The Last of Us 2 has a subtle painting in Abby's room that'll break your heart

The Last of Us 2
(Image credit: Naughty Dog)

An eagle-eyed The Last of Us 2 fan has spotted an incredibly subtle, but no-less heartbreaking painting tucked away in Abby's room in the WLF's Stadium base.

*Minor story spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2 follow*

The painting first appears in a flash-back sequence from The Last of Us 2 in which Abby's dad Jerry talks to Marlene in his office. Behind Jerry's desk and in-between the two characters is a non-descript painting of Salt Lake City, Jerry and Abby's hometown and the location of the hospital where Jerry is killed by Joel.

If you weren't looking, there's almost zero chance you would've noticed this little detail, much less recognized its narrative significance, but Redditor yummy486 stumbled across the same painting at a later point in the game and made the connection.

The painting appears again when you're playing as Abby in the Seattle stadium section. If you aim the camera toward Abby's bed in her room, you'll see the same painting of Salt Lake City tacked to the wall just above her bed. It seems then that Abby visited her dad's former office and took the painting home as a keepsake. And indeed, rewinding just a bit, you can see the painting is missing from Jerry's office when you explore the area as Ellie.

Even more than a year since launch, players are still finding meaningful easter eggs hidden throughout The Last of Us 2. Recently, a discreet callback to the first game's DLC was discovered, and just a few days before that a fan spotted a hidden mural dedicated to an iconic moment from the first game.

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Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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