The Day Ellie and Abby Became One: What Revenge Does to Us
The Last of Us Episode 5 Breakdown: Ellie, Dina, and the Price of Revenge
One of the best things about The Last of Us is how it shows the duality within Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The series makes it clear that, over time, one side of her is slowly being consumed by the other. Ellie isn’t dealing with her pain or trauma, and it's gradually turning her into someone colder, someone more like her enemy, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
When Ellie isn’t with Dina(Isabela Merced), she gets swallowed by the weight of her grief. Joel’s(Pedro Pascal) death, and the fact that she was forced to watch it, left a wound that never had time to heal. Her own injuries, along with her relentless pursuit of vengeance, have kept her from processing what happened. The only thing driving her now is the need to hunt down the people who took Joel from her.
Episode 5 of TLOU is a powerful example of how deeply Ellie is struggling with pain and trauma. Beneath her tough exterior, she is still vulnerable and hurting. But instead of confronting that pain, she’s using it as fuel to keep her vengeance burning. That internal conflict is slowly forming a duality in her character.
When Ellie is around Dina, especially in the theater, she appears lighter, cheerful even. Finding a way to get to Nora felt more like a mission than a personal burden. But later, when she’s alone in the concert room surrounded by guitars and old music equipment, it all shifts. That space, filled with reminders of Joel, becomes a trigger.
Music was one of the strongest bonds between Joel and Ellie. He taught her how to play guitar, introduced her to songs, and through music, they deepened their father-daughter-like connection. So when Ellie sits down and tries to play Future Days, it doesn’t bring back the warmth of those moments. Instead, what plays in her mind is the trauma of Joel’s death.
It was a brilliant move by the creators to avoid showing that tragic moment again. Just the sound of distant rumbling and the subtle shift in Bella Ramsey’s expression was enough to tell us exactly what was going through Ellie’s mind.
That’s the beauty of Bella’s performance, she can switch emotions in a fraction of a second and reveal an entirely different layer of Ellie’s psyche without saying a word.
Once Ellie’s mood shifted, every part of her refocused on one thing, getting revenge on Abby and her crew. A part of her truly believes that carrying out that vengeance will fix everything she’s feeling. That it will fill the hollow space left behind by Joel’s death, a space that’s slowly consuming her from the inside.
I’m not saying she shouldn’t seek revenge. I’m just pointing out that The Last of Us is showing us something deeper, that vengeance always comes with a cost. When you kill someone out of revenge, you lose a part of yourself too. Ellie’s reason for going after Abby is valid and painfully real. Anyone in her shoes might have done the same.
But here’s the hard truth: when you don’t deal with emotions, especially the ones that run deep, raw, and unresolved, they don’t just fade. They fester. And when you choose to press them down or worse, weaponize them to justify revenge, they turn into something toxic. It becomes like a double-edged sword dipped in poison, one that might kill your enemy, but wounds you in the process.
Hearing Dina’s childhood story, how she lost her mother and sister at the hands of a raider while she was away, adds a deeper layer to her character. She reflects on how much worse it could have been if she had been forced to watch it happen, like Ellie was with Joel. That haunting thought is what connects them, not just through love and friendship, but through shared grief.
Dina isn’t just by Ellie’s side for support. She’s there to honor Joel, and in her own way, to honor the memory of her mother and sister. Even though she eventually killed the man who hurt her family, the hole in her heart never healed. Ellie could be the one to fill it, but she’s too consumed by vengeance to notice. If both of them survive this journey, and Ellie succeeds in her mission, maybe they’ll finally have the chance to heal one another. But that’s the big question: will they both make it out alive? And if they do, will they still be the same?
Dina’s first kill story reignites Ellie’s thirst for revenge, and it’s not just emotional, it’s deeply rational, rooted in pain. Her words are powerful:
Would it make a difference if my family had hurt his people first?
No.
Then she says, if that raider hadn’t been there when she returned, and if she never got the chance to kill him:
I would have hunted him down forever.
Forever.
These aren’t just dramatic lines. They’re raw truth from the person Ellie loves most. And they only deepen the poison inside her, making her hunger for revenge even more lethal.
That shift is clear when she separates from Dina and Jesse at the park and heads into the heavily guarded hospital alone. Was she fearless in that moment? Or completely blinded by her need for revenge?
When Ellie finally finds Nora, and Nora senses the inevitability of death in Ellie’s eyes, you can see it, Ellie becomes a mirror image of Abby. Cruel, cold, and blinded by rage. Their entire exchange leading up to the basement was tight and intense. Both characters delivered lines that cut deep.
You remember me?
Yeah, you remember me.
There’s a part of the fan groups that only wants to see this version of Ellie, the one driven solely by revenge. But reducing her to that removes the most human part of her. With Nora, she became a soulless beast, consumed by vengeance. And this moment wouldn’t have hit as hard if we hadn’t already seen the softer, goofy, lovable side of her earlier in this season. It’s that contrast that makes Ellie feel real, and her character arc multidimensional.
Then came that red-lit basement scene, a bone-chilling moment. Bella Ramsey, in her coldest and most vengeful form, becomes untouchable. The red light painted her face like something out of a nightmare, and in that moment, her eyes looked like two black holes, completely void of mercy or humanity. The Last of Us keeps setting new standards, and this scene is permanently etched in my memory.
Bella’s control, her presence, and the sheer intensity she brought were mind-blowing. When she crouched down and locked eyes with Nora, that eye contact was icy enough to freeze you in place. She was terrifying. And Tati Gabrielle, as Nora, matched that energy in a different way, vulnerable, shaking, but still defiant. Refusing to give up Abby’s location even when she knew what was coming.
And that’s where the heartbreak sets in. Even though Ellie and Abby are sworn enemies, in that moment, when Ellie swung that rusted pipe down on Nora, they became the same. That’s the price of revenge. You turn into the very thing you’re trying to destroy.
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