‘THE LAST OF US’ Episode 8 Recap: The Violent Hearts That Faith Delivers

Welcome back to another episodic recap, and man what a wild ride it’s been these last few weeks! Everything up until now has been an emotional rollercoaster and at times even a little terrifying – all of these infected, clickers, and even the bloater were no joke! Two weeks ago we saw Joel and Ellie finally reach Tommy and his new “home” and we even met Maria, Tommy’s wife who is wonderfully played by Rutina Wesley, and how strict she is with opening her doors to new people. Her home and base of operations are like no other community we’ve ever seen in a post-apocalyptic world from any other show. Not only is she a strong leader, but we can also see that she’s no one to mess with.

Episode seven is a flashback episode to when Ellie was in Fedra school and we met her best friend named Riley, which Ellie has spoken about a few times throughout the season so far. This episode is pretty much on par with its video game counterpart that was given to players much later to really give the fans a sense of what Ellie went through before she met Joel and Tess, and embarked on her journey across the country. This is what we gamers call downloadable content or DLC. Tonight’s episode brings us closer to the conclusion of Joel and Ellie’s journey, and there is much to digest here!

This week’s episode begins by showing a harsh winter taking a toll on a small town, and someone reading a bible verse to a group of survivors inside an old restaurant. A young girl asks when can they bury her father, but the man reassures her it’ll happen in the Spring. This episode also has a special guest appearance from the video game, Troy Baker who plays the role of James. Troy Baker (a cool guy, met him at New York City Comic Con several years ago) is the voice and motion capture actor for Joel in the video game. David (played by Scott Shepherd) is the man that gave the sermon earlier. After discussing the remaining rations and possible deer that can be hunted, David expresses his concerns about James’ lack of faith – not in god, but in him.

Although this is the very beginning of the episode, we can see how David is using fear to intimidate not only James but most likely the others in his “flock” as well. Meanwhile, Ellie is doing her very best to take care of Joel and tend to his wounds. We see they’re also almost out of food as she pulls out the remaining jerky to eat and leaves a piece of it for Joel. She takes it upon herself to pick up Joel’s rifle and go hunting. After failing to hunt a wild rabbit, Ellie finds a deer and takes the shot, but only wounds it and chases it later. This is where Ellie meets James and David, as they stand over her fresh kill, looking around for the person that shot the deer.

Check out our interview with cinematographer Eben Bolter and editor Tim Good

Here’s where Ellie’s newfound instincts for survival kick in because she immediately keeps James and David at gunpoint instead of thinking she can trust them. Think back to a previous episode early in the season when she had her first run-in with raiders – when in the car with Joel and a man was in the street asking for help, and Joel automatically knew it was a trap while she didn’t pick up on it. These past experiences with people that she doesn’t know are paying off and she’s become a lot smarter about who to trust. What’s interesting is this is beat for beat with the show’s video game counterpart.  You can see in this episode James doesn’t take Ellie lightly, while David tries to befriend her – this could also be his way of disarming Ellie with his “charm” just to take advantage and gain the upper hand in this situation.

David negotiates with Ellie to get some of the deer in exchange for medicine, and James runs off back to camp, per David’s instructions. Ellie then has David drag the deer back to an abandoned shed where they both wait for James to return. During this time David tries to get to know Ellie, and in doing so he gives her a brief explanation of himself and his group.  David is a math teacher turned preacher and found his “calling” when the world ended. He’s from Pittsburgh and was traveling with a small group across the states. The reason for the constant relocation was due to raiders, but throughout all of the troubles, he has always managed to keep his group safe. Pay attention to the conversation here, because while Ellie calls it a cult, David doesn’t necessarily shy away from that title or even denies it.

It’s almost as if he welcomes the title because being their leader grants him power over everyone else. During their conversation, he tells Ellie “everything happens for a reason”, and reveals he knows Joel and Ellie are responsible for the death of one of his followers, which occurred in a previous episode. To Ellie’s surprise, they managed to get the upper hand with James sneaking up behind her with his pistol drawn. Despite having the upper hand, David instructs James to lower his weapon and hand over the medicine. We can see James’ hesitancy to do this, and rightfully so – one of his own was murdered, and letting the people responsible getaway just isn’t smart. However, David isn’t so dumb to just let Ellie get away, his strategy is to follow her back to where ever she’s staying in order to apprehend her and Joel.

