The Last of Us | Episode 8 Review (SPOILERS)

get exclusive access to nordpass's best offers at nordpass.com nerdpass or use code nerdpass at checkout to get an additional one month free [Music] [Music] hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of nerdsoup I am Bo Oliver joining you today with Aaron the nerd 2 monkey and we are back to review The Last of Us episode 8 when we are in need written by Craig Mason and directed by Ali Abbasi I think a lot of people are saying this was the best episode of the season so far it's definitely up there I still think episode 3 has been my favorite which we get a lot of negative comments still which is always surprising but go [ __ ] yourself if you're gonna complain about a gay relationship in the show where the source material also had gay relationships so go [ __ ] off kindly unkindly but this is a great episode really enjoyed it intense throughout similar to how it played out in the game this was the moment in the game where I realized oh this isn't a zombie story this is a human story human beings suck uh and everything about that encounter I thought they captured perfectly in this adaptation it was super unsettling Scott Shepard as David was a great casting and I think for me coming into this show this was an important casting to just sort of capture that creepiness but also the Charisma showing us the reasons why people would fall under his trap and it's sort of the dark side of leadership in this world with Tommy's and cabin you could see more righteous leaders that yeah they're doing some things that are controversial to protect the pack and when it comes to this guy he's also doing controversial things to protect the pack but it feels far more self-serving that he's more concerned about keeping his status as this group's leader because you know if he would tell them what they were actually doing to survive not all of them are going to be on board with it and he gives off these soft-spoken thoughtful qualities but he's just a psychopath Underneath It All and for the experience of playing the game he was the most memorable villain and I think for a lot of people watching the show he's going to be just as memorable as he was for us and also Bella Ramsay's performance you could say that this was the highlight of her time as Ellie because of all the emotional turmoil that she's dealing with and then the way it all comes to that epic conclusion there at the end what can you say about her I've loved her all throughout the season and as I said I think this was probably her best turn yet as Ellie yeah I do think it's the best episode of the season um and like you said that's like just the scariest type of villain someone who's not that physically imposing but like he said is just gives off creepy [ __ ] Vibes right from the beginning but also like in the way they talk like when he's having that conversation with Ellie before they go back to the camp when they're just sitting around the fire just seems like you know maybe a little creepy but maybe he's not that bad of a guy no that's a that's exactly how it felt when you played the game because he is doing a really good job of placating the situation speaking softly saying the right things until he pulls the rug out and it hit me watching it just as it hit me playing the game basically tells Ellie I see you I know who you guys are you just killed one of my buddies and she says well you know they ran up on us [ __ ] well she should have said that yeah that's why going back to that encounter it was a little silly you know what was Joel supposed to do he just got amp pushed by some random guy in the middle of the field but yeah the when he does have that face turn and it gets super dark and that tone is kept throughout the rest of the episode where things are Amplified and heightened you even see it with Joel when he's interrogating the two guys he tells the other guy yeah I believed him but I'm just gonna kill you for the [ __ ] of it and I'm like okay there's Joel that's the that's my favorite Joel moment of the season um and he had two [ __ ] fantastic moments this season basically showing the two sides of him but him in that moment just being so ruthless [ __ ] you I don't care about you or your lives was just perfect right and there's so much talk when we watched Joel and Ellie if only they could open themselves up and learn to care about each other but this is the dark side of that that because he feels responsible for Ellie she just did all of this to save him so now he'll do anything in order to save her so and then we see it on full display there yeah like I said the whole episode right from the beginning is just a creepy sense that really doesn't relent at all like just tension building throughout the whole episode you mentioned the games before I think it was a great adaptation especially like one of my one of the sequences estrogen to my brain is at the restaurant with the fire and I think that always adapted perfectly but yeah throughout I mean even in the beginning when we see Joel and Ellie still trying to take care of her going out hunting apply the skills that Joel has taught her all this time uh into helping them survive and obviously that puts her on the path of these two gentlemen here I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to inject penicillin right into the wound so you gotta find a vein I'm not a doctor it's amazing I was gonna say yeah where's your medical degree um I got it at that the hospital from last episode oh wow I could be wrong if any doctors in the comments please help yeah I think you're supposed to jam it right in the eye because they say that goes right to the brain yeah and the brain deals with the little pain yep so uh right in the eye or the nostrils and y'all I mean Joel looks when he finally gets to the camp and he should he that's the most disheveled I've ever seen seen a human being in my life