The Last of Us episode 8

We find the stark opposite of Jackson's communist society in David's totalitarian one. The Last of Us Scott Shepherd David Image via HBO.

Sure, he will couch it in some sort of vague philosophizing about the good of all, though that feels more and more like a flimsy front the more he speaks. The cruelty and callousness is not a bug in the system. There is almost a relish in his voice as he discusses how everything went to pieces and how he found his place in the rubble of the old world. As its leader delusionally shouts about how good he is, continuing to think only about himself to the very end, what little they have left is being destroyed all around him. When Ellie starts a fire by throwing a still burning log at David, he looks back to see it starting to consume the entire building. This predatory behavior encapsulates all the ways that this town is the antithesis of Jackson. The story he tells of how they traveled far to get to this place feels more like it was driven by his own desire for how he could control them better here than it was for the good of all. This is not something he does out of kindness, quite the opposite, and we soon realize just how despicable he truly is. At the forefront of this is the terrifyingly creepy David ( [Scott Shepherd](https://collider.com/the-last-of-us-david-image-scott-shepherd/)) who spends the episode terrorizing not just Ellie ( [Bella Ramsey](https://collider.com/last-of-us-series-bts-images-bella-ramsey/)) but the entire group he oversees while proclaiming that he is actually a good person who just knows better than everyone else. When Ellie is subsequently captured and held by the group, he is the one that spares her. He uses both this fear and faith to rule, caring little about what it is that anyone has to say as believes he is the one anointed to lead them. By showing how far one has fallen into disarray while the other is thriving highlights how any hope at a future depends upon coming together.

The Last of Us episode 8 review: We recap the latest events in the HBO series as Ellie meets chilling new villain David.

His fear of getting hurt again has been slowly stripped away and the hug between the pair in the closing sequence shows how Joel is now prepared to protect Ellie emotionally, as well as physically. After David was stalled by Ellie revealing that she is infected, she took the opportunity to wield the meat cleaver meant for her into the throat of James. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc. Firstly, they removed David winning Ellie’s trust through a shoot-out with the infected. Led by a cannibal preacher and sexual predator, it showed how the wrong kind of faith can take a group down the darkest of paths. But in both cases you could at least grasp their motivation – whether it be the death of a sibling or a brain-melting fungal takeover.

The Last of Us episode 8 is intense as it focuses on Ellie (Bella Ramsey) trying to survive on her own while Joel (Pedro Pascal) recovers from his injury. But ...

David may be the creepiest member of this community in both the series and the game, but thanks to his posthumous contributions, Alec is now arguably one of the most important. Regardless, Alec has become a crucial member of this community’s story and his role in the series is far greater than one of the many nameless NPCs that gamers have to fight against, even in death. A man brings a tray of meat to add to a stew being made by Alec’s wife and another community member. David tells her that they won’t be able to bury him until the spring because the ground is too frozen to dig a hole, but unfortunately David actually has other plans for Alec’s body. David and his right-hand man James (played in the series by original Joel actor Troy Baker) are key characters in both the show and the first game as they serve as Ellie’s primary interactions with this community. [The Last of Us episode 8](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-last-of-us-episode-8-review/) is intense as it focuses on Ellie (Bella Ramsey) trying to survive on her own while Joel (Pedro Pascal) recovers from his injury.

The 8.1 million viewers who tuned into Episode 8, titled “When We Are In Need,” contributed to a 74% increase from the viewership of the series premiere, which ...

