As the hurt Joel orders her to leave in the first scene of the episode, she responds, “Joel shut the fuck up!” bringing home the point that she has already experienced too much loss and is not about to give up on him, as the previous episode highlighted.
He instructs her to visit Tommy. She covers him with her jacket, gives him a fuck you look, and exits the room, triggering the episode’s main flashback. The injured Joel orders her to go in the opening scene of the episode, and she responds, “Joel shut the fuck up!” reminding us, as the previous episode underlined and this one will drive home, that she has already experienced too much loss.
When Riley (Storm Reid, Euphoria) sneaks into the room and covers Ellie’s mouth while she is asleep, their reunion is not off to a good start. Before Ellie realizes who is attacking her, she screams in fear, knocks Riley to the ground, and grabs her switchblade. The exposition starts to pick up speed when she realizes that it’s truly her best friend. Riley has been absent for three weeks as a result of her decision to take action after much time spent “talking about liberating the QZ.”
Ellie experiences conflicted emotions as a result and declines Riley’s invitation to join her for “the best night of your life” since she has to get up soon for drills “where we train to kill Fireflies.” Yes, these pals are in a difficult situation since they appear to be on opposing sides of a genuine ideological struggle. The opportunity to spend a few hours with the buddy she has been missing so much, as Riley had predicted, prompts Ellie to rapidly change her mind.
As Riley asks Ellie to join her for “the happiest night of your life,” Ellie declines because she has to get up soon for drills “where we train to kill Fireflies.” This causes Ellie to experience conflicted emotions. These buddies are indeed in a bind since they appear to be on opposing sides of an ideological (and actual) fight. But as Riley had expected, Ellie immediately changes her mind, presumably finding it difficult to pass up the opportunity to spend some time with the buddy she had been missing so much.
Ellie and Riley discover a man’s body in a hallway, along with some pills and a bottle of booze, which they grab and consume on the rooftop in a moment that is novel for the program. Instead, in the game, they raid the camp of Winston, a man with whom they had a friendly relationship and who, surprisingly for someone living in their environment, passed away naturally. You can drink some alcohol that he has in a cooler. Ellie from the television show manages the alcohol considerably better than Ellie from the video game, who spits it out.
Ellie asks Riley, “So, what happened. You began seeing some Firefly boy and was like, “Uhhh, this is fine, I think I’ll be a terrorist,”” after pleading with Riley to let her touch her pistol. It’s a startling line since it’s both an obvious jest and also suggests that Ellie is possibly trying to gauge Riley’s attitude toward boys in order to see whether there’s any chance Riley might feel the same way about her. (In the game, nothing comparable is spoken.) Riley soon admits the truth: Marlene approached her and inquired about her opinion of FEDRA. They’re fascist dickbags, Riley said in response, and with that, she was in. Ellie begins to argue back, repeating some of the same nonsense. Riley tells them they’re on a mission and leads them on, hopping across many a rooftop on the route to their destination: the mall. Captain Kwong had earlier informed her about FEDRA holding things together.
As they get there, Riley sets up a very cool revelation for Ellie by having her buddy stand in the temple to capitalism that is completely dark before turning on the lights. Ellie watches in astonishment as everything starts to light up. Their journey truly begins when Riley pledges to show her “the four wonders of the mall.”
Anita Zuuri
Annie is an entertainment and lifestyle writer. She enjoys reading and writing about music, celebrities and their lifestyles, food, cars and tech.