Episode seven of HBO’s The Last of Us follows the plotline of the extra downloadable content for the video game, titled “Left Behind.” In an extended flashback, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her friend Riley (Storm Reid) spend an evening goofing off together in an abandoned shopping mall. Near the end of the episode, they kiss, just before a tear-jerker ending.
Despite the episode sticking to the source material (meaning none of this was a surprise to fans of the video game), there was potential for certain fans to be upset over queer inclusion. They had, after all, gotten very angry after episode three, “Long Long Time,” centered on a gay love story, something Ramsey addressed after its release. For “Left Behind,” Reid decided to get ahead of the haters, saying to Entertainment Weekly, “I’m sure people are gonna have things to say on Sunday, but I don’t care because I’m proud of what we did and I’m proud of the story that we told and I’m proud of the people that we’re representing.”
Representation is deeply important to Reid, who was drawn to her character on The Last of Us because Riley is a young queer Black woman. When describing Riley’s relationship with Ellie, Reid said, “We are on the tightrope of a friendship and having a crush, or is it a crush? Is it just flirtatious energy? There’s just so much that goes into the complexity of what the episode is. And furthermore, the complexity of what Ellie and Riley’s relationship is I find just so beautiful.”
New episodes of The Last of Us arrive Mondays on Binge.