The Last of Us Episode 7

With Joel in bad shape, Ellie remembers a night of joy and loss. It's another killer episode.

The flashback ends with Ellie and Riley fleeing the mall as hordes of infected chase them. [fictional game The Turning](https://youtu.be/aecgd82z_No?t=3067) (which is basically Mortal Kombat) in the arcade... The thing you always have to remember is that life is worth living! This is when the romantic tension peaks and Ellie decides to make her move, giving Riley a brief but passionate kiss. The cabinet doesn't work, so Riley has Ellie close her eyes and place her hands on the controls, and then Riley describes the action. Avoiding infected and human marauders along the way, she discovers the meds in a military helicopter that's crashed through the mall's roof. Through some miracle, many of the booths still work and they hop on iconic 1993 fighter Mortal Kombat 2 (a poster for this game is also visible over Ellie's bed, hinting at her fascination). Ellie isn't at all happy with this but ultimately decides to continue onto the final wonder. Songwriter Robert Smith said this tune was inspired by [ the romance of a trip](https://thecuretc.wordpress.com/tag/2003/) he took with girlfriend Mary Poole, who'd later become his wife. Turns out the escalator was just a precursor to the real fun. After she gets in a tussle with one of her peers, a FEDRA officer presents her with alternative visions of her future in the zone: Continue messing about, end up a grunt with crappy duties, and likely die in some random accident. And run on an escalator to the tune of Norwegian synth-pop band

A post-apocalyptic romance as good as a mushroom monster world will allow.

[Henry and Sam!](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42825522/the-last-of-us-episode-5-henry/) [Frank and Bill](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42687278/the-last-of-us-episode-3-recap/). [Tess](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42618596/the-last-of-us-tess-death-show-vs-video-game/). [Frank-and-Bill](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42691787/how-do-bill-and-frank-die-in-the-last-of-us/) us all. This time, she’s going to save the person closest to her. There’s even a damaged photobooth and a big carousel that plays a toy-box piano version of The Church’s 1987 hit song “Under the Milky Way.” The Last of Us's trend of [picking out good songs](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42705769/the-last-of-us-linda-ronstadt-bill-frank-song/) is one of the only things in this series that's alive and well. [recapping last week's The Last of Us episode](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42955394/the-last-of-us-episode-6-recap/) while I was off meeting Mario in [Super Nintendo World](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a43012062/doug-bowser-super-nintendo-world-mario-movie-interview/). He strikes at the perfect time—right as the two girls argue about how Riley’s leaving the city and wants Ellie to come with her. (AKA Danger Land, USA.) Ellie warns her that the building is full of infected, but Riley doesn’t believe her. Riley already quotes their ideology as freedom fighters against the fascist FEDRA “dickbags.” Ellie and Riley escape in the middle of the night to explore a random building, which feels even less safe since, you know, this world is full of monsters. It’s been a minute since I've been in this mushroom world—the apocalyptic one, not Princess Peach's kingdom—and I come back to my The Last of Us home to find that Joel is fighting for dear life. We kick things off with Ellie in the Boston QZ military academy, getting reamed out by the corporal for misbehaving. But I’m shocked to learn that I leave for one minute and Joel ends ups (possibly) dead?!

In Episode 7 of 'The Last of Us', viewers finally got a glimpse into Ellie's past, and the tragic circumstances that led to her getting bitten.

We don’t see it, but we know that Riley turns and Ellie doesn’t, and Ellie probably had to kill her own best friend — a girl she may have loved. Did she take Riley’s revolver and kill her before she could turn completely or fight off an inhuman Riley like she fought off the Infected that bit her? Now, it’s up to Ellie to do whatever she can in return, but unfortunately, there’s not much she can do but watch Joel get worse and worse. Ellie manages to drag Joel into an abandoned house, but she doesn’t know what to do. Now, in Episode 7, it’s up to Ellie to take care of Joel, and it’s forcing her to remember the last time she wanted to save someone. After the end of [Episode 6](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-last-of-us-episode-6-lampshades-a-common-post-apocalyptic-trope) saw Joel and Ellie disappointed by the lack of Fireflies in the university in Colorado, the loss was only compounded when Joel found himself stabbed by a raider.

Ellie grapples with love, death, and ideology in a (mostly) abandoned mall in a touching flashback episode. By Randall Colburn February 26, 2023 at 10:00 PM ...

"But you mattered to me first," Ellie says, softening enough for Riley to rope her into her last event of the evening. The gift, which Riley's stored with her bedroll in the backroom of a taco restaurant, is the book of puns Ellie will later entertain Joel with on the road. This is her last wonder of the mall. Riley takes her to one of the several "wonders" of the mall: a working carousel. The moment passes, though, and Ellie, uncomfortable by this rush of emotions, says that she needs to get back to the facility before they discover she's missing. Riley reveals she's being sent to the Atlanta QZ by the Fireflies and that this is her last night in Boston. A buzzing arcade is the next wonder, and Ellie declares its array of glowing, blooping cabinets "the most beautiful thing" she's ever seen. Riley's next wonder is a photo booth that snaps five photos of the pair before spitting them out in a strip that Ellie tucks into her bag. Ellie, who's spent the majority of her life being told that the Fireflies are terrorists, is concerned, but nevertheless intrigued when Riley tells her she has a surprise for her. The shops are trashed and looted, but the breadth of this consumerist wonderland, a relatively intact relic of a time she never knew, dazzles nevertheless. "We're the only thing holding all this together," Kwong says of FEDRA. "Put me in the hole," says Ellie, who's now got a black eye.

