The season finale of The Last of Us Season 2 on HBO was predictably heavy with emotion. Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) reaches a critical threshold, facing the realization that her pursuit of vengeance may come at too great a cost, but this understanding comes much too late.

**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7, now streaming on MAX**

Driven by a desire to find Abby (portrayed by Kaitlyn Dever), Ellie inadvertently crosses a line she set for herself and ends up taking an innocent life. Using information from Nora (Tati Gabrielle), she traces the Fireflies to an aquarium. Despite narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Seraphites on her journey, she finds herself stumbling upon Mel (Ariela Barer) and Owen (Spencer Lord) amidst a discussion about following Abby’s latest instructions. She threatens them with a gun, demanding they pinpoint Abby’s location on a map. In a moment of panic, Owen grabs for a weapon, prompting Ellie to fire in self-defense. This results in Owen’s immediate death and a severe injury to Mel’s neck.

As Mel lies critically wounded, she makes a heartbreaking revelation of her pregnancy and pleads with Ellie to perform an emergency Cesarean section before both she and the unborn child succumb. Overwhelmed by what she has done, Ellie is unable to save the baby, left to mourn over the lifeless bodies of Mel and her child. This tragic scene is compounded by the arrival of Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Jesse (Young Mazino).

Tommy, of course, is Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) brother. He acts as a surrogate Joel for Ellie, comforting and protecting her no matter what.

“Tommy just, she’s mine,” The Last of Us star Gabriel Luna said, explaining the paternal affection he now feels for his dead brother’s adopted daughter. “She’s mine now and she’s our family and I got to go get her.”

The only reason why Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) are stuck in Seattle alone is because when they put their plan to get justice for Joel, they couldn’t sway the whole local council. Tommy was on board with the plan, but the majority (including Jesse) wasn’t.

Given that Tommy is now a leader in Jackson, as well as a father and husband, his decision to go after the girls with Jesse could not have been made lightly. Jesse explains in the episode that he made his choice to follow them because he knew Ellie would burn the world down to save him if the roles were reversed. When DECIDER asked Luna what pushed Tommy to go, he gave a more complex answer.

“I think it’s a very personal decision. It’s probably one that I fought with Maria about,” Luna said, referring to Tommy’s wife, played by Rutina Wesley.

“I think ultimately she knew that that’s our family. Not just mine, but hers as well. You know, I don’t think she’s adamantly against it. I think she supports it, reluctantly,” he said. “I think the town leader in her and the wife is obviously against it, but I think that at her core she knows how important Ellie is to our family, the Millers. She’s part of us.”

Luna then revealed that he and Wesley had filmed another scene, set during The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2, that was cut from the show. It took place after Tommy is on the radio “calling for Joel.” Luna said that cutting that scene left “more room for Maria and more acceptance in her heart of the family as a whole, Joel and Ellie included.”

He explained, “In that scene, there was talk about, ‘You have us here. You have your son, you have all these other things. Your brother’s one man, but we have all this people here in this town.’”

Luna pointed out that now Tommy is in a similar scenario. “Ellie’s out there alone with Dina, but I think it’s different.”

“Without that [Episode 2] scene, you leave more room and it’s much more interesting, Maria’s position,” he said. I’m sure she supports him going out and bringing her back, but you know, who knows how the events shake out and then what the ramifications of it will be.”

Well, now we know that Tommy’s decision has resulted in at least one more horrible death. Abby kills Jesse in the final moments of The Last of Us Season 2. It’s left up in the air if she also kills Ellie or even Tommy. We’ll sadly have to wait until Season 3 to learn how those events “shake out.”