If you are still upset about last week’s episode of The Last of Us, I have some bad news for you. This week’s episode, while a little bit less sad, is more terrifying than usual and, honestly, a little traumatizing. And it is all because of one man: David, played by Scott Shepherd. Creepy doesn’t even begin to describe this man, so consider this your warning that this episode is quite heavy, even by The Last of Us standards.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us.)
We hear David (Shepard) before we see him. He’s preaching to what appear to be his followers as we get a better look at the town they all reside in. It looks a bit like Jackson, with its steakhouse and other inhabited buildings, but it is less secure and a whole hell of a lot less friendly.
Finally, we set eyes on David. From what I’ve told you so far, you probably expected a monstrous-looking human, but his unassuming nature is what makes him even more terrifying. He is leading the group in a funeral service, to honor a recently fallen follower.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
As everyone leaves the funeral service, David meets with his right-hand man James (Troy Baker) outside. For fans of the video game, this is a fun cameo, as Baker was the voice actor and motion-capture performer for Joel. David and James have a quick but tense discussion about the group’s lack of food, before deciding to go off hunting for some deer that had been spotted.
This then brings us back to Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who is still in the basement trying to nurse Joel (Pedro Pascal) back to health. His wound has been sewn up, but she still needs to help him stave off infection and keep his strength up with food and water. So, Ellie goes out hunting. Can you guess who she’s gonna meet out there?
After failing to shoot a rabbit, Ellie spots a deer and shoots it. However, it doesn’t immediately collapse and die, instead it runs off right in the direction of—you guessed it—James and David. They stumble upon the downed deer and are about to haul it away, when Ellie comes out of the woods with a gun aimed at their heads.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Ellie tries to scare both David and James away, but David is determined to take the deer. He offers anything Ellie might need in return. Ellie quickly asks for medicine that will help heal Joel’s infection. David says they have that medicine, but it is back in their village. Ellie makes them an offer they can’t refuse: James will go get the medicine, and when he gets back, they get half of the deer. David, of course, agrees to the terms and sends James off to get some Penicillin (ironically made from fungus) for Ellie.
While James is off grabbing the medicine, Ellie and David relocate (with the deer) to an abandoned house nearby, starting a fire to keep warm while they wait. David attempts to get to know Ellie and even invites her to join his group, but Ellie remains wary of him (as she should).
Liane Hentscher/HBO
As David explains how his group came to be to Ellie, he also shares his theory about how everything happens for a reason. If your “sinister vibes” antennas are going up, you are on the right track. As an example, David tells Ellie how he sent four of his men to a nearby town to do some scavenging. Only three of the men came back. One was killed by another man who was traveling with a young girl. It turns out that the man Joel killed at the university was David’s follower, and the father of the girl crying at the beginning of the episode.
It’s at this very tense moment that James comes back with the medicine, a gun now aimed at Ellie’s head. David tells James to lower the gun and give Ellie the medicine. James follows orders, and Ellie is able to escape with her life and the medicine to save Joel. She returns to the basement and injects the life-saving medicine into Joel’s wound. However, her troubles are just beginning.
Over at David’s weird village, the group is cooking up some dinner with meat that does not look like any animal I’ve ever seen—hint, hint. The man says it is venison, but I don’t know if I believe him (Hint, hint.). As the group prepares to eat, David and James return from their encounter with Ellie and inform them that, in the morning, David will take a group to pick up her trail and capture Ellie and Joel.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Hours later, Ellie spots the group of David’s men coming her way. Frantically, Ellie runs back to the basement and tries to wake Joel; he opens an eye (yay!), but he still won’t get up (boo!). Ellie leaves him with a knife to defend himself and tries to lead the group away from Joel. Unfortunately, she only gets a little ways away before James shoots her horse (RIP), and Ellie goes tumbling to the ground. David and two of the men take the now-unconscious Ellie back to their village, while the other two go searching for Joel.
