The Last of Us Season 3 Faces Abby's Rat King Battle

HBO's The Last of Us is expected to adapt one of the video game's most disturbing encounters in Season 3, as Abby confronts the Rat King in a hospital basement. The sequence connects her struggle with the trauma surrounding Joel's death to her efforts to protect two young Seraphite runaways, Lev and Yara, following the events of Season 2. According to Screen Rant's October 8, 2026, analysis, the next season is expected to follow Abby through the same three days in Seattle that formed the backdrop of Ellie's revenge mission.

Abby's journey includes navigating a damaged skyscraper, descending through a bombed-out hotel and becoming caught in a violent civil war. The Rat King encounter takes place in the hospital's Trauma Center, where Abby searches the basement for essential medical supplies. The creature is a grotesque fusion of multiple infected people and represents one of the most challenging encounters in The Last of Us Part II.

The television series has already planted clues about the location. During Season 2, a W.L.F. commander remarked that not even rats occupied the hospital's lower levels, while showrunner Craig Mazin teased the mystery surrounding the building's B3 floor.

Screen Rant argues that the adaptation must preserve the encounter's sustained tension rather than reduce it to a brief action sequence. The game's version relies on atmosphere, prolonged danger and the difficulty of defeating the creature. The publication also contrasted the anticipated battle with the television adaptation's treatment of stalkers in Season 2. Although the infected retained the stealth and frightening behavior associated with the games, their relatively easy defeat weakened the sense of danger during a sequence in which Ellie and Dina appeared surrounded before Jesse intervened.

The Rat King carries a narrative purpose beyond its role as a powerful enemy. In the game, the creature's relentless violence echoes Abby's traumatic memories of Joel, whose actions at a hospital contributed to the events that drive her story. Abby's arc also differs from Ellie's because obtaining revenge does not resolve her emotional pain. After killing Joel, Abby begins to reassess her priorities as she develops a protective relationship with Lev and Yara, two young Seraphites who become central to her attempts to find a different path.

The encounter therefore marks a turning point in Abby's relationship with her trauma. Defeating the Rat King forces her to confront a threat that recalls the violence associated with Joel and creates a visual parallel between surviving the infected and facing the psychological consequences of revenge. A separate analysis published by The Michigan Daily on October 8, 2026, examined how The Last of Us Part II and Kill Bill portray revenge through different approaches to violence and characterization.

Both stories follow women seeking retribution for the deaths of loved ones, but their protagonists experience markedly different consequences. In Kill Bill, Beatrix Kiddo, played by Uma Thurman, pursues Bill after he murders her fiancé and the people attending her wedding rehearsal. The film presents her targets as largely cartoonish assassins, allowing its stylized sword fights to create a sense of catharsis even as the violence escalates.

Ellie's pursuit of Abby, by contrast, becomes increasingly destructive because The Last of Us Part II emphasizes the humanity of its characters. The people Ellie kills have friends and families, making the consequences of her actions harder to dismiss as she abandons the possibility of working through her grief within the community of Jackson, Montana.

The Michigan Daily also noted that Beatrix openly acknowledges the consequences of her actions after killing Vernita Green, addressing Green's daughter with the words, "When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting." Her blunt acknowledgment contrasts with Ellie's increasingly consuming fixation on revenge. These contrasting portrayals provide context for Abby's development in the television series.

While Ellie becomes consumed by the pursuit of vengeance, Abby's experiences after Joel's death shift her attention toward protecting Lev and Yara and confronting the trauma that remains unresolved. Screen Rant identifies the Rat King sequence as a key test of whether the television adaptation can translate the game's prolonged horror into a different medium. The publication points to the show's emphasis on emotional storytelling as a reason the encounter must serve both as a frightening confrontation and as a meaningful stage in Abby's character development.

Season 3 is expected in 2027, according to Screen Rant's report, following the clues established in the Season 2 finale and Mazin's comments about the hospital's B3 level.