LEFTOVER NINE
While credits roll, the camera travels through a neighborhood of abandoned houses. Inside a garage is the horse, still wearing its tack. Cut to a frantic Ellie, ripping cloth for bandages and pressing on Joel’s wound. He lies on the basement floor gasping in pain. He tells her to leave, and she yells at him to shut up. “Go to Tom,” he says. After covering him with his coat, she gives him a long look and walks out. Fade to black.
ONE
Pearl Jam starts, over, and we fade in on a Walkman at Ellie’s waist while she runs laps in the school gym. Round and round the basketball floor the girls jog until some bully comes from behind and rips off Ellie’s headset. The bully taunts that Ellie’s friend, the one who fights for her, is no longer here. After a pause, Ellie throws a punch.
Cut to Ellie in the principal’s office. She has a black eye. Cpt. Kwong wears a FEDRA uniform. He’s gentle, mentioning that Ellie’s been in much more trouble over the past few weeks. The bully, Bethany, is in the infirmary with stitches. Kwong, who appears to like Ellie, lays out the two paths ahead for her. One, she becomes a drudge doing the worst jobs. Two, she becomes an officer and has an easier life. “There’s a leader in you,” he says.
Details of a room: a baseball on a window sill, dinosaur drawings, a paperback copy of “No Pun Intended”. Rain is heard while Ellie on her bed reads the comic book Sam loved in Episode 5, “Savage Starlight”. She tosses it aside and looks over at a bare corner of the room with an unoccupied bed. Lights out, and Ellie climbs under her covers.
TWO
Later, she’s asleep. We see more room details: a Mortal Kombat poster, a-ha and Etta James cassettes. In the background her bedroom window opens and someone enters. A hand slaps over Ellie’s mouth. She struggles and knocks the unknown person to the floor. Lights on, Ellie holding her switchblade ready.
It’s Riley, the missing roommate. She apologizes for her attempt at humor. Now we learn she’s been gone for three weeks and Ellie assumed she was dead. Where has she been?
THREE
She joined the Fireflies, which does not make Ellie happy. A woman saw Riley silently navigate the streets and recruited her.
FOUR
She’ll explain everything but Ellie must come with her for a few hours and have “the best night of your life”. She won’t take no for an answer, tossing clothes at Ellie. “Turn around,” Ellie says, preparing to change. “You’re so weird about that,” Riley responds. They sneak out the window.
Dodging a FEDRA patrol, Ellie and Riley stroll the alley, talking. (The tone is friendly, but also Riley seems older and more experienced.) Riley takes them through a window into a dilapidated apartment building. On the seventh floor their flashlights reveal a dead guy in the hallway. “This wasn’t here yesterday,” Riley says.
Ellie takes a good look at him. A bag of pills rests near his hand. She finds an open bottle of booze — from “before” and not moonshine. Suddenly, the corpse crashes down through the rotted floor. Laughing from the surprise, the girls walk away and out onto the rooftop, trying the alcohol. Ellie asks to see Riley’s gun. Riley defends the Fireflies. Ellie backs FEDRA, echoing Kwong’s attitude from earlier.
Enough teasing and arguing, though. They’re on a mission. Riley leads them across the rooftops, leaping over alleyways. They end up at the mall, a place that has been sealed off with infected. Or so they were told. The girls jump down inside.
When FEDRA connected the nearby block of housing to the grid, they inadvertently powered up the mall. While Riley waits at the basement junction box, she sends Ellie ahead through a doorway.
An engine whirs into life, and colorful lights clonk on from the end of the mall towards where Ellie stands, amazed. Riley will now show her “the four wonders of the mall”. Ellie looks delighted at the adventure, but also that Riley made the effort to plan an evening.
Ellie rides an escalator. And it’s not even the first wonder! Showing off, Ellie trips and runs into Riley. The two share an awkward hug and move on.
A montage of creepy mannequin faces and shuttered ticket windows contrast with the color and excitement of the lights. The sneaker store is picked clean and the soap store is intact. At a Victoria’s Secret window the girls look at the thong on display, and Riley laughs about imagining Ellie wearing it. When Riley leads on, Ellie checks her hair in the reflection.
Riley has Ellie close her eyes and take her hand. The first wonder is a carousel. It works, and they ride, sharing the whiskey. When Riley gazes up at the lights, Ellie stares at her. She wears her heart on her sleeve for a moment.
SWITCH
The merry-go-round stops. Riley climbs down to see if she can fix it, and Ellie confronts her about her Firefly choice. If Riley would come back, they could make things — society — better. Riley explains that Kwong has given her sewage detail when she turns 17 next month. This is why Riley left in the first place.
FIVE
They move onto the next wonder, a photo booth. Riley is prepared with money to feed into the slot. They pose as the camera flashes, using the cramped seating as an excuse to touch. When the machine spits out their picture roll, the images are faded, the toner evaporated.
The fourth wonder is an arcade. In all sincerity, Ellie says, “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Ellie wants to play, and Riley breaks open the bill changer, spilling coins all over the floor. She leads Ellie over to the Mortal Kombat machine. The girls choose characters and fight. As they load more quarters, the camera dollies past the row of flashing arcades. Their voices fade in the distance as the camera continues into a creepy doll toy shop. An infected in the corner wakes up.
