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The Last of Us (HBO) Review Discussion and Spoilercast (S1, E8) | Sacred Symbols+, Episode 274

In a game full of memorable characters, David ranks near the top. One of The Last of Us' most compelling, unsettling, and nuanced personalities, David, James, and the rest of their struggling band of survivors are central to this, the penultimate episode of the HBO run's first season. Here, we see Ellie and Joel largely separated, while we also finally get the solidified father-daughter relationship we really want. There's much to discuss, so let's not delay: We'll jump right in.

Comments

Avery Abrams

Not sure what game Colin gave a 10 to at ign but it is made overtly clear the group are cannibals in the game through dialogue between Ellie and David (David: “it’s just deer” Ellie: “with some human helping on the side?” After seeing them chop up a torso) and Joel finding the room of headless strung up bodies in the game just as he does in the episode. It couldn’t have been more obvious in the game lol

Joseph Losinno

I was going to say the same thing. You walk into the room with the clothes, note about the meat and the bodies hanging in the game. I really liked the scene of them serving the meat and the deer comes in after. It was def the guy Joel killed. It was an awesome episode!

Charlie Cate

Another great recap of the HBO series! On the comments of episode length, I'm a bit worried about the finale runtime. Apparently, the final episode is the shortest one of the season.

Deemac

Not a lot happens in the remaining part of the game tbh, story wise. I can see how they'll wrap it up well.

Brannon H

I think there's a lack of infected in the more barren locations. In the city areas there's large amounts of infected like Boston and Kansas City. In Tommy's town area and the wilderness there's not many infected because there's not much out there for them to feed on. Also the show highlights how unrealistic things in the game are. Ellie has no prior training and is a small teenager so she shouldn't be able to turn into an ultimate hunter and killer so quickly like she does in the game. I often talk to people who didn't play the game, and tell them the changes from game to show. It seems most of them think a lot of the changes from the game are better and more grounded.

Levelupbrady

Can't wait to hear what you all think. For me, I only liked episodes 1 and 3. Everything else not so much. The game(s) are so much better that it makes me sad to think people are watching this before playing the games. Just got the platinum in both games and the wife loved watching me play. She thinks the show is borrowing but loved watching me play the games.

Deemac

Yeah tbh I found Colins criticism of Ellie (not looking capable, or enough of a badass ) a bit odd tbh. She's a little 14 year old girl, this depiction is way more realistic tbh! She's gotten a little bit of training from Joel, she's not a hardened veteran. That rifle she was holding was almost as big as her! Made sense she wasn't holding it 100% correctly Seems to be another example of too close of a comparison to the game impacting enjoyment of the show. Similar to when people complain that a certain gameplay segment wasn't replicated in the show. If it hits all the main story beats, I don't need a complete beat for beat remake of the game. I'm watching with people who never played the game, and these sort of nitpicks are alien to them.

Jacob Hey

I do agree that this is probably the best episode so far. With that said, I found this iteration of David as almost a complete failure in terms of adapting the character. Actor was fine, good performance, but I just feel that in the game they kept you on your toes in terms of whether he was not too much of a threat or was just part of the worst of humanity, until it is obvious that he wants to cause harm to Ellie. The show makes it very clear that he is a bad guy fairly early on. Maybe this is something where I can’t separate the game from the show in this instance, but it is the one part of the adaptation that really didn’t work for me.

Deemac

I think this is definitely a case of knowing what's coming from the game. the people I watched with weren't sure whether he was good or bad until he slapped the girl

Anonymous

I was a little worried that after Joel already pulled the map trick earlier in the series, they wouldn’t show it again here. Instead, they kept Joel’s interrogation of the two grunts basically shot-for-shot from the game, gotta be one of my favorite scenes.

Shawn

Hey guys just a quick friendly correction. There is absolutely evidence in the game that they are cannibals. Joel walked into seeing bodies chopped up and hanging and frozen in the game. The whole tiny little pieces scene is straight from the game. And Elle wakes up to see a butcher chopping up bodies to serve for food. Here’s the scene https://youtu.be/pdvur58HE4U

OTTAPPS

Throwback to some Fireside Chats for the Outro music!

Matthew Cooper

I thought this was a really good episode that rebounded from an episode that, at the very least, didn't advance the overall plot. I'd like to mention one element that was better than the game and one that was weaker. Something better was the characterization of David. He was a good character in the game, but he's fucking awesome in the show. The way he reads people and manipulates them, the ego he has; it's all shown brilliantly. Most shows don't know how to portray psychopaths without being super obvious or unrealistic, so big kudos there. My only complaint is completely removing the infected encounter that happens when Ellie and David are waiting for James to return with the medicine. Obviously it would have to be scaled down to one or two infected wandering in and Ellie and David working together to take them down. But that fight was really important for building the dynamic between them and coloring how they see each other. Overall this episode had a good amount of action, so missing the coal mine fight isn't egregious, it's just the missing layer to the character interactions that brings it down a peg for me. Definitely one of the better episodes overall.

Anonymous

Does anybody know if/when we will get the video of the Texas live show?

Anonymous

I'm also bothered by the lack of infected. And the guy joel killed, that group really seemed like some raiders but maybe that's just me nitpicking; or that's me not realizing how savage David's crew was.

Anonymous

I find the not having many infected make since Joel told Ellie earlier that a lot of infected die off after awhile only the stronger ones survive, also this is 20 years after the outbreak you would think that at least at first with the bombings of major cities a lot of people/infected where killed then as well, I also think in this episode with the cold weather I don't think fungus would thrive in cold temperatures so they may stay away naturally, that was my take on them not being around as much.

Eebo85

I love the episode but I agree, they could have easily inserted the infected cabin scene with David and Ellie, that would have made their relationship so much more effective

Devlin England

Colin is so fixated on the Eskimos being fat but has nothing to say for Kathleen the worst character in the show.

Pyo

always content, thank you

TreyDogg

Thank god, we can finally move on from talking about this franchise. At least for a little while

Anonymous

Just throwing it out here in case it hasn't been seen by others. There's a couple of Creator to Creator series videos (2 parts) on Youtube for The Last Of Us. Part 2 specifically, helps explain some of the decisions on violence that Colin seemed to pick up on.

Nathan Paxton

Did Colin really call Pedro Pascal Pablo Pascal? About 35 mins in 😂

Vanzant

David said he has always had violence in his heart. Even before the outbreak.

Cody Mahoney

Sure glad we got that long ass bills town episode so they could hurry through all the important stuff.