Ellie, Left Behind: Joel and Riley Parallels
I wanted to take a minute to write about Joel and Riley. I think that in The Last of Us 2, there are many heartbreaking parallels between them, and for me, at least, there is so much layered amidst Joel and Riley, beneath the surface of the game, showing us how Ellie experiences love, loss, and and how she determines her own meaning in life. Interpreting this game as one of parallels more than anything else is what’s made it a hugely enjoyable experience for me. This is kind of a longish text post, but if you are interested in parallelism in The Last of Us, I hope you’ll give it a chance! Here are some Riley and Joel parallels that I found in TLOU2 and how I interpret them. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
1. Both Riley and Joel appear with Ellie only in flashback. In TLOU2, Ellie does not spend any time in the current moment with Joel. Every moment we spend with Joel is in Ellie’s memory or from another point of view. Like Left Behind, The Last of Us 2 is a story that relies a great deal on tension that arises as a result of conflict or harmony between the past and present. I strongly believe that Left Behind sets the tone for The Last of Us 2 far more than does The Last of Us. Both are non-linear stories, intermittently edenic and hellish, dreamlike and grittily realistic portrayals of Ellie’s life. Both are about the past, and how it drives the present in unexpected but powerful ways.
2. Both Riley and Joel betray Ellie during their time together. They do so per self-preservation, but also to protect Ellie in some way. Both Riley and Joel must work to earn back Ellie’s trust, which they do so patiently and unselfishly. Both Riley and Joel die almost immediately after a moment of hard-earned reconciliation, leaving Ellie in a deep state of survivor’s guilt with a massive lack of closure, in which she is left fearful that she did not do enough to communicate the extent of her complicated feelings for them.
3. Both Riley and Joel give Ellie an extraordinary gift, including a simulated, imaginary experience. Both take Ellie on a mystery journey through a beautiful setting. Riley switches on the electricity in the mall, taking Ellie on a ride on the carousel, snapping pictures in the photo booth, playing a video game, and having a squirt gun fight with the squirt guns that Riley stole for her at great risk. Joel takes Ellie to a natural science museum for her birthday, taking her on a magical tour through the prehistoric land of dinosaurs, and a simulated rocket launch with audio that Joel stole at great risk. Perhaps the most striking parallel I found when it comes to these gifts from Riley and Joel is in the cinematography itself. There are purposeful visual parallels between the scene in which Riley simulates for Ellie the arcade video game, and the scene in which Joel simulates for Ellie the rocket launch–both things Ellie has always wanted to experience but can’t because of the ruined world in which she lives.
4. It’s in the little things. In Left Behind, Ellie asks Riley if her surprise is a dinosaur. “Is it a dinosaur? I’ll be your friend again if it’s a dinosaur.” In the museum flashback in The Last of Us 2, the first thing she asks Joel is if her surprise is a dinosaur, and this time, it IS a dinosaur. This was absolutely cathartic for me, personally. I laughed out loud, and then I cried. It was like a massive, cosmic pay-off. Further, Ellie and Riley try on masks together. Ellie and Joel try on helmets and a hat. These little parallels hold great meaning, knitting together the two experiences, and creating symbolic continuity between how Ellie remembers Riley and how Ellie remembers Joel.
5. Ellie is, once again, left behind. In The Last of Us 2, the name of the dinosaur exhibit that Joel and Ellie visit is called “Giants of the Past.” I found this to be very significant, as Riley and Joel are both dead, but while alive, were of great importance and influence to Ellie. Both saved her life, both took her on adventures to unknown spaces, taught her about parts of the world she previously hadn’t understood, and brought her simple childhood joys when hope felt lost or fragile. They are the giants of her past, larger than life, but no longer here, their wisdom left in impression only. Perhaps most sadly, both Riley and Joel died in Ellie’s presence, with her being inexplicably spared and unable to do anything to save them. They haunt her at every turn, in big ways and small.
In conclusion: In The Last of Us 2, I interpreted that much of Ellie’s turmoil and desire to avenge Joel is based around her inability to reconcile with the fact that she could not save him. During her trauma episode at the farmhouse, she hallucinates Joel on the other side of a door, screaming for her help. He risked everything to save her life time and time again, no matter the consequences. Why couldn’t she save him when he needed it most? This is so hard, in part, because in Left Behind, Ellie IS able to save Joel, driven by desires and a sense of desperation that, according to the story, coordinate with a past event in which she was not able to save Riley. In Left Behind, saving Joel meant that it wasn’t for nothing, the fact that she survived when Riley didn’t. She had found “something to fight for.” Losing Joel then invalidated everything.
Because in The Last of Us 2, Ellie finds something to fight for, but it’s warped. If she can kill Abby, then it wasn’t for nothing, the fact that she survived when Joel didn’t. In The Last of Us 2, Ellie loses what she fought so hard to preserve in The Last of Us. It is too much loss stacked on top of itself, and unlike in The Last of Us, she is a grown-up now, in charge of her own destiny, and as predicted in Joel’s song, she loses herself. But saving Joel in Left Behind and killing Abby in The Last of Us 2 are ultimately driven by the same impulse, which is finding something to fight for, to determine that her continued survival despite the deaths of her first and greatest loves isn’t for nothing. That she has a purpose, despite being left behind.
