How ‘The Last of Us’ Created TV’s Best and Worst First Date

The awkwardness of a first date is something most people can empathize with: the sweaty palms, the quick glances, the anxiety of whether or not the person likes you just as much as you like them. It’s those familiar feelings that are at the center of “Left Behind,” the seventh episode of HBO’s The Last of Us, a strikingly heartfelt departure episode of the post-apocalyptic drama.

“Left Behind” tells the beautiful, tragic tale of the best—and worst—first date ever. But putting it together was no easy feat. The creatives behind the episode had to not only make viewers fall in love with a couple they know is doomed from the start, but they also had to build (from scratch) the most perfect location for two teenagers to hang out: a mall.

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Those who have played the Left Behind video game—a 2014 companion piece to the original 2013 game The Last of Us—know the story of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) well. However, knowledge of the video game isn’t important here; anyone who’s watched an episode of The Last of Us already knows that Ellie and Riley’s story doesn’t end well. It’s clear from the show’s start: When Marlene (Merle Dandridge) mentions the name “Riley” to Ellie in the very first episode, a look of pure devastation flashes across Ellie’s face, and it tells you everything you need to know.

How do you get an entire audience to fall in love with an ill-fated couple? That’s something Liza Johnson, the director of the episode, worked hard to get right.

“I tried to lean into what was happening in each scene and [tried] to value something that I think Craig [Mazin, co-creator of The Last of Us] is really good at—and that I took note of in [his previous HBO show] Chernobyl: all the work that's between the lines,” Johnson said on a Zoom chat with The Daily Beast. “With talent like Bella and Storm, it's very rich in between the lines. It turned out really special.”

That rich connection between the two was crucial to make the story work. At its core, the episode is a beautiful tale about first love. But it is also a tale of unexpected discovery—both in love and in their new and exciting surroundings at the mall. “For me, that was the through-line, to think about and render through [Bella and Storm’s] work what those discoveries feel like in this sense of anxiety, but also potential,” said Johnson.

One of the best examples of this joy of discovery comes early on. After Riley whisks Ellie away from her FEDRA dormitory, with a promise to give her “the best night of her life,” the two arrive at an abandoned Boston mall. With the flip of a switch, the girls hear the familiar hum of lights turning on, and the mall comes to life with a roar of electricity. Ellie looks awestruck, while Riley looks quite pleased with herself.

“It's a really important moment, because that's when you really understand that Riley has created a badass experience,” said Johnson. “Can you imagine someone taking you on a date where they have to figure out how to turn on the electricity? To me it's really bold in being like, ‘Yeah, I'm working for this.’”

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Aside from experiencing her first fully illuminated mall, Ellie also discovers the wonder known as an escalator. She runs up and down the machine with child-like enthusiasm, but she eventually trips and almost falls in front of her crush and best friend. Ellie shrugs it off and acts casual, as any teen in love would do.

This small reaction from Ellie establishes a crucial piece of the many themes Johnson wanted to explore with this episode.

“To see that moment I'm sure people go through in different ways, but perhaps everyone does go through in [their] teenage years, where you have to do a lot of things for the first time, [is special],” said Johnson. “You go on a first date, you have a first kiss, but also, in [Ellie and Riley’s] case, it's their first escalator.”

It’s in moments like this and others, like when Ellie subtly tries to fix her hair in a Victoria’s Secret storefront window, where viewers might forget they are even watching a post-apocalyptic show. Much like the acclaimed third episode of the season, a stand-alone story about a gay couple who stay together until death does them part, “Left Behind” highlights the marvels these characters still have left to experience in life.

“Although [“Left Behind”] is tonally different from some of the other episodes, it's of a piece in the sense that [it asks] these questions like, how do you form bonds? Who do you love? What is love? What are the shapes [love] can take?” said Johnson. “Those [questions] are actually throughout the whole arc of the series, but this is just really focused on this one night and what forms of engagement and love and joy and discovery are possible there.”

The Last of Us strikes a good balance between heart-wrenching and heart-warming. If it weren’t for episodes like “Left Behind,” the show could easily slip into an area of unrelenting despair. Thankfully, the moments of sorrow are split up by moving instances of love and joy. It’s a reminder for both the characters and the audience that survival in this bleak world is worth the pain.

“It's really important if you're gonna endure the apocalypse to have some reason to live,” said Johnson. “Everything that's about interest and attachment and engagement and love and joy and discovery, all of that stuff needs to have a place in the series, because otherwise, why would you bother to survive?”

