The Last of Us – Convergence

By starrymag | June 1, 2025

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Like a jolt to the system, a heartbreaking season comes to a heart-pounding end—on a cliffhanger that has everyone talking. Love it or hate it, the episode “Convergence” redefined the focus of the series, shifting from one tragic young heroine’s story to another, with barely a breath between the switch.

According to showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the next chapter—Season 3—will explore Abby’s journey through Seattle, and how she came to be Isaac’s legacy. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait two to four years for the resolution to those jaw-dropping final moments. But after everything Ellie endured this season—from her descent into vengeance to her fragile steps toward resolve—there’s no doubt the wait will be worth it.

“Whale and Wheel”

Jumping in right where we left off before last week’s flashback episode—Dina (Isabela Mecred) and Jesse (Young Mazino) make it back to the theater, where they deal with the arrow still lodged in Dina’s leg. Jesse does the best he can with the limited supplies they have, but Dina is alive and that’s all that matters to him. It’s not long before Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is pounding on the door, rushing to Dina’s side hoping she and the baby are okay. Ellie is visibly relieved when she sees that they are, and it’s all thanks to a very ticked-off Jesse.

Ignoring his sulking for the moment, Dina manages to sit upright, despite the pain, to wash Ellie’s bruised and bloodied back—the aftermath of her fight with Nora. The woman died refusing to give up Abby’s location. According to a tired and still seething Ellie, she only uttered two cryptic words: “Whale and wheel.” Clues? Maybe, but it’s hard to know whether those words were intentional—or just the ramblings of an infected mind.

“I made her talk,” Ellie confesses, and shamefully admits how easy it was to hurt Nora. She didn’t kill her—she left her to suffer and she doesn’t feel bad about it.

Ellie is different now–changed since Joel’s death; a darkness in her Dina can’t ignore. The kid who loved a perfectly timed inappropriate joke, seems to have died with Joel. Her quiet admission prompts Ellie to tell Dina the truth about what Joel did, who Abby is, and what went down in Salt Lake City. It hits Dina hard, as she was led to believe this mission was about justice for Joel. But now she knows: it’s more complicated than that. Ellie lied—maybe not with words, but by omission, and the hurt is all over her face.She risked her life for this, and Ellie should’ve trusted her enough to tell her the truth.

The next morning, Dina gives Ellie her bracelet for good luck before she and Jesse head out to rendezvous with Tommy. It’s a gesture of understanding–even if Dina isn’t happy with being lied to.

On their way to meet up with Tommy, Jesse’s anger he’s been bottling up begins to pour out. He corners Ellie into admitting that Dina is pregnant—and that they’re together. His reaction is swift and cold as he reminds her: He is the father, and he doesn’t appreciate her risking their lives for her personal mission. He’s not just some pawn in her revenge quest, he has a child to think about now.

Their argument is interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Up ahead, a few W.L.F. soldiers have captured a Seraphite (Joel Eskildsen)–forcing Jesse and Ellie to hide and watch helplessly as the man is beaten and tortured. Ellie jumps to stop them but Jesse holds her back. It’s six against two, and besides “This is not our war,” he says.

Bad Weather

Next, we catch up with Elise Park (Hettienne Park), who updates Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) on Abby’s disappearance and the missing members of her crew. From the conversation, it’s clear that Isaac holds Abby in unusually high regard—above nearly everyone else. Park doesn’t understand it, and accuses him of having a crush on the young woman. Isaac laughs because she couldn’t be more wrong.

Abby, he explains, is the only one capable of leading these people— who he seems to think are sheep dressed in W.L.F. gear. If something ever happens to him or Park, Abby was to be their legacy. Park points out his misguided trust in the young soldier who apparently abandoned them. For Park, that’s all the proof she needs that Abby was never the soldier Isaac dreamed she was.

Speaking of young leaders–“Here we are again—you, me, and bad f***ing weather,” Jesse mutters as he and Ellie duck into the bookstore rendezvous, escaping the thunder and rain. Tommy isn’t there yet, but his gear is, so Jesse locks the doors, assuming he’s on his way back.

While they wait, tension hangs in the air, and the vibe between the friends is off. They sit in silence, listening to the storm, until they finally talk like friends again.

Jesse admits he loves Dina—but not the way Ellie does.

His heart, he says, belongs to a young painter who once wandered into Jackson from Alberta, selling landscapes. He knows what it feels like to fall in love. He almost left Jackson for her but he couldn’t leave the people and the town who gave him a home, and a purpose. That’s why he’s disappointed in Ellie. It’s not about her relationship with Dina or co-parenting this baby, it’s about the risk she took— and how it created a chain reaction of deadly consequences after the town voted against it. Jesse knows he’s been groomed to be the next Maria, and even though his heart may still be on the road with that painter, his loyalty remains with the people of Jackson. He was taught to put others first,but this little mission Ellie took Dina on? That was about Ellie and her revenge, and no one else. Their conversation is cut short when the W.L.F. walkie-talkie crackles to life—emergency messages report unidentified sniper attacks. Immediately, Jesse and Ellie know it has to be Tommy. Thanks to Dina’s map, they can pinpoint the likely location, but to get a better view, they head to the rooftop. From there, they scan the city, trying to determine where Tommy is, but Ellie can’t focus because Nora’s words come back to haunt her. In the distance, she spots a Ferris wheel—directly beside an aquarium on the water.

