Rewriting The Last of Us Season 2 Because I can
Back from my hiatus :") The audio and video versions of this article will be dropping soon! Stay tuned! MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2!!!!!!!
Here’s the thing—I think The Last of Us Season Two suffers from Game of Thrones subvert-expectations syndrome. It’s a case of changing shit that doesn’t need to be changed just for the sake of changing shit.
I like to think in a parallel universe, there’s a version of Season Two that handles grief raw and rough-edged. That trusts its characters, and that understands how silence can scream louder than over-explanation. Instead, what we got in the show was an echo of something that could’ve been thoughtful and more honest to the source material.
So I’ve taken it upon myself to write a rewrite simply because I want to and I can. I’m just a girl.
This rewrite will follow some constraints: I’m limiting myself to only seven episodes, and since there’s a lack of spores, no bloaters will be in this version; and each episode in this rewrite follows the same general path as the show (and the game), but with small pivots that change the trajectory of the season a bit.
Disclaimer: No hate will be tolerated towards the actors and crew of this show. This is only intended for fun and constructive criticism of one of my all-time favorite games.
Let’s get into it. 🌿
On my first watch, I honestly enjoyed episode one for the most part. It was the calm before the storm. There was a lot of catching up with the characters, and I loved seeing more of Jackson. But now, looking back—knowing this season only has seven episodes—I can’t help but feel like maybe…we should’ve picked up the pace. And objectively, the episode has fallen flat for me, now, given that it doesn’t move the narrative forward.
In my episode rewrite, we’re staying pretty faithful to the game here, at least in terms of structure.
So… we’ll be cutting Gail immediately.
Now listennnnn, love Catherine O'Hara down. But Gail, in my humblest opinion, was not critical to the story. She spelled out everyone’s inner thoughts like we were two months old, and if there’s anything I hate, it’s being talked down to. One of the beauties of The Last of Us storytelling is in what’s left unsaid.
So, Gail, I’m afraid, you’re at the bottom of the pyramid.
Dare I add, TV shows and films in general suck when writing therapists. Am I the only one who notices that? The dialogue is usually unnatural and odd. I don’t know why that is. Hot take, I guess.
Instead, in this version, we’ll be opening with Joel confessing what he did to Tommy, mirroring the game. That’s our teaser. Then, we move into the guitar scene. We’re not saving it for Episode 6. It’s happening right here and right now. I don’t believe Craig Mazin truly understood how important the guitar is within this game, because what do you mean Neil Druckmann had to convince him to keep “Future Days” in a future episode?
It’s a LITERAL symbol. It’s a tether between him and Ellie.
By keeping it this early, we tie Joel and Ellie emotionally before everything crumbles. And I think this moment—specifically— is even more important, because this is the first time we realize things are different between Joel and Ellie. There’s an awkward tension between them. Ellie’s more reserved, quieter—almost like she went through hell and back from her journey across the U.S, unlike someone I know…
Ellie’s character, in general, is getting an overhaul this rewrite. She’s not fighting a 6’2 man and stating “Boom, motherfucker.” She’s not yelling that she’s immune, nor is she treating patrols like some sort of fun game. This Ellie will be a hardened shell of that Ellie we once knew and loved, and Dina is one of the people who's able to bring her back every now and then. I’m paraphrasing Mazin’s words here, but in the official The Last of Us podcast, he discusses how Dina and Ellie share a parent-child-like dynamic, and how the two switch leads of who’s the parent and who's the child.
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I hate this.
I got the feeling not only from his own remarks but also through Mazin’s writing—his misunderstanding of Ellie. He sees her as a child. Yes, Ellie is young—she’s 19—but my god, a 19-year-old in The Last of Us is much different than a 19-year-old today.
This was one of my concerns in Season One with the mischaracterization of Ellie as someone infatuated with violence or “activated” by it, as Mazin put it.
To me, it showed that if the one thing you took from Ellie’s character in the games was that she fed off violence, then I don’t believe you truly knew or saw Ellie for who she is. Ellie is kind. She’s a smart-ass, sure, but she has heart. She offers comfort and camaraderie, but she doesn’t let people walk over her. And more importantly, she loves hard.
