S01.E07: Left Behind

[Whimsy]

Quote

As Joel fights to survive, Ellie looks back on the night that changed everything.

Original airdate 2/26/23

[paigow]

Flashback to FEDRA Girl  /  FEDRA 02210 [ legit Boston Zip Code]

IMDB:

Ellie now stuck surging [???]  on her own and now being force [sic]  to take care of somebody she loves deeply, reflects on past events in her life.

Edited February 27, 2023 by paigow

[T Summer]

This was some bullshit!

Like 2 minutes of the continuation of the story and the rest of the hour was Ellie's flashbacks? Yeah, that's what we tuned in for.

[Raachel2008]

Loved it. Bella Ramsay and Storm Reid were fucking amazing. My only complaint is that this episode should have been aired earlier in the season, maybe before Kansas City or right after.

[Starchild]

Last week's previews were not encouraging. I came into this episode prepared to tolerate (hopefully not hate) a teen angst flashback episode until we got back to the main story.

But wow, I was enthralled with this, beginning to end. Bella Ramsey is just so frakking watchable in this role.

[magdalene]

I was bored.  I watch this show for Pedro Pascal.  Not young teenage love.

I guess there are only 2 episodes left? What a waste.

Edited February 27, 2023 by magdalene

[DesiJF]

7 minutes ago, magdalene said:

I was bored.  I watch this show for Pedro Pascal.  Not young teenage love.

I guess there are only 2 episodes left? What a waste.

I agree.  I really think spending the whole episode on this flashback was a misstep.

[HC87]

I guess '80s music is now the de facto soundtrack for sci-fi series now. 

Pretty sure that was The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" being played instrumentally on the carousel scene.

Kind of weird that there are a fair amount of malls in America today that look like that one did. 

[thuganomics85]

Neil Druckmann was all "This is why you shouldn't drink while underage, break into malls, dance to loud music, and play video games, kids!  Because a zombie will bite you ass!" here.  Going overboard with the PSA there, buddy!

Knew what this episode was going to be about thanks to the title.  Definitely curious to see how the timing of this will play out.  I enjoyed it, but I can see why having this particular flashback so close to the ending and right after a big moment/cliffhanger (Joel being injured) might not work for some.  Granted, I'm not sure where else they could have put this since it probably did need to play alongside Ellie saving Joel.

Storm Reid was a good casting choice for Riley and I enjoyed the rapport between her and Bella Ramsey.  Bella in particular did an excellent job in general.  I liked that Ellie in the beginning still had her edge that we see now, but she was also more outgoing, goofy, and honestly, more like what I expect a teenager would act like before life really gave her a beatdown more brutal than the norm.  And now we know why loves those silly puns and they are so important to her!

Always great seeing Terry Chen.

I do like how they show how dangerous the infected are.  Just one of them was able to bite both of them with ease.  This genre has made it common to have zombies/infected/etc. be taken out with ease by themselves, so seeing one do this much damage really raises the stakes and be terrified of the swarms.  A lot of humanity is truly doomed.

Was going to make a joke about Pedro Pascal having an easy day/week, but he actually did a lot with his physical acting: both showing Joel's pain/suffering and him still showing concern for Ellie and wanting her to save herself.  Granted, I should know by now not to underestimate a man who can do so much with just his voice (and occasionally behind a helmet) on The Mandalorian when it comes to making an emotional connection!

Edited February 27, 2023 by thuganomics85

[Constantinople]

14 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Knew what this episode was going to be about thanks to the title.

Riley was raptured?

[paigow]

Marlene must come to transport Riley and finds her chasing Ellie around the mall. After killing Riley, Marlene realizes that Ellie must have Cordyceps Immunity and kidnaps her.

If Joel has any severed arteries, stitching up the skin will not really help. Also, he is likely getting a bonus infection... 

[peridot]

I didn't really feel anything about the flashback scene, I was just frustrated they were making all of that noise with no caution whatsoever.  I'm surprised the Fireflies chose the mall as a base and didn't try to verify if any infected were inside.  The Fireflies are a piece of work - recruit a teenager, have them make bombs, and move them to a new city in 3 weeks.  The options for living in a QZ were hopeless too - be a grunt or give orders to others.

I thought that Joel had a big puncture mark in his abdomen, it looked like he just had a minor cut at the end. 

