Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us Part II.

HBO’s The Last of Us has a tendency to expand on minor characters that the games didn’t have time for, and there are a ton of minor characters in Abby’s story who deserve the same treatment in season 3. The Last of Us has gotten some of its best stories and characters out of these bit parts from the games, like Frank and Eugene.

When The Last of Us season 3 rolls around in 2027, hopefully it’ll do the same thing. This season will have the burden of getting audiences to sympathize with Abby without the benefit of gameplay literally putting them in her shoes. Building on characters like Jerry and Max could go a long way toward creating that sympathetic connection.

Jerry

The tragic irony at the heart of The Last of Us Part II is that Ellie and Abby both want the same thing: to avenge their late father. Ellie is ruthlessly hunting Abby to exact revenge for her killing of Joel, but she only killed Joel to exact revenge for his killing of her own dad, Jerry.

For that dramatic irony to land, we have to believe that Abby loves her dad just as much as Ellie loves hers. In the game, there’s only time for a couple of scenes between Abby and Jerry, but the TV show will have a lot more leeway to really dig into Abby’s relationship with her dad and the things that were left unresolved when he died.

Lev & Yara’s Mom

Throughout Abby’s three days in Seattle, we hear Lev and Yara talk about their mother a lot, but by the time she shows up on-screen, she’s already dead. From what we can gather, it sounds like their mother is one of the most devout Seraphite followers on the island, but that she would take full blame for her kids’ disobedience.

Since the TV show has the ability to cut between different locations and different characters’ perspectives, it would be interesting to see at least one scene with Lev and Yara’s mother. We could either see her before they run away, when she’s in overbearing Margaret White zealot mode, or after they run away, when the elders hold her accountable for her children’s sins.

Boris Legasov

In the game, when Ellie is cutting through Hillcrest, you can find a chain of letters chronicling the tragic downfall of a man named Boris Legasov. He was initially a local hero, wiping out infected with his award-winning archery skills, but after his kid was killed for making anti-W.L.F. protest art, he took a dark turn and waged war against the Wolves.

Boris’ story specifically parallels Ellie’s — his desire for revenge swept him up in a cycle of violence that turned all his loved ones against him — but, more broadly, it adds some texture to the battle-scarred backdrop of the game. As Abby’s side of the story expands on the Seattle civil war, the TV show could come back to Boris’ story in a standalone episode.

Jules

Dotted throughout Seattle, you find a series of notes that a man named Gray left for his friend Jules. Having grown disillusioned with Isaac’s iron-fisted rule, Gray and Jules planned to defect from the W.L.F. and join the Seraphites. But Jules never arrived at the meeting point, so Gray had to go on his own, and left the letters so Jules could catch up with him.

It’s fascinating to follow Gray’s story through these letters, as he increasingly resigns himself to his faith in the prophet and a higher power. He’s eventually recognized by one of his old W.L.F. compatriots, who’s disturbed by what he’s become. It would be great to see Gray in The Last of Us season 3, but I’m more interested in what happened to Jules. Why did he change his mind?

Max

As Abby heads out to find Owen at the aquarium, The Last of Us Part II flashes back to the first time Owen brought Abby there. They find that the aquarium was once inhabited by a father and his two sons, Max and Ricky, all living out of a sailboat. That sailboat becomes a major plot point, but its backstory is absolutely heartbreaking.

The older son, Ricky, grew to resent his father after his mother died. Fearing that his dad couldn’t protect them, Ricky took Max and ran away to join the Seraphites, leaving the father miserable and alone. It would be devastating to see the TV show tell this story through Max’s innocent eyes as he designs himself a play area while his family falls apart.

Abby’s Mom

In The Last of Us lore, Abby’s mother is as much of a mystery as Ellie’s biological father. In the brief interactions we see between Abby and her dad, neither of them ever mention her mom. It’s safe to assume that Abby lost her mother long before we met her, but she had to have had some kind of relationship with her at some point.

We found out what happened to Ellie’s mother in the season 1 finale — where she was played beautifully by Ellie’s video game actor Ashley Johnson — so it would be great to get a similar backstory for Abby’s mother. The show could even continue the tradition and have Abby’s game actor Laura Bailey play her mom in the series.

The Seraphite Prophet

The one character that The Last of Us fans are clamoring to know more about is the Seraphite prophet. From what Lev tells us, it seems that the prophet started the Seraphite religion with good intentions. She preached peace and love and unity. But in the years since her death, the Seraphite elders have twisted her teachings to suit their own violent urges and selfish desires.

In the game, we never actually meet the prophet. We just see her likeness on murals and wooden figurines, and we hear how her followers (and her enemies) talk about her. But it would be interesting to see a flashback in the TV series that shows how she managed to galvanize so many people with her teachings.

It would be quite a casting challenge to find an actor with a mesmerizing enough presence to convincingly lead a post-apocalyptic cult, but The Last of Us’ casting team hasn’t made a wrong move yet. It’s a shame Catherine O’Hara is out of the running, but there might be someone else in Hollywood who’s almost as eccentric and charismatic as her.