Episode 7 Sends Us Back In Time To A Pivotal Moment In Ellie’s Life. Introducing Us To A Significant Figure From Her Past.
The Last of Us by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin has been both addictive and heartbreaking since the first episode. When you begin your high-budget HBO show with a child’s death, that is what you get. But, despite how depressing the other six episodes were, nothing compares to episode 7, “Left Behind.”
Episode 7 sends us back in time to a pivotal moment in Ellie’s life. Introducing us to a significant figure from her past as she approaches a major rock bottom with someone significant in her present.
Riley
Riley was Ellie’s guiding light before Joel. Riley not only personifies who Ellie aspires to be but also influences how she views the Fireflies. If Riley is able to join them, they may not be the terrorists FEDRA has taught her they are.
Ellie And Riley In The Photobooth
Riley leads Ellie on an escapade through a deserted mall that features exciting run-ins with Mortal Kombat II, a photo booth, escalators, and more.
First, Ellie understands Riley must leave, and she must say goodbye to her best friend, who is heading to join a faction of individuals who seek to destroy the only world Ellie knows. They have a passionate kiss, making it clear that their love for one another goes beyond friendship.
Before they can process the shift in their bond, they are confronted by an Infected. Riley tries but fails to shoot it with her gun. Ellie attempts to kill the diseased with her knife, but it is already too late for she and Riley have both been bitten.
Ellie And Marlene
It is revealed that Riley was approached off-screen to join the Fireflies by none other than Marlene.
What happens to Ellie after she and Riley are attacked by one of the infected is not revealed to the audience.
Ellie is already being detained by the Fireflies when the first episode begins. So we know she eventually made it from the mall to the Fireflies’ headquarters. So how exactly did that occur? Ellie either went searching for the Fireflies when Riley didn’t turn. Or the Fireflies went looking for Riley and stumbled across Ellie.
Joel Miller
Joel hasn’t been bitten; he’s only hurt, and Ellie has a chance to rescue him. Joel recognizes that Ellie does not have to be a recurrence of his losses with Tess and Sarah. And Ellie recognizes that Joel does not have to be a copy of Riley. She takes out a needle and thread and stitches up his wound.
Where does Ellie’s path go from here? If the videogames are any indication, the answer is a little bit of originality. In the DLC ‘Left Behind,’ Ellie manages to continue travelling west by finding a sled to put Joel in that can be carried by a horse.
Ellie And Riley
Ellie reveals to Joel in The Last of Us episode 4 that she has previously killed one person before meeting him. When Joel subsequently asks whether she wants to discuss it, she rejects it. Based purely on the fact that she did not transform into an infected as Riley probably did. She seems to have been left with no choice but to kill her best friend or leave Riley behind.
If that’s what happened, it would illustrate Ellie’s hesitation to discuss her experience with violence when Joel inquired. Riley being the first person she ever killed would lend further weight to Ellie’s statements about the losses she’s suffered throughout her life during her confrontation with Joel.
David To Be Introduced In Episode 8
The Last of Us episode 7 ended with Ellie sewing Joel’s wound, leaving the issue of what happens next to our heroes. Ellie, as previously stated, will eventually walk out into the cold in order to gather food for herself and Joel. If HBO’s series keeps following The Last of Us game as faithfully as it has thus far. Ellie will meet David in The Last of Us episode 8. David is the head of a tribe who gives Ellie medication for Joel’s sick wound in exchange for a deer she hunts.
The men that ambushed Joel and Ellie at the end of The Last of Us episode 6 were also members of David’s tribe. As a result, David merely takes Ellie to try to persuade her to join his gang while dispatching men to kill Joel, who did the same to his soldiers. This leads to the final encounter between Joel, Ellie, and David in The Last of Us episode 8. Which will forever affect the interaction of the main characters.
