You’ve played the main game. You’ve seen the credits roll on Joel and Ellie’s grueling trek across a fractured America, and maybe you felt that hollow ache in your chest when it was all over. But if you skipped the DLC, or if you only watched the HBO show version, you’re missing the actual heartbeat of the story. The Left Behind The Last of Us expansion isn't just some "extra level" or a cash-grab side story. Honestly, it’s the skeleton key that unlocks Ellie’s entire personality.
It's short. Intense. Devastating.
Naughty Dog released this back in 2014, and at the time, people weren't sure what to expect. A prequel? A side-story about Ellie and some girl named Riley? It sounded small. But then you play it, and you realize that without these two hours of gameplay, the ending of the main game doesn't even hit the same way. It’s the difference between knowing a character and understanding them.
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What Actually Happens in The Left Behind The Last of Us?
The structure is kinda brilliant because it jumps back and forth between two very different timelines. One half is set during the "Winter" chapter of the main game. Joel is impaled, bleeding out in a mall, and Ellie is frantically trying to find medical supplies. It’s bleak. It’s snowy. It feels like death is right around the corner.
Then, the game flips.
Suddenly, you’re back in the past. You're a younger Ellie, still in the military boarding school, and your best friend Riley—who has been missing for weeks—sneaks into your room. They head to an abandoned mall. It’s a "night out" before Riley has to leave to join the Fireflies. This contrast is the whole point. You're oscillating between the terrifying reality of trying to save a dying man and the bittersweet memory of a girl discovering her first love in a world that’s already ended.
The Mall as a Ghost of the Old World
The mall in The Left Behind The Last of Us isn't just a setting; it’s a character. For us, a mall is a place to buy shoes or get a mediocre pretzel. For Ellie and Riley, it’s a museum of a dead civilization. They spend their time exploring an abandoned Halloween store, putting on masks, and making fun of "old world" junk.
There’s this specific moment—one of the best in gaming history—where they find a broken arcade cabinet. You don't actually play a mini-game. Instead, Riley describes the moves of a fighting game called The Turning, and you have to press the buttons to "imagine" the fight. It’s heartbreaking. In a world of 4K graphics and photorealism, Naughty Dog decided to make the most impactful sequence a black screen where you use your imagination. It’s a meta-commentary on what these kids lost. They don't get to be kids. They have to pretend to be kids in the ruins of a shopping center.
Why Riley Abel Matters More Than You Think
Riley isn't just a plot device to explain Ellie's immunity. She is the reason Ellie is so fiercely protective of Joel. Riley represents the first time Ellie lost everything.
In the final moments of the DLC, after a frantic chase through the mall and a dance to an Etta James cover, the two girls share a kiss. It was a massive moment for LGBTQ+ representation in gaming at the time, but narratively, it’s the peak before the cliff. They get bitten. Together.
The dialogue here is what sticks with you. Riley says, "We fight for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it's two minutes or two days, we don't give that up."
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That’s the core of Ellie’s trauma. She stayed awake, waiting to turn into a monster, but Riley turned and she didn't. She had to kill her best friend. Or watch her rot. The game doesn't show you that part, and it doesn't need to. The silence is louder than any cutscene could be. When Ellie tells Joel at the end of the main game, "I'm still waiting for my turn," she's talking about Riley.
The Gameplay Shift: Stealth and Strategy
Mechanically, The Left Behind The Last of Us introduced something the main game lacked: three-way combat.
In the Colorado mall sections, Ellie often finds herself caught between human hunters and the Infected. Instead of just shooting everyone—which you can't really do because Ellie is smaller and has fewer resources than Joel—you can throw a brick to lure a Clicker toward a group of humans. Then you just sit back and watch the chaos. It changed the "feel" of the game. It made the world feel alive and reactive, rather than just a series of arenas.
Nuance in the Narrative
Most games treat DLC as a power fantasy. You get the big gun or the new armor. This does the opposite. It strips you down. You feel Ellie’s vulnerability.
When you’re playing as Ellie in the "Winter" segments, you aren't a powerhouse. You are a terrified teenager trying to stitch up a man who is essentially her surrogate father, all while being hunted by cannibals. The stakes feel microscopic and massive all at once. It’s the intimacy that makes it work. Neil Druckmann and the team at Naughty Dog focused on the "quiet" moments—the puns in the joke book, the photo booth that doesn't quite work, the shared headphones.
These are the things that make the violence later feel so much more jarring.
Common Misconceptions About the Story
I see a lot of people online saying this DLC is "skippable" if you've seen the HBO show.
That’s wrong.
The show did a great job with Episode 7 ("Left Behind"), but the pacing in the game is different. The gameplay loop of exploring the mall at your own pace creates a sense of dread that a TV show can't replicate. In the game, you choose to stay in the photo booth. You choose to keep reading the jokes. You become complicit in their brief moment of happiness, which makes the inevitable ending feel like a personal failure.
Also, some people think Riley was just a "friend." The DLC is very explicit about their romantic connection. It’s foundational to Ellie’s character. It’s not a subplot; it’s the catalyst for her entire journey through the sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Her fear of abandonment starts in that mall.
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Real-World Impact and Legacy
When we look back at the 2010s era of gaming, this expansion is always in the top five lists for a reason. It won two BAFTAs. It set a standard for how to handle "side stories" without them feeling like filler.
Experts in narrative design often point to the "Riley and Ellie" arc as a masterclass in economy of storytelling. In just two hours, Naughty Dog builds a relationship that feels more real than most 40-hour RPG romances. They use environmental storytelling—the notes left behind by other survivors in the mall—to show that Ellie and Riley aren't special. They are just two more souls caught in the gears of a dying world.
That groundedness is why people still talk about it over a decade later.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Players
If you’re revisiting the world of The Last of Us, or if you're coming to it fresh after the series, here is how to get the most out of this specific chapter:
- Play it after the "University" chapter: If you’re playing The Last of Us Part I (the remake), the DLC is included. While you can play it separately, the most impactful way is to stop the main game right after Joel gets hurt and play Left Behind then. It fits perfectly into that narrative gap.
- Find all the optional conversations: Don't rush to the next objective. The real magic is in the "Optional Conversations." There are 14 of them. Listen to Ellie’s reactions to the masks and the posters. It builds the bond between her and Riley.
- Pay attention to the music: Gustavo Santaolalla’s score in the DLC is more subtle than the main game. The track "Left Behind" uses a banjo and a low drone that perfectly captures the "bittersweet" vibe.
- Look for the "Jak and Daxter" Easter eggs: Naughty Dog loves their self-references. There are plenty of nods to their older games hidden in the Halloween shop and the arcade.
- Notice the lighting: The game uses "warm" gold lighting for the past and "cold" blue/white lighting for the present. It’s a visual cue for Ellie’s mental state—the past was warm and full of life; the present is cold and lonely.
The beauty of The Left Behind The Last of Us is that it doesn't try to save the world. It’s just about two girls in a mall, trying to pretend that tomorrow isn't coming. It’s a reminder that even when the world ends, the things that matter—love, loyalty, and a really bad joke book—don't change.