HBO's The Last of Us Episode 7 and 8 SPOILER Review

I am so freaking excited for these next episodes like I said at the end of my last video we finally get to see Ellie take the spotlight and see her coming of age story but even besides that we get to see what I consider to be the best of Joel and finally get to what I deserve to be one of the greatest endings in any video game I have ever played one that's still to this day gets discussed and debated online and trust me I have a lot to say about this season's ending what it means for the future of this show and how this show has beautifully built up to this moment this show has been amazing so far and has had me on HBO Max each week counting down the minutes till the new episode drops don't get me wrong I do Envy newcomers of the story and then being able to experience these plot beats for the first time like I did years ago but knowing what happens just makes me even more excited to see what this adaptation does next my excitement for not only the rest of the season but season two and hopefully season 3 3 I seriously cannot put into words but I will try when we get to it firstly before we talk about the future we must first go back to the past [Music] it's gonna take you back to the past [Music] okay not that far back back to before Ellie and Joel met and started their journey together the start of Ellie's story this is an episode I've been looking forward to seeing for so long and now it is finally time talk about episode 7 Left Behind gay Panic gay Panic for the first time in this review series I'm honestly stumped on what to write for this episode it's quite a simple episode but it packs a mighty punch this story's original placement as a DLC one that it seems quite a lot of few people skip that on my neck both see the story as not being too important and sure if you remove this episode you won't be lost but this story is important to fully understand Ellie we finally get to see Ellie's past at the start of her coming of age story we see her act like a child and skip school with her Crush we see them go through this heartwarming date with many highs and lows leading up to a moment of pure happiness a beautiful kiss abruptly interrupted by destruction and death it's such a beautiful story and one that explains why Ellie's so protective of the people she loves and subtly establishes her violent tendencies especially in the added scene at the start with her getting into a fight and her Fascination over the dead body it's the perfect origin story for Ellie one everyone needs to experience and one that I remember fondly years after I first experienced it in the game even with my knowledge of the story front to back there were quite a few additions and changes in this episode that shocked me let's go over what I loved about this Show's adaptation of the story the introduction scenes of Ellie at school and her being hit with fascist grooming was a nice addition to show just how alone and lost Ellie is without the people she cares for she is a very possessive person like I already said even to her inanimate belongings like her Walkman a knife being trapped at federal school and being taught to serve their system probably added to this as well these items she hold and the people she love are what truly mattered to her and what make her feel like herself we also see in this episode Ellie's fascination with the world before the outbreak Ellie is 14 in the show meaning she was born After The Infection started it makes sense why she would want to know more about what life was before everything went away very simple things in life we take for granted such as a shopping mall something that even today is starting to fade away it's funny how in the last episode Ellie was making fun of someone for caring about their appearance and who they like and in this episode we see that she is more interested in an escalator although she does still worry about those same traits speaking of which sure the mall itself is impressive as all hell but it's clear that this trip really is a first day between Ellie and Riley and uh the last look there is a lot to unpack with this relationship most of which I in the show itself have already established but I'm just gonna be honest with you all these two's relationship is as adorable as hell I was squealing throughout most of this episode when they were together it's cute gay [ __ ] I love cute gay [ __ ] I can't really think of any way to analyze this cute gay [ __ ] I just love it so much okay actually there is one aspect of this gay relationship I do want to touch on well okay first off if you are homophobic and hate this episode seriously stop watching the show The Last of Us is not for you but secondly in the main aspect I want to discuss the show changed the timeline of the outbreak from the game changing the years of 2003 instead of 2013 in the game the first U.S state to legalize same-sex marriage wasn't until 2004 and then all states in 2015. at the time of the outbreak gay people were still facing discrimination and generally seen by society as taboo the outbreak put the world on pause and stopped any and all progress queer people in general have made to be accepted it makes Bill and Frank getting married episode 3 have a lot more meaning to it but also makes Ellie and Riley's relationship means so much more and explain why the two were even more hesitant to be open to each other about their sexuality this story is All About Love And how that matters more than anything else in life in the end Ellie decides to abandon fedra and Riley decides to abandon the fireflies which we have to see isn't as heroic as she made it out to be and order to love each other because at the end of the day that is what truly matters the fact that they are gay hammers the point and even more showing that they don't care about what the general public thinks either all they care about is each other and even in the game the fact that one of the most beloved vegan characters is a lesbian can't be understated this story was groundbreaking then in a way still is today not just because it is gay but because it's themes of Love are Universal which brings us to the tragic end of the story now going into the show