The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Left Behind

In season 1 episode 6 of HBO’s The Last of Us, fans were left with some heartwarming moments between brothers Joel and Tommy. Episode 7’s “Left Behind”, goes into more of those heart-tugging moments between best friends, and more.

Joel is now in the fight of his life after being stabbed and Ellie looks back on some of the moments that brought her here and what she has lost. In the present time, Ellie is on her way to most likely get some antibiotics for Joel or to find Tommy.

In the past via flashback, we see Ellie doing what she does best, causing trouble.

Ellie has no problem stepping up to mean girls, whether it means it will end up costing her or not. She is minding her business training, while she is messed with.

They see her friend being away from her as the perfect chance, a weakness. Ellie is small but mighty and a bad%^&.

She clocks her hard for it. Bethany ended up in the infirmary with 15 stitches and will probably think twice before doing that again.

Ellie’s best friend Riley returns and takes her on a mall trip to remember. She explains she has joined the Fireflies much to Ellie’s dismay.

It was incredibly risky for Riley to even come back to FEDRA, but she wanted to give Ellie one last perfect day and the goodbye she deserved.

The mischievous duo heads off on their adventure finding a bottle of booze off a dead guy. They share drinks and pick at each other along the way.

Riley joined the Fireflies because she doesn’t believe in FEDRA’s rules, they are the ones who deserve to be hung, not the people. In between sneaking in and out of the QZ, she met an Firefly who was impressed with her stealthy skills and offered her to join.

And the rest was history. At first Ellie thinks this is a horrible idea.

Malls were sealed off because they were full of infected. This one however is not.

Ellie is so surprised that Riley had planned stuff and this all has a very date-like feel and atmosphere. She couldn’t be more impressed with the escalator.

Ellie jumps on them, going up and down amazed! The mall so far looks very clear.

Hand in hand, they walk and get on the carousel, sharing another drink as well as glances back and forth.

The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 7 – We could make a change together

Riley finally admitted to Ellie that she couldn’t see herself have a future with FEDRA. Not like Ellie could.

She is smart and has more to offer. All they offered Riley was to stand post at a sewage detail.

With the Fireflies, she has a chance to make real change not be stuck with a crappy job in a federation she doesn’t believe in. Ellie badly wants her to come back so they could get in positions of power and make a change together.

Riley knows it’s not possible. Ellie understands but it hurts to lose her best friend.

Change is hard and being separated from people you love is even harder. But it is life.

The friends hop into the Photo Booth just like all teens do taking awful pictures together. We have all been there.

A classic past time.

Riley then takes Ellie into the arcade. If you’ve never seen one in your life, it’s quite the beautiful escapade.

It’s evident that Riley did so much work to make this perfect for Ellie. The two have fun playing Mortal Kombat together.

Riley clearly has had more experience in this game from her life on the outside. But they have a blast together playing nonetheless.

These seem like simple things teens do for fun, but in an apocalyptic world, this is everything. Happiness is often hard to find.

The book that Ellie drives Joel crazy with, was a gift from Riley. She gives it to her after Ellie begins to get frustrated, because she has to head back soon.

But now we can see why she has so much love for this book.

The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 7 – Why did you bring me here?

The evening comes to a halt when Ellie finds the bombs Riley made. She feels that none of this was about her and wants to go home.

However, I think both things can be true. This was Riley’s post, and she is leaving soon but she wanted to give Ellie one great goodbye.

This is her last night in Boston. Marlene was the one who recruited Riley and she begged for her best friend to join.

But Marlene declines and we all know why. Riley will soon be heading off to Atlanta and Marlene couldn’t protect her from afar.

After losing her parents young, Riley was the closest thing to family that Ellie had. Watching the two of them have to say goodbye to the end of an era was heartbreaking.

For Riley, it feels good that the Fireflies chose her. For Ellie, she doesn’t have any option but FEDRA.

The last wonder ended with some great tabletop dancing but what came next was something far from expected. An infected ruined the fun and ruined their future.

Ellie took it down but they both ending up bitten. Riley in her hand, Ellie on her arm.

After Ellie rages about it, she sits beside her best friend. They decided to both just keep going until the end.

Riley takes her hand wanting to spend every ounce of the time she has left with her until they both lose their minds. They could shoot themselves now, just get it over with, but she refuses to do so.

She doesn’t want to give up the last moments with Ellie. There is so much outpouring love and anguish in that scene.

How does Riley go? We all know that Ellie lives.

What she had to witness from her best friend must have been devastating. In the present time, Ellie comes rushing back to Joel with some first aid.

We see them emotionally hold each other’s hand and share a moment just before Ellie sews his wound together. Without anything to numb him, Joel is in extreme agony, but it has to be done.

While Ellie may have lost Riley, she refuses to lose Joel. He can be saved.

Other than Riley, he is the only other person she sees as family. Storm Reid did a fantastic job as Riley, and I only wish we could have seen more of her.

But connecting to a character in just a short amount of time and being punched in the gut by that loss, shows you the stellar acting in this show. It takes talent and hard work to get the audience to feel that loss and be devastated by it, in such a short amount of time.

Tune in next week to see if Joel will finally admit he sees Ellie as family too, because his actions prove they do.

Share in the comments below, what you of HBO’s The Last of Us season 1 episode 7.