"Left Behind" is the seventh episode of the first season, and the seventh episode overall, of HBO's The Last of Us. The episode was directed by Liza Johnson and written by series creator Neil Druckmann. The episode aired on HBO on February 26, 2023.
Synopsis[]
As Joel fights to survive, Ellie's struggle to save him stirs memories of her life in a FEDRA orphanage. Weeks before meeting Joel, Ellie recalls joining her best friend Riley for a night to remember… one that will change the course of both of their lives—and the fate of the world—forever.
Cast and characters[]
Main cast
Guest starring
- Storm Reid as Riley
- Terry Chen as Captain Kwong
Co-starring
- Ian Rozylo as infected man
- Ruby Lybbert as Bethany
Uncredited
- Shane Pollitt as dead man
Plot[]
School days[]
In the basement of a ruined house in a rural Colorado neighborhood, Ellie desperately tries to stop Joel's bleeding. Joel deliriously tells her to leave him behind and go back to Jackson. Ellie puts his jacket over him to keep him warm before heading to the top of the stairs to consider her options.
Months before, Ellie listens to "All or None" by Pearl Jam on her Walkman while running laps at FEDRA school in the Boston quarantine zone. Another trainee, Bethany, steals her headphones and taunts her about Ellie's "friend" leaving. The resulting fight leaves Bethany in the infirmary with 15 stitches, and Ellie in Captain Kwong's office with a black eye. Rather than throw her in the "hole" (solitary), Kwong firmly tells Ellie she is smart and strong enough to be a leader, but her attitude is becoming a problem. He gives her two options: if she keeps acting out, she will most likely end up as a nameless grunt under Bethany's leadership, and probably die a meaningless death; or, she swallows her pride and becomes an officer, and enjoy the benefits of the position while also getting to be Bethany's superior. He tells Ellie that FEDRA is the only thing preventing the people in the quarantine zone from falling into chaos, and Ellie could be a part of keeping the peace. Ellie decides to give following the rules a try.
The following night in her dorm, Ellie reads a Savage Starlight comic book while eyeing the empty bed across the room before going to sleep. Sometime in the night, a person climbs into Ellie's room through the window and tries to sneak up on Ellie, who promptly wakes up and throws the intruder to the floor before grabbing her knife. She is surprised to discover the intruder is her former roommate and best friend Riley, who ran away from the FEDRA school three weeks ago. Riley reveals she joined the Fireflies, to Ellie's frustration, and asks Ellie to come with her for the night. Ellie reluctantly agrees and follows Riley out of the dorm.
The two sneak through the streets, managing to avoid the patrols, before entering an abandoned building. As they climb up, they come across the dead body of a civilian, who appears to have committed suicide recently by imbibing alcohol and some kind of medication at the same time. The two steal the man's liquor, which they identify as coming from before Outbreak Day, and drink some as they reach the roof of the building. Ellie asks to hold Riley's gun, which she briefly allows, noting it was issued to her in her capacity as a Firefly. Riley explains she joined the Fireflies while Ellie was in the hole: a woman noticed her while she was sneaking around one night, and invited her to join the group after Riley voiced her opinion that FEDRA are "fascist dickbags." Ellie suggests that the Fireflies' view on FEDRA is too simplistic, and that FEDRA actually holds everything together. Riley refuses to argue, and leads Ellie in jumping across the rooftops. As they stop for a breather, they look at a newly-powered block of apartments, which Riley explains was set up by FEDRA for new residents of the QZ. The two argue again over FEDRA's motives versus the Fireflies, with Ellie bringing up the Fireflies blowing up a storage depot and jeopardizing the QZ's supplies. Riley points out their destination: the abandoned Liberty Gardens mall, which was allegedly sealed off due to being full of infected. Riley points out that the mall is, in fact, no longer sealed off.
A night in the mall[]
They head inside, where Riley explains the mall is connected to the same power grid that FEDRA set up for the new apartments. She turns on the power in the mall, and Ellie marvels at the colorful storefronts. Riley reveals it is just the two of them in the mall, and that she plans to show Ellie the "Four Wonders of the Mall." They find the escalators, which Ellie immediately plays on, prompting Riley to jokingly claim there are now five wonders. As they walk through the mall, Ellie eyes the various storefronts, making note of which storefronts are looted based on the need for their products versus what gets left behind. They look at a Victoria's Secret display, and joke about how uncomfortable the items must be. Riley then shows Ellie the second wonder: a working carousel. The two climb on the plastic horses and enjoy the ride while drinking from the liquor bottle, stealing glances at each other as they do so.
