‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Episode 4 Offers a Fresh Take on a Key Video Game Character

Warning: Spoilers for Episode 4 of ahead.

Ellie () and Dina (Isabela Merced) have arrived in Seattle, but they are about to face more than they expected. The city is a war zone due to the conflict between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites (referred to as Scars by the Wolves), in addition to the infected.

Episode 4 introduces Isaac Dixon (, voiced by Jeffrey Wright, who also voiced the character in The Last of Us Part II), the WLF’s uncompromising leader. A scene based on the game shows Isaac brutally torturing a captured Scar before executing him for claiming that WLF members are defecting to the Seraphites.

In the game, Isaac is a former U.S. Marine who became the WLF leader after the Thursday Market Massacre, where FEDRA soldiers fired on Seattle residents protesting food shortages in the Quarantine Zone. This event shifted civilian support to the Wolves, and followed FEDRA’s killing of the WLF founders, Emma and James Patterson.

FEDRA’s withdrawal left Isaac in control, but his rule became increasingly dictatorial as starvation persisted and the conflict with the Seraphites escalated. Episode 4 presents a different origin for Isaac, suggesting he was a FEDRA commander who switched sides after witnessing the military’s inhumane treatment of Seattle’s citizens.

“People have asked…whether we’ll get a little bit of a backstory about Isaac,” Wright hinted in a November interview. “We might. It might not be pretty.”

Isaac’s story will also connect to Abby’s character arc. In the game, Isaac welcomed Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her group to Seattle after Joel (Pedro Pascal) killed the Fireflies. He trained her as a soldier and allowed her to seek revenge on Joel in Jackson. Episode 2 featured Abby mentioning a code of ethics from her Seattle commander (likely Isaac) against killing defenseless people.

However, neither she nor Isaac seems to consistently adhere to that principle.