'The Last of Us' Episode 8 Changes Ellie For Good
For a whole week now, I’ve been lying on the floor in pain like Joel—waiting for The Last of Us to return. We can only hope that Ellie actually knew how to stitch up (and sanitize!) a wound when she haphazardly grabbed that needle and thread in Episode Seven. I’m not emotionally capable of losing anyone else on this show.
Instead of letting me know that Joel is okay, HBO starts off Episode Eight with the introduction of yet another new character: David, the pastor of a small Wyoming community. Naturally, I don’t trust him—or anyone who isn’t Joel and Ellie, or even poor Henry and Sam. But maybe this one’s a good guy. We're about to find out.
David's buddy is none other than voice actor Troy Baker, AKA the voice of Joel from The Last of Us video game. So, that's a decent sign that we're heading in the right direction, for now. The two of them go hunting for deer, but they run into an animal that Ellie happened to shoot. David agrees to trade resources for the deer, offering Ellie penicillin to treat Joel’s infection. Side note: it’s kind of nice that there’s no infected people around this part of the country! I guess the fungus monsters hate the cold. David tells Ellie that he’s from the Pittsburgh QZ. For those not ridden with mushroom brain, that’s the same city where, in The Last of Us video game, we met our old friends Henry and Sam. It's another nice easter egg for fans, to distract us from the HBO show's weekly heartbreak.
Speaking of: my suspicions were correct. David mentions to Ellie that the man who attacked Joel—and Joel promptly attacked right back—was from his compound. Apparently, the people who survived the encounter told David that Joel was traveling with a little girl. David lets Ellie escape, believing that it wasn’t her who killed his man, but the town isn't happy with that decision. I guess this guy’s word is law, though, because he slaps a kid who suggests that they find and kill the two of them. So, Ellie prepares for the men to come looking for them. David yells at his goonies to bring Ellie in alive—and they successfully capture her. Then, one of his men walks into the house where Joel was hiding, but our hero surprisingly gets up and defends himself. Joel is back, baby! Time to knock out these assholes one by one until he finds Ellie.
Soon after, we cut back to Ellie, who is trapped in a cell. She’s questioned by David, but of course, tells him to fuck right off. Big shocker (or not), David is a bad dude. He’s doing some light cannibalism in his town by passing human meat off as venison. “It was a last resort,” David explains. “What was I supposed to do? Let them starve?!” Ellie suggests the obvious: that he shouldn’t eat people. David also has some weird, religious view of the cordyceps virus. Itt's not about the Infected, mind you, but the little mushroom spores. Freaky! We don't have time to explore that when Ellie is in the hands of cannibals. Thankfully, Ellie attacks one of her captors and escapes, lighting fire to their messed-up meeting house. “You don’t know how good I am!” David yells at her. Screaming about your level of moral goodness? Definitely something an evil guy does! David attempts to rape Ellie, who stabs him about a million times. Thankfully, she takes him down and stumbles out of the building, finding Joel. “It’s okay, I got you,” he tells her, as the two walk off bloodied and shell-shocked.
I've never played The Last of Us video game—to ensure that I am just as shocked watching this show as everyone else—but my helpful editor, Brady, was kind enough to clue me in that this a pivotal moment for Ellie going forward. Until now, she cracked jokes about having a gun and escaping the Infected, but being attacked by another human is a different kind of violence. It's more real, in a way. Killing monsters? Well, they're monsters. Killing a human acting like a monster? That's a different beast entirely.
Sure, it's odd that the horrors humanity is capable of can be far worse than any pain a fungus zombie can inflict. But deep down, we tend to expect kindness from our fellow humans. Ellie's brush with David—someone who possesses almost every evil you can think of by the end of the episode—is insanely traumatizing. She's forced to become a real killer, and she'll likely never be the same because of it. As much as she may admire Joel for his strength, cool-guy apathy, and rough exterior, he only got that way from the horrors he both saw and committed throughout his lifetime. Is that the kind of person Ellie truly wants to emulate? Survival isn't easy—and the choices you're forced to make along the way are almost unilaterally awful. Look at every "villain" we've seen so far, and that's what they'll tell you. More often than not, they've made some pretty insane choices. But at their base level, they're just surviving.
For now, at least Joel and Ellie are okay. (Well, physically. Except for Joel. Actually, no one is okay.) See you next week for the final episode of the season. Hopefully, we get some good news after all this trauma. More likely than not, the terrors will just keep stacking on top of each other. If Joel and Ellie ever reach those doctors, can we even trust them? Is it worth losing our souls just for the chance of a vaccine? I am emotionally fraught! Still, maybe they’ll learn that the mushroom virus has stopped spreading. Or Ellie will fall in love again. We need something nice, people.
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