well even when she gives him the knife and she's like if anybody comes stab them I'm like this motherfucker's not getting up at this door he is not understanding a thing you just said bro he is fever dreaming right now he is back in Texas but yeah just from that first encounter they have until like we finally realize who this man is there's always that sense of something wrong even in that when he's giving that prayer for the eulogy for the the child's father who passed like and then at the end of the episode he realized oh that's why they can't bury him he's not saying yeah yes they're [ __ ] chomping him up he's not seeing anything overtly like oh he's a bad cannibal Predator guy he's just giving a basic prayer but just the way it's filmed and the mood and the way they kind of all look at him and the way he's acting it's like something's not particularly right here right that's why uh sometimes humbleness can betray an ego when you're so soft-spoken and so thoughtful and you're trying to give off this as you mentioned he's not a leader because of his physicality but it's it's the emotional leadership ship that he's able to provide then you realize he's taking advantage of these people he's manipulating them emotionally because he's a terrible person and he wants to maintain this position of leadership yeah I love the line when he said I found God after the apocalypse because he saw it's like a little vacuum of I can be the king of my own little castle here I could be David the dictator they all looked him and the way he called himself father so [ __ ] creepy where it wasn't the religious undertone it was this predatory undertone that he had to it so I think that's why it makes him such a unsettling villain because he is giving off that soft-spoken demeanor and you want to trust him until he pulls the rug out and I think for those characters that he was leading they never had a shot but somebody like Ellie who is so independent and as he mentions loyal to Joel and so obsessed with her own idea of what it means to not be alone that's never going to work on somebody like that it's the immovable object meaning the Unstoppable wall right and I think the wall would be in the movable object and this say that again I feel like the wall would be the immovable object is that what I said Unstoppable wall immovable object hey man imagine just a wall coming at you really fast Jerome Bettis right and we haven't really got too much into religion so far this season and I think Ellie had the reaction as like I would in that situation it's like oh like you believe that God's still at this point hey man you open that Bible it's there's a whole lot of chapters on the apocalypse religion loves a good old-fashioned apocalypse makes for some great television yeah whatever say what you will about the Bible oh great source material yeah we need the BCU damn as you called it the jcu hell yeah but he comes part two you know yeah it's like when they brought in Spider-Man it's on another Studio on the rights hey Tom Holland customers Jesus yeah that should be fun but yeah it's a perfect way to kind of I think use it as a tool to manipulate people or to I guess propagate your own beliefs into taking control because like you said he isn't a physically opposing guy what would stop one of his men from not listening to him which is to control he has over and it was fun one of his men was played by Troy Baker who voices Joel in the game right um James they keep giving like the weird like there isn't many roles for like good guys but I think it's funny how they should keep giving the roles from the video game actors and there's like oh you're playing a bad guy yeah you're a piece of [ __ ] now yeah you were kind of a piece of [ __ ] in the game but now you're the second in command to uh Predator yeah say well work is work right yeah no it's easy to see why people would fall in this trap because there's so much desperation in the world it's almost more appealing now you have nowhere to go you have nobody to lean on so who do you turn to you turn to God and then God is personified by David and we see it time and time again where men come to believe that they are God themselves so the the hubris is totally gone to his head the way he strikes that young woman and then helps her up that's how he's keeping the balance here of I'm going to assert my dominance but I'm also here to help you get back up so these people don't even realize it's like a Stockholm syndromey thing and as I mentioned where else are you going to go they're snowed in uh the the resort at the very least it's shelter yeah and you are getting this guidance at the very least from this sicko and for most I imagine most people just truly do believe in him and we see that all the time you put your faith in bad people because you have nowhere else to turn even like the little details like him just getting a bigger plate than everybody else but more food on it I like that alone shows that very christ-like you can be an extremist but like still I guess view yourself as equal or kind of you know we're all in the same boat here but still use that to take control and still be a shitty person that I think that just little thing just shows that he oh wait he's aware of what he's doing and he views himself as worthy or deserving rather than the people who follow him yeah definitely and I think the way Scott Shepard played him as I said it was great casting the way that he's concealing his ego Underneath It All was very impressive to me because you could see it behind his eyes that he's cooking something up that there's something else Brewing here that he's not all that it seems and Nellie's on him from the very beginning that at one point in the conversation she starts to let her guard down a bit then he goes on the attack and I think that was so impressive the way that conversation played out because it flips it on its head