Left Behind (The Last of Us)

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This article is about the television episode. For the video game on which it is based, see The Last of Us: Left Behind.
"Left Behind"
Riley switches on the mall's electricity. The background was created using visual effects;[1] critics praised the color and lighting, and its similarities to the game.[2][3][4]
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 7
Directed byLiza Johnson
Written byNeil Druckmann
Produced by
  • Greg Spence
  • Cecil O'Connor
Featured music
Full list
Cinematography byKsenia Sereda
Editing by
  • Timothy A. Good
  • Emily Mendez
Original air dateFebruary 26, 2023 (2023-02-26)
Running time55 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Kin" 		Next →
"When We Are in Need"
The Last of Us season 1
List of episodes

"Left Behind" is the seventh episode of

post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of Us. The episode was written by series co-creator Neil Druckmann and directed by Liza Johnson. It aired on HBO on February 26, 2023. In the episode, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) searches for supplies to save Joel. A flashback follows Ellie as she spends time with her best friend Riley Abel (Storm Reid) in Boston
.

The episode is adapted from

Black Reel Awards and Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
. The episode was watched by 7.7 million viewers on its first day.

Plot

Ellie tends to Joel's wound.[a] Joel demands Ellie abandon him to die. As she begins to walk away, Ellie stops and recalls the events that led up to her getting bitten.

Several months earlier, in

Boston, Massachusetts, Ellie is an orphaned student at a military boarding school run by the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA). After Ellie gets in a fight, Captain Kwong encourages her to follow the rules to eventually become a FEDRA leader. Later that night, Ellie's best friend Riley Abel
sneaks into her room. Ellie is angry with Riley for joining the Fireflies—a rebel group opposing FEDRA—and leaving her alone at the school for weeks.

Riley takes Ellie to an

homemade bombs
, she confronts Riley about the Fireflies' violent philosophies. Riley reveals the Fireflies are moving her to the Atlanta Quarantine Zone, and she brought Ellie to the mall to say goodbye. Ellie initially storms out of the mall, but returns to Riley. The two dance together and Ellie desperately pleads with Riley not to leave. Riley agrees, and they kiss.

An infected, drawn to the noise, attacks the pair. Ellie eventually kills it, but is horrified to realize both she and Riley have been bitten. Riley suggests they let themselves turn together, arguing that no matter how little time together they have left, it is worth fighting for. In the present, Ellie recalls Riley's words. She finds a needle and thread and starts to sew Joel's wound.

Production

Conception and writing

44 year-old man with short black hair and a beard smirking to the left of the camera
The episode was written by series co-creator Neil Druckmann.[6]

"Left Behind" was written by The Last of Us series co-creator Neil Druckmann and directed by Liza Johnson.[6][7] The Directors Guild of Canada revealed Johnson was assigned to direct for the series in January 2022.[8] Johnson played the game after being assigned to the series.[9] "Left Behind" is an adaptation of The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), a downloadable content expansion of the video game on which the series is based.[10] Druckmann and series co-creator Craig Mazin encouraged Johnson and cinematographer Ksenia Sereda to take liberties with the episode and not feel constrained to replicating the source material.[10]

For Riley's first appearance in the comic book The Last of Us: American Dreams, artist Faith Erin Hicks and developers at Naughty Dog created an original fictional arcade game, The Turning, to circumvent issues with licensing;[11] for the television series, Druckmann and Mazin were able to use Mortal Kombat II,[b] the game on which The Turning was based.[1]: 47:19  Druckmann and Mazin avoided positioning any faction as purely good or evil, and showed the more positive side of FEDRA in "Left Behind" to juxtapose their negative depictions in the first episode.[1]: 12:47  The episode was originally written without any reference to Joel; producers at HBO requested a connection to the main story, like Left Behind had.[1]: 4:44 

Casting and characters

Storm Reid's casting as Riley was announced on January 14, 2022.[12] Reid was unfamiliar with the game prior to her casting; when approached to star in the show, she asked family and friends for their opinions on the game.[13] She watched snippets of gameplay to understand the emotion, but otherwise avoided the game to ensure an original take on the role;[14] she wanted to "hone in on" the manner in which Riley moves and "took up space".[13] Reid worked on the series for about a month.[14] She found the episode's portrayal of children refreshing as it had been absent from recent episodes.[15][16]

