The Last of Us – Left Behind

By: Kelly Kearney

If you thought you would get a reprieve from the Sunday heartbreaks, you’re watching the wrong show. This week on the HBO drama, we get a peek into Ellie’s backstory and how she said goodbye to her bestie crush, Riley, and hello to life on the road with Joel.

Leader or Grunt?

We begin minutes after we left off last week, with Joel (Pedro Pascal) bleeding out on a filthy mattress from his stab wound. Everything is a panic as he begs Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to leave him and head north to Tommy in Jackson. She can’t listen to him prepare to die on the floor of some abandoned garage where she dragged him. Her fear of being left alone, which she expressed to Sam before he died, is staring her right in the face and it reminds her of how she got to this point. How another heartbreaking goodbye left her in the care of Marlene and, eventually, Joel.

We flashback to Ellie’s time in the FEDRA academy where we see her get into a fight with fellow classmate, Bethany (Ruby Lybbert). After the older girl knocks off her headphones, Ellie is ready to throw hands for her tunes. Apparently, Pearl Jam still slaps in the apocalypse and nobody dares touch Ellie’s Sony Walkman. Bethany points out the fact Ellie isn’t a fighter but her best friend Riley is and that girl is gone. That truth hurts and Ellie loses it; landing herself in Captain Kwong’s (Terry Chen) office with a black eye while Bethany heads to the infirmary with fifteen stitches. Kwong seems like a reasonable man but is tired of seeing Ellie in his office. He points out how their meetings have been increasing over the past month and how she isn’t living up to her potential. She interrupts with “put me in the hole” but these kinds of choices she’s making won’t end in a comfortable life in the QZ. FEDRA rules are what keeps people from tearing each other apart in jealousy and hunger. Kwong tells her she has two choices: she can be a leader or she can be a grunt. Leadership, like the Captain’s role at the facility, leads to a life of hot meals, comfy beds and an easy work life. The alternate option is a life of labor where she can spend her days burning bodies and cleaning up waste. Ellie is smart and she is capable of becoming the next Captain Kwong but not with this current attitude.

Later that night we see what he means when her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) sneaks in through her bedroom window at the FEDRA orphanage and tells Ellie to get dressed before they’re leaving. Right away we spot the empty bed across the room and realize that Riley is a friend-roommate, and the one with those heavy hands Bethany mentioned earlier. Begrudgingly, Ellie agrees and gets dressed for this secret outing. As she slips her shirt off she asks her friend where she’s been for the last three weeks and Riley’s response leaves the typically chatty Ellie stunned. She’s joined The Fireflies. This admission means the two friends are on opposite sides now and it makes Ellie a bit nervous. She spent her whole life thinking The Fireflies were terrorists and now her best friend is one? It’s confusing and she is concerned, but when Riley tells her she has a surprise for Ellie that shock and awe turn to intrigue. The two girls sneak out by hopping in between rooftops and into an adjacent building where they run right into a dead body. At further inspection it seems like the dead man (Shane Pollitt) died of an overdose – if the pills and bottle of whiskey next to him are anything to go by. Since he isn’t going to use the hooch he won’t mind if they take a sip. After trading the bottle back and forth Ellie spots Riley’s gun and asks if she can hold it. The Fireflies made Riley swear never to let anyone touch it but their relationship beats any rule so she hands it over. The two friends are laughing and having a good time when Riley gets real and tells Ellie how she joined the group they thought was the enemy. She explains that Marlene caught her sneaking out one night and was impressed with her ability to hide in the shadows of FEDRA’s night watch. When she asked Riley what she thought of the soldiers, the teen didn’t hold back – admitting she thought they were “fascist dickbags” who should be executed for their crimes against humanity. That was just the kind of attitude and street-smarts Marlene was looking for, so Riley was issued a gun and a better future than QZ could offer. Ellie gets why she joined but reminds her of what Captain Kwong said about how FEDRA is the only thing keeping the QZ in order. She brings up a bombing tied to the Fireflies but Riley shrugs it off as total propaganda.

