The mall scene made my Sapphic heart so happy until... well. When Riley says she's picturing Ellie in the lingerie, I was like, "Girl, your signals are not subtle." I'm glad we didn't have to watch Ellie kill Riley. I haven't played the game, but that's definitely what happened since Ellie is immune and Riley isn't. Seeing her kill Riley would just be a repeat of Sam and Henry, and I don't want to watch that again. Joel taking Ellie's hand at the end was beautiful. He finally realized he didn't need to fight his parental feelings for her anymore, and he that they would fight for each other like family.
The whole episode was really well made! Riley wasn’t subtle at all, even in the photo booth when Riley was leaning on Ellie so much that even Ellie was like “woah there!” 😂 There were enough hints and clues dropped up until that point that there was no need to show it and the view let could get to that conclusion by themselves, and as you said it would have been another emotional blow! That moment of Joel and Ellie holding hands was so precious, one of my favourite of the show. As you said, it’s a point where he doesn’t see her as cargo anymore and the fact that she stuck around to help him after he got stabbed consolidates that for him. It was beautiful and no words needed to be said.
The mall scene made my Sapphic heart so happy until... well. When Riley says she's picturing Ellie in the lingerie, I was like, "Girl, your signals are not subtle." I'm glad we didn't have to watch Ellie kill Riley. I haven't played the game, but that's definitely what happened since Ellie is immune and Riley isn't. Seeing her kill Riley would just be a repeat of Sam and Henry, and I don't want to watch that again. Joel taking Ellie's hand at the end was beautiful. He finally realized he didn't need to fight his parental feelings for her anymore, and he that they would fight for each other like family.
The whole episode was really well made! Riley wasn’t subtle at all, even in the photo booth when Riley was leaning on Ellie so much that even Ellie was like “woah there!” 😂 There were enough hints and clues dropped up until that point that there was no need to show it and the view let could get to that conclusion by themselves, and as you said it would have been another emotional blow!
That moment of Joel and Ellie holding hands was so precious, one of my favourite of the show. As you said, it’s a point where he doesn’t see her as cargo anymore and the fact that she stuck around to help him after he got stabbed consolidates that for him. It was beautiful and no words needed to be said.