completely because as I mentioned it begins with Ellie on as the gun on him she lets the gun down a little bit and then there's James so the way the music comes in and the tone really shifts and I think from that point on it doesn't really let up well I feel like the conversation they have when he's in jail got a sense of his arrogance right there I mean immediately after I was kind of like well maybe they could have let that develop a little longer just so like to convince us that in his mind he would even begin to believe Ellie then when you like look back at it and talk about it like the way he's probably been able to take control of everybody and kind of have this presence he probably thinks in his head yeah like I'm spitting right now she she's spying into everything I'm saying because he's probably used to it um but he does kind of have that we're not so different you and I moment with her uh showing the comparisons and um the one thing popping out to me at least was you have a violent heart which I kind of see play out later although very Justified and in different ways but there is that violent nature to Ellie that he kind of is able to point out yeah and I think it does speak to his hubris thinking that he could convince her to not only join their group but to be in a romantic relationship with him but for Ellie she does have that violent heart he knows that so what do you think is going to happen when you put a violent animal in the cage and her instant reaction is why am I in a cage she's thinking as soon as she comes too I need to get the [ __ ] out of here right I'm gonna fight back with everything I've got you know how much of a bad guy you have to be for like cannibalism to not be in the top of the list I know right he's got a lot of bad things here the like the third or fourth worse is cult leader and it's cannibal sexual predator yeah because like in this world you can might be able to Spin Zone cannibalism like look we're dying here I think he and I don't want to say he made a fair point but it's been it's happened before we hear you know people get stranded and they have no other choice yeah yeah what does Ellie notice she notices the ear right yeah bad job by the cleanup crew well it's interesting because you would think that the more people the better and the apocalypse right you have a community but if you're just too self-sustaining people less mouths to feed right you can move around a lot more quickly you can find different shelters so it almost feels like Joel and Ellie it's better you're better off just having a smaller group you know small circle yeah less is more that's what the fellowship did right exactly well some people were picking them off too yeah but come on hitting them with the full court press and [ __ ] they made it they did apparently that boy Sam was literally a 2018 LeBron literally carrying Frodo all right guys before we finish this video I want to give a quick shout out to today's sponsor nordpass nordpass is a great option for people who are constantly forgetting their passwords nordpass makes life easier by keeping all of your 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least the name of the girl who broke your [ __ ] Fender so she was just epic in this episode and it's fun it's triumphant in those moments but then it becomes super [ __ ] sad in the end and this is one of those moments that broke me when I first played it because it's that violent Outburst that she has where she can't hold back he's been dead for five minutes and she's still [ __ ] stabbing him so for all you know they've been doing such a good job of hinting at Ellie's rage and her thirst for violence and her thirst for blood and when she's given an opportunity where it is Justified she's gonna take it to the extreme and that was where you you're happy because she's able to defeat this creep but then you you're like oh my God pull it back I would have I don't think she went hard enough and that's the other argument right that there's nothing that you wouldn't do to somebody like this well even like it's just so sad for a character you know who's we've seen the good and bad sides but mostly The Good the fun loving nature of the character the innocence of the character she's still holding on to that childhood innocence but you could say that in A Moment Like This what's there left to hold on to It's just sad well even the moment when they have her on the table and she's able to kind of use the fact that she's been infected to get that Split Second just to get them off guard for a minute um and then she killed Jill that's funny yeah um but yeah I mean like I said before using the skills the hunting skills obviously survival and kind of using her brain a little in this moment to just get them off guard and be able to get that window to escape you know I really like that aspect of it yeah and her reactions when she's in you know when they're holding her down her screams her Yelps she really puts you in the moment dude like when David even has her there at the end when she thinks that this is it she's struggling to grab the butcher's knife and she eventually gets it those screams and those reactions to me those those types of reactions always get under my skin when there's nothing you can do but luckily she's able to grab that knife so I thought she was just fantastic dude the visceral fear that she was and it's not the zombies it's the people it just makes it so much worse because you know that there's somebody inside of there how did you become a monster without getting bitten you're just a [ __ ] human monster dude so it just adds a new element to fear because you can't anticipate people man you just never never know with a zombie you see a zombie that Zombie's gonna come at you and try to bite you yeah this [ __ ] is playing mind games like I said before like that moment from the game was just so memorable when you're hiding in