HBOThe Last of Us Season 2 introduces Dina, Ellie’s best friend (and perhaps more than that) – and she has an emotional, pivotal arc in the games.
Cast your mind back to the first season of The Last of Us; specifically the sixth episode, when Joel and Ellie arrive at Jackson. She sees a girl staring at her from across the canteen and snarls, “What?” before she runs away.
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann said it was an Easter egg for something in the future. Two years later, Isabela Merced has made her debut as Dina, Ellie’s closest friend and love interest since Riley all those years ago.
If you haven’t played The Last of Us games, you may be curious about whether Dina dies before the finale. The answer requires some extremely spoiler-y context, so if you don’t want to know anything else, stop reading now.
Does Dina die in The Last of Us?
SonyNo, Dina survives the events of The Last of Us Part 2.
In the original game, Dina accompanies Ellie to Seattle to pursue Abby after she murders Joel. Along the way, Dina confesses that she’s pregnant with Jesse’s child, which puts a slight strain on their relationship for a little while, but their love for one another is stronger than any discomfort and awkwardness.
However, things take a turn when Abby finds them at the theater. She kills Jesse, shoots Tommy, and threatens to slit Dina’s throat – even after learning she’s pregnant. Thankfully, Lev (don’t worry about him for now) calls out to her and she calms down, allowing Dina and Ellie to live and return to Jackson with Tommy.
The game then jumps ahead by one year, with Ellie, Dina, and her son JJ leading peaceful lives on a farm. One day, Tommy (in notably worse shape than before) visits them and reveals he’s going after Abby again. Dina refuses to help, but Ellie clearly wants to join him. The next day, Ellie packs her things and tells Dina she needs to find – and kill – Abby to end her trauma.
“I don’t sleep. I don’t eat. I’m… I’m not like you, Dina,” Ellie says.
“What? You think this is easy? For you, and for him, I deal with it. So, what? I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for you, for god knows how long, just thinking you’re f**king dead the entire time?” Dina replies.
Ellie tells her she doesn’t plan to die, and Dina says, “Yeah, well, neither did Jesse. Or Joel. Hey, stop. Hey. Hey, come on. We’ve got a family. She doesn’t get to be more important than that.”
Sometime after Ellie sets off to pursue Abby, Dina takes JJ and leaves the farm.
Why Dina is so important in The Last of Us
SonyDina’s arc illustrates the futility of revenge. Ellie can’t see past her anger, even when given the chance to live twice and have a happy life with a family she loves, and the need to enact vengeance causes her to lose everything.
And, let’s not forget, Dina has demons of her own. She may not have been close to Joel (unlike in the HBO series), but she still had to endure the horrors and violence of the mission to Seattle – to the point she was left bloodied, bruised, and broken by Abby.
Also, we know that Dina’s sister Talia was murdered as they grew up. When Ellie finds two WLF members who’d been tortured to death, Dina says, “If I had my sister’s killers tied to a chair, I’d do worse.”
Just like Abby wouldn’t stop until she avenged her father, Ellie needs to find her, whatever the cost – they are the same character.
Dina has every reason to hate Abby and want her dead. She could spend her life trying to find the person responsible for killing Talia. But she chooses peace over further bloodshed; violence begets violence.
For more coverage, find out if Abby dies in The Last of Us game, what you need to know about the WLF, and check out our breakdowns on when The Last of Us takes place and the show’s soundtrack.
