You guys, they did it, the rabbit has been
saved. Easy 10/10 move from Craig Mazin. So, was the episode good? Yeah, it was pretty great. We're kind of back to the first couple of
episodes in terms of adaption where very little was changed from the game to the show. And this comes with good reason because this
portion of the game was pretty amazing and translates really well for the show. Now obviously there are some action beats
that were removed from the game, like Ellie and David fighting off hordes of undead and
Joel basically killing the entire town, but I think what was retained was perfect for
the show. The amount of dramatic buildup was balanced
out really well with the action and some of the best scenes from the game made its way
into the show, like Joel interrogating the men for the location of the town. Joel is not messing around and seeing him
without hesitation meld right back into his more savage past self to find Ellie shows
how much he cares for her. That’s why him torturing these people in
this scene kind of excites you because it ignites his drive to find Ellie. Him doing these horrific acts ironically expresses
how much he loves Ellie. Which this essentially leads into my favorite
aspect of this particular story arc where, it’s set up that Joel is going to be the
savior, but Ellie is the one to overcome all of the conflict. It makes her character significantly more
important within the story because we see her succumb to extreme violent actions and
she is able to take care of herself. I adore the writing here from how clever it
was for Ellie to overcome David. Through quick thinking and being smart, the
thing that ironically saves her and buys her enough time is her bite wound. Throughout the show, she has been told not
to tell anyone about it, but the irony in that her telling these people about it saves
her is extra juicy. And R.I.P. video game Joel. The amount of respect coming from the creators
in terms of the source material and casting legacy actors from the games is really nice. But going back to the climax, In an outstanding
move by Neil Druckman, he simultaneously nails a big dramatic point for Ellie’s character,
while also defying set expectations within storytelling in which the main protagonist
saves the day. That’s why this segment of the story is
so genius because it works so well on both of these levels. We are led to believe that Joel will save
Ellie through him interrogating people, just for it to be more surprising when Ellie is
the one to kill David. Throughout this sequence by utilizing parallel
editing, the creators set up a dual perspective of Joel and Ellie, with the assumption that
Joel will intervene at a crucial point. However, that crucial point isn’t to save
her physically, and instead emotionally. She just brutally killed another human being
who was trying to rape her and she is utterly broken. The only person in the world to save her from
this mental space is her now surrogate father and the moment Joel calls her his baby girl,
it cements this emotional bond even more. This dramatic payoff and their long separation
coming to close here is immensely satisfying and is even more powerful due to what Ellie
just did. Bella Ramsey over the past two episodes on
their own puts her into the legendary status for actors. She has masterfully portrayed the crazy lows
and highs of the character and every emotional beat is done without fault. I came into this show expecting to be blown
away by Pedro Pascal as Joel, but I ended up getting floored by Bella Ramsey’s performance
even more. Which doesn’t mean that Pedro is doing a
bad job by any means, the acting is just on a completely different level overall in comparison
to other shows. Looking more specifically at David, I think
his adaption from the game is also perfect. I love the slow progression throughout the
episode as we learn different reasons as to why this guy is so messed up. Because it starts out with him seemingly being
a good guy, but as we peel away the layers he becomes more and more like the devil. He’s a manipulative, unfair, cruel, disgusting,
and vile person, and seeing each one of these traits reveal themselves was very fun throughout
the episode. He’s a very engaging character because as
a viewer we need to see past this facade that David is putting on to see his true intentions. Him talking to Ellie while she was in the
cage is a great example of this. The entire time he’s being pretty vague
and is clearly lying to Ellie to win her trust. Then another one of my favorite scenes was
the dinner scene where they were making the stew and they brought in the quote on quote
deer meat. At this point, we assume this is actually
deer meat because the scene prior showed us David and video game Joel bringing back the
deer. Only to reveal that they walk in with the
deer as they are serving the food. It cleverly hits you with the oh shit, that
is not deer meat and it can only be something else. Just a very smart way to communicate to the
audience what the meat is without being obvious. They do clearly confirm that later on, but
that was more because they wanted Ellie to find out that they were cannibals. So that’s fine. Then also the small touch where David has
a much bigger plate of food in comparison to everyone else portrays how much he exploits
his power. You guys get to ration while I don’t. These details within the script that you can
understand without them blatantly telling you are hallmarks of what makes a script so
