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MAJOR Spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 finale follow.

Greetings Popversians, and welcome to Lore Corner! Each week, video producer Ashley V. Robinson and staff writer Grant DeArmitt are going to take you deep into the pre-existing lore behind some of pop culture's most exciting adaptations, such as the gut-wrenching post-apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us. Enjoy! 

After a heart-wrenching seven episodes, The Last of Us season 2 finale brought us home with a walloping cliffhanger and point of no return for our erstwhile hero Ellie. If you're anything like us, you could use some time to process what you just watched, which is why we've put together this Last of Us season 2 ending explained for your reviewing pleasure.

But, since this season does end on a cliffhanger, we didn't want to stop at where the credits roll. We'll also be getting into some speculation (that's key here - speculation) on what's next for the series based on The Last of Us video games, and even be looking into a farther off future for the show going off of that. But be warned as you continue - heavy, heavy spoilers abound in this article. 

What happens in The Last of Us season 2 finale?

Before we talk about episode 7, let's back up a bit - at the end of episode 5, we left Ellie in a spore infested corridor, torturing information of Abby's whereabouts out of poor Nora (Tati Gabrielle). With her dying breaths, Nora tells Ellie "The Whale." Now we cut to episode 7 - Ellie returns from her misadventure with the WLF to find Dina and Jesse holed up in the theater they were sheltering in. From there, Jesse and Ellie decide to go out in search of Tommy, who came with Jesse on his mission to save Ellie and Dina, but got lost along the way.

As the pair set off, Jesse and Ellie have an argument that turns into a big fight, during which Jesse deduces that Dina is pregnant with his child. As the pair continue, they catch word of Tommy's whereabouts via a WLF walkie talkie Ellie stole, but in the same moment, Ellie catches site of a far off building - the Seattle aquarium, which is emblazoned with a giant whale. Ellie announces that she's going to abandon the search for Tommy to find Abby, which she does, but not before Jesse tells her "everything you do is for you."

At the aquarium, Ellie doesn't find Abby, but does come across Owen and Mel, part of Abby's crew that we met earlier in the season. Ellie tells them, at gunpoint, to tell her where Abby is, but wen goes for a gun. Ellie shoots twice, killing Owen immediately and mortally wounding Mel. As Mel lays dying, Ellie is horrified to discover that she was pregnant. Not long after, a reunited Tommy and Jesse find Ellie and bring her back to the theater.

After a talk with Tommy, Ellie decides that she's going to have to live with the idea of not having her revenge on Abby. The decision leads Jesse and her to have a heart to heart, and the in-danger friendship starts to mend. But just as things are looking up, our heroes hear gunshots coming from the lobby. Abby has found them, and seeks revenge for Owen and Mel. In the ensuing violence, Jesse is shot dead, and Abby takes Tommy hostage at gunpoint. Abby raises her gun to Ellie, her face mottled with rage, and a gunshot goes off...

As the camera cuts to black.

What will happen in The Last of Us season 3?

I know - that's how you end a season. Drama, suspense, a beautiful moment interrupted by horrific tragedy, and maybe even more importantly, an ending that will have fans ravenous for the next season. It'll be at least a year until the next season of the show comes out, and if that's simply too long for your to wait, we can tell your what we're pretty sure is going to happen in season 3 right now.

But as we do, keep this in mind: One, we're going to explain what happens in the rest of The Last of Us Part II video game, which has been adapted pretty 1-to-1 so far, but is of course subject to changes by HBO or the writers. And Two, we're going to get into spoilers even beyond season 2 here - so don't get mad at us if, come the debut of season 3, you're sad to not be as surprised as your friends.

Still here? Alright, let's get into it.

Just like the middle third of The Last of Us Part II, season 3 will almost certainly but the focus squarely on the character of Abby Anderson, Joel's killer, played in the series by Kaitlyn Dever. How can we be so sure? Well, series star (and beloved household name) Catherine O'Hara told us. Speaking to Variety in an interview published May 19, O'Hara said showrunner Craig Mazin told her the next season would be "the Abby story." So just what is "the Abby story?" We'll try to keep it brief.

As we saw in the epilogue of the season 2 finale, Abby's story will begin a few days before her and Ellie's confrontation in the theater. At that time, the Washington Liberation Front (of whom Abby is a valued member) are planning on dealing with the cultist Seraphites once and for all. During their pre-strike operations, however, Abby's ex-boyfriend Owen goes missing. She sets out to find him, and is herself captured by the brutal fanatics. Before they can ritually disembowel her, however, she is saved by two runaways from the cult, Yara and Lev. Born female, Lev's choice to identify as male is a blasphemy to the Seraphites, and he and his sister Yara have been on the run from them ever since.

Eventually, the trio not only make their escape from the cult but discover where Owen has been holed up - disillusioned with the war and drinking himself into a stupor. Abby convinces Owen to come back to camp, but she's got bigger problems than a drunk ex. In saving Abby, Yara's arm was badly broken and requires amputation. So as a way to repay her debt to her, Abby hunts down medical supplies and brings Yara to Owen's current partner, Mel, who can perform the amputation. Things are looking up, but then it's discovered that Lev has broken from the group, heading back to Seraphite territory to try and save his still-embedded mother.

Leaving Owen and Mel, who is currently pregnant, back at their hideout in the Seattle Aquarium, Abby and Yara go in search for Lev. After breaking into Seraphite territory, they find a traumatized Lev who, in self defense, had to kill his own mother. Things go from bad to worse as the planned WLF assault on the Seraphites begins.

For a moment, it looks as though the assault might prove enough distraction for the trio to once again get away, but their escape is halted by members of the WLF. Isaac Dixon is there, ordering Abby at gunpoint to give up or be treated as a traitor to the WLF and killed. Bravely, Yara lunges up, killing Isaac and drawing fire from the WLF onto herself. Abby and Lev flee as Yara dies.

What happens next is pretty much what we see in the finale episode of The Last of Us season 2, with Abby returning to the hideout, finding Owen and Mel dead, and then tracking down Ellie. However, we suspect that the answer of what happens next (after that gunshot and blackout) won't come up in the third season at all.

Will there be The Last of Us season 4?

Yes, we think that the epic saga of revenge between Abby and Ellie won't wrap up until at least a fourth season of the hit HBO show. Along with O'Hara's comment about season 3 being "Abby's story," there's simply too much that goes down after the theater confrontation in The Last of Us Part II to fit into a couple of episodes of a season (don't worry, we won't get into that here - but we do in our Last of Us Part II ending explained). And if our opinion isn't enough to sway you into believing there will be a Last of Us season 4, why don't you take it from the showrunner himself?

"Certainly," Craig Mazin said in a recent interview with Collider, "There’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome."

Sounds pretty likely, don't you think? However, both The Last of Us creators and fans need to get through a full season 3 before we can really start talking about a follow-up, leading to the next, final, and probably most burning question on this list:

What is The Last of Us season 3 release date?

Unfortunately, that's not a question that we can answer at the moment, but what we can say is that it will probably be a while before we know. In the interview we just linked, showrunner Mazin told Collider that season 3 will likely be longer than season 2, and we'll remind you that it was a full two years between the first episode of that season and the last episode of its predecessor. And with what appears to be intent to expand on the Abby story (in the HBO tradition of expanding on The Last of Us characters), it may be we don't get to return to Abby's story until some time in late 2027.

But hey, keep an eye on Popverse for news about The Last of Us, and who knows? Maybe we'll be reporting a season 3 release date sooner than you think. Once we know, you will, of course, be the first person we tell.

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.