0:05

Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome

0:07

to Stephane Never told you Protection of iHeartRadio,

0:18

And welcome to another

0:21

sub sub sub segment of

0:24

feminist activist advocates

0:27

around the world. Yes, Fight

0:29

that Way, have changed the name several

0:31

times, but do you know what we're talking about.

0:34

We got here and this is the sub segment wherein

0:36

I talk about fictional

0:38

women or non binary folks and

0:41

I just give you their whole backstory. And today we

0:43

are talking about Riley

0:45

able from the Last of Us

0:48

and so there will be spoilers

0:50

from both the most

0:52

recent episode of the HBO

0:55

Max series, which is an

0:57

auto sponsor, but also

1:00

the first video

1:02

game, Last of Us video game, the downloadable

1:04

content called Left Behind,

1:06

and the comic book American

1:09

Dreams. So all

1:12

that to say, the

1:14

game and the comic book have been out

1:16

since twenty twenty fourteen. I

1:19

feel like that's a pretty decent amount of time,

1:21

but I will put it in there. I also to

1:23

say, we actually aren't going to talk about the show

1:26

that much because we

1:28

are doing a full episode

1:30

for our Last of Uzz miniseries

1:32

recap Rewatch thing about

1:34

the most recent episode that featured Riley. So

1:37

listen out for that. But yeah,

1:39

we're not going to talk about it too much here because actually there's

1:42

a lot of ground to cover, a lot

1:44

of ground, And as always,

1:46

Samantha, I'm just gonna try

1:48

to run this down and if

1:50

you have any questions, please let

1:53

me help you. Good news is about

1:55

this one. I actually kind of know a background

1:57

on this one, so I'm not going to be too confused.

2:00

Yeah, so this is maybe just as you explaining,

2:02

you'll love and owed to Riley,

2:04

So I'm down for it. Let's go, yes, yes,

2:07

yes, yes, okay, So, yeah,

2:09

we were talking about Riley Abel from the Last of Us.

2:11

We are mostly focusing on her in the game

2:14

and comics. So the downloadable

2:16

content, the DLC as it's

2:19

called, which you might have seen if you're in the same

2:21

circles as I am trending on Twitter

2:24

Left Behind as it's called. It came

2:26

out in twenty fourteen on Valentine's

2:28

Day, by the way, and

2:31

Riley is also so. She was primarily

2:33

introduced in that, but she was also featured in the comic

2:35

The Last of Us American Dreams and

2:38

is now in the HBO series. She

2:40

was mentioned by name and alluded

2:42

to several times in the first last of US

2:44

game, so she's kind of prevalent

2:47

throughout, even if she's not really there. She's

2:49

a sixteen year old survivor

2:51

living in the Boston Quarantine Zone

2:53

or the QZ, and Ellie's

2:56

best and perhaps only friend at

2:58

this time. O'Riley

3:01

doesn't like the military, but often speaks

3:03

favorably of joining the Fireflies,

3:05

who, if you don't know, are this

3:08

group of people who were trying

3:11

to restore democracy,

3:14

or that's what they say, at least by taking

3:16

back power from Pedro. And Pedro's this

3:18

military organization that came in after

3:21

the outbreak and kind of took control over

3:23

things. When Riley was a child,

3:26

her father was infected and ripped

3:28

her mom apart in front of Riley, and Riley

3:31

had to kill him to save herself.

3:33

At the age of fifteen, she was given the

3:35

option of joining the military or being left

3:38

to fend for herself, and she knew she probably wouldn't

3:40

survive very long, so even though

3:42

she didn't want to join the military, she

3:44

did, but was determined to find

3:46

a way out. So, if

3:49

you've watched the show and you're listening to this already, like, well,

3:51

wait a minute, this is We're going to talk about

3:53

the comic first, but this is the backstory that

3:57

happens before she ever whatever

3:59

happened in the show, all right, So the

4:02

comic Riley defends

4:04

Ellie from bullies in the QZ.

