Left Behind

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.

The episode explores the game's DLC of the same title. While important to tell this story, a 10-15 min flashbacks within the main story would have been enough. Dedicating 2 out of 9 full episodes for character development, makes the main story feel rushed and incomplete. A good example would be ep 6 ending. The game explores a search for fireflies at the university for many hours, looking for clues, while the show dedicates 5 minutes of Joel and Ellie finding a packing list that was left behind by Fireflies but we get a full episode for 2 teens playing games in the mall... Only 2 episodes left people, what were you thinking?!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it - 7/10.

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.

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.