'The Last of Us': Episode 7 Bring Light to Ellie's Life Prior to Meeting Joel and Her Special Relationship with Riley

by Darian Scalamoni

    Coming off of last week's episode of The Last of Us, many probably had thought that Joel (Pedro Pascal) was a goner. After getting shanked by the broken handle of a baseball bat, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) rode off with him evading danger just slightly until Joel fell off their horse as Ellie said to him "I can't do this without you." Fast forward to our seventh episode of the first season of the dramatic adaptation of the PlayStation exclusive game series and we arrive at the episode titled "Left Behind." Smartly titled I might add as it acts as a double, not only for Ellie's potential loss of Joel but also, the loss of a special someone in Riley (Storm Reid). The title, and the episode "Left Behind" is based on the downloadable extension pack for the video game franchise that further explains how Ellie became immune to the infection given out by many of the fungus-diseased creatures that overflow the Earth.

    The episode opens on Ellie in the basement of a cabin with Joel who is obviously suffering and in a lot of pain, now awake from his punctured wound, he tells Ellie to head North and to go to his brother Tommy (Diego Luna), who we met last episode. Ellie is hesitant at first until Joel shoves her away insinuating the seriousness of the situation at hand. She heads upstairs, before we get an intercut of her grabbing at the knob of the door to a point in time where we get transported to a moment in Ellie's past. This moment is not before the fall of society, rather a time where she's living in FEDRA territory getting into a fight with another young girl, Bethany, leading to Ellie being scolded by one of the head of operations for the security detail since the cordyceps outbreak. He presents Ellie with two paths after indicating to her the intelligence that the young teenager possesses. The first path could lead to her to a life of grunt work where she'll have to answer to "people like Bethany" for the rest of her time within the FEDRA camp. The other path, would lead to Ellie's life as an officer by swallowing her pride, following the rules and utilizing her intelligence to live what the captain calls a "good life."

    Later that night as Ellie is sleeping in her room, she is awoken by someone sneaking in through her window and putting their hand over her mouth. Ellie naturally freaks out, throwing the mysterious person off of her and pulls her knife. This is our introduction to Ellie's "best friend" Riley. Though this takes Ellie down an internal struggle thinking Riley had died, Riley assures that she is fine and that she went to join the Fireflies, the rebellious group that for so long the two of them intended to take down themselves. Riley then preps Ellie and us, as viewers for a devastating path of our episode. "I will tell you everything, but you have to promise to come with me for the best night of your life," Riley tells Ellie and knowingly accepts that Ellie will immediately reject this proposal before eventually succumbing to Riley's request. 

    Where Riley takes Ellie is a sentimental place they have always wanted to go. A place "sealed off" to the public since the fall. As the young girls evade patrolling, a dead body and get inebriated by some scotch they pretend to like, they arrive at their destination: the mall. The rebellious runaways are overjoyed and enamored by all that awaits them in a montage set to A-ha's "Take on Me." Ellie gets introduced to "electric stairs" (an escalator) as Riley prepares her friend for a night of five wonders, with the escalator being just the first of many fun things she intends to show her. Throughout the night, we see other things that we may view as minor throughout our world play out as major moments in this special night of Ellie and Riley, whether it be a trip on a merry-go-round or multiple rounds of Mortal Kombat II, their chemistry is infectious, relatable and rambunctious though Riley reminds her friend that she's close to turning 17 and envisions a different future for herself. This is before eventually telling Ellie after gifting her a sequel to her favorite book of puns that she intends to leave the next day for Atlanta to join the Atlanta QZ. It leads to the major issue of trust that Ellie made Joel aware of last episode believing the fact that everyone she cares about leaves her. As Ellie is about to leave the mall, she hears screaming, as she goes back to rescue her friend in a Halloween shop, she discovers it's just a prank that Riley had set up as the "fifth wonder" due to Ellie's affection for scary and violent things. Ellie forgives her as Riley sets up one last dance party for the two of them in the store.

    It's in this tender moment with the two young girls together, that we get another dose of tragic of a queer love story. As Ellie and Riley dance atop a glass case with their faces covered by Halloween masks, Ellie pleads with Riley to "please stay" before kissing her. Ellie apologizes, Riley asks her What for? and they decide that she'll stay, and they'll figure it out together. That is, until a cordyceps-infected attacks the two of them. After a back-and-forth struggle for both young girls, Ellie kills the infected before discovering that both her and Riley have been bit. It's an incredibly emotional moment as the audience can already attest to the fact that obviously one of them makes it and the other doesn't, leading to an even deeper pain for Ellie going forward. 

    It's an incredibly emotional episode that is able to perfectly encapsulate a singular story that fits within the narrative of the overall show. Series and video game creator Neil Druckmann does a terrific job of celebrating these small character moments that lead to such sadness and depth that we can't possibly conceive a moment upcoming that isn't as bleak or bleaker as what's to come. Bella Ramsey is the MVP of the episode as the life captured with her first true love before bringing us back to the cabin where the episode started showing Ellie finding a needle and thread to seal up Joel gives true growth of her character in a short amount of time. I'm curious to see where the series goes from here with Joel on the mend and Ellie having to take a leadership role moving forward. 

Overall Score: 8.5