Ellie was never obsessed with violence. If anything, if you pay attention to her responses to Joel’s brutal and aggressive fighting style, she’s shocked and borderline terrified. Ellie grows accustomed to the everyday violence of the world—and yet, through it all, she holds on to hope. That's who she is. That is, until Joel took that from her.
And to see this character misrepresented—not just once but across both seasons—as an infantilized, sanitized version of herself… it breaks me to pieces. I’ve admired this character since I was a little girl. I looked up to her, and I still do because of the outstanding work Ashley Johnson has done.
And if you, as the writer, had treated her as the adult that she is and given her agency, instead of portraying her as a happy-go-lucky camper for half of the season, I’m sure the majority of the audience would agree with my points, too.
From here, the rest of the episode follows the game’s structure pretty closely. I’m not trying to rewrite Jackson's life from scratch—there’s just no time for that in a seven-episode structure. So we keep the core moments intact. The patrol. The blizzard. The couch scene.
And yes, the episode ends the way it has to: brutal and unforgiving. Joel dies. And Ellie crawls to his side.
We do not waste time on a seven-minute monologue. The violence is quick and blunt. The world we’ve built with Ellie and Joel collapses.
That’s how we close Episode One.
I think one of the biggest mistakes the show made in season two was the three-month time jump. You can’t pause revenge like that. It stalled the momentum, and worse, it softened Ellie’s rage. We’re not doing that here.
So, no time jump. We pick up about a day or so after Joel’s death--very much like the game, with Ellie in her room in Jackson. Tommy comes in and tells her he’ll talk to Maria and for her not to do anything drastic.
But we’re not stopping at that room.
We’ll follow Tommy home. He walks with that slow, clenched-jaw kind of pain. Controlled and stoic. Right until he gets inside. The door closes. He takes his jacket off and hangs it carefully. And then, he breaks. He lets it out. But just for a second.
He hears footsteps. He wipes his face quickly. Maria approaches. They don’t say much.
Tommy would say something along the lines of, “RJ asleep?”
“Just put him to bed.” Maria would ask, “Did you talk to her?”
“She’s ready to go. But I told her to wait.” Tommy would say shortly.
Maria would touch the bandage on his head.
“And you?”
“I’m good.”
Maria would say something like, “Good. We can’t lose you, too.”
They hug. And it’s not a comfort to Tommy. He even hesitates to do so. Tommy glances at a photo of him and Joel on the kitchen counter. Then, at RJ, who’s awake and peering down the hallway. Tommy doesn’t return a glance toward his son. His eyes are trained on Joel, his brother.
I thought it would’ve been a really interesting parallel in the show to see how Tommy initially handles the grief alone, like Ellie does. And to see this similar dynamic between him and Maria, with the future fate of Dina’s and Ellie’s relationship on the farm.
The next day, Ellie is at Joel’s grave. She plants coffee beans—same as the show. She and Dina walk to Joel’s house. This part stays close to the game, with Maria stopping by, and then we’re on the road to Seattle. Ellie and Dina talk for a minute or so; we learn a little about Dina’s past. They’d finally reach Seattle. We’re not doing pre-Seattle filler. So we’re not doing dead Seraphites in the woods. Instead, we’re going straight to:
SEATTLE DAY ONE - DAY
The Music Store.
Dina rummages for supplies. Ellie does the same. Dina, naturally, gets distracted by the drums. She taps one. Ellie would shoot her a look. Dina apologizes and goes back to searching.
Ellie finds the guitar upstairs.
And we are keeping the part where Ellie sings, “If I were to lose you...” BEFORE Take On Me.
I will never understand, for the life of me, why Druckmann and Mazin cut this moment. It’s a quick sliver into Ellie’s psyche, and for Mazin to consistently be on record saying Ellie is wearing a mask around others... THIS IS THE MOMENT WHERE THE MASK SLIPS. AND YOU CUT IT??
It tells you everything about where Ellie is emotionally, and how this song is sacred—something meant only for her and Joel. Not even Dina gets to hear it. THIS IS IMPORTANT!! THIS IS SPECIAL. It’s a deeply personal, niche character moment that absolutely deserved to be on screen.