The carousel breaks down. As Riley goes to try to fix it, Ellie asks if Riley really left in a bid to liberate the Boston QZ. Riley claims Fireflies in other QZs have freed everyone and run things like before the Outbreak. Ellie points out Riley could still do that if she stayed with FEDRA, but Riley claims she does not have the same future in FEDRA that Ellie does: she reveals Kwong gave her sewage detail as her assignment, which prompted her to run away and eventually join the Fireflies. Riley then takes Ellie to the third wonder, an old photo booth. The pair take several silly pictures together, but are disappointed to learn the twenty year-old ink is faulty and leaves the photos mostly faded, though Ellie decides to keep the sheet anyway. Riley takes Ellie to the fourth wonder, Raja's Arcade, filled with working video game consoles including Mortal Kombat II which the both of them are fans of. The pair play several rounds of the game using an endless supply of coins from a dispenser Riley broke into. Unbeknownst to them, the sound of the games and their playing draws the attention of a long-dormant Infected in another part of the mall.
After Ellie finally gets a Fatality, Riley tries to take Ellie to the next wonder but Ellie suggests it is time for her to head back to the dorms so she does not get in trouble, proposing they pick up the next day. Riley protests by offering to give Ellie a gift. She takes Ellie into the food court, revealing her living quarters in the kitchen of a taco restaurant, and a copy of No Pun Intended: Volume Too that she gifts to her. They share some terrible puns with each other, only for Ellie to notice a shelf full of bombs. Ellie, knowing the Fireflies' bombs are used to kill FEDRA soldiers, realizes Riley was actually stationed at the mall by the Fireflies rather than finding it herself. Riley protests that she would not let the Fireflies hurt Ellie. Ellie incredulously asks if Riley really thinks the Fireflies would listen to her, and storms out. Riley chases her through the food court and reveals she is leaving Boston: the Fireflies are sending her to the Atlanta QZ. She had tried to request recruiting Ellie so they could go together, but "Marlene", the woman who recruited her, turned her down. The night at the mall was meant to be one last chance to spend time together before she left.
One last dance[]
Ellie storms off, but barely makes it to the maintenance corridors before changing her mind and heading back into the mall. She hears distant screaming and runs into a costume store, only to find the source of the screams were a Halloween display that Riley had activated, what was meant to be the fifth wonder. Ellie retrieves the joke book from Riley and laments that Riley came back to give her a fun night only to leave her once again for a cause she does not fully understand. Riley replies that Ellie does not know what it was like having a family, which Riley had, albeit briefly, and has long wished to have again. She invites Ellie to do one last activity, and gives Ellie one of the store's latex masks. She then plugs Ellie's Walkman into the store's speaker system and the two dance on the counter in their masks to Etta James' cover of "I Got You Babe".
Ellie soon slows her dance and removes her mask as she stares at Riley, prompting Riley to remove her own mask. Ellie begs Riley not to leave and kisses her. Their moment is interrupted when the store is broken into by the infected. The pair make a run for it, trying to fight off the infected using Riley's gun and Ellie's switchblade. After a brutal fight, Ellie manages to stab it in the head. She is at first gleeful at having killed one, only to notice Riley staring at her arm. Looking down, she is horrified to discover she was bitten. Riley tearfully raises her own hand to reveal she was also bitten.
In the present, Ellie frantically storms through the house, tearing through drawers, trying to find something that will help Joel.
In the past, Ellie lets out her anger on the store's display, as Riley watches. After she gives up, Riley offers two options to move forward. Option One, they use her gun and kill themselves, which Riley admits she does not like. Option Two, they wait out the infection, and spend whatever time they have left together. Ellie asks Riley what Option Three is. Riley can only apologize as the two embrace.
Ellie finally finds a needle and thread, which she realizes she can use to close Joel's wound. She heads back down to the basement and silently reassures Joel that she will not leave him behind before beginning to stitch his wound.
Reception[]
The seventh episode aired on February 26, 2023 and was watched by 7.7 million viewers in the U.S. overnight.[1] Critics praised the focus on Ellie's character, with Ramsey receiving praise for her performance. Reid was also praised for her performance as Riley, with her noted as bringing the character to life on screen. Criticism was given for its focus away from the main plot though, with the flashback elements making the episode feel oddly placed given the intense cliff-hanger the prior episode left the characters in.
Nonetheless, critics highly supported the depiction of LGBTQ+ characters, much like episode 3, "Long, Long Time". However, unlike episode 3, it was not subjected to anywhere near as much review bombing, with it being the third-least publicly reviewed episode in the series. Despite this though, it is the lowest rated episode of the series, scoring 7.4 out of 10 across 66,000 reviews on IMDB.[2]
Transcript[]
- Main article: Left Behind (episode)/Transcript
Behind the scenes[]
Featured music[]
- "All or None" by Pearl Jam plays on Ellie's Walkman during the scene in the gym of the preparatory school. Another song by Pearl Jam, "Future Days", is best known for being prominently featured in The Last of Us Part II.
- "Take On Me" by A-ha plays over the scene of Ellie and Riley on the escalator. The song is notably featured in The Last of Us Part II as an acoustic cover by Ellie, and was featured in the official trailer for the series released in December 2022, although it was later removed from the version released on the HBO Max YouTube channel for unclear reasons.