I wasn't surprised about them adapting this story but I honestly had no idea how they were going to tell it in the game Alien Riley's date is interrupted with Ellie fighting supplies to try and keep Joel alive after his injury so it was no surprise that this is when they decide to tell the story in the show but I wasn't sure if they would interrupt it again with scenes of Ellie in the present throughout the entire episode was just going to be one big flashback when the trailer for this episode was released and there was no footage for the present I fully expected to be all a flashback and the pop cats listened to it they revealed this was the plan initially but HBO suggested they include Ellie and Joel at the beginning and end and honestly that decision led to my absolute favorite scene in this entire series up to this point yeah HBO finally did something right for once and luckily we haven't reached episode 9 yet so I have zero hesitation in saying that statement this show has strayed from the game in many areas most of the time to the benefit of the story this episode however is probably the most faithful to the game in all the right places specifically the ending Riley's speech at the end is almost word for word the same as the game and is performed incredibly well by stormread throughout this entire episode she does an incredible job matching Ellie's wits while also giving us some pure emotional moments but the Highlight is this final scene from her while Ellie is rageful about their impending death she is silent having already experienced death and loss with their parents I believe it is through that loss she is able to tell Ellie that even if their time is limited even if death is inevitable for them they still need to fight to be together even if love ends in heartbreak it is still worth it in the end it is worth fighting for that speech being juxtaposed with Ellie in the present fighting to keep Joel alive was absolutely perfect just like how it is in the game although how Ellie fights for Joel is quite different and the added scene of Joel holding Ellie's hand especially after seeing him in tears earlier telling her to leave absolutely broke my heart all this combined with the original music for the ending of the DLC and Jesus Christ the show is amazing I love it so God damn much just like with episode 3 I expect a lot of people to find the story pointless but it's through this story we see that Ellie is a fighter inside Ellie is willing to protect the people she loves and do anything for them and that includes Joel her willingness to do anything to protect others includes violence as we have seen earlier in episode 4. all this leads us us into the next episode but first it needs to be said again that this episode was absolutely incredible free regard from the incredible music choices including freaking Take On Me To The Incredible set design of the mall itself to the beautiful cinematography mostly feeling handheld except for some key moments to again the incredible acting from everyone and finally the writing written by the same writer as the game Neil druckman who was able to make this episode feel very faithful to the original with only slight changes to add to the story and help it in this new medium it's funny how the two main romantic love stories in the show are the one that is completely different from the original and one that is almost exactly the same as the original the ability for the show the pick and choose what to keep and what's changed perfectly is so impressive and is why I consider this to be one of the best adaptations ever created and with the track record the show has had so far it makes my excitement for these last two episodes unimaginable so without further Ado let's finally meet a familiar face a very familiar beautiful face uh yeah episode eight uh when we are in need [Music] the last episode I struggled to write about because it was one that spoke for itself this episode also speaks for itself and I also am struggling to write about it but for very different reasons despite me thinking Nolan North had a better voice for David and despite that version giving us more time to connect with the character before his twist this episode turns this character into the most disturbing thing in the show by far and look I want to stay positive during these reviews and I will be talking about that scene when we get to it but I want to say real quick that this episode was triggering to some viewers and for very obvious reasons I don't think they should have cut this moment out but I do think they should have put at least a warning at the start of this just so the people that needed it could prepare themselves for this episode or skip it if they please although they would sadly be missing a lot of Great Moments in this episode as well I'm gonna try my best to talk about honestly David in general respectfully and you should consider this opening a warning in case you rather than I hear me talk about everything dealing with him there'll be a time code in the description hopefully on on screen if I am not lazy if you want to skip to me talking about the finale and I'll give another warning before I talk about the ending of this episode some of you probably think I'm being overprotective about this but I do know some people personally who find this up triggering I want to make sure this video is safe for them to watch for now let's work our way up the ladder characters for this episode let's start with Joel in this episode the ending of this episode is where I consider to be the moment Joel officially becomes Ellie's father but it's very clear really since the end of episode 6 that Joel is definitely her father and is ready to protect her no matter what in episode 6 is well we hear Joel's fears of failing her and in this episode when she does get kidnapped we see that fear consumed Joel and turn into anger he goes on a huge Killing Spree it tortures two of David's goons in order to find where Ellie is I love the scene so much both in the game and here I mentioned way earlier in these reviews that Jill had a fire in his heart that is continuing to grow and grow each episode if it isn't clear ready that fire is Joel's anger and his fear