Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us season 2.

From video game staples like Joel and Ellie to newcomers like Gail, The Last of Us season 2 is full of fascinating characters, but some of them are more memorable, believable, and three-dimensional than others. The Last of Us saga is built on a single core philosophy: simple stories, complex characters. The plotline, whether it’s a cross-country adventure to create a zombie cure or a ruthless city-wide quest for revenge, is just a backdrop through which to explore emotionally rich relationships between flawed, well-rounded characters. The Last of Us season 2 maintained this philosophy, with an unwavering focus on character.

Season 2 deepened The Last of Us season 2’s cast gave a great performance, but some of their roles had stronger writing and characterization than others.

8 Gail

Played By Catherine O'Hara

Thanks to the unparalleled comedic talents of Catherine O’Hara, Gail is a very funny character in The Last of Us season 2. She’s a great scene partner for Joel, tearing him down with a biting one-liner every time he tries to open up about his feelings or reach out on an emotional level (which is already incredibly difficult for him to do). But Gail just isn’t as believable as the other characters.

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She’s a fun, lighthearted presence to have in Jackson, but I don’t buy her as a real human being the way I do with all the other characters. She spends all her time day-drinking and smoking weed in the midst of an apocalypse. She’d be a great character for a spoof like Zombieland, but she feels out of place in a straightforward zombie drama like The Last of Us.

7 Jesse

Played By Young Mazino

When the TV show first introduced Jesse, he perfectly captured everything that made his video game counterpart so lovable. He’s kind, funny, responsible but laidback, loyal to his friends, and even more loyal to his community. However, when he caught up with Ellie and Dina in Seattle, the character became very one-note.

His frustration with Ellie in the TV show is more believable than his chillness in the game. But as he lectures Ellie over and over again about how selfish and reckless and incapable she is, he starts to become very repetitive, and doesn’t seem like much of a friend. In the game, although Jesse believes Ellie’s quest for vengeance is reckless and irresponsible, he at least has some comion about her motivation.

6 Isaac

Played By Jeffrey Wright

The Last of Us season 2 fleshes out the leader of the W.L.F., Isaac. In the game, due to the nature of gameplay, he’s only shown from the perspective of the playable character, Abby. The TV show used its narrative flexibility to go back in time and fill in Isaac’s backstory. It expanded on the brief glimpse at his torture tactics from the game for a full-blown torture scene. It showed him as the leader of an entire army, not just as a mentor to Abby.

The TV show used its narrative flexibility to go back in time and fill in Isaac’s backstory.

His characterization as an evil tyrant is pretty straightforward. But Jeffrey Wright is always captivating, and he relished the opportunity to explore his video game role even further in live-action. Plus, the TV show hammers home the irony that Isaac overturned one fascistic organization only to replace it with another one.

5 Ellie

Played By Bella Ramsey

Bella Ramsey gave a truly great performance as Ellie in The Last of Us season 2. When they got the chance to show Ellie’s dark descent into vengeful rage, they nailed it. But Ellie was let down by underwhelming writing this season. Ellie’s personality didn’t change at all in the five years since the season 1 finale, and her demeanor didn’t change at all after Joel died. These changes are what made her arc in the game so compelling.

The TV show portrays Ellie as being oddly incompetent — she needed to be told to bring medical supplies on her cross-country journey. This has been excused by the fact she’s blinded by revenge, but that seems like a cop-out. In the game, she’s both vengeful and competent.

4 Tommy

Played By Gabriel Luna

Joel’s brother Tommy gets a much bigger role in season 2, just like he did in the sequel game, as Joel and Ellie come to live with him in Jackson. The TV show cuts out a lot of Tommy’s storyline from the game by having him come to Seattle after Ellie and not before her. But it also adds a lot of interesting material for Tommy’s character that wasn’t in the game.

When the infected horde attacks Jackson, we get to see Tommy as a leader and a protector. He gets one of the season’s most badass moments when he lures a bloater away from Maria and singlehandedly takes it down with a flamethrower. It was also heartwarming to see him embrace Ellie as a niece and become a father to a young son of his own.

3 Abby

Played By Kaitlyn Dever

Kaitlyn Dever was faced with the most daunting challenge in The Last of Us season 2’s cast. She had to play the game’s most controversial character, Abby, a role that garnered widespread backlash and even death threats when the source material was released. Dever had to kill everyone’s favorite character and still get audiences excited to spend the whole next season following her story — and do so with very little screen time.

Dever had to kill everyone’s favorite character and still get audiences excited to spend the whole next season following her story — and do so with very little screen time.

And, amazingly, Dever pulled it off. She captured Abby’s toughness, her true grit, and her vengeful rage. But she also conveyed so much depth and vulnerability under the surface. Every time she showed up, she commanded the audience’s attention. The Last of Us season 3 is in very safe hands with Dever’s Abby.

2 Dina

Played By Isabela Merced

From the very first episode of the season, Dina stole the show. Isabela Merced perfectly replicates everything that made Dina such a wonderful character in the game: her kindness, her thoughtfulness, her fun-loving attitude, her goofy sense of humor, her love for Ellie — she got everything right. Dina took a backseat in the last couple of episodes, when she had an arrow in her leg, but she carried the first five.

The Last of Us season 2 made some major changes to Dina's story from the video game, like giving her Tommy's role as Joel's patrol partner in his death scene and having her at Ellie's side when she first encounters the Seraphites.

As the season went on, Dina overshadowed Ellie. At times, it seemed as though Dina wanted revenge for Joel’s death more than Ellie. She had to remind Ellie why they were in Seattle, and she had to talk her out of turning back.

1 Joel

Played By Pedro Pascal

Even though he was taken out of commission very early in the season, Pedro Pascal’s Joel is still the best part of the show. Ever since Joel was killed by Abby, he’s been sorely missed. Season 2’s flashback episode was a timely reminder that Joel and Ellie’s lovable on-screen dynamic was the heart of the show, and the reason audiences got instantly hooked in season 1.

Joel’s untimely death was important for the story the show started telling in season 2, but it also deprived The Last of Us of its best character.

Joel’s untimely death was important for the story the show started telling in season 2, but it also deprived The Last of Us of its best character. There are plenty of great characters left behind, from Dina to Abby to Joel’s next of kin, Tommy. But there’s still no suitable replacement for the guy who’s as much a loving father as he is a ruthless zombie slayer.