Melanie Lynskey’s ‘The Last of Us’ character perfectly sets the tone for ‘Part II’

Liane Hentscher/HBO

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us, Episode 4: “Please Hold My Hand.”

If you’re all caught up with HBO’s The Last of Us (which we’re certain more than half of the world is), you’ll be acquainted with a fascinating OC by the name of Kathleen, played by New Zealand actress and Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey. We’ll cut to the chase: Kathleen isn’t in The Last of Us games; she’s an original character created solely for the show by co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin. While she doesn’t appear in the games, Kathleen does share some similarities with a major character from The Last of Us: Part II, which causes us to draw comparisons and set the stage for the upcoming second season, which has already been announced. As we explore here, Mazin compares Kathleen to Madame Defarge in A Tale Of Two Cities, whose pursuit of a just cause makes her amoral, while her suffering makes her an object of pity. If that analogy sounds familiar, it’s because Part II‘s antagonist, Abby, could also be described thusly.

When we meet Kathleen, she’s interrogating a FEDRA coordinator by the name of Eldelstein (John Getz) regarding the whereabouts of fugitives Henry and Sam, the former of whom she blames for the death of her brother. Kathleen is the ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City, Missouri. Aided by her lieutenant Perry (Jeffrey Pierce), she aims to hunt down Henry and exact her revenge on those she deems traitors. In the end, Kathleen executes Eldelstein and takes matters into her own hands. During the hunt for Henry and Sam; she deduces that Henry must be running out of food/supplies, and he would never let Sam, his brother, starve to death. That’s where we left off with Kathleen, who seems to be a promising villain for the foreseeable future.

Anyone that’s played The Last of Us: Part II will be familiar — for better or worse — with Abby, a former Firefly and soldier for the Seattle’s Washington Liberation Front, who undergoes a journey of vengeance after learning that her father (the doctor intended to perform surgery on Ellie and procure a vaccine for Cordyceps) was murdered by Joel. After going rogue, Abby — aided by ex-boyfriend Owen and his current girlfriend Mel — makes it her life’s mission to track down Joel and avenge her father’s death. That certainly sounds similar to Kathleen’s biography, doesn’t it? If nothing else, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are likely using Kathleen as a vessel for Abby’s energy to set the tone for Part II, which will inevitably be darker and more mature than the first season. There’s a lot of betrayal on the horizon, so Kathleen’s thirst for revenge couldn’t be more appropriate to prepare audiences for a ruthless, blood-thirsty Abby — who’s arguably much more dangerous.