4:07

She threatens to stomp the balls

4:09

of the leader, and the thread

4:12

is credible enough that the whole group runs away.

4:14

When she asks Ellie what these

4:17

bullies wanted, Ellie says that they implied they

4:19

wanted to steal her Sony Walkman.

4:21

Yes, product placement also very important

4:24

throughout. Riley tells Ellie

4:26

that she needs to make friends and watch

4:29

her back, but Ellie boks at the implication

4:31

she needs any help. She's basically like, who asked you

4:33

for advice? And this

4:35

causes Riley to tell her that

4:38

she has serious trust issues and

4:41

these issues were not helped when Riley pickpocketed

4:44

her Walkman. So

4:46

Ellie goes to find Riley

4:48

and finds her in the mess hall and she's

4:50

talking about the fireflies and everyone

4:53

around her is like they're gonna hear

4:55

you, and confronts

4:58

Riley about the Walkman. Riley

5:00

gives it back, but not before insulting her music

5:02

taste. Later,

5:05

Ellie discovers Riley trying to sneak out

5:07

at night to leave the q Z, and Riley

5:10

orders her to go back to bed, but Ellie demands

5:12

that Riley show her how to leave the q Z,

5:15

and Riley eventually agrees, calling

5:17

Ellie by her name, even

5:19

though Ellie had not given her her name yet

5:21

and she won't tell Ellie how she knows it.

5:24

And then she introduces herself, that's

5:26

Riley. This is when to get her name. So they navigate

5:29

the q z's rooftops they avoid patrols.

5:32

Riley asks Ellie if she ever thinks about

5:34

her future. At first, Ellie

5:36

thinks that she's joking. She kind of laughs,

5:38

like what future? Riley admits

5:40

she plans on finding her own way, and that

5:43

confuses Ellie, who doesn't know what else?

5:46

What is this own way? What else could their lives be? And

5:49

then kind of out of nowhere, seemingly, Riley

5:51

asked Ellie if she has ever written a horse, and

5:53

when Ellie says no, she leads her to an

5:56

abandoned mall and as they're walking

5:58

inside, Ellie makes a bee line for the arcade

6:00

and pretends to play this game called Triple

6:02

Phoenix and Riley

6:05

mocks her and turns

6:07

her intention instead to Riley's

6:10

favorite game, The Turning, which

6:12

is pretty much Mortal Kombat, and so

6:16

Warner Brothers, who's doing the Hbomax

6:18

show, has the rights to Mortal Kombat.

6:21

Sony did not see Yes Yes.

6:25

So Ellie expresses her jealousy

6:27

of all of the kids that lived before the outbreak,

6:30

and Riley kind of shuts down and says

6:33

we should leave her wasting time, So she

6:35

leads them to her friend Winston,

6:38

promising Winston, who

6:40

is all a grown up man by the way,

6:42

that Ellie is cool, and offers him a bottle

6:44

of whiskey that she stole in exchange for teaching

6:46

Ellie how to ride a horse, and

6:49

while they're getting ready, Riley tells Ellie

6:51

she wants to be free of the whole system,

6:54

and then kind of disappears for a bit. While

6:56

Winston teaches Ellie how to ride a horse, there

7:00

erupted by an explosion and Winston

7:02

orders the two of them to go home and rides

7:04

off to join his unit. Riley

7:07

ignores him, instead listening

7:09

to his walkie talkie, which she stole. By the way,

7:12

Ellie realizes that Riley used

7:14

her to distract Winston to get the walkie

7:16

talkie, and is furious, but Riley

7:18

pretty much ignores her, telling her she's going to go

7:20

join the Fireflies now that she knows where they are.