One of David’s men makes his way into the home where Joel is recovering. Unfortunately for him, it’s just in time for Joel to have started recovering his strength. When the man gets to the basement, Joel ambushes and easily kills him. Now, Joel’s search for Ellie begins.
Ellie, meanwhile, wakes up in a cage and sees David. He tells her that her life with Joel is over, and now it is time for her to join the group and become one of his followers.
Little does David know that Joel is currently interrogating his followers to find out where David is. Joel tortures one of David’s men until he points to where they are keeping Ellie on the map. After getting this information, Joel unceremoniously kills him. He then turns to the other hostage in the room, who refuses to tell Joel anything. Joel responds, “that’s okay I believe him” before beating the man to death with a pipe.
Ellie is trying desperately to escape, when she discovers a severed ear on the floor of the room she is in. Listen, I really tried to hint at this for you, but yes, David and his followers (knowingly or not) are cannibals. David finally admits to Ellie that he and the group are eating people, and only a few know that they’re doing so. David, in an attempt to rationalize his actions to a teen, says he sees a lot of himself in Ellie; she is a leader, smart, loyal, and violent.
David believes he is getting through to Ellie and convincing her to stay with his group and lead alongside him, but when he holds and caresses her hand through the bars, she realizes his true, vile intentions. So, she grabs his hand, and breaks his finger. She tries to grab the keys off his belt, but she is unable to before he smashes her roughly against the bars. This is when she screams out a line that players will recognize very easily: “Ellie. Tell them that Ellie is the little girl that broke your fucking finger.” Another perfect delivery from Bella Ramsey.
As Ellie continues to fight for her life, Joel makes his way through a snowstorm to find her. He eventually finds Ellie’s backpack in a storeroom, where he also finds their dead horse. Just as Joel is making this grim discovery, David and James head to Ellie’s cell to kill her. However, in the struggle to put her on the butchering table, Ellie bites David and tells him that she is infected and now he is too. When David goes to check Ellie’s arm, she grabs the butcher knife that David put down next to her head, kills James with it, and runs out of the room as David shoots at her.
“This chapter of the story is instrumental to building Ellie’s coming-of-age arc.”
Now, it’s time for the terrifying showdown. Ellie tries to leave the steakhouse, but it’s locked, so she waits for David to come out into the room. As flames begin to engulf the building, the frightening game of cat and mouse continues. Ellie grabs a knife from the kitchen and attacks David from behind. She stabs him, but he also gets in a good blow to her head when he roughly throws her to the ground.
As David assesses the damage from the stab wound, Ellie crawls toward the butcher knife that fell during the struggle. David catches her in the act, kicking her and holding her down to halt her. While holding down a screaming and traumatized Ellie, he tells her that “fighting is the part he likes the most” and “there is no fear in love” as he reaches towards his pants—our clearest sign of the depths to his awfulness. Luckily, Ellie is able to grab the butcher knife and stabs him several times.
Ellie, traumatized by the whole ordeal, makes it out of the steakhouse, where Joel finally catches up to her. She doesn’t realize it is him at first, but once she does, she falls into his arms. “It’s okay, baby girl,” he tells her. “I got you.”
Okay, first of all, how are we doing? That was a lot, I know. But this chapter of the story is instrumental to building Ellie’s coming-of-age arc. In the video game, this is the first time you ever get to play as Ellie and is the moment you truly realize her capability for ruthlessness. This is all reflected with great detail and nuance in this episode, thanks to an outstanding performance by Bella Ramsey. Ellie is no longer the same kid she was coming into this episode; she has been changed for good.
This moment also solidifies Joel and Ellie’s bond. When he calls her “baby girl”—what he called his daughter—you know that the father-daughter bond is complete.
We have one more episode to go, folks. Will Ellie and Joel reach the Fireflies? Will Ellie be able to cure mankind? Will Joel find tape, scissors, and gauze in a random cabinet? These are all very good burning questions that hopefully next week’s season finale will answer. See you then.