The bucket of quarters lays empty as the girls finish their last round, screaming and cheering. They share an awkward hug. Ellie mentions that it’s late and she should get back. Riley entices her with a promise of a present, and they hurry through the food court and over the counter of the “Macho Nacho”. Bedding in the kitchen indicates this is where Riley has been staying. The present is Volume Two of “No Pun Intended”. Ellie is beyond excited as Riley starts reading the jokes and they giggle together.
While Riley searches for the perfect pun, Ellie wanders the kitchen. Under a rag on a shelf are homemade pipe bombs. Ellie realizes that Riley didn’t discover the mall; the Fireflies posted her here. Will you blow up soldiers? Ellie walks away, Riley calling after her.
SIX
Chasing, Riley tells her she’s leaving for the Atlanta QZ. Marlene, the lady who recruited Riley, refused to include Ellie. Ellie steps close, and the girls face each other. Riley planned the night because she wanted to say goodbye. “You just did,” Ellie says, and slams her way out.
SEVEN
We see her striding through the mall. She makes it all the way through the basement door before she stops and turns back. She’s partway through the mall when she hears Riley scream and starts to run.
EIGHT
It’s not Riley. It’s a Halloween toy. Sitting to one side, Riley remote activates it. The fifth wonder. Ellie sits next to her and puts the “Pun” book in her backpack. She recaps: You left, I thought you were dead, you come back and give me this amazing night, and you’re leaving. Riley remembers what it was like to have a family, something Ellie’s never known. She wants that sense of belonging again.
One last thing. Riley passes Ellie a Halloween mask and starts up music on the Walkman. Each in an oversized head covering, the two girls dance on the store counter.
Then Ellie takes off her mask, and Riley does the same. “Don’t go,” Ellie says. When Riley responds, “Okay,” Ellie kisses her.
As they’re feeling the glow, something crashes in the corner. Riley pulls out her gun, shooting the infected that emerges and rushes them. The girls run, but the infected catches them, knocking them down. The gun tumbles away. Ellie fights it with her switchblade, stabbing it. As it attacks, Riley comes in swinging and it turns on her. Ellie stabs it in the head, ending it.
Ellie starts to celebrate until Riley notices Ellie’s forearm. She shows Ellie her own bite wound. Amidst the Halloween paraphernalia the girls realize they’re both dead.
NINE
Cut to Joel shivering in the basement. Ellie, standing outside the door, busts through and ransacks the kitchen.
Back to the mall, where Ellie smashes everything around her. Riley sits without moving. We have two options, she says, holding her gun. We take the easy way out, or we just keep going. She decides: We don’t quit. They clasp hands. The girls cry and hold each other.
Back to Ellie yanking drawers in the kitchen. She finds a sewing kit. Running back, she takes Joel’s hand. She exposes the wound, threads the needle, and stitches his gut. He clutches in pain at her arm. The camera goes close on Ellie’s face as she works. Her expression is overwhelmingly complex. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
On my first viewing I wasn’t enamored of this episode. The mall meandering was too slow for me. Also, I compared it with the Bill and Frank episode. Structurally, they’re similar. Both bookend with Joel and Ellie, both flashback to a complete story arc, both tell of romance in a hellish dystopia. However, “Long, Long Time” is a very high bar to clear; it’s one of the great pieces of television. I’ve been looking forward to examining this episode because I want to see if my opinion changed with a rewatch.
First of all, look at that structure! It’s lovely. Marlene is the Three/Six, which is so subtle and compelling. The Switch, when we learn why Riley is leaving, is a firm demarcation. There is no going back from it, no returning to life as it felt in the Four.
The problem I had, though, is still there: The Two. In a romance story, the Two is the meet-cute. “Long, Long Time” has the indelible image of Frank standing in a hole looking up at Bill. I can believe they fell in love at that very moment.
Here, Ellie and Riley already know each other. We never see the moment when they meet. The Two is when we meet Riley, which is not the same.
Also, looking back, I’m reminded that Bill and Frank’s story is a sub-Enneagram within the larger plot. It’s possible I felt the mall section was too long because it is. The Joel bookends are Nines only. The delicate story of Ellie and Riley might not be able to carry the weight of a full episode. Bill and Frank’s story, although complete, is only a portion of their episode. The two men share a speaking look that conveys layers. It has to, that’s all the time they have! The two girls share their look — we have feelings but we don’t know if it’s safe to express them — too many times. Let these actors work! They’re both good, but the drawn-out quality of the structure doesn’t force them to communicate much in little time.
What would the episode look like if Joel and Ellie carried more beats? I don’t know. Last episode he fell off the horse. How the heck did Ellie move him into this basement? He has a puncture wound in his side. How much damage was done to internal organs? None, of course, but that could use a quick explanation. Joel and Ellie are now a team; we don’t believe she would leave him. Don’t take us emotionally backwards. Ellie’s commitment to loved ones is the thrust of this episode. Showing us why, how her night with Riley taught her this, is great. We don’t need a fake-out about Joel in order to appreciate Ellie’s moral bravery.