So when Dina comes upstairs and asks Ellie to keep playing, Ellie does—but she shifts to “Take On Me.”
Dina mentions she found a map in the store that points out a hotel nearby. They think it might be a potential base for the WLF. They agree to head there.
They horseback through Seattle’s streets. Dina jokes about entering a Synagogue that they pass by and wonders aloud if they’d probably burst into flames. Ellie doesn’t get it. Dina taps her bracelet—Jewish joke.
She asks if Ellie’s religious.
Ellie would say something like, “I haven’t really thought about it.”
Dina would reply back with, “I like to think my mom and sister are in Olam Ha-Ba.”
Ellie chuckles at the name. “…What’s that?”
Dina: “Kind of like heaven. I think Joel’s there too.”
Ellie would pause at that, “…I’d like that.”
Then they pass a Pride district.
Dina: “What’s with all the rainbows?”
Ellie: “Maybe they liked rainbows?”
Dina: “Huh.”
Then they’d reach,
The Hotel.
This part is a lot like the game. The pair finds infected eating a WLF soilder. They stealth-kill them. Find Nick’s body. Realize Tommy has already been here. Return to Shimmer.
Boom. Trap mine. Shimmer's dead. Dina and Ellie are separated.
Ellie awakens to being tied up. Dina finds her—kills Mike, wounds Jordan by shooting the gun out of his hand. Dina falls through the floor. Jordan starts strangling her. Ellie breaks free and kills him 😍
Then WLF soldiers find Ellie and Dina. There’s a three-on-two. Dellie gets the upper hand until they’re left with one WLF soldier. Ellie shoots him in the knee. He begs for his life. She lowers her gun. He thanks her for sparing him.
She shoots him anyway.
One of the things I absolutely despised about everything from Season Two was not utilizing the game’s mechanics and translating them to TV. Ellie in the game is incredibly stealthy, smart, calculated, and agile. She hides under cars, in the shrubs, and flanks enemies by being light on her feet. In the game, there’s constant loss throughout the gameplay mechanics. If you shoot and kill someone, their partner screams their name. Enemies sometimes beg for their lives, and it’s your choice to give the final blow. If you kill the owner of a dog, the dog will cry out. HOW DO YOU NOT UTILIZE THESE?? Especially when it aids in Ellie’s character development as she—you know—DESCENDS INTO DARKNESS??
Anyway.
Back to it: Ellie and Dina flee toward the TV station. Inside: WLF bodies are hung by rope, and their intestines spill from their abdomen. The smell hits Dina—she throws up. Boom, WLF patrols move in. Ellie and Dina sneak through but get caught, like in the show. They run. They drop into the tunnels. Ellie blocks the door behind them.
End of Episode Two.
SEATTLE DAY ONE - NIGHT
We open in the tunnels.
Ellie and Dina are catching their breath. I think it would be interesting if there were an Easter egg of bloaters. Maybe a WLF soldier’s body is laid up against a door with burn marks on their body, and they’re frozen in death in a screaming position. And Dina and Ellie could be like, “What the fuck happened here?”
Moving along, Ellie and Dina don’t catch their breath for long before the WLF find another entrance. And it’s only a matter of time before they close in. In a ditch effort, Ellie throws a brick, making a WLF step back onto a tendril. Shit backfires. Shit ton of infected come.
They run. Everything’s chaos. They use the train and the gate in the show as an escape. Ellie gets bitten while protecting Dina. They find a theatre. Dina will point the gun, but Ellie talks her down.
Ellie WILL get mad at Dina in this version. Because God forbid a character losing themselves through revenge starts acting like an asshole. Ellie, in this rewrite—and like the game—is frustrated. She cares about Dina. She said they could’ve turned back had Dina told her earlier. But now they’re in it, you know, and Ellie needs to finish this mission no matter the cost.
I’m cutting the intimate scene because in my version, Dellie has already been established in Episode One with the patrol and couch scene. And I’m scrapping “I’m gonna be a dad.” Because Ellie is not twelve and she’s angry and angsty. Again, let her be angry and angsty.
Like the game, Ellie goes to the auditorium and finds a guitar and starts playing Future Days. Cue the waterworks.
