“Left Behind” is yet another masterpiece episode of The Last of Us

When will The Last of Us stop being so damn good? Hopefully never, and certainly not this week. “Left Behind” is another excellent hour of television goes went straight for the heartstrings.

As always, this review contains SPOILERS for the latest episode of The Last of Us, as well as the video games.

The Last of Us Episode 7 review: “Left Behind”

Of all the episodes in the first season of The Last of Us, “Left Behind” reminded me the most of the showstopping Bill and Frank episode earlier this season. This was a contained, character-driven hour of television that plumbs the depths of Ellie’s past. It spends the majority of its runtime in flashbacks, with only brief sections to show how Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are doing in the present.

However short, the scenes with Ellie and Joel are excellent. The opening shots are placid images of a snowy neighborhood and I was still on the edge of my seat. It’s all about the subtleties and tension, and The Last of Us does both of those things so so well.

Joel insists that he wants Ellie to leave him behind, but of course she’s not going to do that or viewers would mutiny. Instead, she leaves him bundled up in the basement of an abandoned house and sets to work searching for supplies.

From there, we launch straight into the flashback sequence which forms the bulk of the episode. And my what a flashback sequence it is. This episode is all about getting to know Ellie better by seeing one of the most fateful nights of her life: the night she was bitten by an infected.

But we’ve got quite a while before we reach that critical juncture. “Left Behind” takes its time with the build up, homing in on Ellie and her relationship with her best friend/first love Riley (Storm Reid). We drop into Ellie’s life after Riley has ditched their FEDRA school; Ellie hasn’t seen Riley in a while and is letting some of that anger spill over into fights at school.

As she contemplates her future in her dorm room — which has a delightfully hipster flair, since Ellie is obsessed with all sorts of ’80s and ’90s media like Pearl Jam, A-Ha, and Mortal Kombat II — Riley pops in to invite her on a night out in the QZ. This leads to a trip to the mall which is the beating heart of the episode.

The conversations that Ellie and Riley have on their journey are fantastic; Storm Reid is wonderful as Riley, and Bella Ramsey is an absolute force. The Last of Us has been filled with outstanding performances from talented actors, but Ramsey still stands out. She’s a delight to watch as this character, full stop.

“Left Behind” is a beautiful deep dive into Ellie’s character

“Left Behind” slows things way down from the preceding weeks, which feels like exactly what’s needed. Riley and Ellie debate the ethics of the Fireflies versus FEDRA, something which is crucial to the overall arc of the series, and share tons of personal secrets. We find out that Riley has joined the Fireflies because she was assigned a dead-end sewage detail by FEDRA and wanted a better life; Ellie, meanwhile, has been led to believe that no matter how bad FEDRA is, without them everything would fall apart. (Something which we saw in Kansas City).

There are deeper layers to the journey. Riley has set up what is essentially the most awesome date ever, giving Ellie the tour of the “four wonders” of an abandoned mall. With each passing scene, we get the idea that Ellie feels more for Riley than just friendship. The way the show handles these two teenagers grappling with these feelings while simultaneously talking about their future and a number is yet another example of its attention to character.

The mall itself is also a joy, as Ellie and Riley hit up a carousel, a photobooth, an arcade, and a Halloween store. It’s filled with easter eggs and heartwarming moments, including the ultimate turn where Ellie asks Riley not to leave with the Fireflies the following day and Riley agrees, leading to their first kiss.

Their happiness is short-lived, however, as an infected is drawn by the music the pair are dancing to and attacks. The scuffle is terrifying and chaotic. Though they kill the infected, both Riley and Ellie are bitten.

Here we finally get back to the present day. The episode cross-cuts Ellie’s frantic search for supplies and her emotional reaction to discovering she was bitten in the past. The point is that in both situations, Ellie is terrified about losing someone dear to her. It’s exceptionally done.

The final moments of the episode see Riley and Ellie decide not to end their lives, opting to “lose their minds together” by letting the cordyceps infection run its course. This is how Ellie discovers she’s immune, though we don’t see it onscreen. We also don’t see Riley turn, or how Ellie deals with her once she does. But rest assured, Riley is not immune. This is her curtain call.

Back in the present, Ellie finally finds the supplies she needs: a thread and needle to sew up Joel’s gruesome wound. His hand slowly closes around hers when he realizes she came back for him, and if you aren’t tearing up I’m convinced you’re not human. The way the camera holds steady on Bella Ramsey’s face as she starts closing up Joel’s wound is a haunting way to send us out; Ramsey’s face conveys so much about Ellie’s character; she’s not willing to lose someone again.

“Left Behind” is an incredible adaptation of The Last of Us video game

You may have noticed that we haven’t talked a whole lot about game easter eggs in this review. That’s because “Left Behind” was utterly filled with them, and we’ve already discussed them at length elsewhere.

But it bears mentioning that “Left Behind” might be one of the most absolutely stunning TV adaptations ever made. That a sweeping statement, but I stand by it. “Left Behind” pulls so much from the game, specifically the Left Behind expansion, while adding details that make it feel even more meaningful.

The result is a huge improvement on the Left Behind expansion that still honors the source material. The Last of Us has had a keen eye all season for walking the line between adaptation and reimagining, and that synergy reached a new level here. The Left Behind expansion always felt like it might be better suited to television than video game medium. This week’s episode fulfilled that promise and then some. It was a triumph.

The Last of Bullet Points

• Ellie’s counselor is played by Terry Chen, who played Praxideke Meng in The Expanse.
• Ellie’s bedroom is filled with easter eggs, but my favorite is the Mortal Kombat II poster.
• Ellie has volume 1 of Will Livingston’s pun books in her dorm room, which just makes it all the sweeter when Riley gifts her “volume too” later on.
• When Ellie and Riley are playing Mortal Kombat II at the arcade, Riley plays as Mileena, the character who Ellie gushed about in Episode 3. She also performs the Fatality where Mileena spits out her enemy’s bones, just like Ellie said.
• A-Ha’s “Take Me On” plays at one point when Ellie and Riley are hanging out on an escalator, which is a wonderful nod to The Last of Us Part II, where that song features during an important moment in Ellie’s love life
• Can we just gush about the arcade scene for a second? The show seems like it really loves video games, a wonderful nod to the fact that it’s based on one. I teared up, and that was before we even got to the real emotional gut punches later in the episode.

Verdict

The Last of Us has had a nearly flawless run so far, but even compared with everything that came before it, “Left Behind” feels special. It was heartwarming, heartbreaking and powerful. It masterfully adapted the story from one medium to another. This episode was basically perfect, and if it isn’t one day taught in film studies classes about adaptations, there’s no justice in the world.

Episode grade: A+

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