The eighth installment of The Last of UsHBO’s post-apocalyptic series, which premiered on broadcaster and streaming service HBO Max Sunday night (5), continuing the journey of Joel and Ellie and the duo’s quest for survival, this time led by the efforts of the young woman .
Joel and Ellie have come a long way in their travels. The search for the fireflies, who are rumored to have a way to cure Ellie’s immunity, leads the two to face troubles in Kansas City, including the loss of Henry and Sam. But since episode six, the duo have faced a different challenge: Joel is injured.
After an episode seven that took a break in the story to explain Ellie’s motivations and why she doesn’t give up on those she loves, we return to focus more on their present in this episode.
However, before getting into the story of Joel and Ellie, the episode introduces a new group, which already indicates that their fate will collide with that of our protagonists. We see a man, apparently a shepherd, preaching to a group of survivors. At the end of the sermon, he and another man decide to go hunting.
Meanwhile, Ellie faces the first challenge of the episode, which is a lack of supplies. She got a thread and needle at the end of the previous episode to stitch up Joel’s wound, but the infection seems to have taken over the man. With no food or medicine, Ellie decides to take a chance outside the cabin where she has taken refuge with Joel.
Thus, the most attentive already understand what can happen and the episode does not disappoint in meeting these expectations. Ellie shoots a deer and the two men find it, resulting in a confrontation which results in a trade offer: half of the animal for antibiotics for Joel. They perform under the names David and James. Even though Ellie is the one with the gun, there’s a lot of tension in these scenes, like it’s the other way around.
While James goes to get the medicine, Ellie and David wait around a campfire, with him trying to recruit her into his group and extract more information about her, while telling things about himself and his group. All the tension is justified when David reveals that the man who hurt Joel was from his group, clarifying that he identified Ellie as the girl who was with him.
Despite this and James returns, pointing a gun at Ellie, David orders him to hand her the antibiotic and let her go. It soon becomes clear why: David wants to follow Ellie to Joel and get justice for the death of his group member, while he also wants to recruit Ellie to his group.
Ellie applies penicillin to Joel’s wound twice and there appears to be improvement between injections. But she soon realizes that David and his group have come to try and capture them. To protect Joel, she leaves Ellie with her knife, an item she carries throughout the series, and she rides off, trying to lose the group. However, she ends up captured by the group, while part of the men continue their search for Joel.
As for Joel, if in one moment he seems unable to rise from the mattress on which he is lying and is doomed to die if anyone finds him, in another he hunts down every one of the men who are left looking for him, torturing two of them to try to find out where Ellie is.
Meanwhile, Ellie wakes up in a cell, imprisoned by David, who tries to convince her to join the group, hinting that he has more interest in the young woman. Ellie discovers the group eating human flesh and breaking David’s hand, which angers him and says he will “tear it apart”.
Joel then arrives at the group’s safe house, which sets up a back-and-forth of scenes, implying that Joel may arrive at just the right time to rescue Ellie. But Ellie needs to take care of herself. She uses the scar from the infection on her arm to distract David and James, and she kills the latter as they argue over whether she really is infected or if she is all a trick.
In a scene full of fire and smoke, Ellie and David face off, with the young woman hiding and scavenging for weapons to fight off the cannibal shepherd. This all culminates in a scene where Ellie takes all of her hatred out on David, leaving only what she looks like when the fight is over to the imagination.
In the end, Joel didn’t arrive in time to help Ellie in her fight against David, which forced her to defend herself without her protector’s help up to that point. Though he didn’t need any physical help, Joel arrives to comfort Ellie, further cementing himself in a fatherly role.
episode 9 of The Last of Us, which will also be the last of the season, will premiere on HBO and HBO Max next Sunday (12), at 11 p.m. (Brasilia time). The first eight episodes are available on HBO Max.
The post The Last of Us: Ellie protects Joel and herself in the eighth episode first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
