LEFTOVER NINE
Henry’s final moment from the previous episode replays.
ONE
Three Months Later. We’re in snow country. A man carrying rabbit carcasses strides up to a self-sufficient cabin. We don’t see his face until he enters and exchanges a glance with this wife, who sits by the fire. Her eyes move sideways, and Joel steps from behind the room’s center post with his gun drawn.
The couple goes through some hilarious schtick, the kind only longtime partners have, and the man sits. Joel is looking for Tommy. Ellie, from the loft, asks to come down. Husband and wife exchange another speaking look.
TWO
Joel asks for their location on a map and how to travel west. “Go east,” the man says. Past the river are a lot of dead bodies, only some of them infected. Joel and Ellie head out, having no choice but to continue on.
(This was a jewel of a scene that ended way too soon. Give Graham Greene and Elaine Miles their own show. I’d watch them all day.)
THREE
As they leave, Joel has what appears to be a panic attack, although it could be angina.
FOUR
A montage of walking through beautiful scenery follows, until they reach “The River of Death”. They make camp for the night. Ellie asks for a snort from Joel’s flask. After a drink she says, “Still gross.” She asks: If the Fireflies and the cure work out, what do you do then? A sheep ranch, he answers reluctantly. Ellie says she would be an astronaut like Sally Ride and go to the moon. She admits she tried to save Sam with her blood and it failed. Joel reassures her that Marlene is no fool; the Fireflies will find a way. He says he’ll take both watches.
In the morning, he’s asleep and Ellie’s on watch.
No sign of anything moving at the river. They cross over a trestle bridge, heads on a swivel. Ellie chatters as they walk, seeing no one. At another river, Ellie wonders if this instead is the River of Death. As Joel checks the map, people on horseback ride up and surround them, rifles ready.
With hands up, Joel says they’re only passing through. Faces covered with kerchiefs, the riders bring forward an infected-sniffing dog. Joel, of course, is clear, but tension builds over how the dog will react to Ellie. Joel has another mild panic attack until he hears Ellie giggling while the dog licks her face. Joel tells them his name and that he’s looking for his brother. A woman (Maria) looks at him closely.
Cut to riding. They approach a settlement with a fortress of a timber wall. Huge reinforced gates swing open, and Joel and Ellie ride in with the others. It’s a Wild West-style main street teeming with people and industry. Children build snowmen. Seeing a man in the distance, Joel yells, “Tommy!” They run towards each other and hug. Ellie watches, a look of — loneliness? — on her face.
In the dining hall, Joel and Ellie scarf their food while Tommy and Maria watch. Joel tries to behave with good manners, but Ellie is confrontational. Tommy admits that Maria is his wife. (The scene has a lot of subtext.)
Maria gives them a tour of the town. (Signs for Jackson Hole still display on buildings.) Isolation keeps raiders and infected from noticing them. They have power, sewage, and . . . sheep in a pen. They have a democratically elected government for 300 people. Everything shared. “So, communism,” Joel says. (Haha, Tommy seems taken aback, like he just realized.)
The two men go into the town bar to catch up. The town has real whiskey, and Tommy’s working on producing bacon. What more could anyone want? He asks after Tess, and Joel lies, saying she’s fine. Then he says Ellie is the daughter of some Firefly muckety-muck. Tommy knows of their base, a week’s ride south. But Tommy can’t come, despite Joel’s pressure. Maria’s pregnant. Stone-faced, Joel pours another drink.
SWITCH
Outside, while children stand around a Christmas tree and sing carols, Joel grabs at his chest. He sees a young woman in the crowd with hair like his daughter’s.
FIVE
Ellie, using the guest house, dries her hair after her shower. Fresh clothes and a menstrual cup wait for her on the bed. At Maria’s, Ellie sees a memorial with two names over the fireplace. Kevin was Maria’s. Sarah, Ellie learns, was Joel’s.
The town movie theater, packed, shows “The Goodbye Girl”. (Why, lol? I mean, it’s good, but of all the films to own, it’s a surprising choice.) Ellie sees Tommy leave the audience.
