The Last Of Us Hides Another Sneaky Cameo In Its Finale

This piece contains spoilers for the season 1 finale of "The Last of Us."

The season finale of "The Last of Us" is major for a few reasons. For starters, it's further proof that effective video game adaptations can be achieved and can even add some interesting additions to the lore that many already know and love. While many of HBO's changes from game to television are minor, the show still understands and honors the Naughty Dog game that came before it.

The most prominent way it paid homage to 2013's gaming juggernaut is by recruiting some of the game's voice and motion-capture actors and casting them in live-action roles. Merle Dandridge reprises her original role of Marlene, the leader of the enigmatic Fireflies, for the series. The actor who plays Tommy in the game, Jeffrey Pierce, had a two-episode arc as a revolutionary. And even Troy Baker, the original Joel, gets in on the action by playing a cannibalistic cult member. The season finale, "Look for the Light," is no different thanks to a cold open starring Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in both games, as the character's ill-fated mother. Johnson, however, wasn't the only game actor callback the finale has in store for us. Another critical one was hiding in plain sight and could be a sign of what's to come for the show's bound-to-be controversial second season. You just have to listen very closely.

When Joel (Pedro Pascal) enters the hospital room where Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is about to be presumably killed by a Firefly doctor for study, he finds the unnamed man working with two masked nurses. After killing the doctor, Joel tells the two nurses to stand in the corner as he frees a sedated Ellie, leaving the two alone in the operating room. Eagle-eared fans might recognize the voice of one of those nurses as Laura Bailey, an accomplished video game and voice actor. 

Not only is this a fun cameo by a great figure in the video game industry, but it also serves as a crucial hint for what lies ahead. Bailey, much like the aforementioned Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, has a major role in 2020's "The Last of Us Part II" as Abby, a former Firefly with a dark past and an even darker idea of vengeance.

This isn't just a cheeky wink and a nod to what the show will have to adapt in season 2. Abby is the daughter of Firefly surgeon Jerry Anderson in "Part II" — the doctor tasked by Marlene to extract the Cordyceps cure from Ellie. This makes Bailey's cameo in the season 1 finale a direct but unspoken link to the events of the second game, and the previously announced second season — while it's unlikely that Bailey actually played Abby in that scene due to their age discrepancies (Abby is supposed to be only a few years older than Ellie), her presence by itself is a harrowing reminder of what is still to come for Joel and Ellie. It's fair to assume that nobody is truly ready.