Lost pieces of identity

This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

If I ever were to lose you
I’d surely lose myself
Everything I have found here
I’ve not found by myself

Pearl Jam — Future Days

There is a common opinion that the major theme of Last of us part II is revenge and never-ending circle of violence. I want to show you that such a simplification make you miss the richness and depth of subconscious motivations of characters, which explain a very natural ending of the story. My thesis is that the main driving force of the story is not revenge, but loss. Each main character — Abby and Ellie — lose a piece of identity. They begin a journey to regain their identity.

The great part of each identity constitute memories of our relatives and friends. Abby and Ellie have lost the ability to retain their last good memories of their fathers — real (Abby) and foster (Ellie). Both fathers died a violent death and the game shows that this is what becomes the last memory of their daughters. Both experience brutal flashbacks.

As players, we constantly relive the scene in which Abby walks in with the hospital counter and opens the door to the operating room, where her father lies on a pool of blood. In exactly the same way, while playing the role of Ellie, we are direct witnesses to the brutal and bloody death of Joel. And then, as Ellie, we relive it all over again. Ellie — haunted by the bloody flashbacks — cannot enjoy country life with Dina and JJ.

The blind circle of the revenge is broken by the twists in the flashbacks. While opening the door, Abby does not see her father but hanged Lev and Yara. From this moment she gets a sense of purpose which is very different from revenge. Next time, Abby opens the door to see her father standing there and smiling. In exactly the same way in the last fight between Ellie and Abby, executed in flashback, we see — for a little moment — how Ellie re-call Joel, not dead and in blood, but sitting on the porch. Memories about both fathers are restored peacefully.

Both characters recover a lost fragment of their identity — lost memories of their fathers, which changes the motivation of both characters: Abby does not want to fight, Ellie cannot continue violence. Identity is recovered, new scares earned and the Pearl Jam song sounds different than the first time.