[grawlix]

1 hour ago, paigow said:

Marlene must come to transport Riley and finds her chasing Ellie around the mall. After killing Riley, Marlene realizes that Ellie must have Cordyceps Immunity and kidnaps her.

I kind of wished the showed the scene where Marlene arrived.  It is quite possible that Riley turned and attacked Ellie and Ellie had to kill Riley.

[paigow]

6 minutes ago, grawlix said:

I kind of wished the showed the scene where Marlene arrived.  It is quite possible that Riley turned and attacked Ellie and Ellie had to kill Riley.

If Ellie killed Riley, it is likely she would not remain at the mall... Then Marlene has to coincidentally arrive before Ellie can escape. 

[Constantinople]

I didn't enjoy the episode much, but the two main problems I have with it are me problems, not show problems. It has nothing to do with the acting, writing, set design, etc.

It may be a while until I can handle a TV episode set in a mall thanks to the mall scenes in the final season of Better Call Saul, which I hated on the whole. It didn't help that I saw an ad for Cinnabon when I scrolled down this page. I didn't realize how much it still bothered me until I watched this episode.

And these days I'm not particularly interested in young, first time romance.

That said, it's good to have an episode giving us more background on Ellie. Given what happened in the previous episode, it makes sense that we see that background now. Usually I prefer chronological story telling because many writers aren't nearly as good as they think they are telling a story out of order. But I think it works here.

I also thought Bella Ramsey did a really good job as Ellie. In particular, there were 1 or 2 times before Ellie and Riley kissed where Bella did a good job showing how Ellie was thinking about it, but didn't go through with it.

I also liked at the end how Ellie took positive steps to try to help Joel, even though they may be ineffective. It felt different somehow than when she shot the guy in Kansas City who was attacking Joel, but I'm not sure how to describe it. Perhaps because it was a healing action in this episode rather than a violent action in Kansas City, however necessary.

And I may enjoy the episode more with time, perhaps after the season ends or later. I didn't much like the Fly episode from Breaking Bad, but now I do.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Constantinople

[Glade]

Growing up queer, straight/cis relationships were "forced" into my view in every show, and behind the scenes, were forced to be the only presence by censors who actively banned LGBTQ representation.  Sad to see that homophobic dogwhistle that every minority representation is "forced" upon straight white men as if white cis heteronormativity isn't what has actually been forced on all of us  endlessly.   

--

This was a really touching episode, and while I wanted the action to continue, I was fondly rewarded by getting more of Ellie's backstory, of the person who she apparently meant when she said she had lost someone.  And seeing post-apocalyptic teens exploring the wonders of a mall and the poetic motif of dancing in halloween masks before a real monster rushed them was spot-on. 

[all fall down]

2 hours ago, HC87 said:

I guess '80s music is now the de facto soundtrack for sci-fi series now. 

Pretty sure that was The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" being played instrumentally on the carousel scene.

Kind of weird that there are a fair amount of malls in America today that look like that one did. 

Yep. The Rockabye Baby version of Just Like Heaven

 

[aghst]

2 hours ago, Raachel2008 said:

Loved it. Bella Ramsay and Storm Reid were fucking amazing. My only complaint is that this episode should have been aired earlier in the season, maybe before Kansas City or right after.

Mazin or Druckman said in Inside the Episode that this flashback is why Ellie decides to try to stitch Joel's wound instead of doing as he says, go to Tommy.  They add that Joel was purposely sending her away because he didn't think he was going to survive.

So the way it ended for Riley is probably why Ellie isn't giving up on Joel.

I wouldn't think the game would have a scene of Ellie stitching up Joel's wound so this is another deviation from the game?

The FEDRA officer didn't seem corrupt, though he was selling Ellie on the advantages of being an officer.  He claimed without FEDRA, the people in the QZ would be killing each other and the survivors wouldn't last.

They were training up the girls to be FEDRA soldiers and officers.  So they have a plan, not sure what the Fireflies' plan is, other than to fight FEDRA.  But power corrupts and believing in some grandiose mission may lead to abuses.

 

Overall it shows the bond between Joel and Ellie, the total trust in each other, which is necessary to survive in this world.  Ellie is fiercely loyal, maybe to a fault.  Maybe Riley's death led her to this point.

 

 

[Cheezwiz]

I liked this episode overall - and I liked Ellie much more this episode as well. Both young actresses did a great job. The whole episode I was on pins and needles, waiting to see how Ellie got bitten.

