Where a Kid Can Be a Kid: HBO's The Last of Us Episode 7 Recap

Enlarge / Even the apocalypse can't stop the standard teen wall full of posters...

New episodes of The Last of Us air on HBO every Sunday night, and Kyle Orland d'Ars (who played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who n haven't played) will have them talking about them here every Monday morning. While these recaps don't delve into every plot point of the episode, there are obviously some major spoilers contained within, so go watch the episode first if you want to go fresh. /p> Andrew: We're back! FLASH-back, that is!

This one isn't as far removed from the action as Episode Bill was a few weeks ago, but that means last week's cliffhanger is pretty much unresolved. Ellie is trying to heal Joel, though it seems to me that sticking a decades-old, unsanitized needle into an open wound is just as likely to kill him as it is to save him...

Kyle: If the flashback here seems a little out of place, it's probably because this story was originally part of the game's "Left Behind" DLC, which was written and released long after the first game was released. I'm not totally against putting it here in the series narrative - it's an important background that should go somewhere - but it's one of the most dramatic moments in the game (although maybe it still happens in the future?).

Given how we first met Ellie as a prisoner on the show, I really appreciate giving a bit more time to show what she was like trying to grow as a normal child under the version of the FEDRA company.

Enlarge / Bored teenagers look alike, even under FEDRA control. HBO

Andrew: Yeah, I don't have a problem with the episode, and people who watch it in the future, when the whole season is available to binge, probably won't be as bothered by the cliffhanger delayed.

It flirts with something that I can find frustrating in fiction, though: that urge to show/explain every little thing about a character instead of leaving things implied or a little mysterious. I don't mind too much here, but if TLoU spans a second or third season, I might see them relying on flashback as filler in a way that might be less interesting .

Have you ever wondered, viewers, how Ellie got her knife? How did Bill get his truck?! See you next week!

Kyle: As long as they don't fill up on 50 years of Star-Wars, I think they'll be fine... Andrew: Anyway, those things aside, this episode allows us to spend a lot of time with Ellie without Joel for the first time, which I appreciate. Is it a flashback to a few days? weeks? Month? Before the start of the series, when Ellie is just a teenager with a bad attitude at FEDRA High School instead of a possible savior of humanity. Kyle: In the game, I believe it's a few weeks before Ellie meets Joel, so let's go.

I was glad to see a well-acted version of Riley here, acting as a foil to push and pull Ellie in some interesting directions. Even if I didn't know what was going to happen, I think it would be quite difficult to get too attached to her. The model of "meeting a new character; See...