And alongside reaching another then-series high of 6.4, Episode 3 received major acclaim from critics and fans alike for the [guest performances of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett](https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-episode-3-bill-frank-nick-offerman-murray-bartlett-1235505272/), jumpstarting conversations about awards potential for the actors and the show as a whole. It should be noted that when Episode 4 racked up its solid 7.4 million viewers, it premiered in competition with the Grammys. Those 4.7 million initial viewers scored the network its [second-most watched debut](https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-premiere-ratings-hbo-1235491303/) in over a decade — only behind “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon.” The series then built on that launch with 5.7 million viewers of its next installment, [HBO’s largest ever increase](https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-episode-2-ratings-viewers-1235499252/) between a launch and a second episode, leading to an [early Season 2 renewal](https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-renewed-season-2-hbo-1235504485/). According to Warner Bros. [The Last of Us](https://variety.com/t/the-last-of-us/)” Season 1 reached an impressive 8.1 million viewers on Sunday night.

Joel and Ellie try to survive the bleak midwinter – then encounter David and his strange meat-eating club. What unbelievably horrifying viewing.

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”. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. In the basement, we got out first glimpse of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Back in the basement, Ellie administered antibiotics, and if you listened closely, you might have heard Alexander Fleming rolling in his grave. 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.

The Last Of Us was also the top title overall on HBO Max for the 8th consecutive week, with all episodes ranking among the week's top 10 individual assets. The ...

According to Nielsen’s streaming charts, The Last of Us hit a milestone the week that Episode 5 debuted. The series was streamed for more than 1B minutes during the week of January 30 to February 5, which included just a few hours of availability for Episode 5. The Last of Us is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. This is the first time in about a month that HBO has released updated viewership metrics for The Last of Us. The average audience for the series’ first five episodes is now approaching 30 million viewers across all platforms, according to HBO. That’s up 74% from the series debut night in January and sets a new series high ahead of next Sunday’s season finale, per Nielsen and HBO.

Ahead of the season finale next week, Episode 8 has now delivered a 74% increase from the show's premiere in mid-January which drew an audience of 4.7 million ...

With the [season finale](https://collider.com/last-of-us-episode-9-trailer-season-finale/) airing this Sunday, we get to see how this journey ends. For the early episodes of its run-on air, The Last of Us consistently pulled off improving viewership numbers. It is no surprise that the show’s eighth episode has now delivered the series’ highest viewership so far this season with 8.1 million viewers on Sunday night.

The Last of Us' penultimate episode forces Ellie to face off against a new level of evil. Here are all the Easter eggs and nods to the video games.

David is just a group leader in The Last of Us Part I. [the men that attacked Joel and Ellie in Episode 6](https://collider.com/last-of-us-episode-6-recap-kin/). [the presence of Troy Baker](https://collider.com/last-of-us-episode-8-troy-baker-james/), the original actor who portrayed Joel in The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II. It's another reminder of Joel's loss before meeting Ellie and the place he fills in her heart now as a daughter figure. David continues to talk about his history, noting [the invasion of FEDRA](https://collider.com/last-of-us-hbo-fedra-necessary-evil/) and the hunters that fought back. Ellie kills David in the same brutal fashion we see in The Last of Us Part I. His selfishness is apparent when we see that his portions of food are always bigger than the other members of the community. [The Last of Us](https://collider.com/tag/the-last-of-us-hbo/) takes us back to the present day. [In Episode 5](https://collider.com/last-of-us-episode-5-recap-endure-and-survive/), we noted that the series changed Henry and Sam’s story from taking place in Pittsburgh to Kansas City. The character of David was always evil, but the show makes it blatantly clear. In the game, the poor bunny gets an arrow in the head, but luckily for him, he gets away. As always, we’ll be discussing some of the standout Easter eggs and references in [Episode 8](https://collider.com/last-of-us-episode-8-recap-when-we-are-in-need/) "When We Are in Need".

Scott Shepherd's David is a suitably chilling adversary for Bella Ramsey, who finds yet more layers within Ellie in an hour of television that's hard to take ...