As Ellie returns with the medicine, she gives Joel a shot of penicillin right to the gut in hopes that it’ll work. How did this 14-year-old girl know how to even give the right dose of penicillin? Let’s just chalk it up to “Fedra School” as she simply puts it. I personally wouldn’t trust a kid with a syringe and medicine, but honestly…what choice is left? Meanwhile, back at the cult club, we see the cook prepping dinner for the flock of hungry souls. A man brings over a basin full of freshly cut meat and the woman asks “what is it?”. After a brief pause, the man tells her it’s venison. This is a very important clue as to what these people are eating – because why hesitate on telling what type of meat it is? A few moments later, James and David return with the deer, and as David tries to cheer up the people waiting for him, no one seems to be happy about it.

I would think a group of starving people would be elated about their leader bringing home a big deer to be eaten, but everyone appears to be…beaten. Not in a physical sense, but just emotionally, mentally, and maybe even spiritually. The camera pans around the room to show the emotionless expressions on their face, and David isn’t happy. He continues to provide comfort by expounding on a rumor that was circulating amongst the group – a man and a little girl are responsible for the death of one of their own, and as he confirms the rumor is true he also makes the decision to go out with a group in the morning to pursue Joel and Ellie to deliver justice.

A little girl named Hannah speaks out and tells David they should kill the people responsible for the death of her father. Remaining in a calm manner, David walks over to Hannah and gives her a swift backhand, knocking her down to the floor from her seat. What’s eerie and even concerning about this is no one else in the room even budges, except for Hannah’s mother. What follows is David’s demonstration of power and the hold he has over these people, because right after hitting Hannah and proceeding to extend his “helping hand”, he tells her that even though her biological father is gone, he will be her father, and she is to show her father respect when he is speaking. No one even bats an eye at this deranged logic. The mom brings David a plate of food and everyone says a prayer, then proceeds to eat as if nothing happened! The only people that stand out in the scene with having a problem with this are James and the mom, but David thinks nothing of it and even smiles while eating.

The next day is when things start to go left for Ellie, after giving Joel another shot of penicillin and feeding the horse, she notices something wrong. A flock of crows flies away, indicating they’ve been disturbed and Ellie decides to investigate. What does she find heading her way? You guessed it, David and his merry men are out on the hunt for her and Joel and they’re getting close. To Ellie’s credit, she goes back and warns Joel and leaves him with a knife and instructions – kill anyone walking through that basement door while she leads them in a different direction. At this point, Joel hears what she’s saying but can barely stay awake to do so.

I think James is the more level-headed person out of this group because he debates David on his decisions regarding Ellie. David wants to bring her into the group while James feels they should let her go, the reason being is Ellie will just become another mouth to feed. David states if they let her go she’ll die out there, and James’ rebuttal is “maybe it’s God’s will”. Of course, this doesn’t jive with David and he gives James a stern look without saying a word, and as predicted, he bends to David’s will. At first glance, we think David is doing the right thing by saving Ellie and bringing her into the flock, but there could be something deeper here.

Ellie decides to take the horse and goes in the opposite direction of where she and Joel are staying, drawing their attention to her. Of course, this doesn’t exactly work as she rides off and fires a shot from her pistol, James finds a way to get around her path and shoots the horse, throwing Ellie off and onto the ground. At this moment, James and the other men reach Ellie first and even hold her at gunpoint. James tries to finish the job but he hesitates, because deep down inside he knows it’s wrong to kill a little girl, but it’s also the right move because…well…you just can’t trust anyone in this world, even a little kid. Although the other men try their best to prod James into finishing the job, David fires off a shot into the air from his rifle and stops everyone in their tracks. David carries a passed-out Ellie and instructs two men to go with him and take the horse, while the rest stay back to find Joel and kill him.

Here’s where things get good, and fans of the game get to see Joel’s brutal side. Goon-1 finds the house where Joel is staying and takes a look around and ends up in the basement. He finds the blood-stained mattress but no one around – and then Joel comes out from hiding behind the goon and silently plunges the blade into his neck, killing the man. Back at the cult club, Ellie wakes up in a cage with David on the other side, trying to convince Ellie to join his club. While Ellie’s locked up in David’s cage, an exhausted and weakened Joel manages to apprehend the remaining two goons for interrogation. Inside some random house, Joel has both men tied up with duct tape, one of them to a chair as he pummels his face into oblivion, and the other to a radiator.

