The Last of Us: David and Ellie — Therapist reaction 1x8 “When We Are In Need"

welcome back to the truth doctor show I'm Dr Courtney licensed therapist known as the truth doctor and today I'm reacting to episode 8 of The Last of Us I have been reacting to every episode so far we have looked into all of the characters we've torn apart the plot when it comes to mental health and psychological themes and we only have one episode left after this so if you've been following Along on all the episodes thanks so much for being along for the ride I'm sure this episode's going to be very exciting and very overwhelming and probably traumatizing and for those of you who this is your first episode I encourage you to go back and watch the other reactions before next week's finale let's get started the Tabernacle of God is with men and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes I've read this passage too many times but do you remember what comes next thank you and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes that there will be no more death that was a really strange scene okay I don't know who these people are let's start off with the banner that they have when we are in need he shall provide obviously they're referencing God when it comes to that statement and this is a religious commune this is a group of people who rely on the scripture to get them through everything that they've experienced this could have either happened prior to the apocalypse where this community could have already been integrated or this could be a new community that was developed as a result of the Apocalypse all that we know right now is that this man is the head of this group and that this young girl is sad for some reason there was an interesting Dynamic going on between the mother and that daughter when she was crying the daughter was crying the mother was trying to keep her quiet was like oh of course okay like there's a man speaking there's a person speaking we should be listening and at the same time it felt like like the mother didn't want the daughter to be noticed when can we bury him laughs [Music] James yeah I sensed doubt in there yeah I did too but I need to know you're with me yeah of course there's going to be doubt of course there's going to be doubt even people who have the most faith that I have seen people have whether that is in my personal life or in my professional life have a moment of human doubt in some situations if you listen to the words that were being said in that scripture to those people there will be no more death there will be no more tears there will be no more pain and he says I've said this scripture too many times it's likely that he says that scripture every time someone dies when that daughter says when can we bury him it's clear that the scripture is not making her feel better she knows what it means and she's still feeling these emotions her mother is telling her to quiet her emotions in the situation that they're currently in faith and hope and trust and Forward Thinking are necessary for us to make the decisions that we need to make to survive to move forward to feel like we can find purpose and meaning in our life at some point and at the same time it's really important to acknowledge the reality of what's happening if you are someone that isn't fully grounded in faith you can only rely on faith in scripture for so long before you realize that the words that are being said about there being No More Death No More Tears and no more pain don't actually result in No More Death No More Tears and no more pain okay he's still alive [Music] laughs [Music] oh she's going hunting okay the way that Ellie was eating that meat I think it was imagine being as hungry as she is it's like she wants it so badly she knows she needs it so badly and yet she has this really intense ability to be in control of herself when your body is that hungry your brain will devour food and when you're in a situation of survival like in the context of the last of us if you don't have control over your physiology you will probably die I talked about this in the beginning of this series as well where when Joel and Tess and Ellie are in that building and Ellie's first introduced to an infected or a clicker Joel and Tess are quiet and calm and they can control their breathing Ellie on the other hand her physiology is not yet controlled she is breathing heavy they end up getting seen and she has a difficult time maintaining her calm things are very different now Ellie has become a survivalist in the way of understanding that she must control herself if she's going to survive and I felt like I saw that a little bit when she was she wanted to eat the food so badly but within a moment she knew I can't and I need to leave some of this for Joel if this is really all that we have left oh oh she's doing the best she can nice and horrible I hate this and nice good job Ellie an image popped up in my head as I was watching this scene and it was when they showed a close-up of Ellie as she was focusing her aim and it was a similar shot to when they showed Ellie being taught how to aim a rifle what came up for me was just what could be going through Ellie's mind at that moment it's trying to think about everything that Joel taught her and it's knowing that Joel is not right by her side helping her aim and shoot she's actually needing to aim and shoots to save Joel's life and her ability to focus again physiologically and cognitively on her goal on her Target and to actually reach that goal and reach that Target is a big deal for her and I hope that she gets to a point where she realizes it more than just saying no way oh they found the deer that's not cool where is Ellie tell me that she's not unintentionally acting like Joel she lowers her voice she to me says things that Joel would say she's never been in a situation where she has to hold people up so that she can get what it is that she wants especially by herself I I was laughing because her idea of power has been so influenced by Joel that when she tries to be powerful she even sounds like him when we start to develop our character we learn by observation and oftentimes we learn by observation of our parents or our caregivers I mean there are things that have gone as far as like the way that somebody Butters their toast or what's peanut butter and jelly on two different sides of a sandwich we see it happening here with Ellie when she has to enact this new aspect of her character this power part of her she references unconsciously the idea of power that she's seen be successful when it comes to Joel my name is David this is my friend James David David and James from