Despite the episode ending in a flurry of violence as David is dispatched and Baker is butchered (leaving us only a candlestick maker short of the set) much of this chapter is dedicated to the ever-winding tension that plays out between David and Ellie. The way the group silently eats in the cold, lifeless surroundings of the restaurant is in sharp contrast to the welcoming warmth that Joel and Ellie experienced in Jackson two episodes ago. We've heard whispers of Joel's questionable past throughout the series, but the way he dispatches his two hostages is the first time we see him fully step over that moral line and a crucial moment in us realising that he will do anything to keep Ellie safe. It’s a flash of brutal fury that we needed to see from Pascal’s Joel too, who on the whole has felt like a softer interpretation compared to Troy Baker’s rendition in the game. This is shown in the highly impactful final moments of the chapter when Joel holds her in a display that proves neither is ready to forfeit the love they’ve discovered for each other. They're Ellie's first human kills and a flurry of ferocity that comes when she thinks all is lost.

In one of the faster-paced episodes of the season with a 50-minute run time, we catch up with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) in Episode 8 of ...

Ramsey reveals in the epilogue of the episode that it's when David starts to talk about making Ellie into his "minion" and "little wife" that she sees him for what he truly is - a sexual predator. At that point, David's jig is up, and he realizes that she isn't going to be a victim of his manipulation. The intuitive teenager isn't about to be groomed for the perverse and deviant desires and false prophecies of a self-deified pedophile. When the group returns to exact revenge on Joel for their fallen comrade, Ellie is able to elude them for quite a while and even manages to kill some of them in the game and Joel stabs his attacker in the back of the neck instead of strangling him. He wants to get the deer she shot (Ellie uses a bow and arrow in the game) to placate his followers, but there is something far more nefarious in his dealings with Ellie. His bible study meeting and discussion with one of his "pets" and James are not in the game. And when Joel asks for verification of the location of the group at the Silver Lake Resort and then kills them both, it is almost verbatim from the game. Ellie isn't buying his line of horse manure and breaks David's finger as she pretends to be reaching for his hand. Everything about David seems to be genuine in his dealings with her, and he comes across as earnest-almost like a father. And though the Naughty Dog survival horror game never explicitly refers to David's group as a cult, it's pretty clear that the group of refugees from the Pittsburgh QZ are unusually loyal to a cause and David himself and are willing to do anything to ensure their next meal. We're not here to go over semantics and what makes a cult an actual cult, but they appear to be strictly adhering to the teachings of the man who is also providing them with food, albeit an offering an assortment of different cuts of human beings. Plus, [Jeffrey Pierce](https://collider.com/last-of-us-hbo-jeffrey-pierce-kathleen-perry-relationship-comments/), the motion-captured actor of Tommy (Diego Luna) from the game, also makes an appearance.

The penultimate episode of HBO's Last of Us adaptation drew 8.1 million viewers ahead of the finale next week.

The Last Of Us season 1 finale airs next Sunday on HBO and HBO Max at 9PM EST. [PlayStation game](/games/the-last-of-us/) of the same name, The Last Of Us has been HBO Max's top title for all eight weeks since it first premiered. HBO's silence led some to speculate that the later episodes weren't performing as well, though Nielsen data released around the same time showed that the show had reached a new milestone of topping

The episode, “When We Are in Need,” finds Ellie still struggling to keep Joel (Pedro Pascal) alive in the wake of a serious injury. Her desperation leads her to ...

By tweaking David’s group, the HBO series has established the existence of religious cults in its post-apocalyptic world, and the danger they represent. [The Last of Us](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-last-of-us-fewer-zombies-hbo) Episode 8, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is forced to confront the greatest threat yet. The episode, “When We Are in Need,” finds [Ellie still struggling to keep Joel](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-last-of-us-episode-7-ellie-spotlight-dlc-game-left-behind) (Pedro Pascal) alive in the wake of a serious injury. Players run into the WLF and Seraphites on multiple occasions. The second game mostly takes place in a Seattle that’s been torn apart by a decades-long conflict between the militaristic Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and a religious cult known as Early in Episode 8, it’s revealed that David’s followers see him as a priest-like man of God whose actions and words aren’t meant to be doubted or questioned.