This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to eight …
After threatening it for a week or two, winter is now fully upon The Last of Us.
We opened with deep snow and a pastor, David (Scott Shepherd), addressing his haunted-looking congregation. He broke off from his reading to console a sobbing girl and her mother – we later learned they are the family of the attacker Joel killed at the university. He finished saying the ground was too cold to dig and that he would be buried in the spring. Nothing suspicious about that …
“When we are in need, He shall provide,” said the banner above the door of the saloon. Who, exactly, is the He in this equation? The way David spoke to Ellie later, expressing his admiration for cordyceps and mocking his followers for believing in the good lord, made me think the He refers to him, David, rather than Him, God. What at first looked like a small band of survivors doing whatever they could to get by more closely resembled a cult with David front and centre. Venison for dinner, by the way … even though the deer was yet to arrive and supplies of just about everything else, including morale, were low. James (Troy Baker) outlined it had been an especially hard six months and the people were beginning to question David’s leadership. How might they have reacted if they had known what David had really been up to? (Was it handfuls of Alec that his wife was shovelling into that big pan of stew? What an unbelievably horrifying thought.)
Stitched up
In the basement, we got out first glimpse of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). At the end of last week’s episode, we saw Ellie doing her best cross-stitch on Joel’s stab wound. This week, it appeared to have done the trick, although infection was now raging through his body – probably from the dirty needle she used to sew him up. (If you thought his stab wound was bad, in the video game, Joel is impaled by a steel rod after falling from a balcony while fighting one of David’s men.)
While Ellie might not know much about sterilisation, she did know they needed to eat – what was that she was chewing, toffee? – so headed into the woods to catch some dinner. There we saw the white rabbit, which Ellie managed to scare away, showing her naivety as a hunter. She’s a quick learner, though, and soon had another, much larger animal in her sights. This attempt was more successful, though the deer ran away before dying.
It was here she met David and James, and managed to strike a deal for some penicillin. David either knew who Ellie was all along or worked it out as they were talking, and realised that if he let her go, she would lead him and his men to Joel so they could get their justice. No doubt David couldn’t resist the thought of all that potential meat lying in a cellar.
Back in the basement, Ellie administered antibiotics, and if you listened closely, you might have heard Alexander Fleming rolling in his grave. I’m not a medical professional, but I’m certain that just whacking a load of penicillin into a wound wouldn’t do very much for a bodily infection. What exactly did they teach you at Fedra school, Ellie? It did seem to do the trick, though – Joel was back to his best not long after, taking down three hunters.
The torture scene was particularly gruesome, but it showed exactly what Joel is capable of and just how much Ellie means to him. Would he have done that for her a few weeks ago?
Cage rage
“You’re eating people, you sick fuck,” said Ellie, now locked up, when she saw what David had been doing, speaking for everyone watching. He then reeled off a monologue about needing a friend and an equal, and that he’d call off his men if they hadn’t already got to Joel, before caressing Ellie’s hand and outlining his vision of them as a couple – and there you were, thinking cannibalism was his most abhorrent trait.
Ellie escaped, after lying about being infected and killing James, and took on David in the burning saloon, inflicting a stab wound before being overpowered. Thankfully, she managed to reach the cleaver as he fumbled with his belt and killed him. It was a frenzied attack that matched the level of violence about to be inflicted on her, but there was more to this, too – all of Ellie’s angst and rage was coming out in each wave of the cleaver. This was for Riley, for Tess, for Joel, who she probably thought was dead at this point, and for every cordyceps infection on the planet.
Overall
A magnificent episode, perfectly teeing up next week’s finale. Where exactly they were heading to at the end of the episode was uncertain, but let’s assume Joel and Ellie were going to get as far from that town as they could and see out the winter with the rest of that penicillin for company. They both have plenty of healing to do – let’s hope they can emerge from hibernation in spring renewed and relatively refreshed.
A point on that white rabbit Ellie failed to kill. So often used in fiction as a symbol of innocence, the rabbit vanished once it was startled, just as any scrap of innocence Ellie was clinging on to has now disappeared. She also quickly went from hunter to hunted once David and his goons showed up, and again when she and David were left alone in that burning saloon. Despite all she’s been through, she is still a young girl – she looked about 10 holding that rifle – and will not be the same person after the experiences of this episode. And just as she has softened Joel and reawakened parts he thought were dead, she has absorbed some of his ruthlessness, and will learn that there are parts of her personality she has to close off if she wants to survive.
We’ve got one episode to go – it’s the big one. See you next week.
Notes and observations
That verse David was reading from the Bible was from Revelation 21:1, concerning the New Jerusalem and the foundation of “a new heaven and a new Earth”. The verse is said to welcome the ushering in of a new, better humanity, which seems a world away from David’s cannibalism club. I wonder if he made it to Revelation 21:8, which sentences liars, murderers, the sexually immoral and, presumably, cannibals to eternity in hell?
David’s sidekick James, played by Baker, was better known for playing Joel in The Last of Us games. He also hosts HBO’s excellent official The Last of Us podcast.
When Joel found a numb Ellie and embraced her, he called her “baby girl”. The last time we heard him say that was midway through episode one, as Sarah died in his arms. Further proof, if it were needed, that he now sees Ellie as a daughter.
Not to harp on about the game too much, but this was a particularly close adaptation, especially the torture scene, which was pretty much shot-for-shot and line-for-line the same. The most obvious change came at the end, when Ellie killed David: in the game, Joel arrives as she’s hacking away and he drags her off, whereas here she stopped of her own accord. Perhaps Joel arriving would have lessened the power of that moment? It was all Ellie.
What did you think of the penultimate episode? Are you excited about next week’s finale? Have your say below, but please, we’re so close now – no spoilers from the game …
