Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has been one thing of a thriller ever since she first met Joel (Pedro Pascal) in The Final of Us‘ opening episode. Clearly there’s the entire immunity factor, however there’s additionally the query of her hazy origin story, which we have solely discovered snippets of via Joel’s occasional grunted questions.

Till episode 7, that’s.

Happening virtually totally as a flashback, the present’s seventh instalment confirmed us Ellie’s time in FEDRA coaching faculty, following her on a wild (and finally tragic) evening in an deserted mall together with her greatest buddy Riley (Storm Reid).

Earlier than Ellie and Riley disappear via her window and into the evening, although, we see a glimpse of Ellie’s bed room. And tacked up on the partitions, and mendacity on her bedside desk, are a handful of throwbacks to issues Ellie has talked about in passing in earlier episodes.

From area posters to comics and joke books, we have damaged all of them down beneath.

Ellie’s joke guide lies on her bedside desk.

The primary quantity of the traditional No Pun Supposed joke guide by fictional writer Will Livingston could be seen mendacity on Ellie’s bedside desk in one of many opening pictures of her room. By this level, after all, we’re greater than conversant in Mr Livingston’s work. No Pun Supposed: Quantity Too, which Ellie carries in her backpack, supplies a welcome aid in episode 4 as she checks out its contents on her surly travelling companion. Nevertheless it’s solely in episode 7 that we be taught she acquired this second quantity from Riley as a present.

Will Livingston is the reward that retains on giving.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher/HBO

“Shut up! He made a second one?” says Ellie after Riley produces the guide. “The place did you get that?”

Riley does not reply, however we all know the guide stays a treasured possession for Ellie from that second on. She loves the jokes, after all, however the guide is greater than that: it is a reminiscence of her previous life, a reminder of her greatest buddy and old flame.

Ellie’s studying a well-known comedian.

Sitting on her mattress and glancing throughout at Riley’s empty mattress, Ellie rage-reads a comic book known as Savage Starlight. However this is not the primary time that comedian has had a point out. Again in episode 5, when Ellie, Joel, Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) make their means via the tunnels in an try to flee Kansas Metropolis, they pause briefly in a now-abandoned room that is beforehand been used as a youngsters’s play room or kindergarten.

Ellie and Sam bond over “Savage Starlight”.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Sam discovers a problem of Savage Starlight within the room. Ellie’s response? “No means, I really like these!” The 2 then proceed to match which points they’ve earlier than saying among the comedian’s key catch-phrases (“Endure, and survive”) in signal language.

Later, on the finish of the episode — earlier than all the pieces goes horribly unsuitable — they sit on the mattress collectively studying the problem.

Ellie’s wall is roofed with area posters.

In a wider shot of Ellie studying on her mattress, we see that her wall is plastered with posters. Fairly a number of of those are space-themed. There are a few film ones, together with posters of the 2000 movie Crimson Planet and the 1987 movie Inside Area, in addition to a breakdown of the lunar phases of the moon.

This closing one specifically hyperlinks again to a hearth dialog between Joel and Ellie in episode 6, the place they discuss what they could do as soon as all that is over. Joel says he desires to run a sheep farm, however when he asks Ellie the place she’d go, she seems up on the evening sky.

Ellie opens as much as Joel about her love of area.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher/HBO

“It is in all probability as a result of I grew up within the QZ,” she says. “Behind you there’s ocean, forward of you there is a wall. Nowhere to look however up. I learn all the pieces I might within the faculty library: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell. However you understand who my favorite is?”

“Sally Journey?” asks Joel.

“Sally fucking Journey,” confirms Ellie. “Finest astronaut title ever.”

Clearly, Ellie is a giant area fan — however the shot of her room we get in episode 7 reveals us simply how a lot of a fan she actually is.

Ellie has a Mortal Kombat II poster.

In the course of all of it, Ellie’s Mortal Kombat II poster takes satisfaction of place on the wall. Halfway’s 1993 arcade preventing sport options a number of instances through the collection, notably later within the episode when Riley reveals Ellie to “probably the most lovely factor I’ve ever seen” — the mall arcade. The pair proceed to mash buttons and destroy one another. The present throws again to this second in episode 3, when Ellie and Joel are on their method to Invoice and Frank’s. Stopping by a fuel station for Joel’s stashed provides, Ellie is delighted to discover a Mortal Kombat II arcade sport gathering mud.

“You ever performed this one?” Ellie asks Joel. “I had a buddy who knew all the pieces about this sport.”

And now, let’s speak about Ellie’s cassette tapes.(Opens in a brand new tab)

The Final of Us is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab) New episodes air each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.