7:23

Ellie tries to convince her otherwise,

7:25

but Riley decides to leave her

7:27

behind. The title still,

7:30

Ellie follows Riley over the rooftops towards

7:32

the smoke They arrive at the

7:34

scene and Riley produces two smoke grenades

7:37

and hands one to Ellie. Ellie worries

7:39

that they'll hurt people, but Riley tells them no one

7:41

will be harmed. She just wants to get the Fireflies

7:43

a chance to escape. Riley catches

7:46

the attention of the soldiers after the firefly's

7:48

escape, and the pair has to run. They

7:50

kind of escape the military, but are attacked

7:53

by an infected Riley orders

7:55

Ellie to run away and is pinned

7:57

down, but with Ellie's help, they

8:00

kill the infected. Riley kind of

8:02

panics says she's infected,

8:04

but Ellie pulls up her sleeve and

8:06

sees no bite marks, and Riley calms

8:08

down. She admits to Ellie she was scared and thought

8:10

she had been bitten, so

8:13

more infected appear and they run

8:16

until they hit a dead end. A firefly

8:18

saves them and Riley thanks them and introduces

8:21

herself, and it's Marlene who

8:24

recognizes Ellie and

8:26

knocks Riley out with the stun rod. Riley

8:29

wakes up to Ellie negotiating their release.

8:32

Marlene gives Ellie an envelope and orders

8:34

them to go back to the QZI, but Riley

8:36

instead pleads like, let me join the Fireflies.

8:39

Please let me join the Fireflies. Marlene

8:41

refuses, and then the

8:43

group is attacked by smugglers and Ellie

8:47

dives in front of Riley to protect

8:49

her. A firefight plays

8:51

out, and Ellie distracts

8:53

the smugglers so that Riley can grab a gun from

8:55

one of the dead and shoots the smuggler that had

8:58

Marlene pinned down. The

9:00

fight over, Riley once again asked

9:03

to join the Fireflies, and Marlene

9:05

reacts angrily, telling her just because

9:07

she dresses like a firefly and knows the lines

9:10

of a firefly doesn't mean she knows what it means

9:12

to be a firefly, and

9:14

she shows Riley the dead bodies. She threatens

9:17

to name her because that's what could happen

9:19

to her. And Riley remains firm

9:22

I want to join the Fireflies if

9:25

you want to name her. Well,

9:27

she's she's saying, like, that's what could happen to

9:29

you? What if I maimed you? How what

9:31

would you do? Like this is something that is

9:33

the future. If you're not sure,

9:36

you need to face the reality of what

9:38

could happen. Oh, she's she's

9:42

basically trying to scare her, like, this is

9:45

a this is a reality you might have to face that

9:47

an overreaction. Yeah, um,

9:51

Ellie. Meanwhile, it gets

9:53

a gun, points it at Marlene and orders her to

9:55

move away from Riley. Marlene

9:58

says she knew Ellie's mother Anna and

10:00

promise to keep Ellie safe. Um. Ellie

10:02

asked Riley, like, what should I do? And Riley

10:05

tells her you should lower the gun. Um,

10:07

and Ellie does, and Marlene gives Ellie

10:09

her mom's switchblade her hand

10:12

knife. Um, yeah,

10:14

that's not in the show yet, right, No,

10:16

it's actually okay,

10:19

so, but they just have a switchblade that she just likes.

10:22

Yes, yeah, that's interesting, okay hmm.

10:25

On their way back to the school,

10:28

Riley confesses she thinks there's no way out

10:30

for them. Ellie suggests that they run

10:32

away from the zone, but Riley dis missus

10:34

heard telling her that they would die out there and

10:37

obviously hurting um. She they

10:40

get back and she basically is like I'll see you to mar Ellie.

10:56

So this brings us to the d

10:58

LC left behind.

