In its eighth episode, HBO’s The Last of Us it adapts one of the darkest chapters of the 2013 video game that inspired it. Picking up an unspecified amount of time after the events of the series’ seventh installment, The Last of Us episode 8, titled When I Need Youfollows Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as she fights for survival through a series of interactions with a priest-like madman named David (Scott Shepherd).
David is, just as he is in the original Shipping to Us, the predatory leader of a group of post-apocalyptic cannibals. Ellie’s scenes with him are some of the most moving and psychologically disturbing The Last of Us having delivered to this point. Troy Baker, the actor who portrayed Joel in the original version in particular, is his right-hand man, James. Shipping to Us games.
Beyond that fun easter egg, here are 5 questions we’ve been dying to ask The Last of Us episode 8.
What was David going to tell Alec’s family?

Soon i When I Need YouDavid tells a grieving mother and daughter that they will have to wait until the spring when the ground is moved to bury Alec, the man who killed Joel (Pedro Pascal) at the end of the year. The Last of Us episode 6. The brief look that David exchanges with James, however, suggests that part of Alec’s body was already disconnected and that he gave life to David’s followers when he says this.
Assuming Ellie didn’t kill David, it’s worth thinking: What did he intend to tell Alec’s daughter and wife when they tried to bury him in the spring? How did he explain what was done to Alec’s body? Apparently David hadn’t planned that far ahead yet. Based on how secure he seems to be in his leadership position, though, he probably wouldn’t have to worry too much about explaining his actions.
How long were David and his followers cannibals?

I The Last of Us episode 8, David tells Ellie that his group resorted to cannibalism because of how difficult the winter season was for them. It’s never revealed how long he, James, and a certain number of enigmas have been secretly feeding their fellow survivors human flesh, however. At first, it seems that Alec’s body was the first one they butchered.
That notion is dispelled later in the episode, however, when Joel enters one of the group’s buildings and finds various corpses hanging from hooks like pieces of meat. That one shot suggests that David and his inner circle turned to cannibalism long before Ellie and Joel even entered the picture.
How long was Joel injured?

When The Last of Us episode 8 begins, and Ellie managed to stitch up Joel’s stab wound. However, not only is his wound infected but his and Ellie’s food supply is also destroyed. Both of those details suggest The Last of Us Episode 8 picks up with Ellie and Joel several days, if not weeks, after viewers last saw them.
Unfortunately, When I Need You it does not clearly reveal how much time has passed The Last of Us‘ the seventh and eighth episodes.
Is this the first time Joel has run into cannibals?

Joel is clearly horrified when he finds the human bodies hidden in one of the Silver Lake resort buildings. However, it’s hard to tell if he’s surprised by the fact that he’s wandering into a community of cannibals.
This question will probably never be answered, but it is interesting to wonder, given what he has seen and done, whether Joel’s trip through Silver Lake was really his first encounter with cannibals . The Last of Us‘ a post-apocalyptic world.
Will Ellie be able to recover moving forward?

Ellie manages to single-handedly kill David and James at the end of the year The Last of Us episode 8, but not before coming face to face with the totally complex threat that David poses to her. As a result, when she falls out of a burning Silver Lake steakhouse at the end of the episode, she seems traumatized by everything she’s experienced. Although she quickly clings to Joel when she realizes that he is the one standing in front of her, it is clear that whatever was left of Ellie’s innocence has been taken from her by the events of Conradh na Gaeilge. The Last of Us episode 8.
With that in mind, will Ellie be okay by now The Last of Us‘ the beginning of the end of the upcoming season 1? Her relationship with Joel appears to be as strong as ever, but it’s unclear at this point whether Ellie will still be the same vibrant survivor that the survivors know and love her when they see her again.
The final season 1 online The Last of Us airs Sunday, March 12 on HBO — here’s how to watch The Last of Us on any device, anywhere.
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