‘The Last of Us’ Episode 7 Recap: What Happened to Riley?

Spoilers for episode 7 of The Final of Us.

There’s a level the place, within the 2014 PlayStation recreation enlargement The final of us: left behind, 14-year-old Ellie Williams falls. She sprints to flee the contaminated runners on her heels, however the scaffolding she climbed is not steady sufficient to assist her weight; the construction leans after which tumbles. She falls down with it, hitting the bottom arduous sufficient to knock the air out of her lungs. The zombies are on her immediately and she or he’s screaming for her greatest good friend, Riley.

When you watched tonight’s episode of HBO’s The final of us, you already know the way this story ends. Ellie and Riley each undergo battle wounds from their zombie combat, which – within the cordyceps-infected world they reside in – means sure demise for his or her minds and in the end their our bodies. I just lately re-watched this PlayStation scene and was struck by a YouTube remark from one other viewer: “Think about if Ellie by no means fell off that railing within the final half. She would by no means have been bitten, so she would not have met Joel… Woah, this one little second moved the entire story ahead.

Episode 7 attracts on comparable imaginations in nearly each scene. When Riley (Storm Reid) barges into her bed room unannounced, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is so enraged by her former roommate’s disappearance that she spends a lot of the remaining scenes questioning Riley’s dedication to a dream. On the age of 16, Riley just lately contacted the Fireflies, a bunch of revolutionaries in search of to overthrow the fascist authorities deploying FEDRA, the Federal Catastrophe Response Company, which in flip controls key quarantine zones throughout the nation. Ellie thinks Riley’s concept of ​​a greater world – a world led by these protestors – is a fantasy, and a harmful one. As Riley lures Ellie into the night time, the 2 drink from a whiskey bottle, debate politics, and commerce “nonsense propaganda”: Riley is set to visualise radical change, no matter it takes; Ellie digs her heels in, satisfied that one of the best ways ahead is to climb the FEDRA ladder and alter the corrupt system from inside.

Within the deserted mall the place Riley takes Ellie as a late-night journey and going-away get together, the 2 are in a position to visualize an alternate childhood, one the place their teenage years passed off earlier than the outbreak. They experience on escalators and merry-go-rounds; they secretly take puffs of unhealthy liquor; they stare at lingerie in amazement; they play previous arcade video games; they giggle at Ellie’s notorious puns; they trade secret, longing glances. They argue, Ellie hurts that Riley is leaving her to combat for a “I do not even assume you perceive” case, and Riley is pissed off that Ellie can’t appear to know.

Ellie then discovers the do-it-yourself bombs in Riley’s meals court docket turned camp, and her disappointment is visceral sufficient to immediate Riley to disclose the reality: the Fireflies ask her to depart city. This night time is the final time the housemates are collectively.

Beneath the flashing neon indicators, Ellie confronts her good friend, “Why did you deliver me right here?”

“As a result of I wished to see you,” Riley says.

“And?” Ellie provides, her eyes scanning Riley’s face with a sort of wild, determined hope. After seeing how she interacts with Riley – the shy smiles, the hand holding, the lengthy stares – we all know what she desires to listen to. However how can she enable herself to confess it? Even at this level within the story, weeks earlier than she meets Joel, Tess, or Sam, Ellie has suffered a lot loss, a lot disappointment. Who can blame her for maintaining her desires small?

“And I wished to say goodbye,” concludes Riley. That is all of the affirmation Ellie wants. She turns and storms off, solely returning to Riley’s facet when she fears the Firefly recruit is being attacked by the contaminated. In actuality, the screams come from low cost Halloween decor in pursuit of a superb leap scare. Ellie’s blood strain rises once more, however this time the look on Riley’s face convinces her it is time to pay attention.

“You do not know what it was wish to have a household, to belong,” Riley explains to her. “I belonged to them. And I need that once more. Possibly the Fireflies aren’t what I feel they’re, however they selected me. I’m vital to them.” The road intentionally foreshadows Ellie’s personal eventual assembly with Joel. He too will not be who Ellie thinks he’s. However he desires to deal with her. In his method, he selected her. That is one thing she’s by no means allowed herself to do earlier than. Besides, in fact, when it got here to Riley.

Outfitted in what I believe have to be disgusting-smelling monster masks, they twirl on Spirit Halloween’s glass counter tops, waving their arms to the beat of Etta James’s “I Obtained You Babe.” However the verve solely lasts lengthy sufficient for Ellie to slowly take away her werewolf face and stare at her good friend, her hair wild, eyes large and looking out. “Do not go,” she pleads.

Riley is lastly satisfied. “Okay,” she says, and Ellie stumbles ahead for a kiss. It solely takes a second, nevertheless it’s convincing sufficient to make the 2 snigger nervously, as they understand – with a wave of pleasure – that the sentiments are shared between them. There’s a future right here, an actual one. They’ll picture It. Collectively they’ll deal with it. However as with so many moments in The final of us, happiness is violently ripped from the supply. A stalker, revealed to us earlier within the episode whereas hibernating within the American Lady Doll retailer, pops out from underneath a pile of merchandise and the chums are immediately concerned in a deathmatch.

After a brief however blood-curdling battle, Ellie secures her first kill, one she has adrenaline sufficient to virtually to have fun because it falls to the bottom with a hiss. However victory is short-lived, as any viewers member will acknowledge. She stares uncomprehendingly on the tooth marks on her arm and claws on the stream of blood as if she might erase it.

When Riley reveals an identical chomp on her hand, Ellie’s anger is redoubled. She screams, already glowing with grief, as she bats by the Spirit Halloween show circumstances and sprays glass on Riley’s toes. Resolute by her tears, Riley presents her greatest good friend with two choices: 1) They shoot themselves earlier than the an infection can take root of their brains. 2) They wait collectively, clinging to each remaining second of the longer term that, moments earlier than, they thought may be actual.

And that is the final word act of creativeness: Riley believes that what stays of their humanity is value preventing for. It’s this selection that saves Ellie, who would possibly in any other case have died earlier than discovering her personal immunity.

The scene ends with the 2 wrapped tightly in one another’s arms, crying however united. We do not get to see what occurs to Riley, although we will make an informed guess. The most definitely situation is Riley turning into an contaminated, forcing Ellie – in some way, not possible, nonetheless human – to run from her boyfriend or kill her. Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann purposefully depart that query unaddressed and unanswered, pointing to the theme of your entire episode arc. We need not know; we will think about.

And if we will think about the horror of what Ellie endured, we will equally perceive the mission that propels her into the present timeline. Riley’s case has turn into Ellie’s. She, too, seeks the Fireflies, however to not overthrow FEDRA, however to take away the necessity for it altogether. She is pushed by the assumption – nevertheless unlikely, nevertheless idealistic – that she will really save the individuals she loves. That imaginative and prescient in her thoughts solely crystallizes additional as she weathers the extra losses of Tess, Sam, and Henry.

So once we see Ellie with a now-wounded Joel, we will perceive why she’s determined sufficient to belief her personal shaky fingers. She clenches her tooth as she pushes a needle by the puckered flesh of Joel’s stab wound. She should imagine that she will save his life. She should imagine that every one this loss will yield one thing useful. She has to think about that she is the treatment, that the world Riley wished can exist, that Joel might help her understand it. And possibly he may be beside her on the finish of all of it when that hope turns into one thing tangible. There, collectively, they may belong collectively.