The Last of Us recap episode seven – the most painful farewell of all | Television

This text accommodates spoilers for The Final of Us TV sequence. Don’t learn until you may have seen episodes one to seven …

I can’t assist however really feel torn after this seventh episode. It has nothing to do with my enjoyment of it or the standard, however what it means for the remainder of the sequence.

We picked up nearly precisely the place we left off, within the aftermath of Joel (Pedro Pascal) being stabbed, and completed – large flashback in between – just some minutes later with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) stitching him up, having found a needle and thread.

Whereas I’m happy that even post-apocalyptic kitchens have a messy drawer, what subsequent? Joel remains to be at dying’s door, they’re miles from something approaching security and greater than 500 miles from the Fireflies’ hospital in Salt Lake Metropolis. Winter is coming and we now have simply two episodes left to wrap issues up.

I’ve each religion on this sequence – in my eyes, it has barely taken a misstep – so the showrunners ought to have earned our belief. However, with episodes eight and 9 rumoured to clock in at simply 51 and 43 minutes respectively, I can’t see the way it’s all going to slot in.

Three weeks earlier

The flashback sequence started with Ellie, Walkman on, jogging her method via gymnasium class earlier than getting right into a struggle with Bethany (Ruby Lybbert) and being hauled in entrance of a sympathetic Capt Kwong (Terry Chen).

We then noticed Riley (Storm Reid) return. As ill-advised entries go, sneaking via a window and placing your hand over somebody’s mouth whereas they’re sleeping could be up there at the most effective of occasions. In the course of the apocalypse? It’s a surprise Riley acquired out of that one alive.

From then on, as they encountered the lifeless physique within the hall, swigged booze, performed with Riley’s pistol and explored the deserted mall, the stress rose. It wasn’t a lot a query of if some contaminated had been going to seem, however when, and what number of.

The dialogue alongside the best way was sharp and humorous, exhibiting that even when the world has gone to hell and your finest good friend is leaving you to hitch the revolutionaries, there’s nonetheless time for laughter. And crushes.

Simply as final week’s episode served up spectacular cinematography, this week was no much less lovely, regardless of being within the confines of a dilapidated procuring centre. The shot of Ellie looking over the balcony as Riley fired up the electrical energy was gorgeous.

After navigating “electrical stairs”, we acquired a lesson within the logic of looting. Footwear was extremely fascinating, cleaning soap and lingerie much less so. I can perceive why nobody was fascinated by horny knickers whereas cordyceps took maintain of the planet, however a number of bars of cleaning soap most likely wouldn’t have gone amiss.

If nothing else, the absolutely stocked Victoria’s Secret window show did enable Ellie to consider need for a second, and query whether or not Riley might ever see her in that method. For the primary and solely time to date, we noticed a second of vainness as Ellie checked her hair within the store window reflection.

Subsequent up, the carousel, extra booze, the picture sales space after which a number of goes on the Mortal Kombat II arcade machine she and Joel encountered in episode three.

In fact, such bliss can not final. We quickly discovered that Ellie and Riley’s superb night was additionally meant as a painful farewell – simply as we got our first glimpse of an contaminated. From then on, it was merely a matter of time earlier than they had been attacked – not even the attractive scene of them dancing to Etta James and their eventual kiss might delay their inevitable demise.

When it lastly got here, the assault was extremely violent, Ellie and Riley simply overpowered, the frantic camerawork emphasising the horror. The realisation of their bites was heartbreaking, regardless of having been signposted from the start.

We briefly reduce to the current, following Ellie’s seek for medical provides, earlier than returning to the mall, the place Riley gave Ellie two choices – the second time this episode – finish it now, or maintain going to take advantage of their remaining time collectively. “We might be all poetic and shit and lose our minds collectively.”

What subsequent?

We left Riley and Ellie sobbing within the mall. We all know Ellie remains to be with us – this was, after all, the second she discovered she was immune – and Riley is just not. The idea right here is that Riley will flip and Ellie shall be pressured to kill her finest good friend, little doubt utilizing the pistol Riley tucked in her belt. In doing so, she’ll reply the query from episode 4 about Joel’s attacker not being the primary individual she’d shot. She’s already misplaced the individual she cared for many on the planet. She’s not about to let the second slip via her fingers.

I don’t count on we’ll see what occurred within the mall – so until subsequent week’s episode goes to characteristic nothing however Ellie sitting by Joel’s facet, mopping his forehead and nipping out to catch the occasional rabbit, count on an enormous time leap.

We’ve acquired two episodes left, and, as I stated earlier, I’m barely involved about how a lot floor we now have left to cowl, however my hopes are nonetheless excessive.

Notes and observations

• I made a mistake in final week’s recap after I stated Ellie’s sip from Joel’s hip flask may need been her first style of alcohol. She stated “nonetheless gross”, not “so gross”. As we noticed right here, she had positively had a drop earlier than. Apologies.

• Is it doable the booze and payments that man had been consuming earlier than his dying within the hall had been purchased from Joel and Tess?

• The episode fairly faithfully adopted the storyline of The Final of Us: Left Behind, the 2014 enlargement of the principle recreation. It’s a recreation of two halves, one regarding Ellie’s adventures with Riley, full with Etta James dancing and their kiss. The opposite seeing Ellie scouring an deserted shopping center in Colorado for medical provides to deal with the injured Joel earlier than transferring him to a hideout to heal and wait out the approaching heavy winter.

• Nice music on this episode. We kicked off throughout Ellie’s gymnasium session with Pearl Jam’s All or None (“It’s a hopeless state of affairs / And I’m beginning to consider / That this hopeless state of affairs / Is what I’m making an attempt to attain”), then moved to A-ha’s Tackle Me (an enormous nod to The Final of Us Pt II), a lullaby model of The Remedy’s Simply Like Heaven which performed on the carousel and completed with Etta James’s I Received You Babe for Ellie and Riley’s mall dance.

• Hats off Storm Reid for that efficiency as Riley, the epitome of the thrilling, cool, intoxicating finest good friend.

• That Savage Starlight comedian Ellie was studying in her room was just like the one she and Sam found within the tunnel beneath Kansas Metropolis in episode 5.

What did you consider episode seven? If you happen to and your finest good friend had been in a procuring centre (nearly) on their own, what would you do? What subsequent for Ellie and Joel? Have your say under …