11:02

So Riley hasn't given

11:04

up to on becoming a firefly,

11:07

so she follows one of the members

11:10

and is brought before Marlene, who

11:13

asked what took her so long and tells her that their

11:15

last encounter was a test to see how committed she

11:17

was, and Riley

11:19

has given the test of killing

11:21

and infected what she does and

11:23

earns her firefly pendant. She

11:26

asked Marlene if Ellie can join, but

11:29

not only does Marley say know, she forbids

11:32

Riley from ever contacting Ellie

11:34

again. Row yep,

11:36

So on Ellie's end one day, Riley

11:38

just kind of disappears without a word, causing

11:41

Ellie to worry about what happened to her three

11:43

weeks past before one night, Riley sneaks

11:46

into Ellie's room in the middle of the night, and this

11:48

is three weeks before the events of the first

11:50

game. Ellie

11:53

almost stabs her before realizing who

11:56

it is and tells Riley, you know,

11:58

I thought you were dead. Riley

12:00

tells her that she's a firefly now

12:02

and promises to explain everything, and

12:05

they catch up on each other's lives. They

12:07

sneak across the rooftops and they argue

12:09

about the fireflies. They're

12:11

very argumentative friends. Still.

12:14

Ellie wonders if she could become a firefly,

12:16

but Riley tells her Marlene wanted her safe

12:19

in the school. They return

12:22

to them all and when Ellie demands to know what's

12:24

going on, Riley just says it's a surprise. They

12:27

discuss about how their

12:29

water guns have been stolen go

12:32

confiscated. It's a vetter answer. They kind of got taken

12:34

by the I guess leader of the school. How

12:37

Winston had died of a heart

12:39

attack, and they go seek out

12:41

his bottle of whiskey to have a drink. They

12:44

take a detour through a halloween store,

12:48

trying on masks, despite Ellie's reluctance

12:50

too. They play a game that involves

12:53

throwing bricks at car windows and the winner

12:55

gets to ask any question that the loser has

12:57

to answer honestly. So this

13:00

is a game, so you can win or lose If

13:03

Riley wins, she asks what she has to do to

13:05

be your friend again. If Ellie wins,

13:07

the player gets to pick between three options,

13:10

and they're kind of like, why did you leave? How

13:13

do you feel about me? Things like that, and Riley

13:15

will one of them. She won't answer straight

13:18

faced. I'll say I've played

13:20

this many times.

13:23

Yes, oh, yes, I

13:25

have all right, So Riley

13:29

reveals the mall still has power and

13:32

flips it on, apologizing for everything

13:34

that has happened between them. They enter

13:37

the illuminated mall astounded. They

13:39

ride the carousel. They take pictures in the photo

13:42

booth, and yes, you can choose the theme, including

13:44

one that is a love based. They

13:46

read puns from the Infamous Pun Book.

13:49

They go to the arcade, making a bee

13:51

line for the turning the game.

13:53

I'll want to find out it doesn't work. Unfettered,

13:57

Riley instructs Ellie to close her eyes and

13:59

then describes what's happening on screen

14:01

as Ellie pushes buttons. It's a really

14:04

beautiful scene because Ellie kind of seeks

14:06

into her imagination and

14:08

then you can hear the sounds in her mind and like

14:10

to see the lights on her face as Riley's

14:13

like, you've got to kick now, and she'll

14:15

kick. It's really cool. Riley here's

14:18

music overhead and urges Ellie

14:20

that they need to keep going, but Ellie hesitates,

14:23

saying they can't get in trouble at school

14:25

again. Riley tells her, Hey,

14:28

I have been assigned to a firefly unit in a different

14:30

city and I'm leaving, so this

14:32

is it, like this is our last night. Disappointed

14:35

with Ellie's reaction, Riley leaves to check

14:37

out the music, and Ellie eventually catches

14:40

up and they fight some more. Riley

14:42

reveals that she didn't come back out

14:44

of guilt that she almost

14:46

got shot retrieving their lost

14:49

water guns. So they

14:51

play a game of water tag, which yes,

14:53

you can win or lose, and Ellie

14:56

tells Riley she should

14:58

go with the fireflies because that was her dream.

