The seventh episode of HBO’s iconic new series “The Last Of Us” premiered Sunday, and shed light on what happened to Ellie before she fled the QZ with Joel (Pedro Pascal).
It’s not easy to forget that Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in “The Last Of Us” is still a teenager. Despite having the mouth of a sailor and the soul of a survivor, Ellie looks young as hell. The biggest question hanging over the series so far is how such a young girl came to be entangled with a so-called terrorist organization, the Fireflies.
We learned exactly how this happened in Sunday night’s episode. As Ellie fights to save Joel’s life from the horrendous stabbing attack he suffered in episode six, we’re transported back to her days at a FEDRA school in Boston’s Quarantine Zone.
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It turns out that just before Ellie was forced to run away from the institution, she was on her way to being either a rising star in FEDRA, or a massive pain in their asses. After a frank conversation with one of her higher-ups, Ellie got a short-lived glimpse at a bright future for herself.
But instead of doing the work and joining FEDRA’s leadership, Ellie did what all teenagers do: she rebelled, at least a little. When her former roommate snuck back into the facility to take Ellie on what turns out to be a fairly romantic date in an abandoned shopping mall, Ellie faced a choice between joining the Firefly resistance or going back to the life she knows.
At first, she picked the school. But a small prank by her roommate dragged her back to the mall, where both of them were bitten a cordyceps fungus monster.
So at least we now know (sort of) how Ellie ended up with the Fireflies. I am also oddly thrilled to know that she contracted cordyceps through a fairly natural means, and not from some messed-up child abuse experiment at FEDRA. Or maybe that’ll be part of a later episode where we learn why she’s immune to the fungus. (RELATED: Trailer For HBO’s Apocalyptic ‘Last Of Us’ Is Utterly Bone Chilling, A Must See)
Though it was fairly slow compared to other episodes, episode seven contributed significantly to the story. It also introduced us to yet another same-sex couple — Ellie and her former roommate.