After that massive cliffhanger in Episode 6 of the HBO hit The last of us (on Crave in Canada), where Joel (Pedro Pascal) is stabbed and badly injured, Episode 7 of the show looks back at what Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) life was like before we met her at the beginning of the show.
As we wait and see what happens to Joel and if he and Ellie can actually make it to the fireflies working on a cure, the latest installment of the series answers an important question: how did Ellie get bitten in the first place?
Here’s everything you need to know about Episode 7 of HBO’s The Last of Us (spoilers ahead):
The episode begins with Ellie and Joel in an abandoned house, they are in the basement of this property and Ellie is trying to stop the bleeding from Joel’s chest. He grabs her and tells Ellie to leave him and go north back to Tommy, and violently pushes her away. Ellie covers Joel with a jacket and goes up the stairs to the ground floor of the house. Then we enter the flashback to Ellie’s past.
We now see Ellie at the FEDRA school she attended in Boston before ending up with Marlene (Merle Dandridge) as we saw in the first episode of the series. She’s running through a gym with her schoolmates listening to music on her Walkman cassette player when a girl named Bethany rips off her headphones and tells Ellie to pick up the tempo.
Ellie says she doesn’t want to fight and Bethany responds by saying, “You don’t fight. Your girlfriend is fighting. She’s not here anymore, is she?”
This leads to Ellie hitting Bethany and heading to Cpt. Kwong’s office to be disciplined for her actions. We find out that Ellie got into quite a bit of trouble at school, leading Kwong to urge her to find a better path, that there is a “leader” in Ellie, and that FEDRA can really hold the town together.
Who is Riley in The Last of Us?
Back in her room, Ellie is reading a Savage Starlight comic. Will Livingston’s first No Pun Intended book is nearby, a Mortal Kombat poster hangs on the wall, and she has Etta James and a-ha music for her Walkman.
She falls asleep and Ellie’s friend Riley (Storm Reid) comes into the room through the window. Ellie thought she was dead because she hadn’t seen her friend in three weeks. Riley reveals that she’s now an armed firefly, which Ellie doesn’t particularly like.
Riley has returned to smuggle Ellie out of school to have ‘the best night on earth’ [her] Life.”
Ellie is reluctant at first and agrees to go. As she changes, Ellie asks Riley to turn and look away from her.
“You’re so weird there,” Riley says. It’s a detail to remember as we watch this relationship play out in the episode.
The pair first stop at an apartment building and go to the seventh floor where they see a dead body, a man, with a bottle of liquor and pills lying on the floor next to them. The girls take the alcohol and set off. They both have a drink before arriving at an abandoned mall that has been locked down because it was full of infected people.
Ellie questions Riley about how she became a Firefly. Riley responds by explaining that one day when Ellie was being punished for her bad behavior in “the hole,” she snuck out and an “old” woman, whom Riley describes as being in her forties or fifties, stated that she was impressed by Riley’s ability to sneak around. The woman asked Riley for her thoughts on FEDRA and Riley said they are “fascist D-ck bags and they are the ones who should be hanged for their crimes”. It was then that Riley was suggested to join the Fireflies.
At the mall, Riley promises to show Ellie the “four wonders,” but Ellie is particularly looking forward to experiencing an escalator, so now it really is the five wonders of the mall.
As they walk through the mall looking at the stores, Riley starts giggling as they come to a lingerie store and says she imagines Ellie wearing a pair of lingerie in the window. Ellie stares at it for a moment and touches her hair before Riley leads her to a carousel.
Ellie continues to try to convince Riley to return to FEDRA, saying they could do things better and “run things”. But Riley says that since she turns 17 next month, she got her assignment from FEDRA, which was channel detail.
“Keep watch while people shovel shit,” Riley said. “That’s what they think of me.”
Next, the couple goes to a photo booth and snaps a series of fun pictures, which Ellie keeps to herself. They then head to an arcade with games like Tetris, Attack From Mars, Daytona USA, and Mortal Kombat II.
Riley also got Ellie a present, the second volume of the book No Pun Intended, which Ellie entertained herself and Joel with in previous episodes.
Ellie then realizes that Riley didn’t just stumble across this mall, she was posted there by Fireflies to guard her hideout, including guns.
“They would never use them on you or anywhere near… I would never let them,” Riley says, but Ellie isn’t sure.
“You are my best friend and I will miss you”
As Ellie walks away, Riley reveals that this will be her last night in Boston as she is leaving for a post at Atlanta QZ. Riley says she asked Marlene if Ellie could go too, but Marlene said no.
Ellie storms off but eventually returns. She hears a scream coming from a costume and decoration shop. She thinks it’s Riley screaming, but it’s actually just a Halloween decoration that Riley wanted to show Ellie. Another wonder of the mall.
“Maybe the Fireflies aren’t who I think they are, but they chose me. They care about me,” Riley tells Ellie
“You are my best friend and I will miss you,” Ellie says in response.
To lighten the mood, Riley pulls out the Walkman she took from Ellie’s room and starts playing Etta James’ “I Got You Babe” and they dance around with a clown and a wolf mask on.
Ellie tells Riley not to go and kisses her. Ellie apologizes but Riley says “For what” and they both start laughing.
But sweet moments don’t last long The last of us. A clicker comes out from behind a store shelf and attacks them. Ellie stabs the creature, then Riley punches it in the head while the clicker attacks Ellie. It then goes after Riley and Ellie stabs him in the head.
Ellie sees that she has a bite mark on her forearm and Riley has one on her hand. Both realize that they are infected and will turn into clickers.
Riley outlines two options. She says they can “take the easy route” by looking at the gun in her hand, but Riley is quick to say she doesn’t like that route. Option two, she says, is that they move on.
“Sooner or later it ends like this for everyone, right? Some of us just get there quicker than others,” says Riley. “But we will not give up.”
Riley holds Ellie’s hand and as they both cry, she says, “Whether it’s two minutes or two days, we’re not giving that up. I don’t want to give that up.”
Then we jump forward in time again. Ellie opens all the drawers and closets in this house and finds a needle and thread. She runs back downstairs to Joel, holds his hand and then begins stitching his wound.
We’re guessing and waiting another week to find out if or how Joel survives his injury.