the restaurant oh he's just talking I had to stop playing it yeah he's like helly and then you turn the wrong corner and he [ __ ] kills you because you can't use listen mode no it's it's a hard like no it's it's difficult yeah it is it took a lot out of me to [ __ ] kill this guy man yeah actually that's what's really fun about the game is because when you finally do get him and Ellie lets loose it's like yeah [ __ ] you [ __ ] it's the best replay this three or four times five times and you're struggling with a party finally able to just crush him yeah that's awesome and then Joel comes in there at the end and Comforts her and those lines were taken from the game that's when you know her referring to her Joel referring to Elliot's baby girl I think that's where they really do turn the next page in their relationship they've gone through so many bad things but when you experience something like this this is probably the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to Ellie so yeah it's nice that he was able to be there for her in those moments but it's also horrible that they now have to share this trauma and sadness between them well he's yeah we saw it definitely after that little Montage after they leave Tommy's and the moments they shared together that relationship really taking form but here I think really solidifies that like father-daughter type relationship where I'm not it was always heading here but before that it was definitely had its stages where I think it went from obviously cargo to some attachment to you know building a friendship type bonds where they're able to just let loose and talk a little bit open up a little more and hear I think really solidifies that father-daughter relationship yeah it was definitely one of the more emotional moments of the season I think just to see them Embrace and especially after what we saw Ellie just go through and to have drill there to comfort her after she basically saved his life as well so you see that they need each other and more than more ways in one you know right yeah it's not only with Joel there going back to his whole need to save people he wasn't able to save Ellie Ellie saves herself he is there for her at the end to comfort her but in his own mind he may be thinking I let her down again because I should have been there it should shouldn't have even gotten to this point where she would have where she has to be the one to kill David that should have been me once again it's a reoccurring thing throughout their relationship that in Joel's mind he's unable to save her in the ways that he believes he is capable of saving her so even being able to comfort her in those moments you have to think in in his own mind does he feel like a failure again and that's why for these characters everything comes hard to them nothing comes easy in order to learn the lessons the to become more emotionally available and to open yourself up to friendship and companionship you have to go through such horrible things it can it's always in response to a negative never in response to a positive so he's able to comfort her and hold her and be there for her but it's after something so tragic it can't be after something good that happens that's just the way this world works and I think that's why it's so heartbreaking because there's so many different things going into that final moment that you can't help but just be exhausted by it all in the end and I think that if if you can criticize this episode and really the season things have felt a little bit rushed I think what could have helped it is just more moments where the show sort of lingers there's not a lot of moments where characters aren't talking it's a lot of plot it's a lot of dialogue narrative scene for scene for scene which is fine but sometimes it benefits to take 15 seconds to linger on a shot or Linger on a person who's contemplating what they've actually just experienced I think the show is missing that a little bit so this episode I was surprised by how quickly it did wrap up seeing that it was 50 minutes after it aired because I going into it I didn't know the run time so when it ended I was like oh damn man that was quick I guess next week's the finale but that would be my only criticism of uh of this episode yeah I think at times I would say maybe like in the middle Seasons that's a little bit more apparent but I like like I said earlier this is my I think the best episode of the season and and I think it really just works on every level in terms of just the character stuff story wise tension action like I think it was just every part of the show that we've enjoyed so far all you know kind of elevated here yeah there's no way I can criticize this episode for a lack of intensity I've had that issue with some of these episodes previous episodes but this one was tense throughout I'm even thinking now when James shoots out his horse he [ __ ] tossed out Libra yeah like even that but like even little things where she's coming up from the basement and she's opening up the garage door like I'm like what what's gonna be out there like right yeah there was nothing but you know at any moment you kind of had this sense something could happen or that danger is present so yeah it's that fear of the monster around the corner and I think that's what Games capture oftentimes when they use stealth when you have to hide behind a cupboard or hide behind a door going into a next room you don't know what's there they really played with the setting in that way and the setting to me was beautiful those sets of the resort it looked just like the sequence from the game and also the multiplayer so that was really fun especially there at the end when they're in the little dining area where Ellie and Dave have their Showdown but yeah dude super creepy super unsettling and really violent which I do love and it's not glorifying it whatsoever because Ellie was a