While the bulk of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation retells the story of the first game, episode 7 is a special exception. That’s because it dives into DLC territory to bring The Last of Us: Left Behind to the small screen and give Bella Ramsey’s Ellie an hour to shine.
Keeping it tight On a fundamental level, Left Behind stands out by telling a strong story, plain and simple. The focus here is on thoroughly building out a relationship between Ellie and Riley in a short time frame, which Naughty Dog accomplishes with ease. That’s thanks to a string of memorable beats that span the spectrum of emotions you get in a full-length Last of Us game.
The Last of Us Part II, for instance, reuses the same narrative complications over and over just to get another level in. There’s a glut of scenes where Ellie walks over an unstable bridge or structure that collapses, dropping her into a set piece that she has to navigate to get back to where she was going. Those moments rarely move the plot along so much as they add a point A2 between points A and B.