Bella Ramsey, who portrays Ellie, found Ellie and Riley's chemistry relatable and noted it made their performance easier. Ramsey and Reid had little time to bond prior to production.[17] They became close over the course of production; Reid called Ramsey "Mom" in one take.[18] The scene at the arcade was improvised; Ramsey and Reid were playing a working version of Mortal Kombat II. Ramsey had not watched Ellie's infection scene prior to their performance, and afterwards noted their version was more angry than the game's fearful.[17] Reid found the final scene emotional to perform as it was one of the last filmed.[19] Ramsey encountered some difficulty with the school scenes as they had not attended school since they started acting when they were eleven.[20]

Music

Druckmann chose the song "

All or None" by Pearl Jam as it represented Ellie's loneliness and uncomfortability, and the title reflected her general attitude in life.[1]: 7:28  A-ha's song "Take On Me" is used as Ellie discovers the escalator; Collider's Julio Bardini found the song's earlier lyrics reflected Ellie and Riley's feelings towards each other, while the later lyrics illustrated Ellie's journey after discovering her immunity:[21]

Needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But I'll be stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is okay
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry[21]

A

Just Like Heaven" was a suggestion of co-editor Timothy A. Good, who had been wanting to use it for some time.[1]: 38:27  Etta James's version of "I Got You Babe" was reused from the game; Druckmann felt the song's romantic lyrics hidden by joyous music mirrored the feelings of Ellie and Riley.[1]
: 56:28 

Filming

Production designer John Paino hoped to find an American-style mall within

soundstage and visual effects; the background of the shot in which the lighting is switched on was crafted through visual effects, for which Mazin and Druckmann had several meetings with visual effects supervisor Alex Wang.[1]
: 29:37 

The carousel—the

takes.[25] Abandoned stores at the mall were used as green rooms for actors.[20] Production moved in Okotoks in January, with added trees, grass, and snow; filming occurred in February.[26]

Reception

Broadcast and ratings

The episode aired on HBO on February 26, 2023.

MENA region.[31][32]

Critical response

Black Reel Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.[36][37]

On review aggregator

Push Square's Aaron Bayne applauded its similarities to the game.[4] Total Film's Bradley Russell found the opening sequence ethereal, mirroring Joel's fading consciousness.[39] The A.V. Club's David Cote lauded the fight sequence as the best close-combat scene in the series to date.[33] The episode's use of music was well received.[34][40]

Ramsey and Reid's performances received praise;

7th Annual Black Reel Awards for Television.[36]

IGN's Cardy called the episode a "beautifully faithful adaptation".

coming-of-age setting.[45] Total Film's Bradley Russell found the resolve of the previous episode's cliffhanger abrupt, and the ending of the episode rushed in comparison to previous scenes.[39] Kotaku's Kenneth Shepard felt the replacement of The Turning with Mortal Kombat II was corporate-led and failed to recreate one of the game's strongest scenes.[46] /Film's Motamayor wrote the episode suffered the trope of black characters dying only to motivate white characters.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Joel being stabbed is depicted in "Kin".[5]
  2. ^ Mortal Kombat publisher Warner Bros. Games is a subdivision of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of The Last of Us network HBO.[1]: 47:19 

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Baker, Troy; Mazin, Craig; Druckmann, Neil (February 26, 2023). "Episode 7". HBO's The Last of Us Podcast (Podcast). HBO. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Motamayor, Rafael (February 26, 2023). "The Last Of Us Episode 7 Brings Emotional Damage". /Film. Static Media. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Greene, Steve (February 26, 2023). "'The Last of Us' Episode 7 Is a Vision of What Could Have Been". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
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  6. ^ a b Bento, Manuel São (January 15, 2023). "The Last of Us Season 1 Spoiler-Free Review". That Shelf. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  7. ^ "El arma secreta de 'The Last of Us' está en sus directores" [The secret weapon of 'The Last of Us' is in its directors]. Cinemanía (in Spanish). January 19, 2023. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  8. ^ Haas, Shawnee (January 20, 2022). "'The Last of Us' TV Series Adds New Directors from 'The Punisher' and 'What We Do in the Shadows'". Collider. Valnet. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Roots, Kimberly (February 26, 2023). "The Last of Us Director Liza Johnson on Crafting the Perfect Post-Apocalyptic Teen Mall Date in Episode 7". TVLine. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  10. ^ a b McFarland, Melanie (February 26, 2023). ""What is desire?": "The Last of Us" director on the apocalyptic wonder of a trip to the mall". Salon.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  11. ^ Brown, Tracy (February 26, 2023). "'The Last of Us' finally gives viewers Ellie's backstory. It was 10 years in the making". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
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External links

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