I think off of the pure fact that this episode
is primarily a flashback will be people’s least favorite episode of the season. To me, it started out as my least favorite
after finishing it and the more I think about it, the more the episode grows on me. Can it be better? Yes, and I’ll go over 2 main aspects in
a second that bothered me and I think could have increased the quality of the episode
if they were fixed. One of those main complaints is not the notion
of any of this being filler. Because we are doing a major exploration of
one of our main characters that further fleshes them out and brings even more context to the
sole being of Ellie’s character. We see the environment she grew up in which
explains her more tough persona, we see the authoritative figures that hold power over
her life that fuels her rebellious nature, and we see her most prized and close relationship
fall to ruins which explains why she’s so afraid of losing Joel. If you think about it, the writing in this
episode is brilliant. Neil Druckman did an outstanding job adapting
the DLC from the first game into this episode. Despite there being no current plot progression,
the episode is still very efficient on a scene-to-scene basis as to developing Ellie more. That’s why I don’t understand why people
are calling this episode filler. It feels like they are just looking at it
from the perspective of solely plot progression as if these characters are only an icon on
a board game moving from point A to B. If anything this episode is the opposite of filler
because it focuses on a main character. To prove this, you could technically sandwich
these scenes in the middle of episode 1 when we do the 20-year time jump. Because that would be where it mostly lines
up in the timeline. From there it would act as a great character
introduction for Ellie and both Joel and Ellie’s past would be fleshed out at that point. Now I’m not arguing this should be the case
and I think this flashback episode is fine where it is, but it adds to the story because
it deals with one of our main characters. With this same logic and if you think Ellie’s
flashback is filler, then by definition, that would make Joel’s starting point filler
too. You may be thinking that I’m reaching here,
but in terms of structure for season 1, if you had Joel’s flashback in this episode
as an example, then it also wouldn’t progress the current plot. However, Joel’s starting point is important
for the show because of how much character progression and context we learn about it
him. And that’s why I think Ellie’s flashback
is almost as equally important. Throughout the show, we can pick up on details
about what happened to Ellie and why she’s the way she is and that might be your reasoning
as to why we don’t need this flashback, but the same can be said about Joel. Like with Ellie slowly learning that Joel
had a daughter before the outbreak. So overall, my point is that Ellie’s flashback
may seem more like filler because of where it lies within the story and in reality, it’s
not because of how much it adds to her character. Sorry for that tangent, I feel like I needed
to fully explain that from how many people I’ve seen complaining about this. So moving away from the filler hot topic,
let’s go into the episode's strengths. By far the best aspect to me is the duo of
Ellie and Riley. They were riveting in basically every scene
they had together and her and Ellie exploring the 5 wonders of the mall was surprisingly
wholesome. Like I didn’t think an escalator could make
anyone this happy so the fact that Ellie is this blown away is hilarious. The episode overall harnesses the fish out
of water aspect really well and every area of the mall they spend time in feels perfectly
utilized. Especially the stores because it brings up
the practicality of living in an apocalypse and we can see the different outlandish things
we used in our society that are no longer relevant in theirs. Like soap obviously, who the hell uses that. But going back to Ellie and Riley, the acting
for both of them was outstanding in this episode. I loved all the subtle details having to do
with Ellie being attracted to Riley. Some examples include having Riley turn around
when Ellie was changing clothes, Ellie asking Riley if the reason she joined the fireflies
was because of a boyfriend, but said under the guise of a joke to mask her intentions,
Ellie being giddy that Riley did all of this for her, Ellie fixing her hair in the mirror,
and then a lot of other minor moments of Ellie gazing at Riley with so much joy. Picking up on all of this is so much fun and
to me is the definition of great writing and acting. The marriage between these two aspects of
the show and how well they synergize together makes me sad that this episode is getting
downplayed so much. Because it gets even better from here when
they get bit by the infected and they have to confront the crushing reality that the
love they just discovered between each other is over. That’s extremely heartbreaking and again
the actors here nail the sorrow and rage that comes along with this terrible reality. Bella Ramsey is flat-out amazing and she is
giving a performance of a lifetime at such an early age. It makes me excited to see her in the future
as she grows even further as an actor. Although she’s already at a point where
she’s better than most actors who are even older than her. Going into another aspect that I loved was
the production design. It’s been spectacular throughout the show,
but seeing a run-down mall with so much detail in every square inch was astounding to see. Every surface withering away, the flickering
lights, the vegetation even making its way into this space, the amount of shit on the
ground we can hear them walk on, and then this being contrasted with more pristine areas
that people don’t care about like the arcade, makes their inclusion even more exciting. It adds to this notion of them stepping into
