October 10, 2024

The Last of Us: Show owes audiences more closure on what happened to Riley

“Stop. You don’t get to do that. The audience deserves more.”

That’s what I was thinking as the latest episode of “The Last of Us” came to a close, as we experienced the wonderful relationship between Ellie and Riley come to an end way too soon.

In the show, the two share one last night walking through an abandoned shopping mall before Riley is shipped off to Atlanta by the Fireflies. The two share a kiss, then an infected comes in and bites both of them.

As you know, Ellie is immune. Its the premise of the whole damn road trip.

Riley was not.

And the two are left sitting in a store waiting for the sickness to take them.

But showrunners don’t give us enough answers on how Riley died. Did she turn? Did Ellie have to kill her? Did Ellie just walk away after Riley just passed out. We never find out.

The show owes us more than that. They gave it to us with Bill and Frank. Why not here?

It’s possible they felt like the audience couldn’t deal with it. Like the last several weeks haven’t already been emotionally devastating as is.

Most likely it was laziness in the name of creativity. “Let the audience come to their own conclusion” they said. They want it to be the brief case in “Pulp Fiction”.

It shouldn’t be like that.

And I’m right because right now there are thousands of other viewers trying to get their questions answered. Bloggers like me are snapping up that traffic, but even at the end of the other posts, they’re not getting a real answer. Technically, there isn’t one. But this is HBO. We’re accustomed to a higher caliber of storytelling.

Listen, the show is still great. I will still be seated next week.

But we were asked to take a slower journey tonight. The least they could do was give us some closure at the end of it.

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