HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 ending left viewers with one major question: did Tommy and Ellie survive Abby’s gunshot? After Jesse’s death, Abby discovers that Ellie was behind the brutal killings of WLF soldiers Owen and Mel.
The revelation transforms Abby’s earlier mercy into bitter regret—sparing Ellie during Joel’s execution now seems like a fatal mistake as the bodies continue to pile up.
Do Tommy or Ellie die in The Last of Us Season 2’s ending?
Viewers were left in the dark regarding Tommy and Ellie’s fate at the end of The Last of Us Season 2, as the screen fades to black and a gunshot is heard. According to the original game’s storyline, Abby attacks Tommy first and quickly shoots Jesse.
When Tommy is on the ground, Abby’s companion Lev targets him with an arrow before Abby shoots him in the head. However, Tommy survives the attack and later returns to Jackson, wounded. The HBO series finale, however, rushes this sequence—viewers hear the gunshot before Lev’s attack is even shown.
Abby’s final scene and Seattle flashback in The Last of Us Season 2’s ending explained
Before the gunshot, Ellie pleads with Abby to spare Tommy. It’s possible that Abby targets Ellie in the final shot. Just before she fires, Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby appears filled with regret for letting Ellie live. As Ellie bargains—offering her own life in exchange for Tommy’s—Abby coldly responds, “I let you live. And you wasted it.”
In the next and final scene, viewers see a flashback of Abby on Day 1 in Seattle. This scene signals that Season 3 of The Last of Us will explore Abby’s perspective. Viewers will need to wait to find out what truly happened during that fateful confrontation between Tommy, Ellie, and Abby.
Following the game’s structure, Season 3 will likely focus on what happened to Abby before Ellie appeared with her vengeance agenda. From “Seattle Day 1” to the present, Abby’s perspective will likely parallel Ellie’s.
The duo’s intertwined storylines may reveal they are not so different after all. Abby once spared Ellie, but now she knows that Joel’s “daughter” killed her close friends Owen and Mel. The consequences of this revelation will unfold in Season 3.