15:00

And this is after Riley tells Ellie, you're the only

15:02

one that could stop me. Riley

15:05

plugs in Ellie's Walkman into

15:08

kind of like the PA system, and

15:10

they dance on the counters of the store. Midway

15:13

through the song, which is Edda James's cover If I

15:15

Got Ebabe, Ellie stops

15:17

and begs Riley to stay,

15:19

and Riley pauses before tearing off her firefly

15:22

pendant and dropping it. Ellie

15:25

darts forward and kisses Riley, apologizing

15:27

after, but Riley says she has nothing to

15:29

apologize for. However,

15:32

infected interrupted the moment and

15:35

that forces them to flee. They almost

15:37

make it out when some scaffolding

15:40

Ellie was climbing broke and she fell,

15:42

and Riley jumped back down to save her, and

15:45

then is attacked by and infected herself. And

15:48

though they defeat the infected, they

15:50

are both bitten. Ellie

15:53

break stuff and fiery and

15:55

pain so hurt by this, but

15:59

Riley tries to come down, tells her that they

16:01

have two options suicide

16:04

or being quote all poetic and losing

16:06

their minds together and that's

16:09

her preference, so that they could spend as much

16:11

time as possible together before that happens.

16:14

Ellie agrees, and that's how

16:16

it ends. You never see any anybody,

16:18

you die or anything. That's just how it ends. And because

16:20

you've played the game, I mean,

16:23

I would assume at this point, because

16:25

if you're doing the downloadable content, that would be

16:27

strange if you hadn't. But because

16:30

you played the game, you know

16:33

Ellie never becomes infected. But

16:36

that Riley did it

16:38

is very very beautiful. It's a very

16:40

very beautiful game. It's very sweet and sad.

16:43

You can goof off playing in

16:45

the photo booth, like you can do multiple

16:48

things in there if you want, like different poses.

16:50

You get to choose the poses like every time, so

16:53

like the back to back and yeah, it's like they do

16:55

like angel pose and yeah, it's

16:57

really cute. You can decide how much

16:59

you want to fly, or you can read all of the puns

17:01

like like I said in the past, last of

17:03

this episode, you basically

17:06

as long as you keep pressing triangle, you'll keep

17:08

exchanging puns until they run out,

17:10

which is what I did, which is what she

17:13

did. Absolutely. So

17:29

one of the main ways, if you have seen the most

17:32

recent episode of the show, that this is

17:34

different is that it

17:36

takes place right

17:40

after Joel has been like mortally

17:42

injured, like

17:45

dying, and Ellie

17:48

goes to it an abandoned ma all

17:51

to try to find any kind of medical supplies,

17:54

and when she's in there,

17:56

it is flashing back to these

17:59

memories with Riley. So this is why this is one of the

18:01

things I couldn't quite predict how they were going to do it.

18:03

In the show. It was

18:05

probably my biggest question mark, just because I didn't

18:08

know if they were going to intersperse

18:10

or if they were going to do one big flashback. But

18:12

by the time you play this again, maybe

18:15

some people did it in a way

18:17

I've never heard of, but by the time you play it, you

18:20

know how it ends, so that it adds tension, Like

18:22

you're having these like really beautiful, sweet,

18:25

innocent moments, but you

18:27

know ultimately they're

18:29

going to get bitten at the end of it. And

18:31

it's very different gameplay because

18:34

whereas like the game, the

18:36

first game is very you know, kind of action

18:39

driven sneaking around,

18:42

this is like literally pressed

18:44

triangle to choose what photo you want to take.

18:46

Like, it's a very sweet, different

18:50

type of game. And you

18:52

do see the

18:55

huge impact that

18:58

Riley and Riley's death had on

19:00

Ellie's worldview on how

19:03

she feels the Survivor's

19:06

guild, especially so the name.

