Jackson section is one of the more curious changes showrunner Craig Mazin made. It will be interesting to see how the show resolves this, or whether it really will ditch one of the most important conversations from the game. But the answer to that is probably several episodes away. We’ll see how it all plays out as the season goes on. New episodes air on Max at 9 p.m. Eastern.