One thing I found odd was that the shopping mall looked more like it was from 1983 than 2003. Were arcades still a thing in malls 20 years ago? I was also trying to remember if Esprit was still around in 2003 - that seemed like  such a quintessential 80's store.  Maybe they were trying to poke at multi-generational nostalgia buttons and encompass multiple eras.

It's strange seeing such a cultural behemoth from my growing up years depicted as an ancient relic from the past (which it definitely is now).

Thanks to @all fall downfor posting that link to the lullaby version of "Just Like Heaven" - that is a lovely rendition. I never cared much for The Cure when I was a teen, but I did like that one, along with "Pictures of You".

2 hours ago, paigow said:

If Joel has any severed arteries, stitching up the skin will not really help. Also, he is likely getting a bonus infection... 

I was shuddering during that scene - all I could think of was all the additional bacteria that were going to be introduced to Joel's wound.

[maystone]

Bella Ramsey has been a revelation to me from episode 1 but never more so than tonight. She was just stellar.  I love character work, so Left Behind was a great episode for me. I thought the placement was spot on. We've had no real backstory on Ellie since the show began: We meet her when Joel and Tess meet her. We only know what she's told Joel about her past. Right off the bat I was surprised that she was going choose the officer route with FEDRA. I mean it was a smart decision, but up until that scene, Ellie had always come across as anti-FEDRA; she wasn't exactly pro Fireflies, either. She was just this hardened, foul-mouthed teen who saw herself as being bartered. There was a whole other person who existed before the tragedy at the mall.

The story of her and Riley - and Storm Reid was perfect in this role - was, god, so real and so bittersweet. All those soft, tentative moves towards each other. Ellie fussing with her hair. Riley's remark about the Victoria's Secret outfit. (I just can't believe that no one looted that!) The hands held. The dance. The kiss. There's certainly vulnerability but there's also courage in reaching out to each other. I have the feeling that FEDRA doesn't have a Pride Day. And then, of course, it all goes to hell even before the Clicker crashes in, because Riley was going to leave her.

So, yeah, I loved this episode, and I liked using Ellie's hand on the doorknob and the partially opened door as the bookends to Ellie's backstory because her history matters.

[grawlix]

37 minutes ago, paigow said:

If Ellie killed Riley, it is likely she would not remain at the mall... Then Marlene has to coincidentally arrive before Ellie can escape. 

The end of the flashback just leaves a lot of open questions about Marlene's reasoning to keep Ellie alive.  

 

We didn't have a exact time of Marlene's arrival, but the time frame from the FEDRA bite chart showed a bite to the mid part of the body is 2-8 hours.   If Marlene arrived prior to Riley turning, she just sees two people on the verge of being fully infected and probably kills both girls because they are now a threat to attack her and whomever else Marlene brought at any time.   If  Marlene arrives after Riley turns, then Riley and Ellie's decision to stay together means Ellie will be in close proximity when Riley turns and attacks her.  Ellie would unlikely be able to escape an attack from someone that close (like with Sam in the hotel room).  Ellie has to stay alive longer than the 8 hours to be fully infected to give Marlene the idea that Ellie is immune.

 

Also, Ellie's questions to Joel about killing the infected may imply that Ellie had to kill Riley.

 

[Dev F]

17 minutes ago, aghst said:

I wouldn't think the game would have a scene of Ellie stitching up Joel's wound so this is another deviation from the game?

It's not a huge deviation. I know we're not supposed to spoil the game in the episode threads, so I'll just say that the game intercuts the mall flashbacks with a fairly elaborate gameplay element that ultimately serves the same purpose as "Ellie finds a needle and thread in the room upstairs."

That did make me wonder whether the episode might've been enhanced if it, too, had a more elaborate present-day narrative to intercut with the flashback. But without the gameplay element, which provides a non-narrative justification for the intercutting, I'm not sure that would've worked. It's not like there's an obvious way for part 1 of the flashback to lead Ellie to point A in saving Joel, then part 2 leading her to point B, etc.; the point is that her memories of the whole experience come crashing back on her all at once, convincing her to stay and save Joel instead of running back to Tommy.

[Peace 47]

That actress who played Riley was really good, and she and Bella did an impressive job of playing those early/ mid-teen years when everything is in flux (moreso during an apocalypse, I’m sure).

