Left Behind

To begin with, I had never been one of the Bella-haters with their "she looks nothing like the Ellie from the game" or "she seems like a different character" but she still had to prove (to me I mean) she was worthy of the part, at first she did it great at crafting an incredible and believable chemistry with the Joel character and now she's made very evident she's an amazing actress, with subtle performances that contribute to create the "childishness" of Ellie and raging and furious states where she demonstrates all the pain and suffering her character went through, overall she's made Ellie a multilayered character different from the one in the game but really believable.

This chapter on the other hand was good, not incredible, mostly a filler but it served as an Ellie back-story and it had a great atmosphere, an enjoyable episode that makes us understand why Ellie is so attached to Joel and won't abandon him as much as don't want to be abandoned by him.

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.

Left Behind adapts the iconic dlc storyline incredibly well. Continuing that impressive balance of faithfulness and originality whilst depicting some of the most tender and heartwarming moments of the story so far which makes it all the more heartbreaking when these innocent moments are interrupted by the monsters of this world.

As with Bill and Frank's episode earlier on in the season, it may not drive the narrative forward on action alone but this definitely isn't 'filler' and is absolutely necessary to the story it's telling and has been integrated into the overarching story at the best possible place.

Bella Ramsey is perfect as usual with Ellie's optimism and fear of being alone still present and intact. Storm Reid absolutely shines as Riley with a confidence and soulfulness that matches the characters life experiences and her chemistry with Bella is instantaneous and so engaging to watch.

Liza Johnson's direction is amazing, the show has consistently been really impressive from a technical and visual standpoint but this one in particular is just absolutely gorgeous to look at from beginning to end and the mall set is insane in its scope and detail.

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.

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.