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Spoilers for The Last of Us season 2.

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! 

If the theme of The Last of Us, season 2, episode 2 was heartbreak, then the theme of episode 3 is certainly revenge. Yes, it's been a few months since Ellie witnessed father figure Joel's death at the hands of the mysterious Abby, and she's set about the task of exacting her revenge. However, that's not going to be as easy as tracing down one person and killing them, as episode 3 also introduced us to a new, dangerous element out of the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest: the Washington LIberation Front, or WLF.

But what kind of threat, exactly, are the WLF, and what's their connection to Abby Anderson? That's exactly what we're going to answer in this special, BONUS edition of this week's Lore Corner; read on to get your answers. And of course, beware of spoilers. 

Who are the Washington Liberation Front?

Like the other pseudo-militia formed in the universe of The Lats of Us, the Washington Liberation Front started as a response to the rule of FEDRA. Shortly before Ellie and Joel were making their way from Boston to Jackson, the WLF were overthrowing FEDRA's rule and establishing their own government in the cit of Seattle. But even after FEDRA was driven out, the WLF came to face a new kind of enemy: the cult known as the Seraphites, or "Scars," as the WLF call them.

Believing themselves to be part of a holy war, the Seraphites resisted the WLF's rule just as the WLF resisted FEDRA, and soon enough, an all-out blood feud came to rule the area around Seattle. It is this war that the player of The Last of Us Part II comes into at the beginning of the game, and in the last episode of the HBO adaptation, we saw snippets of it, as we witness what appears to be the slaughter of a group of scarred cultists by "wolves," which we know is a term that refers to the WLF.

What do the WLF have to do with Abby Anderson/the death of Joel Miller?

So where do Ellie and the late Joel come into this war? Well, they don't, exactly, it's more that the war between WLF and Seraphites comes to them, in the form of Abby Anderson. As you know if you've been keeping up with this season, Abby is the daughter of a Firefly doctor that Joel killed in order to save Ellie's life. In the years follow her father's death, Abby came to be a resourceful, wandering soldier, the kind that the WLF found extremely useful. 

Traveling all the way from  the Fireflies' old base, Abby comes to serve WLF, eventually proving herself worthy of leadership within their ranks. So, when Abby hears that her father's killer has been located, the WLF grant her a couple of their number to go on an expedition of revenge, seeking out and eventually killing Joel right in front of Ellie.

In order to preserve some of the season for those who haven't yet played the game, we won't get too far into what happens between the WLF and Abby after her mission of revenge is complete. However, it doesn't take the sharpest of viewers to already notice that the WLF members who went along with Abby aren't exactly as sure of her as a leader as they once might have been. And if the WLF is starting to feel like their relationship with Abby is dissolving, just imagine how Abby must feel, now that their usefulness to her has come to an end.

The Last of Us season 2 airs new episodes every Sunday night on HBO & Max.  

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.