great. Looking at Scott Shephard who plays David,
I think he did a good job at being a more chill, warm, and inviting person to begin
with. It makes his character so unsettling because
we know that he’s the villain due to his juxtaposition to our main characters, and
we desperately try to figure out what is wrong with him. He’s good at hiding his intentions which
in of itself is also really terrifying. For a one-episode villain, this a masterful
example in writing and acting as to making a compelling antagonist in a short amount
of time. Just very impressive overall. Going into one complaint that I’ve been
seeing people say a lot that will probably boil over here, is the overall lack of infected
in comparison to the game. Now, this doesn’t bother me because the
show takes a realistic angle in how it tells its story. Joel tells us early on that there are basically
no infected out in the middle of nowhere in these forest regions because logically, these
are very rural areas. If people barely lived out here before the
outbreak then why would it make sense for there to be a ton of infected here. Along with being able to survive in these
harsh cold terrains that even humans have to take shelter in. This isn’t like the Walking Dead where there
are randomly hordes of zombies in the forest at all times. In that show, it’s an obvious contrivance
that fans naturally accept so they can see more zombies. However, for The Last of Us, it’s more grounded
in how they treat the mechanics of the world. Neil and Craig want to make an immersive and
realistic post-apocalyptic show. Not a flat-out zombie show. This includes having threats that are both
infected and human. So it makes the most sense to have infected
as a threat when they are in cities and when they aren’t, it makes more sense to use
humans. Because I know zombie fanatics will hate to
hear this, but the human characters and villains have more depth than zombies. That’s just how it is. It’s inherently more engaging to follow
the humans and although you can create some outstanding zombie sequences with rich tension
and action, there’s a lot more variety in terms of what humans can offer. And a reason why those zombie sequences like
in episode 5 hit so well, is because they are used in moderation. Also, it’s not like we’re deprived of
zombies. They’ve shown up in half of the episodes
so far and some of the coolest sequences included them. Using them more strategically in the narrative
increases their threat and lethality and overall makes them more menacing when they do show
up. I also keep seeing people say that they hate
how a character always dies when an infected is around and I’d argue that’s a good
thing because they retain their danger factor. I want to be scared and tensed up when the
infected are on screen and for it to not be like a shooting gallery like in the Walking
Dead. A couple of other episode-specific complaints
I’ve seen were the fact that Ellie was let go so easily in the beginning and the ending
feeling weird because the town felt non-existent. For the first one, David’s intentions were
pretty clear and he wanted to track Ellie back to where they were hiding. On top of him probably forming an attraction
to Ellie in this time. So that makes complete sense. For the ending, it doesn’t bother me that
much that the whole town wasn’t present. I feel like focusing primarily on David was
a lot better than having Joel kill dozens of people. Along with him being in a pretty rough state,
so it would be equally illogical for him to take on that many people. But I can buy the fact that the town wasn’t
alerted since Joel essentially wasn’t around for that long. On top of the building Ellie was in was not
showing much smoke externally. Also, the town’s overall strength is already
dwindling and it seemed like David took his strongest people with their gun supply to
fight Joel and lost. So even though the ending in this regard is
changed, I don’t think it hurts the overall quality of the episode. You don’t really need to have Joel fight
through all these people because the dramatic emphasis is primarily put on Ellie’s shoulders. Which she obviously delivers in spades. This section of the story is about Ellie’s
independence and ability to take care of herself against insurmountable odds. That’s why it resonates so well because
the underdog conflict within this episode is so strong. Ellie can’t rely on Joel so it makes the
obstacles she has to overcome that much more palpable. And even Joel having to take on the raiders
by himself was intense given how bad of a condition he was in. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman consistently
deliver scenes with so much suspense and weight that the show always feels enjoyable. The grounded and realistic nature of the show
also helps this because the writers don’t introduce any bullshit into the script to
cheat the conflict. It’s just so refreshing having this show
and even their attention to detail and authenticity of the environment elevates the script. Like these actors were getting rolled by the
cold in this episode. Poor Ellie face planting into the snow was
just oof feelsbadman. I’m really excited going into the final
episode because if these past episodes are this great then just wait and see what the
finale has in store for you. Because it is going to be absolutely wild. Thank you for watching and let me know what
you thought about episode 8 of The Last of Us.
