There are those who treat The last of us as a practically revolutionary series for having so much admiration for the television nature of the work itself. The creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann do not try to redefine what a series is, but rather observe traditional structures to recycle them: they drive the story through weekly plots and situations, which usually involve the introduction and farewell of secondary characters and settings.
While it’s not revolutionary that a series so obsessed with being associated with the “quality” and “adult” labels should be so narratively conventional, it must be given that it’s unusual. And, in the seventh week, The last of us presents a plot set in the past to justify a present situation. It is also one of those doses of direct emotion, one of those stories that the viewer can tell that will break their hearts like Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) did in Long, long time.
The difference is that this time, instead of having two unknown protagonists, a part of Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) past is revealed and we meet Riley (Storm Reid). In the present, Ellie is with Joel (Pedro Pascal), who is injured after being stabbed. In Joel’s few lucid moments, he asks him to leave to save himself. And the script, instead of facing the painful situation of the present, places us in Ellie’s past, before being bitten for the first time and discovering that she is immune to being bitten by Cordyceps.
Ellie lived in a FEDRA training center where she had integration problems: her presence in Captain Kwong’s (Terry Chen) office was common due to confrontations with colleagues who were trying to intimidate her. It is interesting to see the education that she received: perhaps Joel (Pedro Pascal), Tess (Anna Torv) or Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) distrust the Department of Defense and the Center for Disease Control but she saw this authoritarian body as a way of order. What was the alternative, that the few confined societies lived in chaos?
This conviction of Ellie’s that Phaedra was the most optimal system of government was confirmed by Riley’s visit to her residence. Her friend asked her to spend a night together outside the hours allowed by the local government and revealed that she had become part of the Firefly Liberation Army. Ellie might have messed with the Phaedra but, when push came to shove, she still preferred to belong to it than voluntarily join an organization considered terrorist by her instructors. But even this difference didn’t stop Ellie from agreeing to spend a night with Riley outside her residence.
The interesting thing about the episode, written by Neil Druckmann, is how it places the viewer in an emotional and somewhat relaxed story when the public expected to get into the tension of Joel’s injury and possible death. The last of us repeated the play of the third week when, after the death of Tess, the fiction deviated with the narration of a love story. But, as with any of the beautiful stories told so far, the plot had to twist at some point and, just when Ellie found a happy ending in the past, it broke down.
And it is that, while Ellie and Riley brought up the feelings they had for each other, which went beyond friendship or companionship, an infected being woke up in the shopping center where they had the date of their lives. They took pictures together, played video games, and after a romantic kiss, Riley agreed not to move to Atlanta with the Fireflies to be with Ellie. Doesn’t it make sense, in the middle of a destroyed, fascist and mushroom-men world, to be convinced by the only luminosity and love of a loved one?
But, after having this idyllic moment, the infected bit both girls before Ellie could kill him. They, in love, make the decision to stay together until their last breath, until they become zombies, and, despite the fact that the camera does not show Riley’s last moments, the viewer has enough baggage behind them to imagine how their story ended. . Hence, Ellie’s way of approaching the present: Joel can die in a matter of hours or even minutes, but during this time, she will do everything possible to heal his wound and stay by her side. Ellie doesn’t abandon a loved one at the first chance.
The only negative of the episode, titled Left behind, are the possible reactions that may appear on social networks. The only romantic story of the very young Ellie is not cruel enough for there to be those who see her feelings for Riley and think: “The woke dictatorship is here again imposing the LGTBQ community.” If a Frank and Bill bothered them and even the appearance of a menstrual cup, Ellie’s confirmation as a young lesbian or bisexual must be the end.