The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, March 29, 2025.

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Spoilers for The Last of Us Part II video game and (potentially) HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2

If you thought The Last of Us was dark, just wait for the sequel. The Last of Us Season 2, which debuts on April 13, is based on the lauded video game The Last of Us Part II, a story of the endless cycle of vengeance. The apocalyptic tale pits our hero Ellie not against the zombies that served as the frequent antagonists in the first game, but other people bent on destroying her and her surrogate father Joel. There’s a lot of story to tell, and the TV series’ creators have said they’re splitting the story from The Last of Us Part II into at least two seasons.

The Last of Us—both the game and Season 1 of the HBO adaptation—ended with Joel successfully ushering Ellie, the only known person immune to zombie bites, across the United States to Salt Lake City where a rebel group called the Fireflies fights against the oppressive FEDRA, the federal response agency that has essentially imposed martial law across the country. The Fireflies planned to research Ellie. But upon reaching their destination, Joel realizes that Ellie will have to die in order for the doctors to create a cure for the zombie infection. He then rampages through the hospital to recover an unconscious Ellie, killing doctors, nurses, and Firefly freedom fighters along the way. When Ellie awakens she asks what happened, and Joel lies to her.

The sequel is set about five years in the future. Ellie and Joel have gone to Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel’s brother lives in a sort of colony. Ellie is angry at Joel for reasons that don’t become apparent until later in the story, though you can probably guess they have to do with the mystery surrounding their sudden departure from Salt Lake.

If you did play the video game and need a refresher on the major plot points—or didn’t play the game but want to be mentally prepared for all the twists and turns, here’s what happens in approximately the first half of The Last of Us Part II and could become plot points in the second season of the show.

Read More: The Last of Us Part II Is a Revolutionary Video Game—and an Unbelievably Grim One

Abby kills Joel

The Last of Us Part II introduced a new and controversial character to the video game series. Abby, the daughter of the Firefly doctor who was supposed to operate on Ellie before Joel killed him. During the game, the player switches between playing as Ellie and Abby, much to the chagrin of many Joel fans.

We meet Abby as she and her friends try to hunt down Joel in Jackson. Abby gets attacked by zombies and is saved by Joel and his brother Tommy. Abby then leads the two men back to her friends’ camp. There, Abby’s friends restrain Joel while Abby brutally murders him.

Ellie arrives just in time to see Joel die. Despite the iciness between the two for years, Ellie tries to save her surrogate father but is overpowered by Abby’s friends. Abby decides to spare the lives of Ellie and Tommy.

Ellie and Tommy try to avenge Joel’s death

Tommy, convinced that Ellie is going to try avenge Joel, leaves Jackson to hunt down Abby and perhaps prevent Ellie from following in his footsteps. In a major change from the game, Tommy’s wife Maria is pregnant in the show. That means that Tommy is setting out on a possible suicide mission despite having a four-year-old at home.

Ellie, inevitably, follows him. Ellie and her new girlfriend Dina set out to ostensibly bring Tommy back, though of course Ellie always plans to confront Abby herself. Wracked by guilt about her distance from Joel in his final years and furious that her only parent figure was taken from her, Ellie soon gets wrapped up in the mission to avenge Joel, too.

Two violent factions battle for Seattle

Ellie and Dina’s hunt leads them to Seattle. There, Abby and her friends have allied themselves with (yet another) rebel group, the Washington Liberation Front (WLF, known colloquially as wolves) led by a man named Isaac. Despite its lofty goals, since taking over Seattle the WLF has become an oppressive regime itself, fighting against what the group considers to be a radical death cult called the Seraphites (also referred to as “the scars”). The Seraphites employ guerrilla tactics to kill WLF soldiers, and the soldiers in turn interrogate, torture, and kill Seraphites.

Ellie, Dina, and, later, Dina’s ex-boyfriend Jesse, who tracks them to Seattle, have to skirt the violence between these two factions as they search for Tommy. Abby and her friends, who cut a deal with Isaac to work as his soldiers in exchange for scouting information about the Jackson colony and resources, have to decide how many atrocities they are willing to commit for this military leader.

Read More: The Last Of Us II Is in Danger of Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success

Dina reveals she’s pregnant

Dina endures quite a bit of violence in this game, including being blasted off of a horse, nearly strangled to death, and having her head repeatedly slammed into the floor. Which is why it is deeply disconcerting when Dina reveals to Ellie that she is pregnant with Jesse’s child.

Ellie has mixed feelings about Dina’s decision to come with her on her revenge mission despite knowing that she is pregnant. Ellie immediately sees Dina as a burden and is frustrated with her recklessness, though she is also (of course) protective of her—as is Jesse once he arrives, though he doesn’t know about the pregnancy before he leaves Jackson.

However, the changed circumstances don’t stop Ellie from pursuing her incredibly dangerous mission. The potential to start a family simply ups the moral stakes. Joel gave Ellie a stable life in Jackson, and in theory one way to repay him would be returning to that safe haven and raising a child with the woman she loves. But Ellie’s burning hatred for Abby, inflamed by Tommy’s own obsession with revenge, prevents her from making the easiest and safest decision.

The central question of the story becomes what Ellie will sacrifice in order to avenge Joel. Abby faces similar decisions, but the crises involving her loved ones and the people who depend on her come into focus later in the game. Most likely, Abby’s story will dominate Season 3.

A lot of people die

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind is the working thesis of Last of Us II. The death of Abby’s father leads to Joel’s death which leads Tommy and Ellie to go on a killing spree which leads Abby to avenge her friends and allies. A lot of people die and in particularly brutal ways. Characters we’ve come to empathize with are tortured by characters we know and love.

The purpose of Last of Us Part II was to implicate the player in all of this violence. Gamers often celebrate their kills in games. But Last of Us Part II made them experience the cruelty of their actions: Players spent enough time with one group of characters to come to care for them—or at least understand them—only to switch playable characters and be asked to attack those same people.

In the first game, as Joel, the player had to kill innocent doctors to save Ellie. In the sequel, as Ellie and Abby, the player has to murder innocent people either in self-defense or (much more disturbingly and frequently) to serve an unquenchable quest for vengeance. It remains to be seen whether the TV show, which doesn’t force the viewer to do anything horrible, just observe it, will be quite as impactful as it launches its second season.