Throughout the episode, the audience falls in love with Ellie and Riley’s relationship as they explore the four wonders of the mall: a carousel, a photo booth, an arcade and a Halloween store. This makes the mall itself one of the most vital elements of the episode. Building a space that fit the show’s environment, while also giving the girls freedom to explore, was of utmost importance.

Enter production designer John Paino and his team. The abandoned mall seen in the episode is, in fact, a real abandoned mall in Canada, where The Last of Us was filmed. However, it was completely gutted. So, Paino and his team worked for over a month to create the dilapidated mall seen at the center of this week’s tragic love story.

“It was completely empty. It was basically just a structure,” said Paino. “All those signs that are outside the stores, we put [them] in. We did so much research because our stores are all from 2003.” You may recognize some noticeable stores, like Gap, Foot Locker and the aforementioned Victoria’s Secret.

Everything seen in the episode was added in by Paino and his team—even the leaves, vines, and dirt. But one of the biggest challenges was finding the carousel. They are unsurprisingly tough to find, Paino explained, and can be quite expensive. But as fate would have it, the carousel seen in the episode was the original carousel from the Canadian mall where the crew filmed.

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That was just one piece of the puzzle, however. Once they got the carousel into place, Paino’s team had to make it look like it would belong in this post-apocalyptic mall.

“Carousels can be tricky, because they're old,” said Paino. “When it's being used in real life, it just starts and stops. But we wanted to make sure our carousel could stop at certain points and we could control the speed of it, so we had to tinker with it and we also had to age it.”

It worked out, as the carousel anchors one of the episode’s cutest moments: Ellie and Riley steal longing glances at each other and take swigs of booze as the magical machine takes them on a short-but-sweet ride. Another cute moment—and important set piece—came in the form of the photo booth. The photo booth scene is also key in the Riley and Ellie relationship, and not just because it provides us with the Left Behind game’s iconic “scary pose” photo. It’s yet another moment where they can experience a quintessential teen moment, even though a pall of disaster hangs over their head.

Fans of the video game will notice that the photo booth in the series is strikingly similar to that in the game. That is no coincidence—Paino and his team built the photo booth for the show, and yes, it really did work.

“Craig [Mazin] was very much, ‘Let's make this as real as possible.’ And we always tried to make everything real,” said Paino. “That was a photo booth that we changed the front of. We changed the inside. We made it work.”

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The arcade, however, is the biggest masterpiece of all. It is here where Ellie and Riley go toe to toe in Ellie’s favorite game, Mortal Kombat II. It is here where they share an almost kiss. It is also here where the first sense of dread sinks in.

Like all the other sets, the arcade was built up from scratch by Paino and his team. Aside from putting all the mirrors on the ceiling and neon lights around the room, they had to find all period correct arcade game consoles—including Mortal Kombat II. “That was one of my favorites to build, because it is fun and it personally resonated,” said Paino. “Everybody hung out in it at a certain point.” He even took the time to play some of the games before the cameras started rolling.

After Ellie and Riley hang out at the arcade, the episode tonally shifts. The Infected, which we know will be the couple’s downfall, appears, and Riley finally tells Ellie the reason for taking her on the extravagant date: She is leaving town. But before she goes, there is still one more mall wonder she has to show Ellie: the Halloween store.

The final wonder is also Riley’s final stop. After the two dance to Etta James’ cover of “I Got You Babe,” share their first kiss, and Riley changes her mind about leaving after all, an Infected comes barreling towards them. “We approached [that scene] like a dance,” said Johnson, appropriately. “The stunt team in Calgary was really great, and we worked on it to be safe, but also to be kinetic and vigorous and scary and terrifying.”

Both Reid and Ramsey did a lot of their own stunt work in that particular scene too. “They can do all of that work with their inner life and being sad and being funny, [but] they can also do physical work,” said Johnson.

Like all good first dates, Ellie and Riley’s had to come to an end eventually. Most first dates don’t usually end this dramatically, but this is The Last of Us. While Ellie and Riley’s story ends tragically, their relationship is not tragic. They didn’t get to have a happy ending like Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett)—yes, that is a happy ending in The Last of Us—but they do embody something very important for the show: hope. Their relationship proves that love and some semblance of normal life can exist even after the apocalypse—and it is worth fighting for.

That one fateful trip to the mall makes it clear: “For Ellie, [it’s] a world she's never seen, and it's one of those great opportunities to breathe some air into the story,” Paino said. “And also to have a first date.”

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