Those who have not played “The last of us part II” Perhaps a little disconcerted at the end of the second season of the HBO adaptation. After a whole season after Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) in their quest to kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in Seattle, the final of season 2 returns in his last moments and shows what Abby was doing at the time when Jackson’s pair arrived in the city.

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It is a nod to the way things are punctuated in the game, which makes exactly the same rewind and makes the players move in the same days as they played as Ellie, but this time from Abby’s point of view. And given that “The Last of Us”, season 2, deals with this moment as a great revelation, it seems to point out that the show will follow the same model, with at least a part (otherwise the whole) of “The Last of Us” season 3 after Abby and its surrounding characters during the same chronology as the covers of season 2 for Ellie.

Writing this, it seems quite complicated, even if the idea of ​​a change in rewinding and a “rasthomon” style perspective is a current cinematographic tool for many decades. It is also admirable that the spectacle remains faithful to this narrative structure distinct from source material. Despite all that, HBO takes a big risk with this apparent change of perspective for season 3, and not only because Abby is not exactly the most popular character in the Fandom. Showing the same three days of two different angles back to back is one thing when everything occurs transparently, but given the production calendar of Prestige TV as “The Last of Us” ,, “ This live version could end more confused than poignant.

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The power of a “Rashomon” story is the ability to compare. It is a little different in this case, because the trip of Abby during these three days at Seattle covers a terrain almost entirely different from that of Ellie, but the point is: absent from major global warmingists “, previously on” moments and flashbacks, a large part of the meaning of the way in which these two characters light up perhaps because of the gap between the seasons.

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There is also the question of the spectator’s interest. It is not a secret for anyone that many game players do not like to play as Abby because they considered the character as a real villain after his murder of Joel. This perspective was mainly delighted by misogyny, hateful transformation, lack of literacy of media and online grants, but even without all this, playing like Abby is supposed be uncomfortable at the start. The intention of the game – and we can debate all day how much it performs this intention – is to put you in the place of a fanatic focused on revenge, then to push you to relax this fervor by seeing another side of things.

Again, power is immediacy of the comparison. Most people do not rewatch programs just before the release of a new season, which means that if season 3 consists mainly of Abby’s history, it could look more like an independent story with any of the characters that fans know and love, rather than intentional juxtaposition to Ellie’s trip.

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In short, the separation of the stories of Ellie and Abby between Seasons is a great risk. If season 2 had received the production capacity of 10 episodes instead of 7, it is likely that it could have operated in the stories of the two characters at the same time, jumping from front to a more traditional way, or discussing Abby for the last share of episodes. The choice not to do so is obviously very intentional – the creative team wants the unique effect of hard exchange. And although it can be more difficult to achieve on television than in the game, season 3 may be completely nailing it.

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One of the advantages of doing things this way is to keep each season relatively autonomous with regard to themes and the basic history. Season 2 concerns Ellie struggling with sorrow, loss and rage following the loss of someone with whom she had a complicated relationship. The story of Abby, without entering the spoilers, concerns institutional loyalty and the points of rupture that people reach before doing the right thing. By holding up on these ideas, season 3 could be a fantastic story in its own right, in particular with Dever on the driver’s seat.

Reclining assemblies and intentional dialogue can do a lot to fill the gaps in people’s memory. But even again, it’s a huge HBO swing, and only time will say if “The Last of Us” season 3 can remove it.

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