caged animal and she's let loose and this is what's going to happen where it is so tragic to watch but a part of me goes as you said keep going so violence can be fun and then with Joel you know we briefly mentioned it in the beginning of the episode but to me that was probably the most memorable Joel scene and I think it it's not just because it's violent but it's because why he's doing it because he feels this need to protect Ellie and he's failed so much with Tess and his daughter so at least really the last one left so he's going to do anything it that's what she would do right is it morally correct I don't know but that's what parents do for their children I think I think he's good because they're trying to play off like oh what are you doing man let us go it's like you just kidnapped my daughter and tried to kill me You're Not Innocent in this situation when he when he stabs him it's like he'll pluck off his kneecap or whatever like I felt that my knee yeah there's something nasty about that right being your kneecap being plucked up kneecaps fingernails yeah things that can come off but you don't want them to yeah that's when people are always being tortured in shows they're like I'm not gonna give up the answer and they're like well I guess we got to kill them I'm like rip out their fingernails yeah I forgot what I was watching when they did that to somebody and I'm like how many fingernails would I would I make yeah no that would do me in because I always think that I'd like to imagine I'm a loyal guy who wouldn't speak but you start ripping out my fingernails I'm gonna start Mariah Carey Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl bro oh dude you know it was so [ __ ] funny in this episode when David Goes you could come back and join us you're inviting me to your hunger Club thanks yeah yeah didn't do a great job of selling that they're like over here threatening this little girl for her food and like you know you could join us she's like yeah it seems like I'm doing better than you guys yeah but it's like half a deer like not really that appealing no but yeah I mean one of these it's one of those episodes where when it's great and I think that this really does Teeter on greatness there's less to talk about because it kind of just speaks for itself in this episode the way it plays out it was just super impressive a very s a great adaptation and this is sometimes when you're adapting stuff you can make it a little bit better and I think they did obviously giving David this whole he you know he was definitely a cult leader in the game but it's uh they don't really give us the back story about the group that he's leading and for the most part it sticks to the source material and it does it so effectively as the source material did you know so when you're standing on the shoulders of giants sometimes you just let it speak for itself and I think that's what they did in this episode so a plus is all around yeah and I think just that like like we talked about that ending to end with that emotional connection between Joel and Ellie was just a perfect way to wrap up like a nice comp Sunday night oh now I gotta be sad in bed for before I go to bed I teared up three times Sunday Attack on Titan Last of Us and my hero all made me give me a little sniffle okay my hero is like all my maid Deku lunch I don't know why that got me but my hero will be getting you with the smaller moments but he didn't want the launch it's a lunch oh that's even yeah that that makes me tear up when an older person does something nice for a youngin yeah and the youngin doesn't reciprocate yeah like oh come on then the other two were just like super emotional like impactful moments and back that's on the same level as lunch yeah no Attack on Titan and Last of Us on the same day was a lot yeah that was a double whammy and then the next beat the Celtics yo what a [ __ ] weekend we all winning Kevin Durant next thing we know he'll be back on the Warriors no if he's a rank Jason he's coming to New York baby we next we're smoking on that Boston pack tonight all right guys that does it for our episode 8 review of The Last of Us season one we will be back next week for the season finale really looking forward to that maybe Teddy will be on that video who knows not to review it just to show up maybe he'll have cordyceps or something that could be fun yeah we'll find something wacky for him yeah yeah that's what we do here wow that was probably our best review yet hey guys Aaron the nerdsuit monkey here with a brief Shameless plug before we end the video do you ever feel like you don't have an adequate amount of nerd soup in your life like you're going to bed hungry and yearning for the nonsensical yet entertaining nutrients our podcasts provide well we've come up with the perfect solution the nerd soup fan question podcast exclusively available to our patreon supporters you can sign up now by visiting patreon.com nerdsoup and for the price of only one dollar per month you'll receive exclusive access to our weekly podcast where we answer your questions that don't make it to the main show and while you're there you can check out the other rewards we offer to our patrons like stickers mugs t-shirts behind the scenes footage and appearing in the credits at the end of our videos and that's exactly what we're gonna do right now roll the names of the Nerds who make nerd suit possible the reason why the crypto crash didn't send our lives spiraling down a black hole of no return alright I'll stop talking so you can listen to this jazzy-ass music while checking if Bo spelled your name wrong in the credits [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Nerd Soup

Views: 40,567

Keywords: The Last of Us, The Last of Us Review, The Last of Us Nerd Soup, The Last of Us Episode 8

Id: 5CQjlEUpSpM

Length: 29min 7sec (1747 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 06 2023