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The first episode of the highly anticipated video game adaptation, The Last of Us, premiered its debut episode on January 15, 2023. HBO's brilliant premiere almost had too much to excite fans of both the gaming and the OTT world. The story of the series was always intriguing, following the story of a smuggler and his mission to escort a young girl across the United States in a post-apocalyptic future.
The first episode of HBO's The Last of Us introduced many major things, including key characters and the primary crisis. Bella Ramsay's Ellie remains the central figure in the plot and the ongoing pandemic. However, there is also a mention of another character which could raise some doubts in the viewers' minds. Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, played by Merle Dandridge, once mentioned Riley's name to Ellie, visibly shaking the latter.
Not many may know about this particular character. Read on to find out more about Riley and what role she had in Ellie's past.
The Last of Us: Who is Riley and how is she related to Ellie?
Riley's name comes up in the first episode of The Last of Us after Ellie accuses the Fireflies of being terrorists, to which Marlene replies, "Was Riley a terrorist?" much to Ellie's surprise. The only thing clear from this conversation is that Riley was likely a part of the organization and was somehow close to Ellie.
To understand the matter in more depth, we have to go back to the game. Riley is a character from the DLC content of the original The Last of Us game. The DLC, which was quite celebrated among videogame fans, was titled Left Behind.
In the videogame, Riley was shown visiting Ellie when the latter was still at a FEDRA military school. Riley convinced Ellie to visit an abandoned mall with her and their bond is depicted through a kiss between the two.
Sadly, both of them were bitten at the mall. They decided to spend their last hours together, but nothing happened to Ellie, kickstarting the entire storyline that was to follow. The event was shown in the trailer for The Last of Us, with Storm Reid taking on the role of the iconic Riley.
Riley was seemingly also a part of the Fireflies, which could be the reason Marlene knew about her and Ellie's backstory. Anyhow, Riley is a huge building block in Ellie's story, which will serve as the central theme of the entire series.
One of the more intriguing things this little tease about Riley in the first episode did was to indicate how the series aims to cover the story with greater panache without the limitations of a videogame. The more frequent non-linear narration and use of foreshadowing will elevate the game's story even further in the HBO series.
The first episode of The Last of Us is currently streaming on HBO Max.