a larger group women children and we're all very very hungry we're not asking for charity we we can trade you medicine like for infections we do notice her short and quick inflection in her voice when she says medicine the power differential started to level out when she started to realize that they may have the upper hand in some way for her which is they have medicine now I wanted her tone of voice changed also she went from don't move to medicine and I think that it's important that we catch on to that because what it shows is that this really is an act for Ellie she is trying to act powerful because she's scared and this is her resource to save the person that she loves this power is not fully developed as part of her character yet she's putting it on as a front as a mask as a defense and she can quickly move away from that whenever her attention shifts from I'm the one that's in control and I need to come off as powerful to they might actually have something that I need and I might need to tone it down a bit or Tone It Up I should say anyone else shows up I put one right between my eyes he's not afraid of her it's not code James do as I said oh that's code though that long stairs code you know you really shouldn't be out here all on your own from where I'm sitting you shouldn't be at her on your own I chose to follow you is this some weird cult thing uh well you sort of kind of got me there I am a preacher but just pretty standard bible stuff well I found God after the apocalypse which is either the best time or the worst time to find him interesting turns out he was murdered by this crazy man and get this that crazy man oh was traveling with a little girl oh oh man this is Sinister everything happens for a reason back away I know you're not with a group you won't survive for long out there I can protect you okay first thing I was thinking about when it came to David was he seems oddly calm during this entire conversation with Ellie you know there was a moment where I thought you know maybe he is just this man of faith and he has this ability to have a calm physiology and to trust in the scripture to the point where he knows that everything is going to work out that everything happens for a reason everything happens for a reason but obviously this is the last of us and I was waiting for the turn it was too early in the episode when David says that he found God after the apocalypse and that that's either the best time or the worst time to find God I understand what he means in my practice I specialize in substance use and co-occurring disorders and the relationship between religion or faith really in any way and substance use is pretty significant people who find themselves in the depths of substance use have a really difficult time believing in something greater for their life in a purpose for their life and meaning for their life and that's part of why the 12-step Community which is Alcoholics Anonymous Narcotics Anonymous and other anonymous groups have been so pivotal and so Monumental when it comes to the recovery Community for people dealing with addiction giving your faith and your decisions and your character development all towards the goal of developing a relationship and submitting yourself to a higher power changes lots of people's lives and this ability religion has such an ability to allow people to actually move forward with doing the things that they need to do to survive when life gets really difficult it could be the best thing or the worst thing it could be the worst thing if you found this belief system and it feels like it's too late maybe it feels like if you and everyone believed more before the apocalypse it might not happen and then if you find it to be a good thing it can be I'm so happy that I've found this Faith because now I believe that things are going to get better I'm interested to see what this Dynamic is really like for David and his community especially because David said that he found religion after the apocalypse and now that David has come out as someone that can really be a master manipulator and can really manipulate relationships he got Ellie to trust asked him to sit by a fire with him to lower her weapon a little bit around him and then immediately turn things and ended up having James pointing a gun at her head from behind this man has a plan why did he let her go why is he letting her make Joel better hmm you know I almost went to medical school and I just couldn't do it I can't do physical health I'm nope nope I'll stick to mental health oh nope she's doing a really great job this is impressive she's even learning how to be a daughter in these moments she doesn't know how to care for a parent she doesn't know how to love a parent she doesn't know how to let a parent love her and she's doing such a good job what is it venison big one oh yeah like you got it that's annoying and we'll bring that man to Justice oh foreign no way but the truth is Hannah you will always have a father and you will show him respect when he's speaking was abuse we're gonna call it what it is but not only was it physical abuse it was also psychological abuse because he held out his hand so he was the abuser and the fixer the abuser and the caretaker that's so traumatizing he is in full control let's talk about what narcissism is for a moment there is a difference between narcissistic personality disorder and narcissism narcissism is a category of behaviors that someone can enact narcissistic traits this man David absolutely has narcissistic traits what people don't really understand about true narcissism the underlying mechanisms of narcissism it's not just somebody that doesn't care about the perspectives the opinions or the lives of other people it's somebody whose perception of themselves and the world consumes so much of their conscious and unconscious awareness that they'd actually do not comprehend that other people have feelings thoughts desires aspirations are important deserve boundaries deserve to be respected it's not just being selfish it's not just denying other people's reality it's literally being incapable and not forever incapable but incapable of seeing the other person as a person you are the center and you control the world and everything in it and that is a lot of what we see going on with David not only does he smack her backhand her and put her in her place so to the point that she falls down on the ground when he is standing major power differential but he also then reaches his hand down for her as though I'm the only one that can lift you out of the depths that you found yourself in when in fact he placed her there what David did in that moment was