WARNING: Major spoilers for season two episode seven ahead.

In the theatre, Jesse tends to the crossbow bolt buried in Dina’s leg. Dina is panicking and tells Jesse he can’t let her die. Knowing that pulling the bolt out will sever an artery, he tells her he has to push it through her leg. Dousing the wound with alcohol, he offers some to Dina for the pain, but she refuses.

Some time later, Ellie returns and makes a beeline for Dina. Dina is recovering, but alive, and tells Ellie she believes the baby is unharmed. She sees that Ellie is hurt, and despite her own pain she cleans Ellie’s battered body. Ellie tells her about Nora. Under torture, and because her body was succumbing to the infection, Nora gave up two words relating to Abby’s location – “wheel” and “whale”. Ellie confesses to Dina that she would find hurting Nora difficult, but in fact it was easy.

Although Dina tells her Nora deserved it, Ellie is not so sure anymore. She spills out what happened at the hospital in Salt Lake City, and how Joel murdered Abby’s father. Dina is shocked, and finally succumbing to fatigue, tells Ellie that they should return home.

Morning arrives. Jesse tells Ellie that he agreed to rendezvous with Tommy at a bookstore across town. Unable to walk, Dina barricades herself in the theatre and waits their return. En route, Jesse berates her for her selfishness. He tells her how he tracked them down, (finding Shimmer, still alive, where Ellie and Dina had stashed her), and that he has deduced that Dina is pregnant (although this was an educated guess). For him, this ups the stakes, and everyone has to get out of Seattle alive. While walking, they note another Seraphite mural depicting the prophet – but unlike the previous one, this time the woman pictured is Black. They ponder whether this means there is more than one prophet.

As another storm hits Seattle, the two take cover in an empty car park. While hiding out, they witness a WLF unit corner and attack a young Seraphite man. As he is dragged away, Jesse stops Ellie from interfering.

Reaching the bookstore, there is no sign of Tommy. While they wait for any sign of him, Jesse tells Ellie there are no hard feelings regarding Dina. While he loves her, it isn’t the same kind of love Ellie has for her. He shares how he once met someone who arrived at Jackson with a group of traders and fell in love with one of the group before they moved on. He was asked to join her, and desperately wanted to, but stayed out of loyalty to Jackson.

Chatter breaks over the radio – a sniper has attacked WLF soldiers and has them pinned down. Jesse realises this is most likely Tommy, and as the unit have requested backup, they leave to retrieve him before WLF reinforcements can arrive.

Heading to higher ground, Ellie spots an aquarium in the distance with a whale motif and a Ferris wheel. Knowing that is the location that Nora alluded to, she tells Jesse that’s where they need to go. The two argue – Jesse calls her out for her selfishness again while Ellie calls him a self-righteous hypocrite. Jesse reveals he voted against the proposition to send out a party to avenge Joel, again believing it wasn’t what was best for Jackson. At an impasse, Jesse wishes Ellie good luck and the two part ways.

At the WLF encampment, Sgt Park enters Isaac’s tent with news – there will be a convergence zone over Seattle, setting the scene for a major attack on the Seraphites. Isaac, however, is preoccupied – Abby has disappeared. Park questions why he finds Abbey so important and insinuates that there may be something going on between them. Isaac quashes this and gives Park the truth… After tonight’s attack, it’s likely neither he nor she will still be alive. But he believes Abby has what it takes to lead the WLF after he is gone.

Ellie heads to the dock to commandeer a boat to get to the aquarium. While there, a large fleet of WLF vessels come out of the darkness and briefly stop to take on cargo, then leave without noticing Ellie in the shadows. She takes a boat and heads toward the aquarium through the storm, but before long the boat is capsized by a massive wave.

Ellie is beached on an island and crawls to dry land, where she is spotted by a Seraphite child. The child disappears into the woods and whistling breaks out. Two Seraphite men emerge from the trees and easily apprehend the weakened Ellie. Disarming her, they lead her to a noose and place it round her neck. Despite Ellie’s protests that she is not a wolf, it appears she will be sacrificed – seemingly under the order of the child who found her. However, as she is being raised up, a deep horn sound comes from the distance. The Seraphites rush off in the direction of their village, leaving Ellie alive.

Ellie reclaims Joel’s revolver, finds her boat on the shore, and once again sets off for the aquarium.

Ellie breaks into the aquarium, finding a rudimentary campsite. Searching the building, she comes across two of Abby’s group – Owen and Mel – as they are discussing Abby’s whereabouts and whether to follow her or not. Ellie surprises them and holds them at gunpoint.

