The Last of Us dropped a big tease with ‘The Monster at the End of This Book’

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7 contains a dark Easter egg that unlocks the entire meaning of the show (and the game) – and it involves ‘The Monster at the End of this Book.’

The second season finale mostly takes place during ‘Seattle Day Three’, with Ellie and Jesse venturing out to find Tommy as rain and wind batter the city.

After a nasty brush with some Wolves, they hide in a book shop (that has a mural soaked with subtext, “everything has a moral if only you can find it” – keep that in mind).

Ellie picks up a book with Grover from Sesame Street on the cover, and those who’ve played The Last of Us don’t need to read it to know what the show is getting at with its inclusion. Spoilers to follow…

‘The Monster at the End of This Book’ is The Last of Us in eight words

‘The Monster at the End of This Book’ is a 1971 book written by Jon Stone, one of the lead writers on Sesame Street. It’s also a nod to Ellie’s arc in The Last of Us, right up to the game’s final scene.

In Season 2, we’ve seen Ellie resort to desperate, regretful measures to find any information about Abby’s whereabouts. She beat Nora to a pulp with a pipe as her body was ravaged by Cordyceps spores, she shot Owen, and she accidentally killed Mel and watched her slip away as she begged her to save her baby (something she wasn’t capable of).

By the end of the finale, even though she hasn’t found Abby, Ellie is clearly troubled by everything she’s done – almost like the path of revenge is paved with bad intentions.

Now, I won’t spoil exactly what happens in the game (you’ll just need to play it or wait for The Last of Us Season 3), but it’s not a spoiler to say that the story is about revenge and hatred – and how poisonous it is.

“We feel like it’s the right thing to do when we’ve been wronged and ‘justice needs to be served’, but when does that cycle end? I feel like that’s the whole point of the video game,” Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie, told the game’s podcast.

That’s where ‘The Monster at the End of This Book’ comes in. In the book, Grover tries to prevent the reader from encountering the titular monster (almost like Ellie having to overcome constant obstacles and become increasingly violent to get what she wants). At the end, Grover discovers that he is the monster.

Joel was the monster to Abby, Abby is the monster to Ellie, and Ellie is the monster to everyone she kills in her pursuit of Abby. It’s really that simple.