19:09

Some people think the name because

19:11

Riley's last name is Abel, is a reference to

19:13

the biblical story of Kane and Abel, because

19:17

the implication is that Ellie did have

19:19

to kill Riley,

19:22

and Riley is a very was

19:25

a very capable self sufficient protective,

19:28

impulsive person. And Ellie

19:31

keeps her pendant, her

19:34

firefly pendant, and her backpack. So at one

19:36

point, as I've said, in the first game,

19:38

you play as Ellie and you can look in

19:40

her backpack and she has the

19:43

pendant, she has the pun book, a

19:46

couple of other things. And

19:48

now, unfortunately you probably won't be surprised

19:51

to know that when this came out, it

19:54

was critically acclaimed, but there was a big

19:56

backlash among people who homophobic,

19:59

people who did not not like that

20:01

this was a storyline in

20:03

there. And we're going to talk about this more in

20:06

the Last of US TV

20:09

episode about episode seven Left Behind,

20:11

but that episode has been review bombed

20:14

with several one star reviews. Luckily,

20:17

I would say, you know, those voices

20:20

are so loud, but overall

20:23

most people seem to be like, oh, this was a beautiful,

20:26

like unique at the time love

20:29

story in a game where, especially

20:31

like we've said before, in kind of these action and horror

20:33

games, it was very very

20:35

sweet and very very sad.

20:38

I did cry a

20:40

lot or tissues had to be found. Yeah,

20:44

and it's kind of interesting too, because, as people

20:46

pointed out, you know, you never see the

20:49

death part of it, but it's

20:51

just that their conversation at the end

20:53

is so moving. And

20:56

I mentioned this before, but Ashley Johnson,

20:59

who's been very out about like no,

21:02

I don't care, it's stopped talking

21:04

about homophobic people, has

21:07

said how she'll get approached by like especially

21:09

young queer folks who say

21:12

that this meant so much to them to see this

21:14

and play this. But

21:17

yeah, it is. It's like, really really

21:19

beautiful. It's been interesting too because somehow

21:24

a lot of people haven't played the DLC. You're

21:27

just kind of shocking to me, and there's been

21:29

a whole like what is where did this come from? And I'm

21:31

like, what, you haven't played the DLC. But

21:33

it is very beautiful. I highly recommended the comic

21:35

book, which I have. Unfortunately it's in my apartment

21:37

somewhere, but I cannot find it.

21:39

It is very very cool and that

21:42

one has a lot of like world building in it.

21:44

So I recommend and definitely

21:46

be on the lookout to pour our reaction

21:49

to the most recent episode of the Last of Us as

21:51

Us comes out that featured Riley

21:53

and that's where we'll talk more about her television

21:55

depiction and all of that stuff. But

21:58

yeah,

21:59

yeah, I

22:01

love Reley. Do you want to tell everyone

22:03

how long you've been waiting to do this specific

22:06

character? A long time. When

22:09

I say a long time, I think it might have been here at the beginning.

22:12

Yes, I think it was an early trend.

22:14

Yes, early. When we first started

22:17

at it, made a list and at first was like all last of

22:19

us characters. But I knew the show was coming

22:21

out, so I was like, I don't know what

22:23

to do about the spoilers, right,

22:25

and then when the show started, She's like, I want to, but now I have

22:28

to wait. Yes, so she was very and

22:30

she was very very much ready

22:32

for this, and also a couple

22:34

of other characters. And we're not going to mention yet, but

22:37

it's in the White Wings, y'all. It is.

22:39

Oh it's coming

22:41

yes, Oh so exciting.

22:44

Well. In the meantime, if

22:46

you have any suggestions for anyone we should talk

22:48

about on this subsegment or anything else, you

22:51

can email us Stuff India Mom Stuff at iHeartMedia

22:53

dot com. You can find us on Twitter. I'm also a

22:55

podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok as

22:57

stuff I Never told you and also YouTube.

22:59

Now that's what you want, who doesn't, Thanks,

23:01

as always, do our super

23:04

producer Christina who is obviously

23:06

the best obviously, and thanks

23:08

to you for listening. Steph, I never told youse production

23:11

by Heart Radio. For more podcast for my Heart Radio, you can check

23:13

out the our radio app Apple podcast or radio. Listen

23:15

to your favorite shows.