The Last of Us Episode 8 Review – When We Are In Need

Here’s my The Last of Us Episode 8 Review titled When We Are in Need starring Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller and Bella Ramsey as Ellie.

SPOILERS ABOUND

As we enter into the story’s most visceral part and the definitive loss of innocence moment for Ellie, I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to hit the sensitive and brutal nature of this section of the game; turns out I was wrong. It was on par to say the least and managed to streamline the story based on the Naughty Dog game.

So to recap:

Ellie continues to care for Joel as he recovers from his big wound from two episodes ago. She has to gather food for the two of them and manages to wound a deer. Turns out there’s a community nearby run where their assailants from Episode 7 also came from and the group is looking for blood after what Joel did. The deer is found by David (Scott Shepard) and his second in command James (Troy Baker) and after Ellie gets the drop on them, they strike a deal. Ellie gets half and the David gets the other half of the deer in exchange for medicine to help with Joel’s infected wound. David and Ellie strike a conversation which is later interrupted by James. Ellie takes the medicine and leaves and returns to Joel. James and David return to their place and we get a good look at how dastardly David can be.

The next day David gathers a group to follow Ellie’s trail. Ellie leaves Joel and lures the men away via horseback. James shoots Ellie’s horse and knocks her out. David leaves the group to return Ellie to the town while the others continue their hunt for Joel. Joel wakes up just as he was about to be discovered by the hunting party. He begins attacking the men one by one. Back in town, David tries to convince Ellie to stay with them just after Ellie discovers that they are cannibals. Ellie feigns interest and breaks David’s finger. Later David returns and drags Ellie to their cutting area with the intention of chopping her up and serving her to the group. Ellie distracts James and David by saying she’s infected before landing the killing blow on James and escaping.

Joel tortures the men he captured for information leading back to the town.

Ellie and David have their brutal last match in the burning dining cabin where Ellie kills David. The traumatized teenager runs out and gets embraced by Joel who she initially thinks is another member of David’s gang. Joel comforts Ellie and they start their trek away from the area.

Now for The Last of Us Episode 8 Review PROPER

Guess non-gamers are now aware of how tough Ellie’s life is for both TLOU 1 with ramifications in TLOU2. They get good marks from me because they streamlined the story which could have been dragged on for a few more minutes. For me this was another perfect adaptation and transference from game to screen.

We see more of Ellie’s resilience after a quick jump back to her past last episode. She’s definitely grown stronger and more capable since we first saw her in Episode 1 which is a good thing. She’s also quick on the uptake when it comes to dealing with strangers, adapting how Joel does things.

Trigger warnings should also be issue going to this episode as there are themes of cannibalism and sexual abuse here.

I would have wanted to see more of David being fleshed out as this evil person that’s hiding behind a facade but the way they rearrange his backstory for the show was really good. He’s an admitted bad guy who found “religion” after the Cordyceps apocalypse and using that power and influence to get what he wants. Scott Shepard did an amazing take although I would still pick game David anytime.

Troy Baker as James was just a big easter egg for the fans. Didn’t really do anything except for provide as an outlet for viewers to see what’s going behind David’s brain and heart. But I’ll take this as a big yeah because we will never see game Joel find ways to hurt Ellie.

That closing segment was such a strong moment showing us how good Bella Ramsey is and how right HBO was casting her as Ellie. Both of them actually because Pedro Pascal’s Joel FINALLY breaks his hardened demeanor and show his “daddy” side to his traumatized baby girl. That comforting hug has so many levels and I’m here for it.

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