Left Behind

If you've played the game, you KNOW what's coming just by the episode title. If you haven't played it, then you might have an idea of what's coming thanks to little mentions here and there in previous episodes. Either way, the episode delivers on all fronts as far as I'm concerned.

Storm Reid is SO well cast as Riley (even though she looks nothing like Riley from the game) and really embodies that character so well. Bella Ramsey, again, absolutely kills it as Ellie. Especially with this being an ever-so-slightly younger Ellie age-wise but a lot less world-weary than the Ellie we see with Joel. Speaking of Joel, Pedro gives so much more than one might expect given he's got about 3 minutes of screen time and maybe half a dozen lines. All 3 of them give brilliantly nuanced performances. Just more examples of why both Pedro and Bella deserve ALL the acting awards when it's that time of the year again.

During this episode we get a glimpse of Ellie's life before Joel. There were (and still are) many unanswered questions about her past so I think it was important to know a little bit more about her.

On this episode she finds herself with an intricate and difficult problem that concerns her survival and that of Joel. This conundrum triggers a memory from her past, a key part of her development as a person, said memory will allow the viewer to observe an oasis of fun, noise and party in the middle of the apocalypses, were, for a few moments, Ellie stops being a survivor to be what she is first and foremost: a teenager.

Like all of teenagers, she doesn't know exactly how to communicate what she wants and it's impossible not to relate to that feeling, that of a lost kid in the search of love and meaning.

The worst episode so far. It was honestly disappointing. It was not bad, but following last week's already slow episode with another slow episode was disappointing. Some parts of the episode are genuinely great and we do gain a better understanding of Ellie, but I did not care much about the teenage girl drama.

I guess it's a beautiful and sad story, but not very intriguing. We already know how it's going to turn out, so why spend so much time on the small details? This episode is very similar to Long, Long Time, but just worse. The acting is good and the cinematography is beautiful but this time I just couldn't care. We know the outcome so there's no suspense. It would be a better episode if they shortened it down to 30 minutes and then we spent more time in the present.

Anyone saying this is boring or a filler episode obviously has never experienced the source material and clearly has not interest in character development. If you're just here for the clickers, that cool I guess, but TLOU isn't about the clickers, it's about Ellie.

The show runners did a great job bringing the game to the screen in thos episode. Granted, it was a slow paced episode filled with teen drama, but guess what? You're watching a show about a teen in the aftermath of a fungal pandemic.

This episode was a masterful recreation of the originalaterial and the show runners should be proud.

This isn't some made up filler for the show, if you've finished the main story in the game it only makes sense to play the flashback chapter 'Left Behind'. This explores Elle and Riley's friendship throughout the apocalyptic world, a treasure of wholesome connections that don't come into light anymore. A very important part of the game's overall development, happiness in it's heart from a world turned upsidedown.

I'm not saying this is the best episode, far from it. Although i will say it has major relevance to Ellie's journey. It may confuse a lot of people, mainly those who haven't even played the game. It does seem out of place but it's a flashback to how Ellie got infected. It is important, but could it have also worked as a short 20 minute segment? Maybe, although it still doesn't make it unnecessary.