The majority of The Last of Us‘ season two finale came straight from its source material, including that incredibly frustrating ending. But the episode delivered its best, most emotional sequence by reframing a scene from The Last of Us Part II. HBO’s adaptation made a small but powerful change to Ellie’s showdown with Mel and Owen, turning an already devastating encounter into a truly devastating tragedy.
Just like on HBO’s series, in The Last of Us Part II, Ellie finds Owen and Mel arguing at the abandoned Seattle aquarium. And just like on the show her plan to make them reveal Abby’s whereabouts turns deadly. The original scene sees Owen reach for Ellie’s gun. Mel then attacks Ellie with a knife after Ellie shoots him. But Ellie is too strong, overpowers Mel, and stabs her in the neck, killing her instantly. That’s when she returns to a mortally wounded Owen to find out where Abby is. But with his dying breath, a barely audible Owen mutters, “She’s…she’s….(inaudible).” The game’s closed caption literally says (inaudible), but if you listen closely you can make out what he tells Ellie. Mel was pregnant.
It’s too late. There’s nothing Ellie can do to save the baby. Overcome with grief for what she’s done, Ellie has a full panic attack. She only regains her senses and can stand when Tommy and Jesse arrive. They then bring a devastated Ellie back to the theater where Abby soon attacks them.
It’s an incredible, important scene in the video game. It continues the horrible cycle of violence that will soon result in Jesse’s death. And HBO delivered an even better, more tragic version of that already painful scene by making making Mel the focus of her own sad death and adding a brief glimmer of lost hope.
Every Firefly—both in the game and on the show—who helped Abby get her revenge on Joel was responsible for the consequences of their actions. But of all the people who aided Abby, the show’s version of Mel was the most sympathetic. She struggled with Joel’s death. She didn’t even want to knock Dina out with a mild sedative. Ariela Bare’s version of the character had a softness and compassion to her that so many others involved in this never-ending violence often lacked. (Joel’s screams haunted Nora, yet she was still glad he died.) Mel’s humanity—something so many living in this zombie wasteland lack—was on display during her last moments as she tried to save her child.
On the show, Ellie instead shot Owen in the neck, killing him instantly. But while this version of Mel likely never would have attacked Ellie, she didn’t have a chance anyway. The bullet traveled right through Owen and sliced Mel’s carotid. The trained medic knew immediately what that meant, and instead of worrying about saving herself she used her final moments to try and save her baby. She began instructing Ellie, who (just as in the game) didn’t even realize Mel was pregnant, what to do.
Mel remained calm throughout, making what she was saying even sadder. But her words grew softer as she kept telling Ellie what to do. As did the brief, frustrating moment of hope her instructions introduced. Ellie’s inability to do anything made each passing second worse as the life faded from Mel. If that wasn’t terrible enough, a dying Mel didn’t know what was happening. She died thinking Ellie had saved her baby. A comforting thought for her. A horrible one for both Ellie and viewers.
This brutal moment was HBO’s The Last of Us at its very best. This is the kind of change great adaptations make. They take great scenes and moments and make them better. Centering the death of Mel and her baby around them, rather than Owen and Ellie, made the scene far more powerful both on its own and in the larger context of the show.
In lieu of Dina’s news, in lieu of what will soon happen to Jesse, and in lieu of what gamers know will happen in season three, this is truly a major moment in Ellie’s life. Ellie has always killed monsters and human enemies. Here she killed the most innocent of creatures. And having her have to face Mel—a sweet soul who lost both her and her baby’s lives because she allowed a quest for vengeance to corrupt her—-made the consequences of Ellie’s own actions land with even more gut-wrenching impact.
Ellie’s hatred led to this moment, just as Abby’s hatred led to the death of her friends. The murder of an expecting mother is exactly the type of horrible thing that happens when you set out to do something horrible. And having to hear a dying mother with her dying breath futilely try to save her child’s life was as horrible as it gets.
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