In the world of HBO’s The Last of Us, the constant threat of Infected looms large at all times. While the Infected are villains in a sense, they are foes that lack agency and intent in their menace—driven as they are by a fungus that distills them down to a biological-driven imperative to spread. Much more terrifying are the human villains that populate the post-apocalyptic world, with their sometimes cruelty-driven, sometimes passion-fueled overtures at darkness. In The Last of Us season two premiere, we meet a new very human antagonist, perhaps villain, Abby Anderson. But what does Abby want on The Last of Us season two? And will she truly be a villain in the series? Here’s what we know about Abby so far from the show, and a little bit of spoiler-lite information about her from the games.
The Last of Us Season 2 Introduces Us to a New Threat, Abby
We don’t see too much of Abby in The Last of Us season two, episode one, but we do get two whole scenes from her point of view. Given that the rest of the series either sits in the eyes of Joel or Ellie, that’s pretty significant. From where we sit in Abby’s head, it’s clear Joel is the enemy. But we bet Abby doesn’t think she’s the villain. In her head, she’s on a worthy mission.
Who Is Abby on The Last of Us Season 2?
The opening of the premiere takes us into Abby’s head during the time just after Joel’s rampage to rescue Ellie and kill all the Fireflies in the Salt Lake City hospital. So we first meet Abby before the time skip. But just who is Abby in The Last of Us series? The first episode only offers us drops of information. Firstly, it’s clear that Abby is a Firefly. She and a small crew of four people seemingly survived the attack on the Fireflies of Utah. But it seems like that’s all that’s left of them.
We learn that they tried to save some of the Fireflies that Joel killed, but were unsuccessful. Abby and the rest are now mourning their steep losses, having buried their dead by the zoo and giraffes. There are no more Fireflies in the area, but there is a hub run by someone called Isaac in Seattle.
More than anything, however, Abby is furious that they couldn’t save the Fireflies. First and foremost, wants revenge on Joel, whom she seems to clearly know, as we do after watching season one of The Last of Us, slaughtered the Fireflies in his blind quest to save Ellie from death by cure-making. Abby and her team of Fireflies don’t seem to know exactly why Joel went rogue, though. They appear to have an inkling that Ellie exists and is immune, but don’t seem like they truly believe it at this point.
What Does Abby Want with Joel?
Abby makes her intentions toward Joel very clear. Abby wants to kill Joel and see his death unfold before her eyes. She makes sure to stipulate that she’d like to kill Joel slowly.
In the opening of the episode, that desire seems like it might be a pipe dream. Abby knows that Joel is “Fifties, greying beard, six foot tall, scar on his right temple”… “Oh yeah, and they say he’s handsome.” And although that’s apt, Joel and Ellie already headed out of Utah, in a car at that, during the time the remaining Fireflies tried to save the wounded and buried the bodies of the dead.
Ultimately, Abby’s group of Fireflies agrees to help Abby find Joel and kill him. And in the end, Abby’s will proves incredibly tenacious. At the end of the premiere episode, we see she’s gotten enough information to track Joel to the town of Jackson. Abby and the Fireflies look out of the town, ready to descend. Clearly, Abby hasn’t surrendered her wish to see Joel die in the last five years.
Who Is Abby in The Last of Us—Part II Game?
If you’re super spoiler-averse, look away, we’re not going to spoil anything too much about Abby from The Last of Us—Part II, but we are going to fill in a little bit of light information from the games. If you don’t want to know any of this, skip to the final heading now.
Like in The Last of Us TV show, Abby Anderson is a Firefly with a mission of revenge in her heart. As we get a bit of a sense for in The Last of Us season two, in The Last of Us—Part II game, Abby is actually a playable POV character. Obviously, that enshrines her with a specific sense of importance. Additionally, she is driven by a quest for revenge in the games as well as the series. Since The Last of Us season two hasn’t yet revealed Abby’s full identity from the games, we won’t either. But we will say that, as we see when she puts her Firefly necklace around one specific grave, she has a very personal connection to the deaths Joel caused in the Salt Lake City hospital.
In The Last of Us—Part II game, Abby’s story is one of seeking revenge, placing her as a villain of sorts in the world. However, she also has arcs of intense growth in the game, and so it will be interesting to see how and what the series brings to life about Abby in season two of The Last of Us.
Abby in HBO’s The Last of Us Series
Abby’s Introduction in Season 2 Changes From the Games
One notable difference between Abby in The Last of Us series and The Last of Us—Part II is her introduction into the world. In the game, we immediately enter Abby’s point of view after the time jump and start fighting Infected and living as the character. Her story then unfolds over the time the player has to live in the character’s head. Instead, the series takes us back with her to just after Joel’s Firefly murders in Salt Lake City, offering us some immediate connection between Abby and our main plot.
In a press conference that Nerdist attended, showrunner Neil Druckmann addressed why Abby’s introduction changed from the games in The Last of Us season two. Druckmann shares, “In the game, you play as Abby, so you immediately form an empathic connection with her, because you’re surviving as her, you’re running through the snow, you’re fighting infected. And we can withhold certain things and make it a mystery that will be revealed later in the story. We couldn’t do that in the show because you’re not playing as her.”
Druckmann continued, explaining it was important to immediately tie Abby, Joel, and Ellie together on the series. “Where that revelation happens in the game, if we were to stick to a very similar timeline, viewers would have to wait a very, very long time to get that context. It would probably get spoiled to them between seasons, and we didn’t want that, so it felt appropriate for those reasons to move that up and give the viewer that context right off the bat.”
Who Plays Abby on The Last of Us Season 2?
Abby is played by Kaitlyn Dever on The Last of Us season two.
Abby’s Future on the HBO Show
Abby is one of the first people we see on The Last of Us season two. And given that she’s a POV/playable character in The Last of Us—Part II, she’s certain to be important this season on the HBO series. Abby feels like a villainous force right now, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens to her character as season two unfolds.
The Last of Us airs at 9pm on Sundays on Max and HBO.
Content shared from nerdist.com.