Flashback - Museum
Ellie’s birthday. We take our time here. And trust—we get the dinosaur scene, because what do you mean that got cut? JAIL to everybody who signed off on this decision.
And then, of course, the rocket scene as well. Which the show recreated wonderfully.
Then Ellie and Joel get separated. Ellie sees the moose and wolf sculpture, and then comes across the firefly symbol spray-painted on the wall with the words ‘liars’ underneath. I really want to underline Ellie’s guilt consistently throughout this rewrite. I feel that is something that was really missing in the HBO version, and I consider that’s a matter of a writing and directing issue.
Joel says, “Let’s go.” Ellie follows, but there's something different within her now.
End of Episode Three.
SEATTLE DAY TWO - DAY
Ellie wakes up to a distant hum. The generator is on. Light seeps through the cracks of the theatre. It's morning. Dina’s already up, hunched over the radio with a map spread out in front of her. She looks rough. The pregnancy, the puke bucket, the constant running—it’s all catching up to her. But she’s still going.
“Got the lights to work,” she says casually, and Ellie would thank her and apologize for not doing so and for acting the way she had the night before.
Like the game, Dina would help Ellie track down a clue to find Tommy and possibly Abby. Ellie would not act dumb about how to triangulate. She’d be laser-focused and ready. Ellie is proactive through HER revenge journey—emphasis on her. Ellie immediately heads out.
Alone.
We need to be alone with Ellie—we need to sit in her head without interruption. Ellie in the show is a far more interesting character when she’s alone (for the five minutes that she is).
We’d cut to Ellie sneaking through a neighborhood, grabbing supplies, and leftover bullets. She goes through a garage and gets ambushed by a stalker. She kills it. Then she sees the crossbow on the table. Beside it, a trophy with the name “Boris” engraved. She glances at the stalker’s body. Easter egg because Boris’s letters were so intriguing. Ellie takes the bow and the leftover arrows.
Outside, she spots smoke in the distance. Ellie figures it’s Tommy again.
She makes her way through another neighborhood called Hillcrest. Because how DARE they cut this phenomenal section in the game.
Hillcrest
We slow down here—it’s tense, stealth-heavy gameplay brought to life. Ellie’s in her element: silencer on, one shot, one kill. She uses the bow and arrows she’s just found to her advantage. She digs her knife into the necks of WLF soldiers to subdue them. No hesitation.
This should be a nerve-racking sequence as Ellie moves through an abandoned house, silently taking out soldiers one by one, throwing dogs off her scent—until someone stumbles across the aftermath and sounds the alarm, “Someone’s here!”
Ellie bolts away from gunfire.
Then—Jesse. He grabs her, pulling her into cover. Ellie finds out the WLF trespasser has been Jesse this whole time. The two exchange fire, taking out two WLF soldiers before fleeing on foot. By foot, because let’s be real, HBO would cry about the budget for the car scene. Hell, as a filmmaker, I’d cry over how to make that even work in real life.
Back at the theatre, Jesse and Dina reunite. Ellie watches them from a distance. Like the game, she walks away numb from it. Jealousy? Maybe. Or loneliness. Ellie sits by the radio, it crackles to life, and Nora speaks on the radio. Ellie quickly whips out the map and tracks her.
Flashback
Tommy and Ellie are doing target practice with the rifle. They meet up with Joel, and Tommy tries to get them together for patrol. Not without a fight, Ellie goes with Joel. They find a missing couple from Jackson. Ellie reads the couple’s letter to Joel. The end of the letter reads as: "I pulled the trigger first. She felt no pain. I’m sorry…. I’m sorry to our baby.”
Ellie argues with Joel about never meeting an immune person. Joel says they need to move the bodies and bring them back to Jackson, and Ellie stands there frozen.
Back in the present, Ellie is packing her bag. Jesse pushes for Ellie to stay and focus on Dina’s condition. Ellie tells Jesse to watch over her, and thinks she has a lead on Tommy’s whereabouts. Jesse deep down knows this isn't about Tommy at all, and let's her have this. In my version, Jesse would ask something along the lines of:
Jesse: “You gonna say goodbye?”
Ellie: “I’ll see her when I get back.”
She leaves. It’s time to find Nora.
End of Episode Four.
