The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 doesn’t just kick off Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) quest for vengeance against Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). The HBO show also introduces a strange new cult that will be all too familiar to fans of the video game. However, if you’ve never played the games, you might have found yourself intrigued, if not downright confused, but a super kooky new tribe of characters who have eschewed modern conveniences like guns or cars in favor of self mutilation, low-fi weapons, and Renaissance Faire cloaks.
So what’s the deal with the new cult in The Last of Us? Who exactly are the Seraphites?
**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3, now streaming on MAX**
About 20 minutes into The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3, the action suddenly shifts from Jackson, Wyoming to a verdant forest trail. We see a bald man, scars on both cheeks, walking a trail at full alert. He’s wearing a green clock with a specific symbol on the back and carrying his bow at the ready. The man whistles a signal that is soon answered by another bald man in similar attire. A group of people, all dressed in similar earth tones and all sporting those same cheek scars, continues to walk.
There’s then a sweet scene between a little girl named Constance (Makena Whitlock) and her father (Michael Abbott Jr.), where we get to eavesdrop on some important lore about these people. These strange people are migrants attempt to resettle somewhere safe. They believe in the teachings of a mysterious woman named the Prophet, who has been dead for ten years. Whistles, hammers, liturgy…these are all part of the religion she built for them.
However, their religion also makes them a target for persecution. Almost as soon as little Constance gets her hands on her first hammer, a whistle of alarm pierces the air. The Seraphites take cover and Constance’s father tells her that they aren’t hiding from “demons,” but “wolves.” (“Wolves” meaning the members of the W.L.F. or Washington Liberation Front.)
Later in the episode, Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced) stumble upon the corpses of all these people, including Constance. It’s a scene that manages to shock the young women in its barbarity. Particularly because no mercy was given to little Constance.
Okay, so while the HBO show might be teasing out who the Seraphites are and why the Wolves hate them in a way to make us hate Abby and her pals even more than we already did, fans of the video game series know the situation is a bit more complicated.
So who are the Seraphites in The Last of Us Season 2? Here’s everything you need to know about these strange massacred people…
Who are the Seraphites in The Last of Us? All About the New Cult Introduced in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3:
The only confirmation that HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 gives us that this new cult calls themselves the Seraphites comes from the closing credits, which confirm actor Billy Wickman is the “Seraphite Scout.” Nevertheless, you can still find a ton of (potentially spoilery) information about the Seraphites if you simply dig into the lore of the video games, specificially The Last of Us II.
In The Last of Us II, we learn that there’s a bitter ground war in Seattle between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites. The Seraphites were created by a woman in suburban Seattle who claimed to have a vision from god. This charismatic “Prophet” also happened to be an excellent fighter, able to resist many of the Infected. All of this means is that when she saved people from certain death, only to preach egalitarian principals, it sounded pretty good to some.
The Prophet also believed the Cordyceps virus was a punishment from god. Humanity needed to cleanse itself of its sins, which in her mind meant getting rid of any technology created before the Cordyceps pandemic. Hence the bows, arrows, whistles, and hammers.
The tensions between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites basically come down to a turf war. The Seraphites, as teased in The Last of Us Season 2 trailer, aren’t exactly pacifists. They, too, terrorize and kill people unlike them. It’s basically become a fierce civil war on the streets of Seattle where the Seraphites and Wolves are fighting for their group’s own survival.
The Seraphites we meet in this week’s The Last of Us seem to be non-violent. In fact, Constance’s father expresses they are fleeing home to find a new, safe place to live. All of which suggests that, you know, the Seraphites are people, too.
The Last of Us returns next Sunday, May 4 at 9 PM ET on HBO and MAX.
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