reinforce his control and his power to the whole group what Ellie asks if David runs a cult he says kind of and of course goes into it being a religious community but he found religion after the apocalypse and there is no way to know that he is not using religion as a way to keep these people listening to what it is that he has to say if he says the word god they listen but he might mean himself when he says God that sign for David that sign might actually mean that he will provide he shall provide and listen that can do a lot of things to someone's mind if they really did choose David without David manipulating them to be their leader then he was placed in this position of being omnipotent of needing to make the choices in every situation and to help all these people survive so we don't know if he was always like this and he used religion to control these people or if he found religion and then found these people or at the same time and has developed this really messed up perspective on being a leader and on being the leader of a religious organization we don't know what led David to get to the point that he's at but we know that he is a manipulator that he is narcissistic has narcissistic Tendencies it's very clear in the way he interacts with other people and that he is in control so this man knows what he was doing when he let Ellie go with the penicillin and I'm really nervous to see what's going to happen I don't mean to question your sense of Mercy David we can let her go we bring that girl back with us she's just another mouth to feed that's logical over out here she'll die that's logical too because it's not about God's will it's about David's will it's about what David wants to do oh that um hit the nail on the head James hit the nail on the head I mean I'll leave them away from you but if anybody makes it down here you kills them you got it no two of you with me drag the horse the rest of you stay here go door to door why does David want a Vengeance alive like what is going on how did they know to go in that house I just it's just I don't understand that part okay he figured it out he knows he figured it out people did you hear me say the others want to kill you yeah but I stopped them but I can help you let me protect you I'm not on my own I'm not on my own I love that she feels that now she knows that her and Joel are connected and this is a very similar scene to the one when we were first introduced to Ellie she was chained up in a room by herself with a leader of an organization telling her that she can trust them and that they are going to be able to provide Ellie the future that she wants but if you can't find a way to trust me then yes you are alone oh my God okay nothing against religion truly I'm not a religious person but I understand the benefit of it and I completely respect it and the way that David is using religion is really messed up if you listen to what it is that he is actually saying to her right now it sounds exactly like scripture it sounds exactly like what he was reading in the beginning of this episode your life as you know it has ended there is a new beginning coming that I am leading and if you don't trust me and believe in me then you are alone it's very clear that God and religion is being used by David for his own benefit he has become God in his own eyes and in the eyes of a lot of these people is that Joel oh nope that's Joel where foreign this is such an intense scene and these are all human beings I want us to take a moment they are doing an excellent job of placing these two individuals against Joel and Joel against these two individuals but there's a reason why these individuals aren't wanting to share information and it's because they are human beings too not only are they trying to protect themselves from how their leader David might react we've seen that he is not a non-violent person but we also can interpret it as them protecting possibly their families the last time that Joel interacted with this group of people one of them died and he had a wife and he had a daughter and we can assume that these people may have family members as well and it's important for us to remember that at least in the context of my reactionary series to this show these are all people the same reason that Joel is harming these people is probably the same reason that these people are in a way harming Joel by withholding information since Jesus I ain't telling you okay no [Music] oh my God okay the Insight that we have into Joel you can tell that this is not Joel's first time acting like this you can tell that Joel acted like this even before he had to protect Ellie this seems like a great rendition of the type of behavior is that Joel and Tommy or Joel and Tess or Joel Tommy and Tess had to enact for their own Survival he didn't have to kill them he didn't have to kill them he killed them to make a point to make a point that they came after trying to kill him he has an ability to be violent within him and and we all have the ability to be violent but the more that we have our level of violence attached to our emotionality it can be significantly worse although we know that in this situation Joel's being violent because he wants to defend and find Ellie this violence was clearly already existing within Joel it was calculated it was planned it was strategic and it's likely a large part of what Joel feels bad about being so good at [Applause] they are eating people oh my ah well Barry your dad in the spring the ground is too Frozen okay did David make that daughter eat her dad I don't want to talk about it that's sick if you want to judge me judge you you're eating people okay good that can be the reaction that that count that as my reaction too let them starve these people who put their lives in my hands who expect me to keep them safe who love me yeah maybe you remind me of me you're a natural leader you're smart you have a violent heart and I should know I've always had a Bible no no what I think is important to point out is when he says you have a violent heart I know because I've always had a violent heart that right there is projecting a part of yourself onto someone else it's assuming that your perspective of someone is what's right and of course he's trying to do this to manipulate her in the moment in this conversation saying like I know you this is you because if that is true and she does take that to heart that she has a violent heart and that they're the same then maybe she'd be more likely to go hand in hand with him with whatever he's trying to get out right now but where he's wrong is and she's right is she says you don't know anything about me and the important