The Last of Us Episode 7 Ending Explained: Ellie Loses and Saves a Life

After an eventful and dramatic episode 6 of The Last of Us, we were treated to a rather mellow yet very important episode 7, which is a story that is taken straight out of The Last of Us: Left Behind, which is an expansion to the first game. Of course, the most important character in this story is Ellie, who was still just a student back then. However, that was the storyline where Riley was introduced as a character integral to Ellie’s history.

Of course, we know that many things happen in this storyline, especially when it comes to the relationship between Ellie and Riley. In episode 7, the story also starts and ends with Joel and Ellie. So, with that said, let’s look at what happened to The Last of Us episode 7 and how it ended.

An Injured Joel

The first scenes of episode 7 of The Last of Us involved Joel and Ellie. For those who may have forgotten, Joel and Ellie got to the University of Eastern Colorado near the end of episode 6 as they were told that this was a Firefly base. However, they learned that the Fireflies had already vacated the premises. That was when the duo encountered a group of raiders that needed to escape immediately due to how dangerous they were.

But while the duo tried to get away from the raiders, they ended up having to face them. They succeeded in doing so, but Joel suffered a knife stab that gravely injured him. Joel and Ellie escaped on their horse, but Joel fell off of it due to his injuries, and the episode ended with Joel seemingly dying.

Episode 7 opened up with Ellie treating Joel’s wounds while they were hiding in an abandoned building. Joel was telling Ellie to head north so that she could return to Tommy, who was in Jackson, Wyoming. But Ellie wanted to stay with Joel and was trying her best to save him despite Joel telling her to leave him behind. As such, Ellie seemingly left Joel while a flashback story to her life before Joel was told.

Meet Riley

The flashback scene of episode 7 involved Ellie’s life when she was still going to the FEDRA school she attended before she met Marlene and was sent to go with Joel. In the flashback, it was clear that Ellie was bullied in her school, as one of the bullies picked on her frequently. This led to a confrontation between the two girls as Ellie was all beaten up after the fight.

Back in her room, Ellie was surprised to see that Riley had snuck into the dorms. She had been missing for weeks before she went back to school in the middle of the night to see Ellie. Riley was Ellie’s protector before she left the school. She was also an older girl that seemingly got along well with Ellie as they faced the problems of bullying together.

But Riley’s departure from the school left a hole in Ellie, as she was left to face her tormentors alone. Riley, meanwhile, returned in the middle of the night. Ellie was happy and angry about her friend’s return because she felt Riley abandoned her. However, Riley explained that she had joined the Fireflies while Ellie was in the “hole” after misbehaving.

As such, Riley returned to Ellie as nothing had happened, and after she spent weeks away from her to train with the Fireflies. With that, she decided to pull Ellie along on a wild adventure despite it being against the rules for them to sneak out in the middle of the night.

Riley And Ellie Have Fun

After sneaking out of the dorms, Riley and Ellie went on a wild night of adventure to an abandoned mall with electricity after FEDRA hooked up their facilities to the power source. But no one knew that the mall had power, and that was what allowed the duo to spend a fun night there.

While in the mall, Riley introduced Ellie to the wonders of the mall, as this was the first time Ellie was ever in a mall because she was born right after the Cordyceps Brain Infection outbreak. That was why everything in the mall was new to Ellie, but it was clear that Riley was already experienced enough as she had been there before.

They both enjoyed a lot of things in the mall, such as the merry-go-round, but the arcade was what caught Ellie’s attention as she and Riley both enjoyed a fun time playing Mortal Kombat. It was during their time there that Ellie and Riley realized that they had feelings for one another despite the fact that they mostly treated one another as best friends before Riley left.

Still, Ellie saw a few explosives in Riley’s room in the mall, and she realized that her friend had become an extremist that truly embodied the Firefly’s willingness to do everything to achieve their goals. That was when Ellie learned that Riley was also going to leave soon as she was going to be stationed by the Fireflies in a faraway state. And the only reason why Riley returned was for her to bid her farewell to Ellie and have a fun night together one last time.

Riley’s Demise

Despite having an argument with one another, Ellie and Riley eventually made up and decided to continue to have fun one last time. But they didn’t know that the mall had dormant runners, as they were only waiting for someone to make some noise. And because Ellie and Riley were having so much fun, the runners woke up.

The duo was able to fight off the runners that attacked them but ended up realizing that they were both bitten. Ellie and Riley panicked because they knew that they were infected and would eventually lose their minds to the infection.

Riley suggested the idea of them killing each other so that they wouldn’t have to live their lives as mindless slaves to the Cordyceps fungus. But the option they took was for them to both wait until the infection took over to spend as much time as possible with one another.

While we never saw it happening, Riley died after getting infected by the Cordyceps fungus, as it is possible that she died just shortly after the infection took over, considering that not all people survive too long after getting infected. Meanwhile, Ellie learned that she was immune to the infection, which sparked the next chapter of her life as she now had a bigger purpose: to get to the Fireflies so that they could use her to create a vaccine or medicine for the infection.

Ellie Saves Joel

After that final moment between Ellie and Riley, it turned out that Ellie never abandoned Joel. Instead, she merely left for a while to find something she could use to treat Joel’s wounds. As she mentioned in the last episode, she had also lost many people in the past, and Riley was one of them.

However, Ellie was no longer willing to see someone she cared about dying. That was why she never abandoned Joel and was willing to do whatever she needed to do to ensure he survived. And this was the reason why the episode included the flashback scenes with Riley, as we needed to understand where Ellie was coming from and why she was so determined to save Joel.