The Last of Us Episode 7’s Riley & Ellie Story Lives Up To Fans’ Hype

HBO’s highly-anticipated The Last of Us episode 7, “Left Behind” Riley and Ellie’s heart-wrenching backstory is living up to the fans’ hype.

Spoilers for The Last of Us episode 7 below!Ellie and Riley’s backstory in The Last of Us episode 7 has lived up to fans’ expectations. With Joel (Pedro Pascal) injured, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) hauls him to a garage in a residential neighborhood. While attempting to tend to Joel’s wounds, the episode flashes back to three weeks before Ellie’s first appearance in the show where her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) takes her out to an abandoned mall for some late night fun.

The Last of Us episode 7 took the audience back to a time before Ellie met Joel, depicting her friendship with Riley, her first kiss, and how she became infected. Following its conclusion, fans took to social media to praise the HBO adaptation’s of Ellie and Riley’s story. Check out how they reacted below:

Related: What Happens To Riley In The Last Of Us Season 1, Episode 7

How The Last of Us Changed Ellie and Riley’s Story

The HBO show is based on the popular PlayStation video game of the same name. However, Riley is not included within the original game’s story, only referenced by Ellie in dialogue. A year after the game hit stores in 2013, developer Naughty Dog released a downloadable add-on titled Left Behind that had the player take control of Ellie immediately following Joel’s injury at the Colorado university, but also during flashbacks to Ellie’s last night with Riley at the Boston mall.

The core narrative beats between the DLC and HBO’s The Last of Us have remained the same. The show recreated many memorable moments between Ellie and Riley to include their carousel ride, their goofy photo shoot, and their kiss with the same music playing. Several key lines of dialogue were also spoken word-for-word in the episode, however, the HBO series made a few significant changes to Ellie and Riley’s final night together.

The Left Behind DLC included long moments of gameplay that are absent in the show, including Ellie and Riley challenging each other to a brick throwing competition where they see who can smash car windows faster, and a playful water gun fight before their dance and kiss in a department store, not in the seasonal Halloween store as seen in the episode. However, one of the biggest changes to HBO’s The Last of Us episode 7 involved Ellie’s experience within the arcade, as the DLC saw the arcade cabinets without power. Riley had Ellie close her eyes and use her mind to imagine what it would be like to play the game. Although there were several differences between the show and the DLC, audiences were no less emotionally impacted by Left Behind‘s heart-wrenching conclusion in The Last of Us episode 7.

Next: The Last Of Us Season 1, Episode 7 Ending ExplainedSource: Various [See links above]