I only just started watching this entire show earlier this week, and it has been a wild ride to get an instant gratification answer to “what happens next?” episode after episode for a few days straight and then come to this episode with the rest of the audience and hit an intentional detour that provides almost no answers except that Ellie will not leave Joel.  They didn’t even answer how Ellie had to leave Riley. 😐

I was originally going to say that this episode has a place in the season, but just not here.  But on further reflection,  I think its placement is fine, but maybe they should have structured it as letting Ellie’s present day action be the framing device and cut in and out of the past as she does present-day tasks to save Joel that lend itself to reflection on Riley.

The Bill and Frank episode didn’t feel abrupt in dipping out of the main story for a long time because there was a lot of meat on the framing device of Joel and Ellie visiting Bill and Frank’s home both before and after.  Here, the framing device was very sparse.

One thing I really like about this IP is that it doesn’t prioritize love:  romantic love (whether young love or mature love), love of a parent for a child and a child for her parent; sibling love:  it’s all part of the same reservoir and all equally important.  To that end, I did love the parallel:  at the end, when Riley said whether it was 2 hours or 2 days, she didn’t want to give up whatever time they had left, she intertwined her fingers with Ellie’s, and Ellie did the same thing with Joel.  My heart.  💔

Edited February 27, 2023 by Peace 47

[mrspidey]

3 hours ago, Dev F said:

It's not a huge deviation. I know we're not supposed to spoil the game in the episode threads, so I'll just say that the game intercuts the mall flashbacks with a fairly elaborate gameplay element that ultimately serves the same purpose as "Ellie finds a needle and thread in the room upstairs."

Also antibiotics, which us sooo damn ironic in this setting, if you think about it.

[cambridgeguy]

4 hours ago, aghst said:

The FEDRA officer didn't seem corrupt, though he was selling Ellie on the advantages of being an officer.  He claimed without FEDRA, the people in the QZ would be killing each other and the survivors wouldn't last.

They were training up the girls to be FEDRA soldiers and officers.  So they have a plan, not sure what the Fireflies' plan is, other than to fight FEDRA.  But power corrupts and believing in some grandiose mission may lead to abuses.

That's the problem with a lot of "fight the power" movements.  What happens when you win, it magically becomes better?  Because it's a lot easier to tell the people in charge that they're wrong then it is to actually be in charge yourself.

Riley's a lot smarter than I am if she was able to figure out the MKII special moves and fatalities without a guide.

[shelley1234]

I absolutely loved this episode and getting to see more of Ellie's origin story.   The origin of the first bite.  The origin of her love of a good pun.  The origin of her staying with someone she loves, no matter what.   

Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid knocked it out of the park.  

[Starchild]

Some are saying so, but was that a clicker, though? I didn't hear any clicking, and the way he was crashing around all uncoordinated, I got the sense he was newly-turned. That could be the reason he wasn't found by the Fireflies when they swept the mall: he wasn't there yet.

[Uncle JUICE]

Perhaps ironically, the FEDRA commander basically described what happened in the power vacuum in KC. I wonder if we'll get some sort of look at FEDRA that shows us why so many people felt like they should be overthrown. 

As far as this episode goes, I'm with whoever said they're all for characterization. I didn't and don't need another version of The Walking Dead, one of the shittiest shows to ever make it out of season 2. Stuff like this is what makes this show feel different. Plus Bella Ramsey is frigging destroying her role. No chance they thought she'd be as good as she's been, and I thought while the actress playing Riley was fine, you can see the qualitative difference between them when they're on screen together. Riley felt closer to a Nickelodeon actor to me. She's just not quite "there" yet. 

[paigow]

10 minutes ago, Uncle JUICE said:

and I thought while the actress playing Riley was fine, you can see the qualitative difference between them when they're on screen together. Riley felt closer to a Nickelodeon actor to me. She's just not quite "there" yet. 

The best American teen actors are from England...

[Hanahope]

7 hours ago, aghst said:

He claimed without FEDRA, the people in the QZ would be killing each other and the survivors wouldn't last.

Well, he's not wrong if KC is any indication.  

[bitchin camaro]

8 hours ago, Peace 47 said:

 at the end, when Riley said whether it was 2 hours or 2 days, she didn’t want to give up whatever time they had left, she intertwined her fingers with Ellie’s, and Ellie did the same thing with Joel.  My heart.  💔

It was very moving and sweet, and yet I turned to my husband at that point and said "nope, you could just go ahead and shoot me because I don't want to sit around for two days waiting to turn into a walking mushroom." I love the what-would-you-do questions that come up in this show and watching how the characters respond, but my answer is still "die in the first wave, no way I'm trying to survive in this hellscape."

