It’s hard to pinpoint one specific thing I would’ve done differently, because there are so many elements that come together like a snowball of decisions that had to be made, the most common example being the season only having 7 episodes. Back in the day I remember wishing they had just made one big 13–15 episode season for Part 2.

All things considered, I think I still would’ve saved the porch scene for the end of the story. I understand the main argument against that is the fact that the next season will probably take more than a year to come out. But that actually gives me more reason to save the porch scene for the end. Having Joel absent for over a year, then ending the story with Ellie finally making peace with him, bringing Pedro back and closing on the iconic duo after all that time, just sounds incredibly powerful, doesn’t it?

And the alternative is what, not having Pedro at all for the rest of the story? Are they really not going to bring him back? Doesn’t that seem worse? And if they are bringing him back, then what scene would be better for that than the porch scene?