The end of episode 6—what a cliffhanger, right? While you’ll be happy to know that Joel’s fate is revealed pretty quickly, the real focus of episode 7 is not actually on him at all. This episode, we finally get to learn more about Ellie, how she got bit by an Infected, and who exactly Riley—the person Marlene (Merle Dandridge) talked about in the premiere episode—is.
Oh, and just a warning: There will be no dry eyes left in any house tonight. Do with that what you will.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us.)
After Joel (Pedro Pascal) passes out from blood loss due to being stabbed by a raider at the university, he is not doing so hot. Yes, he is still alive, but barely. We discover that Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was able to get him to safety in the basement of an abandoned home, but she is struggling to figure out how to help heal him. Joel encourages her to just leave him, the idea of which sparks a painful and recent memory for Ellie.
This particular memory is not pulled from the 2013 The Last of Us video game, but its shorter, 2014 spin-off game, Left Behind. The stand-alone adventure follows Ellie, as she searches a mall for supplies to fix up Joel after he was injured at the university. While exploring the mall, the game flashes back to the first time Ellie was in a mall—her first and last date with her best friend Riley.
The show bypasses Ellie’s supply search in the mall to focus solely on her memory with Riley—a wonderful creative decision that forms a more impactful story.
We jump back a few months to before Ellie met Joel or even knew she was immune to the cordyceps. One might mistake the new setting for a high school gym glass, but in actuality, it is a Boston FEDRA school. Ellie is a FEDRA trainee, who tends to get in a lot of fights with her fellow cadets. Kind of on brand, though.
Just when Ellie makes the decision to get on the straight and narrow and work to become an officer, someone from her past shows up. Her best friend Riley (Storm Reid), who disappeared three weeks ago and secretly joined the Fireflies, returns to sneak Ellie out for “the best night of her life.” What could go wrong?
The two are nearly caught by FEDRA patrols along the way, and they also run into a dead body. (They also steal the dead man’s booze.) Eventually, they arrive at Riley’s surprise location: an abandoned mall. Little does Ellie know, but Riley found out that when FEDRA connected a new block to the power grid, the group also reconnected power to the mall. Watching Ellie’s face light up as the mall comes back to life is priceless. And when she discovers the joys of escalators, you’ll smile right along with her.
Ramsey truly shines here, capturing Ellie’s child-like spirit and, let’s be honest, gay panic. The show even feels more like the beginning of a sweet rom-com as opposed to a post-apocalyptic drama. By soundtracking the escalator scene to A-ha’s “Take on Me” (a reference to a particularly moving part in The Last of Us Part II), writer/co-creator Neil Druckmann was catering directly to fans of the games.
Riley tells Ellie that she has four wonders of the mall to show her.Well, now five wonders after the escalator, of course. The first wonder is a fully functioning carousel, which Ellie and Riley ride in an adorable moment.
However, like all carousel rides, it eventually comes to a grinding halt. Ellie, who is still trying to figure out why Riley left FEDRA for the Fireflies, asks Riley if she really thinks the group can liberate the Boston Quarantine Zone (QZ). Riley relents and tells her that she knew what her FEDRA assignment was going to be—patrolling while people shoveled shit—and she knew there was no future there for her.
Ellie starts to understand why Riley left FEDRA for the Fireflies, hearing what kind of life was planned for her. But, they still have three more wonders left to get through. Next up is: the photo booth. It’s your classic mall photo booth, but the perfect place to inspire more sexual confusion in Ellie. The scene is a near-perfect recreation of the same scene in the video game, with subtle changes. Personally, I enjoyed the addition of the bunny ears pose—always a classic.
Now, get ready for the fourth wonder, because it is a doozy. Riley earns some major brownie points and possibly the title of “best date planner ever” when she brings Ellie to an arcade with several operational games. The two eventually go head to head in Mortal Kombat II—a game we know Ellie is obsessed with, since she mentioned it back in episode 3. Riley took the liberty of breaking into the coin machine so they have infinite money to use on games. Seriously, she’s the best.
Endless games? Sweet bonding with your crush? Maybe the apocalypse isn’t so bad. Just kidding—it’s terrible, and we’re reminded exactly why while the two girls are beating each other up in Mortal Kombat. Somewhere, in a dark corner of the mall, an Infected is woken up by all the noise. This reveal shot is a masterclass in horror directing, with a slow pan and ominous music exquisitely building dread. It’s a stark reminder that even when this show leans into levity, something terrifying lurks nearby.
Before moving on to the fifth wonder of the mall, the two take a quick detour, because Riley got Ellie a gift: that pun book that you may remember from episode 4. It is while getting this gift that Ellie realizes the mall isn’t just a place Riley is showing her, it’s where Riley guards the Fireflies’ stash of explosives and weapons.
Upset that Riley hid the real reason that she knows this mall so well, Ellie takes off. Riley stops her by telling Ellie that she is leaving for the Atlanta QZ, and tonight is her last night in Boston. Still upset and even more so now, Ellie eventually turns back around. Her walk back to Riley turns into a run when she hears screaming, but she soon realizes that the sound is not her friend in peril but a Halloween store: the fifth wonder of the mall.
After talking some more, Ellie comes to terms with the fact that Riley is leaving. Before they say goodbye for one last time, the girls put on some Halloween masks and have a dance party. Soon though, Ellie is no longer able to hold her feelings back. She takes off her mask and kisses Riley and tells her not to leave. Riley agrees to stay. It’s a sweet moment of young love.
Then, all hell breaks loose. The Infected from earlier comes barreling in attacking Ellie and Riley. Eventually they kill him, but not before they are both bit.
Shattered by their fate, the two decide to be “all poetic and shit and just lose their minds together.” However, we all know that only one person loses her mind, and we all know who has to kill the other. It’s absolutely heart-wrenching to watch Ellie start smashing the glass table they once were dancing on.
The show then flips back to the present. Ellie will not leave another person that she cares for behind, so she searches high and low for something to help Joel. Eventually she stumbles upon a needle and thread and uses that to close his wound. He’s not out of the woods yet, but he’s in better shape now.
This episode is another strong reminder of just how good The Last of Us is at telling the most human of stories. “Left Behind” belongs to Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid—and the fans of the game it’s taken from too. Their performances are breathtaking. In less than an hour, they made us laugh, cry and fall in love with their doomed relationship and forget all about the horrors of their world. It is a tremendous display of the range these two young stars are equipped with. If only we could have seen more of their love story.
What challenges will next week bring? You’ll have to wait and see. Until next Sunday. Endure and survive, y’all.
