The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4 establishes a serious conflict in Seattle between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites (aka Scars). Since arriving in Seattle in pursuit of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and the WLF, the duo of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) has become stuck in the middle of a dangerous turf war.
Warning - This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4.
Episode 3 of Season 2 introduced viewers to the Seraphites, a seemingly peaceful religious group fleeing the conflict in Seattle. However, the group didn't get far before they were gunned down by the WLF's "wolves". Episode 4 revealed that despite the Seraphites' commitment to old-school weapons like bows and arrows, they could strike back just as hard. Ellie and Dina come across one of the Seraphites' battlegrounds, where they've murdered the WLF members and strung them up by their necks.
The qualities of the WLF and Seraphites are inherently different: the WLF is a large-scale militia with a soldier's mentality (led by Jeffrey Wright's Isaac). Meanwhile, the Seraphites are a religious cult dedicated to the teachings of a long-dead prophet. But each is as dangerous as the other, and is committed to their cause.
Ellie and Dina arrive in the middle of this deadly war, but it's clear the fighting began long before they arrived. The question is what sparked such violence between the two groups.
Why WLF Is at War With the Seraphites In The Last of Us Game & Show
In HBO's The Last of Us, the reasoning behind the WLF and Seraphite wars comes out in a scene between Isaac and a Scar prisoner he is torturing.
After being burned during Isaac's interrogation, the Scar begins chanting "she watches over me, she fills my soul," falling back on his beliefs in his Prophet. Isaac then questions whether the Prophet told him to kill children as well, to which the Scar bites back with "you kill our children." This conversation continues to reveal that the cycle of violence between the two factions has been ongoing, with no apparent instigator:
Isaac: "She tell you to kill children?"
Seraphite: "You kill our children."
Isaac: "Never by choice. You train them to shoot at us."
Seraphite: "Because you're wolves."
Isaac: "Because you train them to shoot at us."
Seraphite: "Because you broke the truce."
Isaac: "Because you broke the truce. Because you broke it, because we broke it. I'm not playing your little chicken and egg game today, Scar."
In The Last of Us Part 2, the origins of the conflict between the two groups can be pieced together in conversations and letters throughout the game. The lore reveals that the Prophet established her community outside of FEDRA's Quarantine Zone and was allowed to live peacefully while FEDRA was dealing with much bigger problems, like the WLF.
Once FEDRA was overthrown and the QZ torn down, the Seraphites began moving into the old FEDRA-controlled zones, preaching the Prophet's ways, which annoyed the WLF and led to some of their people being persecuted. The Seraphites then retreated to their island in Queen Anne.
Violence eventually broke out between the two groups, which led to them trading attacks. The WLF had the firepower, but the Prophet assembled a rival army of at least 500 people. Then, the WLF got their hands on the Seraphite Prophet and killed her, which escalated the war. The Seraphite Elders continued the Prophet's war after her death, and a truce was called at some point. But this was broken—it's unclear by whom—and the fighting continued.
The instigator of the war between the WLF and the Seraphites is intentionally unclear, reflecting the theme of The Last of Us Part 2: the cycle of violence and its unending brutality. With HBO's series adding more color to characters like Isaac, the origins of this war and its events may be explored further in future episodes or possibly in The Last of Us Season 3.
