HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 finale, “Convergence,” delivered a heart-wrenching climax that has fans buzzing, but the aquarium confrontation, a pivotal moment from The Last of Us Part II, has sparked debate for diverging from the game. Co-creator Craig Mazin explained the change in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, citing physical realism as the key factor. “Ellie is not really capable of killing Owen,” Mazin said. “You look at Bella [Ramsey] and you look at Spencer Lord—he’s 6’4” and just incredibly imposing. A physical struggle wasn’t going to go well.”
In the game, Ellie (voiced by Ashley Johnson) storms the Seattle Aquarium hunting for Abby, only to encounter Owen and Mel. A tense standoff escalates when Owen tries to disarm her, leading to a gritty fight where Ellie shoots him in the chest. Mel then attacks with a knife, but Ellie overpowers her, stabbing her in the neck. The gut-punch comes when Mel’s coat reveals her pregnancy after her death, amplified by Owen’s dying words—a brutal moment that deepens Ellie’s moral descent.
The HBO series takes a different tack. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) confronts Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer) at gunpoint, using Joel’s map trick to demand Abby’s location. When Owen reaches for his gun, Ellie shoots him in the neck, and the bullet grazes Mel, fatally wounding her. As Mel bleeds out, she reveals her pregnancy and begs Ellie to perform an emergency C-section to save her baby. Ellie, panicked and out of her depth, tries but fails, watching Mel die in a scene Mazin intentionally made “more f**ked up” than the game’s version. “I called Neil [Druckmann] and was like, ‘I think I can make it darker,’” Mazin said, noting that even Druckmann was stunned by the bleakness.
Mazin’s choice stems from practicality. Ramsey’s 5’1” Ellie facing off against Lord’s towering Owen made a physical brawl less believable than in the game, where Ellie’s strength is less tied to real-world physics. “She’s not there to kill them. She just wants to kill Abby,” Mazin explained, emphasizing that Ellie’s goal was information, not slaughter. The accidental graze that kills Mel adds a layer of “collateral damage,” amplifying the tragedy over the game’s deliberate violence.
The shift has sparked mixed reactions. Some critics argue the show softens Ellie to keep her sympathetic, unlike the game’s more ruthless portrayal. Others praise the emotional weight, with the botched C-section scene hitting harder than the game’s straightforward kills. The show also skips a controversial game moment where Ellie kills Abby’s dog, Alice. Mazin justified this, citing the already intense violence and the heavier impact of live-action animal death. “You get one dog-murdering episode a lifetime,” he joked, referencing his Chernobyl work.
Another tweak heightens the drama: in the game, Owen reveals Mel’s pregnancy, but in the show, Mel discloses it herself, making the moment more immediate and harrowing. This aligns with the series’ effort to humanize Ellie, seen in her guilt after torturing Nora and her hesitation to fully embrace violence, unlike the game’s darker arc. Vanity Fair suggests these changes aim to keep Ellie likable, smoothing out the game’s rougher edges.
The aquarium scene sets up the finale’s cliffhanger, where Abby storms the theater, kills Jesse, wounds Tommy, and aims at Ellie, cutting to black after a gunshot. Mazin confirmed Ellie survives, mirroring the game, but Season 3 will shift to Abby’s perspective, flashing back to “Seattle Day One” at the WLF’s stadium base. This pivot, paired with the aquarium changes, underscores the show’s focus on the cyclical nature of revenge, with Ellie’s unintended killings fueling Abby’s wrath.
While the game’s aquarium fight is a raw showcase of Ellie’s vengeance, the show trades physicality for emotional devastation, tailoring the scene to Ramsey’s portrayal and a grounded take on violence. Whether this resonates or feels like a dodge depends on the viewer, but Mazin’s goal was to make Ellie’s darkest moment hit harder in a new way. As Season 3 approaches, fans are left wrestling with the fallout and gearing up for Abby’s side of the story.