I really appreciated that they showed the infected guy "waking up" instead of him just popping out to attack - we all knew it was coming and that made the whole episode really nerve-wracking, but it was nice to have at least a little bit of warning. Holy cats, those girls were loud - I can't believe it didn't attract every zombie in the northeast. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

6 minutes ago, bitchin camaro said:

I really appreciated that they showed the infected guy "waking up" instead of him just popping out to attack - we all knew it was coming and that made the whole episode really nerve-wracking, but it was nice to have at least a little bit of warning.

One thing I like about this show is that they don't rely on jump scares, which I feel are easy and poor writing. It's still scary and suspenseful. 

[Dev F]

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

Some are saying so, but was that a clicker, though? I didn't hear any clicking, and the way he was crashing around all uncoordinated, I got the sense he was newly-turned. That could be the reason he wasn't found by the Fireflies when they swept the mall: he wasn't there yet.

I think he was an intermediate infected form, between the newly turned and the clickers. There's a lot more fungal growth but they haven't yet gone blind, and they seem somewhat more deliberate than the "run around wildly crashing into things" newly infected. (The other big example of this stage on the show would be the infected that "kisses" Tess in episode 2.)

[paigow]

9 hours ago, aghst said:

The FEDRA officer didn't seem corrupt,

Or be a sexual predator... 

[mledawn]

I really enjoyed this episode. Bella Ramsey was fantastic.

We got Joel’s backstory, why wouldn’t we get Ellie’s? I didn’t feel like this was a big “teen love story” shove at all, there was a lot of character development outside of Ellie and Riley’s relationship. I really loved Ellie’s big grin after she apologises and Riley says “For what?”. Awww!
 

Ellie sewing up Joel with all the contamination gave me the willies. That ratty towel alone… ew

[Chicago Redshirt]

5 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Riley's a lot smarter than I am if she was able to figure out the MKII special moves and fatalities without a guide.

I mean, given infinite time, quarters and the premise that "some combo of buttons enables special moves at certain times," one would happen upon every move for a given character eventually.

I think that RIley would have had to been told by someone that there were such things as fatalities first. There probably is not something inherent on the cabinet that hints that they exist or how to do them. I suppose it's possible that getting beaten by the computer, you might see the computer do a fatality and reason out there is a way to do one yourself.

[iMonrey]

I thought the episode was OK but I could have lived without it. When they were dancing on top of the glass countertops I kept expecting them to crash through and slice open their legs. I wonder if they were unable to get the Sonny and Cher version of that song. 

Quote

One thing I found odd was that the shopping mall looked more like it was from 1983 than 2003. 

Yeah, it was too Stranger Things to be period-appropriate. The last time I was at my local mall was last year, and I hadn't been to the mall in ages prior to that. I noticed that almost every single store in the mall was a clothing store of some sort. Back in my day (which would have been the 70s/80s) there were music stores, book stores, pet stores, novelty stores, etc. Now it's just specialty clothes and that's about it. 

[Anela]

That was really sweet, and sad. I've been doing other things as it was playing, because my life has to continuosly suck, but I liked the episode. 

[Racj82]

13 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I thought the episode was OK but I could have lived without it. When they were dancing on top of the glass countertops I kept expecting them to crash through and slice open their legs. I wonder if they were unable to get the Sonny and Cher version of that song. 

Yeah, it was too Stranger Things to be period-appropriate. The last time I was at my local mall was last year, and I hadn't been to the mall in ages prior to that. I noticed that almost every single store in the mall was a clothing store of some sort. Back in my day (which would have been the 70s/80s) there were music stores, book stores, pet stores, novelty stores, etc. Now it's just specialty clothes and that's about it. 

Well...you hadn't been to a mall in ages. They had a bunch of different types of stores in malls in 03. They still do. Not all malls are designed the same and malls hadn't hit their complete downturn yet when in 2003. It was still filled with people and had something for almost anybody.

[shelley1234]

There aren't malls like that in Boston...probably the Cambridgeside Galleria is the closest or maybe the Braintree Mall.  Boston has the Pru and the Corner Mall, but never are actually malls. But this isn't a documentary so I don't really care about that.  