We open not in Seattle, but at the dance in Jackson. Strange, I know. But I’ll explain my reasoning.
Just like the game and show. Dina and Ellie dance and kiss. Seth makes his comment. Joel hears it and pushes Seth.
We hold on Ellie for a beat longer than we did in the show, and Ellie shows remorse, like in the game. GUILT. This is why I’m putting this scene here in her journey. This is Ellie’s—and the audience’s—why of Ellie going down this path of vengeance. She wasted her last few years with Joel, full of anger, and she didn’t even get a chance to reconcile.
Back To Present.
SEATTLE DAY TWO - NIGHT
Ellie’s walking through a park alone. She crouches when she hears whistles. WLF? No.
Seraphites.
They’re dragging a man to a tree. Hang him without hesitation. Seraphites look for more scars. Ellie hides under a car. One of the Seraphites circles the vehicle she’s hiding under. Sees her and drags her out. Ellie shoots and runs away. Lots of chaos. The Seraphites stop chasing her when she enters a nearby building.
Ellie readies her shotgun. It’s full of stalkers.
She kills two. A third grabs her as she runs away, and they both go through a window.
They land in a river down below. Ellie and the infected nearly drown, but Ellie manages to swim away. But then she sees the hospital. And she knows: Nora’s inside. Ellie swims toward the hospital.
Ellie swims through the flooded hospital basement. Kills Whitney after learning the exact location of Nora.
On patrol outside the hospital, the WLF are on alert.
“We’ve got a male trespasser. Took out a squad last night.”
“Hospital units are being pulled to search the park.”
Ellie finds an area where she can climb. Boom—Ellie in the vents. She finds Nora. The chase begins. This part stays beat-for-beat like the game. The thing I’m removing from the show is Nora explaining shit we already know—like cut the fluffffffff. But I do love the line when Nora says:
“You’ve killed us both.”
And Ellie responds, “Did I?”
I’m also changing it back to us not seeing Ellie brutally kill Nora. I think it’s more effective as you focus on Ellie’s body language and expression. She doesn’t want to do this, but she believes so deeply that it has to be done. Ellie descends into the point of no return.
Back at the theatre.
THE HANDSHAKE SCENE. GIVE IT TO ME RACHEL PLSS
Dina opens the door. Ellie stumbles in, covered in blood.
“I made her talk,” Ellie whispers.
Dina holds her and cleans her up. The bruises on Ellie’s back are EARNEDDDDDD. Ellie’s killed and tortured a quarter of Seattle at this point. Because I’m sorry—where in the actual fuck did Ellie get those bruises in the show?
SHE DIDN’T EARN THAT SHIT. SHE WASN’T IN THE PAINT.
The episode ends with Ellie and Dina lying down. She whispers, “I don’t want to lose you.” End of Episode Five.
This episode is flashback-heavy, like the show.
We keep the same opening with young Joel and Tommy—I think it’s a great teaser. Personally, I think the writing could’ve been tightened up a bit. Like, I can always tell when someone isn’t from the South just by how they write. Is that just me? I don’t know how to explain it exactly—there’s a certain cadence to Southern dialogue, and the scene felt just a little off, especially in the way the characters spoke. It’s inner Georgian in me. Anyway.
This episode will have more creative liberty, and think of it as a compromise to Gail’s character without overexplaining what we already know to the audience. Because again, I hate being treated like a toddler when watching a TV show. I’m an adult. Side note: for a network as premium as HBO, the home of The Sopranos and Game of Thrones—you’d think they’d trust their audience a little more. Haha…🫠
SO! We open in a dimly lit church. Joel sits alone in a confessional box. The air is thicc with two C’s. The priest enters. There’s a really long, awkward beat as the priest waits for Joel to speak. He asks Joel if there’s anything he’d like to discuss. Joel finally admits that he’s hurt someone.
The priest would ask if he had sinned.
Joel scoffs at that. “We’re all sinners.”
The pastor presses and says something of the sort: You must confess—not to me, but to the person you’ve wronged. Then give yourself to God. Blah blah blah. Joel stares ahead. He doesn’t say a word. He leaves the box. I think religion plays a huge part in TLOU 2, Dina’s Jewish, Joel is religious (Christian or Catholic, I assume, given his Texan roots), and of course, the Seraphites. I thought it would be interesting to explore Joel’s religious side a bit more.