Joel carries out his brutal interrogation and gets the information out of the man tied to the chair and then kills him. The other man that’s tied to the radiator decides to be a brave soul and tells Joel he’s not saying anything, but at this point, Joel doesn’t need him and picks up a broken pipe close by to finish the job. As I said earlier, this episode is pretty much on par with the game and sticks very closely to the source material. I personally would’ve liked to see the show up the level of brutality to really bring about the darker side of Joel that we’ve all heard about during this season up until now from his own accord. Maybe I’m alone on this one, but I would’ve really liked to see Joel go to town on this guy with that pipe. In all fairness, I’m used to doing this in the game so why not show it on tv?

Back at the cage, Ellie tries to find a way out and in her mission to do so discovers the underlying factor to David’s food supply – human remains. That’s right folks, Ellie discovers an ear under a butcher’s table and finds out that David and his group have been eating people this entire time! David decides to extend an olive branch so to speak, by bringing Ellie some food. Once he finds out that she knows his secret, he reassures her that the food is just deer meat – I still wouldn’t trust it. After kicking over the food that was brought to her, David continues to convince Ellie to join his group, and that they are in fact alike. He says something that’s intriguing and almost out of nowhere. He states that just like her, he also has a violent heart. It’s funny that he would say this due to his limited interaction with Ellie, while the viewer has been seeing this become a prominent trait in Ellie since the very first episode. Not only does he use this to persuade her, but he even hints at having a romantic relationship with her – and he’s pretty blatant here when doing so.

As he creepily caresses her hand and poses an idea of a life together, Ellie does what Ellie will always do – fight back. She breaks this pedo’s finger with no hesitation, giving him a glimpse of her violent side. As a result, David grabs her through the bars and rings her bell a few times, knocking her to the floor. As he’s on his way out, Ellie reveals her name to him in a badass way and brags about breaking his finger. Meanwhile, Joel has just reached the area where David is, but finds a shed with his dead horse and Ellie’s backpack, but also finds a bunch of headless bodies hanging from the ceiling. Back at the cage, James and David go in to grab Ellie and proceed to drag her out to the chopping block…literally. Ellie is no ordinary kid, she’s very smart and clever because in that whole ordeal, she manages to bite David and as soon as she’s put on the table she reveals to James and David that she’s infected.

This causes them to hesitate and even strikes fear into James. This creates a distraction and causes the men to drop their guard for a brief moment, and Ellie is quick to take advantage by taking the meat cleaver James was using by delivering a swift chop to his neck. At that very moment, she gets off the table and makes a run for it, while David pulls his gun and fires off a few rounds, barely hitting his target. One thing that I can appreciate about this episode is the writers giving James more of a role to play in all of this, which isn’t something that happens in the game. Troy Baker (the original actor of Joel) did a great job of bringing his character to life. As she finds a place to hide, she picks up a piece of burning wood and hurls it at David. Even though she missed hitting him, the burning wood lands on a windowsill and ignites the curtains ablaze.

Ellie evades David and runs into the kitchen where she picks up a knife. During his deranged monologue, he reveals to Ellie his ulterior motive. He’s not going to kill her but instead, he’s going to keep her alive, obviously not for any good reason. He wants her all to himself and he’s willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to do this, as we can see the place is literally burning down with them in it, and he’s not leaving until he gets his way. In a last-ditch effort for survival, she sticks David with the knife but immediately gets knocked down. Although he was wounded, David continues to kick Ellie while she’s down and crawling away. He then gets on top of her and in a crazed way, says “there’s no fear in love”. If this doesn’t send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what will. Luckily, Ellie manages to grab the cleaver and chops David in his neck just as she did with James, knocking him over and freeing Ellie.

She could’ve left him on the floor with his stab wound and neck bleeding, but Ellie’s violent side takes the driver’s seat, making her get on top of David with the cleaver and goes to town, chopping him up the same way he was chopping up his own people. This is the perfect scene to demonstrate just how far Ellie is willing to go. Everything up until now is a cumulation of experiences that has always forced her into a corner, fighting her way out. After all is said and done, she runs out of the burning building and makes her grand escape. At the same time, Joel manages to find her and hugs her, calling her baby girl. This was his nickname for his daughter Sarah before she died, and as the two are hugging we see Joel’s watch in this brief shot.

Up until now, viewers may not necessarily make that connection right away because there are some things that were left out of the show that is in the game. Of course, the game requires you to move onto the next level and explore, and throughout that time there are side conversations that help to bring this relationship between Joel and Ellie to fruition. I’m excited to see what comes next in the season finale, and the conclusion of their journey across state lines. I hope you all are enjoying this as much as I am, so stay tuned for the next and final recap of The Last of Us.