Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers from Episode 7 of The Last of Us.Who's calling Episode 7 of The Last of Us entitled, "Left Behind" a filler? Not us! It is a gripping and essential part of Ellie's backstory and the reveal of a new character, Riley (Storm Reid). The episode picks up with a wounded Joel (Pedro Pascal) desperately telling Ellie to go on and leave him behind to die, and she begrudgingly does. But then we get to see what Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was doing prior to being introduced in the show's first episode where she is being held captive at the Boston Q.Z. by Marlene (Merle Dandridge) and the rest of the Fireflies. She is in a FEDRA training school for girls where she is already showing signs of being a bit of a troublemaker and free spirit. After getting into a disagreement with the class bully, Bethany (Ruby Lybbert), she gets in a fight and subsequently ends up in the FEDRA Captain Kwong's (Terry Chen) office where she is reprimanded yet again, but when offered a choice moving forward by Kwong, Ellie chooses the path of least resistance to achieve her goals. It also establishes that Riley is her quasi-bodyguard/protector, an interesting turn in that it uncovers a pattern of Ellie being protected even while in the relative safe haven of a FEDRA training facility (Although she looks pretty capable of handing out her own form of punishment judging from the haymaker she lands on Bethany's jaw.)
Episode 7 Introduces Riley and Ellie's Backstory
That night, however, as she lay in her bed, her missing roommate, Riley scales the wall and enters her room through the second-floor window. Thought to be missing and possibly dead, Ellie is relieved to see her best friend and roomy back after several weeks of running away from the FEDRA training site. In the time that Riley has spent out alone in the dangerous quarantined zone, she has seen a lot and has opened her eyes to both sides of the war being waged between the military dictatorship of the ad hoc FEDRA government and the Firefly rebel forces. The two head out for a night of playing hooky from school, and the episode does a wonderful job of introducing us to not only a new character in Riley, but also Ellie as the impetuous and abrasive kid she was before we got to know her in the very beginning. This is also very close to where the downloadable content (DLC) begins in the game as the two head for the mall.
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A Story About What Might Have Been
The episode may not have some of the more dramatic, action-packed sequences as some episodesThe Last of Us entries, but it delivers in much the same way that Episode 3, "Long, Long Time" did in that it is a bit of a standalone story that is relatively isolated from the greater overarching storyline of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie getting to their destinations out west. It also delivers a terrific entry with a run time of well over an hour that examines some of the things that have been taken away from not just mankind as a result of the catastrophic fungal infection, but also the things that a generation of young people have missed out on.
"Left Behind" takes Ellie and Riley to an abandoned mall that has been sealed off because it was said to have been crawling with the infected. But, the streetwise Riley knows better and takes Ellie on what amounts to a date. The two share a long look at a wide shot of the cavernous warehouse lined with long-since abandoned, dilapidated, and looted emporiums. It's an eerily quiet reminder of the crass consumerism that was a hallmark of the previous world. After all the lights go up, they take to doing the thing that generations of teenage girls did before them and browse a bit.
Teenagers Being Teenagers
Apparently, escalators are the coolest thing 21st-century innovation has to offer - who knew? After doing a little dance number up and down to another 80s pop hit "Take On Me" by Aha!, Ellie and Riley take to the promenade of the mall looking at various stores like Victoria's Secret, The Gap, and other relics of the pre-apocalypse while talking about their pasts and what their futures may have in store for them both. They do the things that teenage girls did before the world ended. They giggle and tease each other, laughing at one another's expense over their new roles on opposite sides of the raging war between what's left of humanity. These are two young girls that are part of a generation that has had so much taken away from it. They've been robbed of the luxury of not having to care about things. They've been deprived of going up to the food court, arcade, or the movies and getting away from adults if only for a few short hours. More importantly, they've lost out on the opportunity to explore who they are as people.
It paints a stark portrait of what things might have looked like if things hadn't gone so tragically and horrifically awry. Can you picture Ellie as a freshman in high school or Riley as a senior? Would they have even known that the other existed? It is a poignant case study of both innocence and youth lost. It may be the most harrowing episode of the show to date because over the course of time that these two girls spend with each other, you begin to understand all the intangible things they've missed out on. Rites of passage that they have had snatched away like getting your driver's license, that first romantic relationship, or even walking across that stage for graduation. It is a compelling glimpse of what the end of the world has done to its most recent and possibly final generation.
Savoring What's 'Left Behind'
There is still time to catch up on some of the things that they have never gotten to see and do. Ellie and Riley hit the arcade and get to play the video games like Mortal Kombat that they had only read about or seen in old books. Riley surprises Ellie with a resplendently luminous and (somewhat) functional merry-go-round getting to make it around a few times, taking turns sipping on some whiskey they had found, before the carousel malfunctions and stops. They slide into a photo booth and get to make goofy faces and just get to be silly for a little while. It is a rare moment of joy in an otherwise brutish existence that has forced them both into seeing and doing things unimaginable to most people their age.
Then, once exhausted from the youthful exuberance, a tipsy Ellie steals a kiss from her best friend, and things get a little awkward for just a moment. Ellie apologizes, but Riley says, "For what?" and the two laugh together at the prospect that they share feeling for each other as more than just friends, and that there is hope for a future together in a world without hope. An innocent and joyous moment that will later be the highlight of all the things that Ellie has left behind.
Dealing with Loss
When Riley tells Ellie that the mall is free of infected people, she is right - for the most part. Toward the end of Episode 7, we are reminded that there is nowhere safe in this new world anymore. Just as the two have freed themselves of the somber trappings of a cruel and dangerous environment and let their guard down ever so briefly, an infected man emerges from the shadows. The two struggle with the rabid zombie and eventually kill it, but not before both realize that they have suffered bites during the scuffle. Their reactions couldn't be more opposite.
Ellie doesn't know she's immune at this point, and as a young girl who has never felt the cold, hard reality of loss or seen what goes on outside the walls of a FEDRA training camp, lashes out, smashing glass display cases and screaming out like a wounded banshee. Riley is quiet, resigned to her fate having accepted that they are part of a race on the verge of extinction, and these are the things that come with no longer being the apex predator in a broken world. It is a bittersweet ending to a fine entry into the first season of the spectacular new HBO drama, and one that should in no way be considered a "filler episode."
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