“Wheel and whale,” she whispers to herself.

Jesse’s talking, but she’s already preparing for her next move. Abby is in the aquarium, but Tommy, on the other hand, is across town. Ellie has a choice to make: does she leave with Jesse and Dina and head back to Jackson—or break off from the only home she’s known to find justice for Joel. Wouldn’t Tommy want Ellie to do this? Even the council vote for the trip was close. That’s when Jesse admits it—he voted against her, because every choice she makes is for herself, and he is always thinking of everyone else.

At that, Ellie snaps, screaming that he’s no better than her–as he just let a Seraphite die simply because he wasn’t from Jackson.

Her outburst stuns him–he can’t believe she still doesn’t understand why his loyalty matters.The two of them are at an impasse so, he wishes her luck on her mission and turns and walks away—headed back to Jackson.

Choppy Waters

As the storm rages outside, Ellie makes her way down to the water’s edge. In the distance, she sees the aquarium. Powerboats are docked nearby—and then she sees even more approaching in the water. A group of people line up on the docks, boarding the boats, and leaving Seattle.

Assuming Isaac and his crew are heading to find Abby, she runs down to the boats, unties one, starts the engine, and takes off behind them. It’s dark, and the sea is rough, but Ellie pushes forward through the choppy waters—until a wave flips her boat and forces her to swim to shore.

Barely on dry land, she spots a young Seraphite boy who whistles, alerting the others. Panic sets in—Ellie knows what they do to W.L.F. members and assumes they treat all outsiders the same. Within seconds, two men run down to the shore and drag Ellie into the woods, where she’s met by a Seraphite priestess (Kendra Anderson) and the boy, who coldly orders her death.

The two men tie a noose around her neck and string her from a tree and Ellie screams because she knows what comes next. Just as the priestess is about to gut her, a siren blares from a nearby village. The Seraphites scatter, leaving Ellie choking—but alive. Luckily, spots her gun as she rushes back to her boat now washed ashore. As she pulls away, an explosion lights up the night—the village the Seraphites mentioned goes up in flames.

After a treacherous ride across the water, she finally reaches the aquarium, where she climbs the side of the building and slips in through a broken skylight above what looks like the W.L.F.’s sleeping quarters. Ellie takes a moment to dry her gun, reload the chamber, and switches on her flashlight before creeping through the building in search of Abby. She finds a room full of bloody rags and surgical tools—the blood looks fresh, and follows the trail through the basement and up into the main hall. A shark dangles above her, but Ellie can’t focus on the wildlife decor; she’s wet, cold, anxious—and determined to end this once and for all.

Hearing voices, she follows them and finds two of Abby’s people–Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer) talking about her whereabouts. Ellie pulls a gun on them, promising she won’t shoot if they talk. She forces Owen to point out Abby’s location on a map, but he calls her bluff and pulls his gun forcing her to shoot him dead. The poorly aimed bullet also hits the pregnant Mel and she collapses to the floor holding her bleeding throat. She goes with Ellie to perform a C-section and save her baby, but everything is happening in slow motion and seemingly all at once. Ellie can barely keep it together, unsure of what she should do. Mel keeps asking if the baby is out, repeating the word “transcendence” over and over,and all Ellie can do is sit there, watching the woman—and the fetus inside her—die.

Ellie is devastated, paralyzed on the floor, when Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Jesse finally find her and the bodies. They practically carry her out of the aquarium, Ellie broken by what she did—and what she couldn’t do. They make it back to the theater, where Tommy tries to reassure Ellie. He tells her the two people she killed were involved in Joel’s death and they made choices—and paid for them. As he and Jesse map out plans to head back to Jackson, Ellie has to find a way to live with letting Abby get away with Joel’s murder.

With the storm raging outside and Isaac and his people away from Seattle, Tommy, Jesse, Dina, and Ellie can’t leave until the weather clears so they hunker down for the night. Later, when things calm down, Ellie tries to make amends with Jesse by thanking him for coming back for her. He tries to play it off, like Tommy made him but eventually he admits he would’ve come back anyway, because that’s what friends do–Ellie would’ve done the same for him. He might be loyal to the town that gave him a home, but Ellie is loyal to the people in her heart—and Jesse is one of them.

Abby

Their heartfelt moment is interrupted by gunfire and they take off to the other room but they don’t get far before a bullet takes Jesse down. Ellie screams and then she sees Tommy is on the ground too. Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) is standing over him, gun drawn, demanding Ellie show herself. Hands raised, body shaking in fear, Abby is shocked by who she now knows killed her friends.

Crying, Ellie begs her not to shoot Tommy and confesses that she’s the one who killed Abby’s friends—but she didn’t mean to. Abby is stunned. She let Ellie live once—and this is how she was repaid.Choices were made and consequences were paid. Ellie says she understands why Abby killed Joel, and offers herself up in Tommy’s place.

Abby turns the gun on Ellie and a gunshot rings out and it’s cut to a black screen.

The next thing we see is Abby waking up on a couch as her friends knock at the door with news that Isaac wants to see her.

She steps outside and we see she is Inside Seattle’s stadium and it’s not football the W.L.F. are playing. The structure acts as a thriving city– with farming plots, wind turbines, and stadium walls to protect it all.

This is Seattle, day one.