The Last Of Us gives us a major flashback taken directly from The Left Behind DLC from the game.

And I don’t hate flashbacks, but at this point one thing that never bothered me in the games is starting to bother me here: Everyone outside of Joel and Ellie is starting to feel disposable. Overall, I think the games handle this very well, though the writing in Part II suffers from a heavy hand at times (in other ways beyond sexuality, including the cartoonish bad guys). I have more to say about the game vs the show but I’m going to save it for a separate post. Well all I can say is welcome to The Last Of Us. I got in some arguments with people saying things like ‘I’m not homophobic but why do they have to shove this stuff down our throats!?’ Overall, I did like this episode a lot, but it’s another depressing entry in the show in the end, for all its lighter moments. I suppose my problem with this episode, even though it’s plucked from the game and at the same juncture as the game, with Joel wounded, is that it interrupts the story again to give us yet more flashbacks. I think she’s great, don’t get me wrong, but Ellie of Part II is a tour de force and I’m just not sure. The Ellie of Seasons 2 and 3 of HBO’s adaptation. As with episode 3’s glimpse back in time, the episode works in many ways, giving us a clearer portrait of Ellie’s past and exactly what happened to her just weeks before she meets Joel. On the one hand, I really liked this episode as a self-contained story. I loved the music in this episode as well.

Although the video game flashback to Ellie and Riley was released as bonus content in 2014, it's considered to be essential to the game's overall narrative, as ...

From a tear-jerkingly sentimental, music-box version of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” playing on the carousel, to the girls dancing the night away to Etta James’ version of “I Got You Babe.” It’s a lovely mixtape of tracks that elegantly ties the story together in neat little bows. But Ellie and Riley’s mall is a dazzling spectacle of colors, lights, and sounds that are unlike anything else we’ve seen on the show so far. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the episode is the presentation, which is, in a word, ravishing. It’s actually a little sad that we won’t get to see more of them together on the show. The show includes Ellie’s backstory as a part of the main story and stays true to the game where it counts, though some moments are omitted and some new ones are added. Although the video game flashback to Ellie and Riley was released as bonus content in 2014, it’s considered to be essential to the game’s overall narrative, as it gives stirring insight into Ellie’s past that lends depth to her relationship with Joel.

The Last of Us breaks away from the crisis at hand to show a glimpse of who Ellie was before hitting the road with Joel. A recap of “Left Behind,” episode 7 ...

After taking steps to leave the mall, Ellie returns, following the sound of screams to a Halloween store, the fifth wonder of the mall, where Riley awaits and explains herself. Back to the present: If Ellie thought for a moment about abandoning Joel, the thought didn’t last for long. They have to deal with adult matters like sexuality and postapocalyptic politics, but, like teens before the apocalypse, they really just want to goof around and fall in love and decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Though unaware of the looming danger, Ellie notes that it’s getting late and that she needs to return, but Riley’s not having it. But The Last of Us is a heartbreaker, and the story keeps going. It doesn’t last, and Riley counters Ellie’s doubt with the information that the Fireflies have “set things right” in other cities. When Bethany taunts Ellie by saying she doesn’t fight and that the friend who does fight isn’t here, Ellie responds with a punch that, we’ll soon learn, sends Bethany to the infirmary in need of stitches. That tension complicates the show, and it’s at the heart of this episode. But then Ellie pauses to fix her hair in the shop’s windows, the comment not quite forgotten. The episode’s action shifts back to the Boston QZ and Ellie’s life as a FEDRA soldier in training, a grind of schoolwork (with a heavy emphasis on physical fitness), and bullying at the hands of a much taller classmate named Bethany. And it’s obvious he’d like to have a smart kid like Ellie as an officer. She gives a look that suggests she’s steeling herself for the decision, and though she hesitates before turning the doorknob, she walks through it.

We again interrupt your regularly scheduled zombie drama with a touching love story, this time in the form of an extended flashback during a different phase ...

This being “The Last of Us,” nothing good can last for long, and a zombie intruded on their moment together, wounding both of them. Yet as the hour unfolds, it pretty clearly becomes what amounts to a first date, with Riley exposing the wide-eyed Ellie to a host of wonders – escalators, arcade games, photo booths, a merry-go-round – before a spontaneous kiss that takes their relationship in a new and more romantic direction. Along the way, the show even identified the source of Ellie’s book of stupid jokes.