Episode Recap
Episode 7 of The Last Of Us begins with a trail of blood leading straight to an abandoned house. Joel is not in a good way, but convinces Ellie to leave. Ellie doesn’t do anything like that, she covers him with a coat and goes upstairs to get the supplies.
Then we jump back to see Ellie’s story. He hits the gym with his Walkman, but when a girl named Bethany rips it off, the pair fight. Captain Kwong points out and questions Ellie’s behavior, admitting that she has few options in the future. He either becomes a criminal or becomes an officer and can use this power in a more constructive way. “We’re the only thing holding this zone together,” he says, acknowledging Ellie’s leadership potential.
He has been gone for 3 weeks and Ellie is not happy about his absence. Riley confesses that she ran away, and now that she’s back, Ellie is shocked that Riley has turned into a Firefly. He wants Ellie to go out with him and promises the best few hours of her life. Ellie sighs loudly before finally changing and slipping off.
Escaping FEDRA’s guards, Ellie and Riley find some alcohol and drink together. Riley also tells the story of joining the Fireflies, including how the guards were fascists and disrespecting them was enough to convince Marlene and the other Fireflies to join their cause.
The pair eventually end up in an old abandoned mall. Ellie doesn’t believe it, she believes the place is infected. Riley points out that this isn’t the case, and besides, the place isn’t really sealed. Ellie follows Riley, who brings her to the mall where she turns on all the lights. Just a beautiful, electric parade for them.
The pair have a good time, taking photos in the booth, playing on the carousel and messing around in the arcade, playing a few rounds of Mortal Kombat II. In fact, the duo are so engrossed in what they’re doing that they don’t realize there’s an endlessly infected person waking up and spreading across the floor.
It looks like Riley has been living at the mall for a while because there’s a sleeping bag and a bunch of gear in the back. This is when Ellie realizes that Riley is lying to her.
Riley reveals that she was actually sent to the Mall by the Fireflies. This is only a temporary location as it is posted to a post in the Atlanta QZ in the morning. Riley wants Ellie to join her, even though it’s her last night in Boston. All this mall antics were Riley’s way of saying goodbye.
Ellie and Riley dance on a masked table. This eventually leads to the couple kissing and cementing their feelings for each other. But suddenly we see something absolutely shocking. That’s right, one of the infected! It’s a rare sight on this show I know, but it happens to Riley and Ellie, causing Ellie to stab herself in the head.
Unfortunately, Ellie ended up getting bitten, and Riley got a scratch on her hand. We flash back to the present as the couple weigh their options and decide what to do.
Ellie sews Joel up and does everything she can to help him. But she is wilting and needs antibiotics.
Episode Review
While I appreciate the desire to adapt the Left Behind DLC and flesh out the story for Ellie a bit more, it highlights one of the show’s biggest problems – the pacing.
It doesn’t help that we’ve seen the Clickers once in our show about the infected, had a cameo appearance from a Bloater, and had a rare case of the infected in maybe 3 of the 7 episodes so far. It doesn’t exactly build tension or suspense, and even shows like The Walking Dead have balanced their drama with zombie action. The problem is that the game is nothing like this painstaking TV adaptation, which manages to masterfully combine action, drama and strong themes.
In comparison, the show feels separated by two filler episodes that are completely removable and don’t lose anything. Don’t get me wrong, episode 3 had a lot of great chapters to like, but there’s little compared to episode 7. Sure, we get to see Ellie and Riley hang out for 50 minutes discussing the pros and cons of Fireflies, but other than that, there’s not much to this chapter at all.
In fact, compared to other post-apocalyptic shows, The Last Of Us wouldn’t even be in the top 5 right now. We’ll have to wait and see if the remaining episodes can sustain the decline.