The Latest Episode of 'The Last of Us' has Ellie Crossing Paths with a Dangerous Gang while Joel is on the Mend
The first, is obviously, Joel and Ellie. Joel is in need of medicine to help with an infection that is forming from the stab wound he received back in Episode 7. While Ellie stitched him up at the end of last week's installment, Joel is struggling with a fever and is barely eating. Ellie is in need of someone to bond with. As her connection with Joel is growing, she is in need of someone to riff with, to be cared by and cared for. However, the other group that is in need is the latest group we're introduced to within the series.
Episode 8 opens up with a reading of Revelation 21 from the Holy Bible, which speaks of a new Heaven and even more particularly, a new Earth which our characters occupy today. We then see David (played devilishly by a terrific Scott Shepherd) as the preacher and leader of a town that is disheveled, empty and cold. It's a reveal that is telling the audience not only about the environment that they're embodying but also, the true nature of its citizens within the apocalypse. It's then that David hears a young girl crying and he stops the reading. We discover that this girl is the daughter of the man Joel killed a few episodes ago when trying to protect himself and Ellie.
Inside the meeting room where David reads his sermon, there is a sign that hangs above his head that reads, "When we are in need, He shall provide." This also plays into the title of the episode, however, as David asks the young girl to complete the verse, she is unable to. He completes it for her before she asks when they can bury her father. He then looks over to James (played by Troy Baker who voices Joel in the video game), before telling her that the ground is too cold, and they will bury him in the Spring.
While the opening is read with a faithful manner, you get the sense that there is something off about David. It's an unsettling feeling you get deep in your gut where one can only speculate his past actions throughout the cordyceps-filled world. As he later alludes to within the episode, he once relied on his violent heart to lead him rather than his newfound faith which came to be after the fall of the free world.
David and James have a discussion after prayer about how much they could actually have to sustain what the town through the harsh winter. James informs his leader that if they ration servings, they could have a week, maybe two, but that's a big if. They need to find more deer, elk and venison to make it last. So, the two of them grab their guns and head out to hunt.
It's then where we cut back to Ellie who is taking care of Joel. Though he's stitched up now, he isn't looking good. He's prone to the basement floor, unable to move much and is basically unresponsive to Ellie. With a lack of food and time not at their side, Ellie grabs the rifle and sets off to hunt herself. That's where our two stories meet as Ellie shoots and wounds a deer before it runs off. Then, Ellie runs into David and James as they discover the deer and she holds them at gunpoint before David agrees to send James back to their compound to retrieve penicillin that Ellie requests as a means to help Joel with a desire to trade for half the deer.
David then uses his gift of gab to convince Ellie to head into a nearby building where he offers to start a fire as it's a four-mile round trip to the settlement and could take a while until James returns. Ellie reluctantly obliges as they lug the deer with them before we cut to David attempting to bait Ellie into talking. David assuredly tells Ellie that there is room within his group for her to join, further explaining that the people chose to follow him. As Ellie gets more comfortable with the math teacher-turned-preacher, we see her walls come down which could only result in putting her in harm's way. David had left the Pittsburgh QZ with a small group when it fell in 2017, picking up stragglers along the way leading to the formation of their community.
Within that conversation, we see the major theme of the episode, being that one could be a leader or a follower. In last week's episode, FEDRA's commanding officer told Ellie she had the makings of a leader, even though she was too afraid to do so. David provides the opposite of that, a strong-willed, intelligent leader that finds ways to make people like Ellie trust him by just being human. He's very Machiavellian in his approach to the world and now he's entrapped Ellie in a situation where she is without Joel and being vulnerable to a stranger. As a viewer, it invokes you yelling at the screen telling her to watch her back, but quickly she has a gun pointed at her by James.
However, by God's will, David allows Ellie to get away, demanding that James give her the medicine. Ellie rushes back to the cabin and shoots Joel up with the penicillin, while David and James head back to their camp, deer in hand, radiating from their find. However, he quickly senses something is off with the group before coming to the realization that James must've told them about the girl (Ellie). David admittedly confirms their suspicions and says that tomorrow he'll round up a group to bring that man (Joel) to justice for his actions of killing Alec. Alec's daughter then shouts that they should kill both the man and the girl, cutting off David. This is where, as an audience, we get confirmation that he is far from the man he lets on. As he walks up to her, he strikes her in the face, telling his mother not to interfene before helping her up and stating that even though her dad is gone, she'll always have a father and she'll show him respect when he's talking.
Ellie comes to the realization the next day that a group of men are searching for her and Joel. Panicking, she heads back to the house begging for Joel to wake up. When her attempt doesn't go to plan, she gives Joel a knife and tell him that she's going to try and lead the men away from him but if anyone comes down there, that he has to kill them. As Ellie rides off on horseback drawing the attention of David, James and the others, James shoots and kills the horse that she's on, which throws her off, leaving her disoriented and concussed. David brings Ellie backs to the town to lock her up before instructing the men to seek out Joel and kill him.
As one man enters the house and goes into the basement, we see that Joel is no longer on the mattress. He jumps him from behind, stabbing and killing him, before he captures the two other men questioning where Ellie is located. It's the most brutal we've seen Joel all season thus far, showcasing his true motivation to protect Ellie from anyone and everyone since their bond has grown tenfold.
However, as many would've thought that Joel would be the one to come and save the day rescuing Ellie, Bella Ramsey gets her well-deserved hero moment. After engaging with the menacing David and discovering he's actually been cannibalizing their community without them knowing, she bites David. Him and James throw Ellie onto the table within the back room aiming to cut her up and eat her themselves before she tells them that she's infected. They lift up her sleeve, see the bite, and in their distracted state, she grabs the cleaver striking James in the neck, killing him. It's then a battle of the horror of humanity between Ellie and David and despite the strength advantage, Ellie proves to be too smart for David, eventually getting on top of him and relentlessly shredding him with the cleaver.
She escapes the burning cabin to Joel grabbing her from behind, since tracking her down and embracing her. It's a visceral, raw and authentic reaction from the both of them. Joel tells her, "I got you, baby girl," indicating the transformation of both characters over the freshman season of the revelatory HBO drama.
Overall Score: 9.7
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