[DigitalCount]

FWIW, there's a mall in my neck of the woods (not in Boston) that's still operational, and even has an arcade and movie theater attached. No merry-go-round, but there is a little train thing that kids can ride.

Edited February 27, 2023 by DigitalCount

[heatherchandler]

The mall near me is a fancy mall, it has an arcade and you have to pay like $50 to get in and you get a card with 10 minutes worth of tokens.  There is a laser tag place and it's upscale and expensive.  The food court has $20 ice cream.  There is a cheapy mall a little farther away and it has some of the old stuff, but not much.. I miss the mall of the 80s.

I didn't love this episode, it just didn't click.  And I like to see Joel!

[Peace 47]

1 hour ago, mledawn said:

Ellie sewing up Joel with all the contamination gave me the willies. That ratty towel alone… ew

I know!  At first, I wondered if she could have sterilized the needle with fire, boiled some water to wash … the rag to clean the wound better? the thread before putting it in his body? … but I guess her time, skill and supplies were ultra-limited.  I guess these homes wouldn’t have any alcohol left in them for sterilization after 20 years, either, with all the looting that seems to go on.  And I was just like, he’s got to have bat splinters floating around in his wound, plus that blood trail in the snow at the beginning of the episode looked very ominous.  Ugh, willies is the perfect word.

[paigow]

There is a plot hole here similar to Beauty & The Beast. Beast was seriously wounded by a pack of wolves outside the castle. He was unconscious in the snow. Belle managed to improbably hoist him [off camera] back onto her horse and return to the castle.

• Ellie [like Belle] has superhuman strength
• Joel survived a dragging journey to town

[Dev F]

14 minutes ago, paigow said:

There is a plot hole here similar to Beauty & The Beast. Beast was seriously wounded by a pack of wolves outside the castle. He was unconscious in the snow. Belle managed to improbably hoist him [off camera] back onto her horse and return to the castle.

You can see from the tracks in the snow and the stuff lying around the horse inside the house that she actually tied him into one of their sleeping bags and dragged him on the ground behind her.

[Lamima]

I haven't read all the posts here so maybe someone already mentioned this, but...

Could Riley also be immune like Ellie? Could Marlene know that and that's why she wants Riley? Maybe Riley suicides before turning and Ellie now knows that was a mistake and that Riley wouldn't have turned (so she suicided for nothing). So now Ellie won't give up and just let Joel die in vain too.

SHe needed booze to clean that needle off first and to let Joel swig for pain. Also, needed to close up any internal slices first. Couldn't she have just heated up a metal utensil (knife or something) and burned the wound closed (cauterized)? She'll now need to hunt through all the houses nearby for some antibiotics (way expired ones).

[Lamima]

ALso wanted to note that Riley and Ellie speak like little adults. The wit, and whatnot, is not that of kids their age. I will add myself to the list of those not all that wowed by this episode. In fact, I fell asleep about 20 mins in. 

[Dev F]

33 minutes ago, Lamima said:

Could Riley also be immune like Ellie? Could Marlene know that and that's why she wants Riley?

How would they know Riley was immune to infection before she was ever infected? They weren't even convinced Ellie was immune until they kept her tied up for three weeks and she never turned!

I actually think the implication may be the opposite: Marlene shot down Riley's request to bring Ellie into the Fireflies because of whatever motivated her to stash Ellie in the FEDRA orphanage for her own safety, whereas Marlene was happy to let Riley join up because she meant nothing in particular to her.

[DesiJF]

46 minutes ago, Lamima said:

ALso wanted to note that Riley and Ellie speak like little adults. The wit, and whatnot, is not that of kids their age. I will add myself to the list of those not all that wowed by this episode. In fact, I fell asleep about 20 mins in. 

I may have missed the subtle nuances of this episode being that I kept hitting FF when I couldn't stand it anymore.  Even the podcast bored me.

[conquistador]

I’m glad that we got an explanation to Ellie namedropping Mortal Kombat II earlier in the season, because that really didn’t make sense to me at the time!

Overall the episode was … Fine, I guess. My issue was that I couldn’t feel much suspense when it was so obvious how things were going to pan out, especially since the show has made a clear trend of disposing all new characters in two episodes tops (Tess, Bill and Frank, Kathleen, Sam and Henry…). Riley would then just be another person to add to that list.

Edited February 27, 2023 by conquistador