of losing Ellie is only adding more to it and it is perfectly shown off here Pedro again has been mostly quiet in the series and we don't usually see him raise his voice but here he is yelling and killing these people with zero hesitation it's no surprise at this point that I think this show adapted this moment perfectly I was initially expecting Pedro to torture James in this adaptation now being played by the original Joel Troy Baker that probably would have been too meta for this mostly serious show don't worry though we'll get to the meta casting in the next episode anyway with all this talk about Joel and Ellie it's only fair we next talk about Ellie herself oh boy Ellie like I said in my last video in the game this is where the player finally gets to play as Ellie for the first time sadly the show isn't able to share how powerful of a moment it is to be given control of her but I think having Left Behind before this and giving us two full episodes of her being the main character is suitable enough her being the main character here is important as again The Last of Us is all about her she is the center of the story and with part 2 being mostly from her perspective it is very important to have her take this role early on to get the audience used to her leading the story with all that being said as you can expect I think Bella kills it in this episode this is without a doubt her best performance in the show so far and that is definitely saying something without a doubt this episode was the hardest for them to perform not just because of the material but it all being filmed in the cold winter and the director of this episode Ali Abbasi doing his many takes for the scenes Ellie going hunting at the start was a nice callback to episode six and the scene of her threat David and James reinforces that she is still young and an experience she still she still acts a bit like a child even becoming immersed in the story David tells her but as we will see in the end this little sense of Innocence she has left will be taken away we also see her trying to protect Joel while he is incapacitated it's a nice inverse of rolls and it's kind of ironic how in this episode both fail to protect each other in various ways seeing her call up next to Joel was such a cute moment as well honestly it is a shame this show didn't spend more time with these two just messing around like with the pun book at episode 4 but I still think this show is effective regardless there's a reason why this show has made me cry now twice oh uh yeah I think of this episode made me cry like a baby I want this dress that is quite rare for any media to do this the first time I ever remember it happening was when I first played death stranding in 2019 2019. I am 20 years old as of making this video that's a whole lot of media that hasn't made me cry what I'm trying to get at is that this show being able to make me cry twice is definitely a surprise to be sure and this time it really has to do with both the acting of Bella and Pedro and a line I think we all have been waiting to hear since the start of this show but in order to get to that scene we first need to talk about David so hey if you don't want to hear me talk about this predator and this creepy [ __ ] skip ahead to the next episode honestly I don't blame you if you do I've installing hard to write and now record my review of this episode just because of this creep it sucks that this is my real introduction to Scotch Shepard as an actor because now whenever I see him and anything else all I'm gonna be able to think about is David he definitely made this character feel more real than in the game again though I think dolendorf does a great job in the game and I prefer his take on the and get this he's crazy man traveling little girl blind over Scots okay I'm getting distracted with all that being said yes let's talk about David again I do miss the extra time we spend with him in the game fighting off infected and honestly one of the hardest gameplay sections by the time it's been here learning about the group he leads and how he does that his eyes parallel to Jackson in episode 6 where the place is run by someone who is fit to protect and Lead Maria while this place is run by your stereotypical creepy Pastor here the show goes off a strong message that church and state should be separate and it is 100 right but also that religion can be used to easily control others which is also 100 right not trying to bash Christians or other religious people here I just think it's funny when media batches on how exploitative it can be and you know as someone who grew up with a family that tried to force them to be very religious you know it feels very vindicating to see this stuff be made fun of in shows like this anyway yes David is an [ __ ] from the first scene he talked with Ellie I was creeped out the fact that he is both a preacher and was a teacher who taught children around Ellie's age was such a big red flag it doesn't help that later on he says he's always had a violent heart and it only gets worse as the episode goes on the way he treats Alex daughter how everyone else in his cult even her mother did nothing really upset my stomach and reminded me way too much of stories were this exact same thing happens in other religious circles this immediately being followed by zoom in shots of people eating um Venison and the unnerving music throughout really made this entire scene so upsetting it's such a big tote to have cannibals and zombie apocalypses apocalye it's apocaly why'd I write why did I write apocalypses it's apocalypse whatever it's such a big Trope to have cannibals and zombie apocaly no apocalypses no apocalypse sounds dumb I'm gonna actually you know I'm gonna look this [ __ ] up hold on a few minutes later okay it is apocalypses but that sounds so weird to say okay it's such a big Trope to have cannibals and zombie apocalypses but I feel like it serves a big thematic purpose for Davis character in the show when we later hear him talk about the cordyceps being his quote-unquote Awakening to the truth speaking of which yeah let's talk about that scene the part that pisses me off the most about this moment is that David is almost completely right