Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in HBO’s The Last of Us. (HBO)
The Last of Us season two made a big change to the original game’s storyline, and queer fans have been left heartbroken.
Warning: this article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season two episode two.
There are several pretty massive reasons why The Last of Us season two episode two has left the show’s fans devastated, but not all of them involve a golf club and a girl with a bloodthirsty need for vengeance.
Video game lovers who first came to the post-apocalyptic drama through the original two Naughty Dog games have been intricately cross-checking to see how different the HBO TV adaptation is.
As such, fans of the games were disheartened to see that an intimate scene between gusty survivalist Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her friend-turned-lover Dina (Isabela Merced) had seemingly been omitted from the TV show.
In The Last of Us Part II game, Ellie and Dina end up making out and sleeping with each other in a shop that has been repurposed as a weed farm. It marks a huge turning point for their relationship, which fans watched blossom at the end of episode one.
Yet while the weed farm does make an appearance during the TV adaptation, its Ellie and Jessie (Young Mazino) – Dina’s ex – who discover it, during a patrol, before swiftly leaving.
In the game, the moment between Ellie and Dina happens when the pair are in lighter spirits, before the harrowing and shocking death of Joel (Pedro Pascal) at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
Some fans therefore think it’s unlikely we’ll get to see the moment between Ellie and Dina elsewhere in the season.
dina and ellie’s weed scene may you
— chris (@chrisdadeviant) April 21, 2025
rest in peace 🕊️🕊️🕊️ #TheLastOfUs
pic.twitter.com/PQVHrWU2NI
“Dina and Ellie’s weed scene, may you rest in peace,” wrote one fan on X/Twitter, alongside a clip of the original scene from the gameplay.
“I’m gonna miss you most of all, Dina and Ellie’s weed scene,” agreed another.
A third raged: “HBO TLOU robbing us of the weed den scene is actually criminal. That scene was crucial to Ellie & Dina’s bond – the softness, the tension, the normalcy?? It was one of their last few moments of peace before everything fell apart. We deserved to see that on screen.”
i'm gonna miss you most of all, dina and ellie's weed scene #thelastofus pic.twitter.com/FxI73PeXXB
— Nora Dominick (@noradominick) April 21, 2025
The Last of Us showrunners have since suggested that they wanted Joel’s murder to occur early on in the season as they didn’t want it to drag out for fans of the video games who already knew what was to come.
Hence there may not have been enough space to include the Ellie and Dina weed scene in episode two – but that’s not to say it might not come later down the line.
Some fans are hopeful that the moment will come further on in the season.
“To all the folks disappointed about Ellie and Dina not together in the grow house, I will remind you that sometimes things get shuffled for TV, and also Ellie took a HUGE bag of weed with her,” wrote one viewer.
Speaking to PinkNews recently, Merced said that she felt comfortable creating intimacy with Ramsey, including for their first kiss at the end of episode one.
“Bella is such a non-threatening person which is completely the opposite of Ellie, but I felt so comfortable. We could really, for the love of these characters, explore how to approach that and the different ways and do it a billion times, and I wasn’t uncomfortable with it,” she shared.
“All the gay women on the set, we all went and watched playback, like people were crying… It’s not just like, ‘Oh the gay girl, the side character. It’s like, this is the main character. It’s so beautiful. It’s so cinematic.”
The Last of Us continues on HBO on Sundays in the US and Sky on Mondays in the UK.
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