thing is when it comes to someone's heart saying that they have a violent heart would mean that in any circumstance violence is the priority violence is the preference violence is the go-to and we don't see that with Ellie like that is not the case she puts her head on Joel's back as they are horseback riding in a way we see her laugh when she's reading puns out of a pun book we see her being a child with Sam she is not violent at heart she has developed an ability to be violent and to enact violence but that doesn't mean that in those moments of survival that she's using her heart she might be using her head that's getting messages from her heart of pain why are you telling me all of this because you can handle it the way the others can't oh she's moving closer she's mirroring his behavior I just let him go yes if he leaves us in peace they will just let him go and they would follow us Lord knows I could use the help Lord knows I could use the help you're a terrible person David we grow spread out for our people is his wedding ring off his hand now are you kidding right now damn right Ellie what tell them that Ellie is a little girl who broke her finger wow that was a horrific and excellent depiction of grooming behaviors there are many different ways that somebody could go about grooming a child grooming an adult grooming anyone that they need to to get them in a submissive place to be manipulated and used in whatever way some of the signs that I saw coming up for grooming the first one was targeting so David immediately before any of us really knew it and certainly before James knew it during that conversation with the deer when Ellie first caught them David already had a plan he targeted her as somebody that could fill this role this space that he had in his life for someone to be his partner and to be his co-leader the second one was trust and secrets so he gained her trust by giving her the penicillin so that she could make Joel heal while not telling her that he was just going to go send people to try to kill them anyways and he also tried to build trust by giving her food and then by telling her that she's one of the only people that know that they have been engaging in cannibalism and killing people in order to survive she was targeted she's in on a secret and he tried to trust her by giving her something that she would want and that she values another one is isolation and he did a great job at this by literally sticking her in a cage and telling her that she's alone now but if you can't find a way to trust me then yes you are alone another one was praise or flattery and he said so many things to her they need a father those are so many important signs that we need to be paying attention to not only for the safety of our children but also for the safety of ourselves we need to be able to pay attention people don't just get groomed to get into sexual relationships and of course that's an important term that should be used in those types of contexts most often by grooming it's like we are manipulating somebody's perspective on themselves of you on their character of the world and we are trying to get them to see us as someone as the only one that will be there for them and can trust them foreign [Music] what that did not seem like the best move [Music] I know you're not infected no one infected fights this hard to stay alive poor logic thinking he knows everything what's the secret or are you just that special because that would make you mad right no one likes being humility everyone thinks you're special David but you know you're not you don't know how good I am he needs that reinforcement so that he exists in the minds of others the way he exists in his own mind that's the only way it would be okay for him come on Ali the fighting is a part I like the most don't be afraid this is terrible there's no fear in love oh [Music] geez okay it's okay baby girl that violence that Ellie enacted that rage that desire to completely destroy David makes sense there have been so many things that Ellie has dealt with over the course of this series and over the course of her whole life and there has only been one instance where she has been touched in any physical way or emotional way and that was her first kiss with Riley for a man as diabolically dangerous violent and disgusting as David to be attempting to rape her and tell her that love has no fear is sickening and that rage is so Justified when it comes to this situation it was a really hard scene to watch I'm trying to make a statement here for all of the people who had a really hard time watching that scene and I'm having a hard time making a statement because I'm getting emotional about it every person who has ever gone through a situation like this knows that their situation is unique no one will ever understand the workings of their mind and their body and the situation when something like that was attempted or enacted that response that moment that situation for Ellie will be imprinted it will be imprinted because it's necessary that it becomes imprinted for her survival for her to know the signs she needs to know the things to look out for and now she unfortunately has first-hand experience we can already see that she was extremely traumatized by this happening trauma is not what happens to you it's the result of what happens to you Ellie's really good at not surfacing her emotions and I hope that this is something that she can come to terms with the way that Joel said I got you baby girl and he doesn't know what she just went through but he does exactly what she needs I think the reason that it just came out of Joel's mouth calling her baby girl is because he connected emotionally with her as well he received that emotional release they both felt that connection that and Embrace that means so much to them now come on baby girl come on baby girl I got to get you it's okay baby girl I am actively processing this in my brain right now as I am speaking to you I hope I've done this episode Justice I can't believe that there's only one more episode left I really cannot believe it and it's a shorter episode thanks so much for being along for the ride one episode left I'm so happy that you exist see you next Thursday [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Truth Doctor Show

Views: 82,753

Keywords: Dr. Courtney Tracy, The Truth Doctor, Therapist, Tik Tok Therapist, Tik Tik, Therapy, Mental Health, Mental Health Awareness, Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, Self Healing, the last of us, the last of us episode 8 reaction

Id: 4yaLHolTCn4

Length: 36min 22sec (2182 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023