Left Behind

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.

Left Behind adapts the iconic dlc storyline incredibly well. Continuing that impressive balance of faithfulness and originality whilst depicting some of the most tender and heartwarming moments of the story so far which makes it all the more heartbreaking when these innocent moments are interrupted by the monsters of this world.

As with Bill and Frank's episode earlier on in the season, it may not drive the narrative forward on action alone but this definitely isn't 'filler' and is absolutely necessary to the story it's telling and has been integrated into the overarching story at the best possible place.

Bella Ramsey is perfect as usual with Ellie's optimism and fear of being alone still present and intact. Storm Reid absolutely shines as Riley with a confidence and soulfulness that matches the characters life experiences and her chemistry with Bella is instantaneous and so engaging to watch.

Liza Johnson's direction is amazing, the show has consistently been really impressive from a technical and visual standpoint but this one in particular is just absolutely gorgeous to look at from beginning to end and the mall set is insane in its scope and detail.

If you've played the game, you KNOW what's coming just by the episode title. If you haven't played it, then you might have an idea of what's coming thanks to little mentions here and there in previous episodes. Either way, the episode delivers on all fronts as far as I'm concerned.

Storm Reid is SO well cast as Riley (even though she looks nothing like Riley from the game) and really embodies that character so well. Bella Ramsey, again, absolutely kills it as Ellie. Especially with this being an ever-so-slightly younger Ellie age-wise but a lot less world-weary than the Ellie we see with Joel. Speaking of Joel, Pedro gives so much more than one might expect given he's got about 3 minutes of screen time and maybe half a dozen lines. All 3 of them give brilliantly nuanced performances. Just more examples of why both Pedro and Bella deserve ALL the acting awards when it's that time of the year again.

I get it that you need slow paced episodes to have the action-packed ones feel more impactful. But this was just too much and a good foreshadowing of what we can expect of season 2. Again they missed the opportunity to show why Fedra is so evil and focused on emotional coming of age ideas for an hour. TBH what's so bad about Fedra? Like the Captain is mentioning, they are keeping everything together.

You can compare this one to Episode 3. Compared to that though, this episode feels boring and stretched. Ep. 3 featured little action but a lot of meaningful emotion, a well written and completed story arc and a story I had to think about for days. Ep. 7 didn't manage to do any of that.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Left Behind", an 8th episode accurately told the story of LTOU only expansion it ever had - called "Left Behind". Despite of being slow its an important episode that establishes the key moment in Ellies life - no spoilers. Yet again as it was in previous episodes creators tweeked things here and there.

Overall, "Left Behind" is an important episode. At its core it shows kids being kids, and how cruel the world is. Acting was good as usual, set design is superb and pacing was actually better then i thought it will be. All in all not the best episode, but important for building a character and its choices one makes later.