Let’s Go to The Mall

After a few more roofs jumped they end up at an abandoned shopping mall that Riley happens to know how to turn its lights on. With the flip of a switch, the mall comes to life, offering up a peek into the old world Ellie has only heard about. The lights from the store signs illuminate the world of shoe stores and clothing shops, and everything Ellie could possibly think of. Many of the stores are trashed but not all the merchandise was taken. Ellie asks Riley what she thought happened and her friend says it looked like looting–people took what they could until the infected drove them out. Around every corner is a new experience, especially riding the moving escalator. As surprises go, this one might be Ellie’s favorite. Riley explains she brought Ellie to this mall to show her all the wonders of consumerism and high on Ellie’s list so far is Victoria’s Secret shop. If fans haven’t picked up on Ellie’s queer vibes yet (from the chest binder she wears to the obvious heart eyes she’s giving Riley) then her interest in Victoria’s Secret models shouldn’t surprise anyone. Their next stop is another one of those wonders Riley promised; a working carousel the two girls can take for a spin. While on their plastic horses, Ellie tells Riley she can still come back to the QZ and run things with her. Riley tells her that’s not possible. She recently learned she would be appointed to sewage detail instead of joining Ellie as a FEDRA soldier. So, instead of a life of grunt work, she is dedicating her life to taking down the institution that says she’s not worthy of a life they are sure to offer Ellie.

Off to the next wonder and this time it’s a photo booth, where the girls do silly poses for a faded strip of black and white memories. The duo splits the processed strip in half and Ellie pockets them. Next on the list is the “most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” according to Ellie. The two friends marvel at the lights and sounds of a working arcade. For a girl who has a Mortal Kombat II poster on her wall, getting to play that exact game and others she’s only heard about makes this the best night of her life. While Riley and Ellie toggle the sticks and cheer and scream, around the corner we see one of the infected wake up from his sporous sleep. The two friends are having such a good time that Ellie almost lets her hidden feelings for Riley slip to the surface and that truth sort of puts a damper on their good times. Ellie has to be back at the QZ before dawn and they realize she is gone. But Riley has one more present for her and leads Ellie to the back of a taco stand where she’s been sleeping and hands her a book of puns– the same one she started to drive Joel crazy with when they first left Boston. After a few laughs Ellie zeroes in on a collection of pipe bombs on a shelf that she knows Riley made. She is angry over her best friend agreeing to be a part of something that could get her hurt. She also accuses Riley of coordinating this whole night to recruit her into the Fireflies, not because she missed her. She isn’t entirely wrong about her best friend’s motives. The Fireflies are shipping Riley off to the Atlanta QZ. She asked if Ellie could come along but Marlene said no, so she had hoped this night would be a memorable goodbye. Angry, Ellie takes off, leaving Riley behind. She somehow manages to get turned around in the mall and can’t find her way out. It isn’t long before she hears screaming and runs back to find Riley in a Halloween store surrounded by animated decorations. This was Ellie’s last wonder, but all she can think about is their goodbye. She can’t believe Riley was going to leave and let her think she was dead, and now she’s made it all worse by, “you give me this night, this amazing f***ing night, and now you’re leaving me again forever to join some cause I don’t even think you understand.” Maybe the Fireflies aren’t what either of them thinks they are, but Riley says “they chose me” and that’s good enough for her. She mattered to Ellie first and her friend can’t understand this choice to leave her. She looks at Riley with confusion, heartbreak, and love, and when the mood deepens they lighten it up with a dance-off in rubber masks. Riley dons a demented clown’s face while Ellie wears a werewolf, the two dance and laugh on the store counter until they are both dizzy with emotion. Knowing this is her last chance, Ellie breathlessly kisses Riley in a sweet moment that’s almost instantly shredded by the infected zombie that comes bursting through the walls of the store. Ellie draws her knife and stabs the beast repeatedly, but in the struggle, it goes for Riley and she ends up plunging the blade into its head. The thing is dead and she is very proud of herself until she realizes she was bit on the arm. Riley also has a small bite on her hand and neither of them takes this news well. Ellie smashes up the store in rage while Riley huddles on the floor in tears debating on whether or not they should shoot themselves. They have two choices: go out together now or stick it out together. Not everyone turns immediately and whether the end comes in “two minutes or two days” Ellie and Riley are in this together.

We never see how their “to the end” pact works out, other than the fact we know Marlene gets involved and Ellie ends up cured because we bounce forward into the present where she is scouring the house for supplies to save Joel. She comes across a sewing kit and heads downstairs to stitch Joel up, hoping he won’t leave her alone too. She is determined to save in the same way Riley wanted to stand beside her and look death in the face, She never gave up on them, and now Ellie is holding onto that same hope for Joel.