What happens to Riley in The Last of Us games? “Left Behind” explained
By WiC Staff
The latest episode of The Last of Us finally pulled back the curtain on Ellie’s backstory, introducing us to her best friend and first crush Riley. Played by Storm Reid, Riley represents a more innocent time for Ellie, before she was bitten by an infected, chained up by the Fireflies and forced to go on a cross-country journey with Joel. But since this is still The Last of Us, of course it all had to end in tragedy.
If you’re just coming here from watching “Left Behind” and want to know what happened to Riley in the game, you’re in the right place.
Does Riley die in The Last of Us games?
“Left Behind” is the only episode of the show to focus almost entirely on something that wasn’t a part of the original The Last of Us video game. Both the mall sequence and Ellie’s frantic search for supplies in the immediate aftermath of Joel’s injury were featured in Left Behind, a standalone expansion which was added to The Last of Us game after its initial release.
The story in the episode plays out just as it does in the expansion; Ellie’s terror over potentially losing Joel segues into a flashback about the last time someone dear to her died. While there are some differences, especially in Ellie’s present day storyline with Joel, the scenes involving Riley are extremely faithful to the video game, including the ending.
Just like in the show, after Riley and Ellie decide to “lose their minds together” by waiting out the cordyceps infection rather than take their own lives, the scene shifts back to the present day where Ellie is caring for Joel. We never see how Riley actually dies, or how Ellie links up with the Fireflies in the aftermath.
But we do get confirmation of her death later on in the video game, during one of the climactic scenes where Ellie reveals how she and Riley were bitten to Joel and that Riley had since died from the infection. This is an important part of why Ellie wants to use her immunity to help create a cordyceps cure.
The Last of Us premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max. Keep the tissues handy.
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