Carrying boots, he finds Joel at the town workshop. Joel starts asking about the dangers of going south. He admits to Tommy that Ellie’s immune. Sitting, Tommy wants to hear the whole story. As Joel explains everything, including Tess, we see Ellie walking the street within earshot among the twinkle lights. Joel admits that Ellie saved his life in KC because he was too “slow and deaf” to hear his attacker. He lists all the ways he’s weaker and failing, including his panic attacks. His vulnerability convinces Tommy to take Ellie south for him.
At the guest house Joel finds Ellie in the pink bedroom reading an old diary. She knows that Joel’s going to “ditch” her because he’s afraid. “I’m not her,” Ellie says. Joel won’t be persuaded, though. They will go separate ways.
SIX
In his own bedroom, Joel remembers trimming the tree with Sarah.
SEVEN
Sunrise. Ellie sits ready in her bedroom. Footsteps. It’s Tommy. They head to the stables, but Joel’s already there, saddling a horse. He gives Ellie a choice, and before he can finish his sentence she picks him over Tommy.
After hugging goodbye, Tommy invites them to return. Joel and Ellie ride double out the gate, and the fortress slams shut behind them.
EIGHT
Later, in open country, Joel teaches Ellie how to shoot the sniper rifle. A montage of beautiful scenery follows, while the two chat and ride. Ellie presses her cheek against his back.
They make it to the university that is supposed to be the Firefly base. No sign of people, but monkeys (or chimps) run loose over the grounds. At the biolab building, they dismount and ready their guns. Inside, the foyer is abandoned. A banging from upstairs turns out to be more monkeys. They find a cork board with pins in a map. Fireflies appear to have moved onward to Salt Lake City. A sound outside. Four men walk below the window. Joel and Ellie sneak out the back and run for their horse.
While Joel holsters the rifle in the horse’s saddle, Ellie yells a warning. A man swings, and Joel rushes him. She’s ready with her gun, but Joel breaks the man’s neck.
Oh, dear. Ellie looks at Joel, and the camera pans down to reveal a knife in his gut. Joel yanks it out. (It’s a wooden spike, actually.) More men must be coming, because Ellie tries to get Joel on the horse. She mounts behind him as three men chase. She shoots backward, killing one of them.
NINE
A windmill, a train yard, and the two of them riding on the track. Joel is pale and wobbly. Down he goes. Ellie dismounts to check on him. His wound seeps. He’s unresponsive while Ellie begs.
The camera pulls out to show their isolation. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Sometimes, as in this episode, the Switch will reflect the Three and Six. The triangle connecting the Three-Six-Nine becomes inverted to include the bottom point instead. The three beats make their own thematic arc. Here, we’re wondering about Joel’s chest pain. Is it a pending heart attack? It’s not physical, though, it’s emotional. Ellie is — not replacing but maybe joining — Sarah in his heart. At the Six he lets go of his lost daughter, a bitter emotion he’s carried for years. He lets himself feel the fear and suffering that comes when you love someone who can be taken from you. The Seven and Eight roll directly from this awakening in Joel.
This episode is also going to contain the Switch for the entire season. You can feel it. Ellie will no longer be Joel’s “cargo”. They’re a team now. Also Joel’s motivation up to this point — I want to find Tommy — is resolved. He shifts to: I want to help Ellie. Possibly even: I want to love Ellie as a daughter.
Many episodes use Ellie’s ignorance about the pre-infected world as a humor point. Her excitement over a car ride, her enthusiasm for what flying was like. This episode is different, and might be my favorite. “The Goodbye Girl”, a light romcom, is absolutely meaningless to her. She asks, is this what people did in the before times? To spend two hours watching something so disconnected from reality is baffling to her. The entire town of Jackson, the closest we’ve seen to actual civilization, is unreal in the context of the apocalypse outside the gates. And the only way it’s maintained is by killing anyone who approaches. Without Joel’s connection to Tommy, he and Ellie would probably have been shot in the wilderness. Barbarity mixed with feel-good movie night. Ellie as the fulcrum is brilliant.