Season 3 of The Last of Us is preparing for a shake-up as another character steps up to fill Joel Miller's (Pedro Pascal) shoes. After serving as the main protagonist in Season 1 of HBO's The Last of Us, Season 2 turned things upside down for Joel after having him killed off by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in the second episode. This sparked a whole new story for The Last of Us, as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) became the series' new lead and set out to avenge Joel's death.
While Pascal's Joel still had something of a presence throughout Season 2 of The Last of Us, that will change in Season 3 as the show accepts the character's death and moves on to share Abby's side of the story. Joel's absence has allowed one character to step into his archetype as the older male mentor figure for Ellie in Season 2 and into Season 3: Gabriel Luna's Tommy Miller.
Season 2 already saw Tommy step into that mentor role for Ellie, as he tried to comfort her in the wake of his brother's death. Tommy ultimately failed to curb Ellie's desire for revenge, and he and Jesse (Young Mazino) went after Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) in Seattle, finally catching up with them toward the end of the season.
Tommy's mentor role will continue in Season 3 of The Last of Us, though it could pave the way for the season's doom. HBO's The Last of Us is based on Naughty Dog's video game franchise, with Seasons 2 and 3 of the show based on The Last of Us Part II, and if the third season sticks to the source material, it will be Tommy who causes the story's dark outcome.
The Last of Us' New "Joel" Could Cause the Show's Dark End
In The Last of Us Part 2, after Ellie and Abby confront each other in the theater, Abby gains the upper hand and decides to let Ellie and her friends live. Ellie then returns home to Jackson and attempts to live a normal life. She moves into a house with Dina, and they both raise her son, JJ, and try to move on from the past.
Ellie has found relative peace in this new situation, but Tommy still hasn't let go of his vengeance. When Tommy arrives on Ellie's doorstep with news of Abby's whereabouts, he encourages her to take up the vengeance quest once more. This tears Ellie away from a potentially peaceful ending with Dina and sets her on a path to Santa Barbara, where she endures even more danger, death, and destruction in her quest to kill Abby. But if Ellie hadn't listened to her mentor in that moment, she may have had a chance at a happy ending.
It's possible that the HBO adaptation may alter Tommy's role in Ellie's story, given how Luna's character has been written and positioned differently in the show, but if it sticks to the source material, Tommy's mentorship will be the instigator of the series' unhappy conclusion.
Another reason Tommy's move to replace Joel in The Last of Us Season 3 could be dicey for the show is that Ellie and Tommy's relationship is nowhere near as pivotal as Joel and Ellie's. Joel and Ellie's bond is at the heart of The Last of Us and was the backbone of the initial season, while also serving as Ellie's emotional drive in Season 2. While Tommy served as an important supporting character in Ellie's journey, he never forged the same bond with her that Joel did, and trying to replace him with Joel in the season is never going to be as impactful.
In fact, many found Ellie and Tommy's relationship in the games, particularly Tommy's decision to try and guilt Ellie into going after Abby, to be controversial, and trying to recapture Ellie and Joel's bond through this new mentorship arrangement is doomed to fail.
To some extent, Ellie herself is also a replacement for Joel in Season 3 of The Last of Us, as her taking over as the main playable character in the game is echoed in her becoming the main character in the series. While Season 3 will switch viewpoints to predominantly show Abby's side of the story, the final arc (which is expected to be covered in Season 3 of The Last of Us) returns to Ellie's story by the end.
This doesn't change the story's outcome, as Ellie ultimately can't let go of her revenge and dooms herself to an unhappy ending by pursuing Abby instead of listening to Dina and trying to move on. When Ellie returns to her house after having made peace with her vendetta against Abby, it's to find she learned the lesson too late, and that Dina has left, leaving Ellie alone - which is her greatest fear and ultimately a tragic fate for her character.