The hardest thing for Joel is that he can’t confess. He’s scared he’ll lose the one person that matters most to him.
I’m keeping the part where Seth and Joel trade Legos for cake from the show, and Joel returns home to find Ellie and Cat curled up. He reminds Ellie shortly about getting her tattoo touched up(just the tattoo in general lol), the drugs, and the sex.
Ellie makes it known: “I’m not your kid.”
Joel says she’s right…and leaves. ANGST😔😔
I’m also keeping the part where night falls. Joel carves a wood sculpture in the quiet until he hears noise upstairs. He finds Ellie moving her belongings. Joel tells her he’ll help her move out.
We cut to Ellie now moved in, and she’s practicing asking Joel the truth. Ellie ultimately decides fuck this. She rips a page from her journal and leaves it for Joel. Ellie sneaks out of Jackson. The journey is long, but we speed it up with a montage.
Ellie arrives at the Boston hospital. Finds the tape Joel left behind.
Joel arrives. They have a confrontation. Ellie forces Joel to confess.
Joel finally does it.
She tells him it’s over between them.
We cut again to the day before Joel’s death. Joel is playing guitar on the porch when Ellie approaches. She stops and they stare at one another. Ellie walks away.
They’re done. End of Episode Six.
SEATTLE DAY THREE
Jesse tells Ellie that Dina needs to get care back home in Jackson. So, they compromise—find Tommy and forget Abby. Ellie agrees. Ellie and Jesse set out toward one of the rendezvous points Jesse hadn’t checked to find Tommy. But of course, Tommy isn’t there.
Ellie scans the buildings nearby.
“Higher ground,” she says.
“We might see something from up there.”
They climb a building. A WLF scout watches the streets below. Jesse sneaks up. Subdues him quietly. The man carries a radio. Static crackles.
Manny’s voice cuts through:
“There’s a sniper picking us off…!” And he calls for backup.
The pair hears distant gunshots nearby, but in the opposite direction.
The aquarium. Jesse and Ellie have a disagreement about Abby and Tommy. Jesse leaves. Ellie moves alone now.
She takes the WLF sniper’s rifle.
The hunt begins.
ELLIE IS RECKLESS BY THIS POINT.
![THE RED TEAM - [PC/STEAMDECK] The Last Of Us Part I - Việt ngữ - Bản Hòa Ca Mất Mát và Hy Vọng | DIỄN ĐÀN GAME VIỆT HÓA - THE RED TEAM](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DB-n!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fde0cb3-2541-4cef-a0a3-75776dc4d16a_540x340.gif "THE RED TEAM - [PC/STEAMDECK] The Last Of Us Part I - Việt ngữ - Bản Hòa Ca Mất Mát và Hy Vọng | DIỄN ĐÀN GAME VIỆT HÓA - THE RED TEAM")
She is tired, but she’s hungry for revenge.
WLF fall one by one at the hands of Ellie’s Remington 700. Ellie fights her way down to a boat. She boats towards the aquarium. Nearly drowns AGAIN. But she makes it.
The Aquarium.
Inside, Ellie gets attacked by Alice(the dog). Ellie should kill a dog or two, because I say so. She finds Yara bandages, and Owen and Mel arguing. Ellie demands to know where Abby is. Owen reaches for his gun. Ellie aims to shoot. Mel tries to stop her. Ellie shoots Owen.
Mel tries to stab Ellie. Ellie turns it back on her and stabs her in the neck.
She bleeds out—but not before clawing at her stomach.
Ellie opens her jacket.
She’s killed a pregnant woman.
Unlike the show, Ellie is intentional about her kills in this version. Tommy and Jesse find her, and everything plays out the same as the game.
Back to the theatre. Jesse dies. Ellie is held at gunpoint. Boom.
The screen cuts to black.
Then close on Abby’s Day One.
And there you have it!! The full rewrite. LORDT I’ve been writing this for like three days. I think I stayed quite faithful to the games and took some creative liberties here and there. Tell me what you think of the rewrite and your version of events. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I don’t watch this show but glad you’re back!