Owen recognises Ellie, and denies knowing Abby’s location, but having overheard their conversation Ellie knows this is a lie. Owen reminds Ellie that they let her live, but this does nothing to sway her. Pulling a technique directly from Joel’s playbook, she tells Mel to bring her the map they were poring over and point to Abby’s location. She’ll then ask Owen to do the same thing… and they’d better match. Owen tells Mel not to move, believing Ellie will kill them both regardless, but she denies this – saying she isn’t like them.

Under pressure, Owen appears to reach for the map, but at the last second goes for a concealed gun. Ellie is too fast, however, and fatally shoots Owen. The bullet passes straight through, hitting Mel and severing an artery in her neck. Dropping to the floor, Mel opens her coat, revealing she is heavily pregnant.

She pleads with Ellie to take a nearby knife and cut the baby out. Panicking, Ellie takes the knife but not knowing how to perform the procedure and with Mel’s instructions becoming less clear as she bleeds out, Ellie abandons the task and Mel dies on the floor.

Tommy and Jesse arrive and take the traumatised Ellie back to the theatre.

Back at the theatre, Tommy comforts Ellie, saying the people she killed deserved it. However, they it’s time for them to return home. While Ellie regrets that Abby will get to live, she agrees. As Tommy leaves the auditorium to pack the last of their things, Ellie thanks Jesse for coming to her aid, and the two patch things up.

Hearing a commotion in the lobby, Jesse and Ellie race to see what is happening. Reaching the door first, Jesse is immediately shot in the head, dying instantly. Ellie takes cover and sees that Abby is holding Tommy at gunpoint, believing that he was the one who killed Owen and Mel.

Ellie breaks cover and throws her weapon down. She tells Abby she was the one who killed her friends and pleads with her to let Tommy go. Abby recognises her, and Ellie tells her how she was the one that Joel murdered her father to save. Enraged, Abby points the gun at Ellie, telling her that she let her live, but she wasted it. A gun is fired.

Abby is woken up by Manny, they’ve been summoned by Isaac. She gets up and looks out over her home – a converted sports stadium now serving as a farm and military barracks. This is Seattle – Day One. Three days prior to the events we just witnessed.

Yes, sorry. There’s no plot armour in play here – just an honest to God bullet in the head. It remains to be seen whether Young Mazino will return to play the character in any flashback scenes.

That would be telling. As the final scene of the episode alludes to, it is likely that the next season will be the three days in Seattle told via Abby’s perspective, so there may be quite some time before the truth is revealed.

On that note, did you notice how Abby had a noose mark around her neck? Could be a clue to where she’s been all this time...

Much of the episode follows the storyline of The Last of Us Part II quite closely, however, a few scenes have been moved around in the timeline, and there are some fairly minor changes.

The scene with Dina cleaning Ellie’s wounds is taken from the source material. However, Ellie doesn’t tell her about Salt Lake City. In the game it’s kept a secret between Ellie and Tommy, so there isn’t the same pull for them to return home.

Speaking of Tommy, in the game he arrives at Seattle first to get revenge for his brother. They locate him in the same way – radio chatter from a WLF unit pinned down by a sniper. However, in the game he’s going in on the offensive, rather than trying to find Ellie and Dina and get them home.

The scene on the Seraphite island has also been brought forward compared to the game’s timeline – perhaps to keep the conflict between them and the WLF fresh in the viewers minds. Likewise, at this point in the game Isaac still hasn’t been introduced.

Moving on to Mel and Owen, there have been a few changes compared to the game. The scene basically plays out the same way, but in the game Mel is not hit by the same bullet that kills Owen. Instead, she attacks Ellie with a knife, forcing her to kill her in self-defence. As with the TV show, Ellie only realises Mel is pregnant too late, but the scene where Mel attempts to guide Ellie through saving the baby is original to the TV series.

Unlike Owen, Mel and Jesse, some characters have had a stay of execution when compared to their video game counterparts. Animal lovers will be thrilled to know that Shimmer is alive and well, and the number of dog deaths so far is zero.

It’s also confirmed that another member of Abby’s gang, Manny, is still around. Interestingly, Manny’s role seems to have been merged that of Jordan. In the game, Jordan is the one injured by Ellie as she attempts to rescue Joel and attempts to kill her before the group departs. He later captures her shortly after she and Dina enter Seattle (killing Shimmer with a tripwire explosive) but is stopped short of killing her thanks to some timely interference from Dina. This scene and the character of Jordan don’t appear in the series, and instead Manny is the WLF member who Ellie injures. As one of Abby’s closest friends, we’ll see more of him next season.

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