The last of us final creator explains which day one for the third season means

[This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us season two, episode seven.]

The last of us The second season ended with a shot and a cryptic title card: “Seattle Day 1”.

What does that mean? The Hollywood reporter It was only with co-creator Craig Mazin Mazin and Co-creator Neil Druckmann also spoke questions from reporters during a press conference in the final, which tackled several burning questions.

The first question is, of course, whether Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is dead from the apparently Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), shoots her (with a burning “I let you live – and you Salved it! ”).

If you do not want to know the answer, skip the rest of this paragraph. Mazin states that we have not seen the last of Ellie. In addition, the show was extremely loyal to the adaptation of its starting material, the Playstation Games The last of us And The last of us part II. In the game, Ellie survives this encounter with Abby and plays an important role in the rest of the story.

As for the end, the fact that Abby is awakened from sleep and a title card in Seattle Day 1, this is probably signaling a further shift in the narrative focus of the show. While the Creators refused to expressly confirm this during the interviews, just as the perspective of the show by Joel (Pedro Pascal) moves to Ellie, the third season is likely to be relocated again to tell Abby's history – provided the show follows the tracks defined by the game. This is not only a clever narrative device, but also part of the topic of the show.

“I don't think television should work that way,” says Mazin. “We clearly break some rules and I love that. And I love it because That is the point. We don't do that as a gimmick. The point of this story – and this is viewed on so many different angles from so many angles – is that the entire concept of the protagonist is incorrect. The entire concept of the villain is incorrect. Our way of processing the world through heroes and bad guys is a mistake. It creates these obstacles between people who shouldn't be there. We give us the grounds and amenities for bad behavior and enables us to assess others according to things that we do not fully understand the motivation behind it. We know that this is a challenging thing to keep an eye on emotionally. We understand that people are provoked. However, part of this story is to examine why we are so comfortable to follow the point of view of a person above anything. ”

“Abby is the heroine of her history,” added Mazin later. “Where we go next, we will always concentrate on someone, be it Ellie and Dina or Abby and Owen … [But] Everything is located under the cloud or the sunlight of Joel – what Joel Abby has done and what Abby Joel has done. '”

The final also saw the death of Jesse (young Mazino), who was shot by Abby. “It is an interesting situation because Jesse dies partly because of Ellie, but Ellie doesn't pull the deduction – Abby does it,” says Mazin. “And we understand that Dina had this great relationship with Joel and that she pursued to Abby from a sense of justice. Now the question is: who is blame for her [for Jesse’s death]? Jesse's death will change things for her. ”

Another big moment – and a completely different than the game – was the traumatic death of Abby's pregnant friend Mel (Ariela Barer).

“In the game, Ellie fights against Owen (Spencer Lord) and then fights against Mel, and only after Mel dies does her coat and Ellie notice that she is pregnant,” says Mazin. “But Ellie is not really able to kill Owen – you look at Bella and you look at Spencer Lord, he is 6'4 '' and just incredibly impressive. A physical struggle would not go well and it is not there to kill her. She just wants to kill.

Continued Mazin: “Not to think about reality, Mel is a doctor and at this moment understands that she is in death that there is a chance to save your child. This is anchored in our topic – parents do everything they can to save their child. And the poor Ellie.

We also asked Mazin whether Ellie – in view of her destructive experience with Mel – would still have killed Abby if Ellie had got the drop on her instead of the other way around. “I would undoubtedly say,” says Mazin. “It wouldn't even be about whether she had it in her, it would be about what she not have in itself – what every ability is to hold back when persecution. I think Ellie would have put down right next to Abby and a very similar speech with which a Abby gave Joel. ”

The end of Cliffhanger says that you have considered other options for completing the season.

“We considered everything,” says Mazin. “Maybe we should simply connect the stories [of Ellie and Abby]? I just remember that I said: 'Is not [switching perspectives] Part of the genetics, how this story works? 'It is only part of the genetics. Now it means that as a television show we have to take risks and HBO supports us risks. But on the other hand, we only killed Pedro Pascal. How [HBO] Understand that this show will be a different show every season, which is a difficult thing if you are a hit show. You always ask people: “I know that you love it, we take it away and give you it now.”

Another key question: Will Joel appear in season three? Mazin let it sound like a potential flashback with Joel and Tommy (Gabriel Luna). “In the next season we will probably have a lot more flexibility [to tell side stories]”, Says Mazin.” Perhaps we terrorize the landscape to make Joel and Tommy.[Tommy’s] I and Joel have been in war for some time and we did some pretty bad things. So there is the potential to see this other side of Tommy, and this is now a matter of providing his brother who is understood. ”

The duo also teased the third season – to a certain extent because it didn't want to give away anything decisive.

“We tell you that everything that will happen next season has an epic nature that will happen,” said Druckmann. “But this other story will be really important to find Joel and Ellie and everything we have seen so far.”

Added Mazin: “All I can say is that we didn't see the last of Kaitlyn Dever, and we have not seen Bella Ramsey's last, and we have not seen the last of Isabela Merced, and we have not even seen the last of many people who are currently dead in history.”