The Last of Us Episode 7 to Explore Ellie's Origins

By Adam Barnhardt

Now that we're six weeks into HBO's The Last of Us, the series is finally giving Ellie (Bella Ramsey) an origin story. At the end of Sunday's episode, the premium cable channel released a preview for next week's episode, showing Ellie's upbringing in the Quarantine Zone.

Also featured in the trailer is Storm Reid's Riley Abel, Ellie's best friend, both in the video game series and in the series. Judging by the preview, viewers will be able to see how Ellie's interaction with her first Clicker went, and how she discovered she may be the cure for the outbreak. See the preview for yourself below.

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin has long-teased the arrival of Riley, even confirming we'll eventually see how Ellie first came in contact with Marlene (Merle Dandridge).

"What happened to Ellie? And who's Riley? And why was Marlene the person that found them? And, also, how does Marlene even know [Ellie's] name, and what does this mean that Marlene put her there?" series co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin teased on HBO's Last of Us podcast earlier this year. "There's this rich history that we are hinting at that will become perfectly plain and clear as the season goes on."

Mazin continued: "The relationship between Ellie and Marlene in the game was sort of, 'Just take this kid, it's important.' Here you get the sense that Marlene has this profound connection to Ellie, which will be something that we're going to pay off and pull on quite a bit later on."

For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight's new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more. The Last of Us airs on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Eastern every Sunday with The Last of Pods debuting immediately following each show.

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