A few years before “The Last of Us Part II” was released, franchise co-creator Neil Druckmann famously said the sequel is “about hate.” The finished game lived up to that promise. But is “The Last of Us” Season 2 about that as well? There have been moments when it has seemed to be, particularly in its explorations of the war between the Washington Liberation Front (W.L.F.) and the Seraphites, a.k.a. Scars, and both Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are characters meant to be driven by their hatred. In recent episodes, though, this season has struggled to communicate the levels of Ellie’s depression and rage — partly because it still wants her to be a wise-cracking, lovestruck young girl, which is one impulse that “The Last of Us Part II” pointedly does not indulge.

It is fitting and, from a creative perspective, wise then that “The Last of Us...