- "Just Like Heaven" by Rockabye Baby! (originally performed by The Cure) plays during the carousel scene.
- "I Got You Babe" by Etta James plays during the scene of Ellie and Riley dancing in the Halloween store, and was also featured in the original Left Behind DLC.
Production[]
- Although the original The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC told Ellie and Riley's story in flashback concurrent to Ellie tending to Joel, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann planned on focusing the entire episode on Ellie and Riley's story. Executives at HBO insisted on keeping the episode connected to the show's overarching plot, thus the Joel and Ellie bookends were added back in to the story.[3]
- An additional scene was filmed but cut for time where Ellie stands alone in a locker room, meant to emphasize her isolation from the rest of the group.[3]
- The Liberty Gardens scenes were shot in the abandoned Northland Village Mall in north Calgary. The mall was slated for redevelopment and its storefronts stripped of details, meaning production designer John Paino had to build 20-25 storefronts in various states of destress specifically for filming. The mall was actually only one-story tall: the shot of Ellie looking out into the mall was shot on a soundstage, with the only real elements in the shot being Bella Ramsey as Ellie and the railing. The rest of the image was a blue screen, with a rendering of a two-story mall added during post-production.[3][4][5]
- The merry-go-round had once been installed in Northland Village Mall, but was removed following the mall's closure and moved to another location. The production rented it back and re-installed it specifically for filming. The real carousel's center panel depicts the Calgary Stampede, a rodeo festival. It was covered with warped reflective panels to give the scene a hallucinatory feel.[4]
- All of the arcade games in Raja's Arcade were functional. However, as authentic arcade machines run on cathode-ray tubes which do not show up well on-camera, all the machines were rebuilt with LED screens.[4] Because the machine was fully functional, the entire scene where Ellie and Riley play Mortal Kombat II was improvised by Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid.[6]
- In the original Left Behind, Ellie and Riley are bitten while fighting off an entire horde of infected. For the television series, Druckmann wanted to highlight that it would not take a horde of infected to ruin your life, but just an encounter with one when your guard is down. He also points out that what wakes up this infected is the sound of their joy and laughter: "As much as we can, we give our characters the things they want the most, and punish them for getting it. One of the fears you have in this world is that you’re never safe enough to have fun, to fall in love and to have a first kiss."[7]
Easter eggs and references[]
- Ellie has a copy of No Pun Intended and an A-ha cassette tape in her dorm room.
- Riley camps out in a Macho Nacho at the mall. Macho Nacho, which also appears in the Left Behind DLC, is mentioned in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End released in 2016, also by Naughty Dog, where Elena Fisher references having had her first job there.
- A poster for Dawn of the Wolf Part 2, a parody of The Twilight Saga that appears in the games, can be seen in the mall.
- In the original Left Behind, the game Ellie and Riley play at the Raja's Arcade was called "The Turning", essentially a Mortal Kombat rip-off used because Naughty Dog could not get the rights to reference the game. The inclusion of Mortal Kombat II occurred thanks to the series' producer Warner Bros., who own the rights to the Mortal Kombat franchise.[3]
- Ellie previously alluded to her experience playing Mortal Kombat II with Riley in "Long, Long Time", where she described Mileena's Fatality maneuver.
- When guessing what Riley had left for her as the final surprise, Ellie incorrectly guesses a water gun and a dinosaur; the former is what the surprise acrually was in the Left Behind DLC and the dinosaur was an allusion to the dinosaur statue Joel unveiled to Ellie as part of her birthday gift in Part II.
Gallery[]
Official stills[]
Behind the scenes[]
Videos[]
External links[]
Watch "Left Behind" on HBO Max
Listen to The Last of Us Official Playlist on Spotify- "Left Behind" at IMDb
Listen to References[]
- ↑ Hailu, Selome (March 6, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Episode 8 Hits Series High of 8.1 Million Viewers, Up 74% From Season Premiere" Variety
- ↑ "The Last of Us" episode 7: Left Behind, IMDB, (Accessed October 23, 2023).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 HBO's The Last of Us Podcast episode 7: "Left Behind"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tangcay, Jazz (February 27, 2023). "Building the ‘Last of Us’ Mall: Production Designer Explains How They Made That Arcade, Carousel and More (EXCLUSIVE)." Variety. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
- ↑ McLean, Elle (January 19, 2022). "Calgary mall gets post-apocalyptic makeover for filming of HBO series "The Last of Us" (PHOTOS)." Daily Hive News. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
- ↑ <Brown, Tracy (February 26, 2023). "‘The Last of Us’ finally gives viewers Ellie’s backstory. It was 10 years in the making." The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2023
- ↑ 'The Last of Us' Creators on Why They Changed the Mall Attack - Collider
| Season 1 | "When You're Lost in the Darkness" · "Infected" · "Long, Long Time" · "Please Hold to My Hand" · "Endure and Survive" · "Kin" · "Left Behind" · "When We Are in Need" · "Look for the Light" |
|---|---|
| Season 2 | TBA |