this world before the outbreak and they get to live a slice of life detached from all
the dogshit they have to deal with every day. It’s beautiful, happy, loud, bright, fun,
and everything about this space is an utter contradiction about any other aspect previously
set up in this world. Making it that much more important to these
characters and it even feels surreal. I think experiencing this moment at this point
in the story makes it so satisfying from how treacherous and devoid of happiness Joel and
Ellie’s journey has been. These small happy moments are the reminder
of how great life can be and seeing these characters live through them is special because
of how much they have to overcome overall. The 5 wonders of the world sequence has an
infectious aura of happiness tied to it and I absolutely loved it. Even adding in the song Take on Me was a great
touch too. A couple of other minor things I loved about
this episode were the ways in which Ellie bonding with Riley were shot and how they
set up the rogue infected in the mall. Most of the cinematography involving Ellie
being visually in love with Riley were generally lit with warm colors. It gives off this feeling of safety and happiness
and it splashes onto the screen with so much vibrance. Especially in comparison to the rest of what
the show looks like. Like the arcade scene being washed out in
pink in particular I feel like was visual foreshadowing of their romance. Then I think it was genius setting up the
single infected in the mall relatively early because it creates a lot of suspense. It’s kind of like the Hitchcock method of
showing a bomb under a table and then continuing on with the dialogue scene. Because once they show that infected, you
know he’s going to come back and you are left with this feeling of oncoming doom that
can’t be avoided. So again, it’s sad to see this episode getting
hated on from how much fun it ended up being, unless if people are also mad about Ellie
being gay like Bill and Frank, and if that’s the case then ooo boy they’re just a lost
cause at that point. Then besides all these great positives, there
are still the couple aspects about this episode that bothered me. The first one is Neil Druckman not intercutting
enough between the present and the past. To make this episode feel more productive
in the present in terms of plot, I think they should have given Ellie more to do. That could then also allow more transition
points between the present and the past. Because currently, all Ellie does in the present
is search the house and finds something to stitch up Joel with. If I were writing this, I probably would have
included an objective for Ellie to achieve like there being a CVS or something across
the street that she has to search. And in there maybe she has to overcome a clicker
on her own which could also be a mirror between her fighting the infected in the past. But this time maybe she doesn’t fight it
and instead outsmarts it by luring it away with bottles like in the game. Or even adding in another transition point
where she confronts the fact of her being upset that she’s been left alone by Riley,
to then cutting back to her being scared Joel will do the same and her frantically searching
the house and finding nothing. Which then she has to make a critical choice
to put herself in danger to save Joel by searching the CVS. Personally, I think this would alleviate that
feeling of there not being enough time spent in the present. It would give just enough progression to be
satisfying while also still being able to tie into the past. That and if I had to choose an episode to
be over an hour long, then I’d probably choose this one. Because another issue I had was that the ending
felt abrupt. I thought we were going to get a scene where
Ellie and Riley spend the night in the mall together and then the next morning we have
Ellie waking up to Riley being infected. Essentially the mirror to episode 5. To me, it would elevate the tragic nature
of this whole scenario and having Ellie need to kill Riley and seeing her struggle to do
so would be insanely sad. Seeing her breakdown after just killing an
infected Riley from survival would be a harrowing scene to watch to say the least. So I’m surprised that Neil Druckman didn’t
go there. I haven’t played the DLC so I don’t know
if that was cut or if that wasn’t originally in there. But I would have loved to see that explored
and there’s, even more, they could have done past that. Like with the paranoia of Ellie potentially
turning because as they said in the episode, it could take hours or even days. It also would have been nice to see Marlene
eventually showing up and finding Ellie in this state. That’s where I thought the episode would
have ended and it feels like a missed opportunity overall to end it so soon. Just as I was ready to be rocked and floored
emotionally the episode ended and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in that moment. Regardless though, I still find the episode
very enjoyable and one other minor thing that bugged me was how dark it was in the beginning
when Riley and Ellie were on the rooftops. There was a moment where they were like, there’s
the mall, that’s it, it’s right there, and I was like huhh? Where? It looked like a black abyss from how dark
it was. It’s kind of hard to be mad at this scene
though since they need to be sneaking around at night. However, it is a coincidence that I only ever
have this problem occasionally with other HBO shows like Game of Thrones and House of
the Dragon. It might just have to do with how they color-correct
the footage. But yeah, overall I still liked this episode
despite it not having current plot progression. Where I’d rank it in comparison to the other
episodes would probably be in the lower bracket and that’s mainly because of the fact of
how great they’ve all been so far. So competition is fierce. Thank you for watching and let me know what
you thought about episode 7 of The Last of Us.