in this scene not with him justifying cannibalism and him being like Ellie of course but he is right that the cordyceps are like a community as we saw in episode 2 hell when he says the quarter steps love all I can think about was that disturbing scene of the infected kissing tests him also saying that Joel was defending Ellie when he killed Alec was also a great line and 100 right although that definitely doesn't justify with Dave's actions here that's the message of the scene really while Dave is saying a lot of Truth he's only saying it all to justify his actions and his creepy ass self all culminating in him saying Ellie has a violent heart from the very beginning all the way back to the start of Left Behind Ellie has had a violent heart one that has continued to grow throughout the series as she has been around Joel David tries to use his violence to win over Ellie and it's here his real motives and his Predator intentions are shown to Ellie and she fights back which leads us into that scene again if you don't want to hear me talk about this skip to the next episode usually in these Coming of Age stories there is the loss of innocence for the character and yeah yeah this is it despite everything Ellie has gone through this series Ellie has still found a way to cling on to what little of her childhood she has left as the story progresses though you can see her starting to lose it very slowly eventually being forced to survive on her own that's another reason why it was so important the game to play as Ellie here and experience the story from her perspective to see her without Joel without her protector all leading up to this confrontation with David the show makes David's intentions more explicit in this scene and honestly in the whole episode it is incredibly disturbing Bella's fear throughout this fight really sells it finishing it off with one final kill of blind rage one that is even more brutal than the version in the game Joel doesn't interrupt her here like in the game Ellie is able to let out all of her anger and it is so hard to watch David's groans stopping three hits in Bella's crying and her pausing multiple times But continuing her attack and the unsettling music all makes this scene beautifully horrifying the parallels of this moment to Joel's Act of lion raged episode 1 can't be ignored and again show that this violence she has was allowed to grow by Joel blame him for this moment though would be completely wrong Ellie grew up in a violent World shown to us and left behind and it forced her to become violent like it all personified into David In This Moment David to me represents everything evil in this world and honestly might be the only individual I would truly call a villain in this entire series he forced Ellie to lash out in this moment of self-defense and let go of all the Innocents she had left the show flushed out David even more than I thought I would and it makes this moment hurt even more than in the game and finally we get to the end of this episode where Joel finds Ellie unlike in the game where he interrupts Ellie lashing out on David he finds her afterwards and it makes this moment sting even harder Joel failed to protect Ellie here from the dangerous world he warned her about in episode 4. Another failure that will haunt him just as much as it will Ellie herself Ellie is left broken not able to say words and not even crying like she was before just left devastated Joel Comforts her and finally instinctively calls her the same thing he called Sarah all the way back at the start of the story okay baby girl Joel calling Sarah baby girl was actually Troy Baker's idea and what he did instinctively himself during filming and Neil druckman decided to refer back to it here in this moment where Joel has officially become Ellie's father both Pedro and Bella performed the scene perfectly and made me burst into tears the perfect way to end this episode this episode Rivals endurance survive for the hardest episode for me to sit through and without a doubt the most disturbing this is probably going to be the hardest episode for me to rank at the end because of that just like in most great stories we have the lowest point for the characters right before the finale we'll see Ellie Gap later Coming of Age Story by finally reaching the fireflies and fulfilling her promise to save the world with her immunity and we'll see Joel reach the atonement stage of his hero's journey where he will finally show his Redemption and bring Ellie to the fireflies right right [Music] so here's the deal for some reason YouTube doesn't like when I upload longer videos it always gets detected by copyrights so here's what I'm gonna do episode nine is my review of it is like 30 minutes long that's enough for like a full video so today if you're watching this Windows uploaded today Wednesday I'm just releasing seven and eight my review seven and eight this Saturday will be episode nine I know this video has been taking so long to get through this is the only way four good like decently liked videos instead of 20 minutes 40 minutes over an hour so yeah I'm sorry but [Music] kind of what we gotta do thank you for watching this video I'll see you Saturday [Music] you don't need a lot Speed Racer oh my God this movie is so amazing I saw it while working on this video and I could not stop thinking about it oh my goodness this is my next video where I say I swear to God please watch please it's so freaking good it is so good it's like Fast and Furious but like unironically amazing it is just it's so good this is everything I want to say about it so much oh my God I'm not lying I'm actually I'm not being ironic here animals movie is like one of my favorites now that was on the verge of tears during the freaking climax this movie is good it is so good I'm not listen listen forget the last of us watch watchbid Racers on HBO Max it's on the same platform as freaking The Last of Us just watch Speed Racer I'm not this isn't a bit just watch it's so good it is so good okay but I'll I'll see you for episode nine

Channel: 321GameTime

Views: 197

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Id: CJcbyfef5l0

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 29 2023