The Last of Us Review - Episode 8 Recap: When we are in need

Fine Young Cannibals, Father Figure, & The End of the Innocence thematically sum up this episode. Plus, some bonus content featuring shows you need to be watching.

Phew.

We’ve made it to Friday. We really have and what’s more, there’s some bonus content in this recap. It’s the Jewish guilt I’m inflicted with of having you wait a day and a half past the regular Thursday recap timetable, so go with it. You’ve earned it.

Let’s get down to it

There’s a LOT of violence in this episode and yet not enough to avenge the violations by way of the sicko and twisted interactions Ellie had to endure from the Silver Lake cannibals.

The pace of this episode is slow going, but in any kind of end-of-world scenario, I’m betting on Ellie, our wearied, yet capable teenager, over any number of hangry middle-aged dudes hell bent on avenging the death of one of their own.

Source: HBO / David (Scott Shepherd) and his flock

And…Let’s catch you up

Last week’s tragic pre-episode 1 timeline, love story between Ellie and Riley feels eons away from the tense, uncertainty of this week’s present day. Joel is still barely conscious and hanging on by the thread of Ellie’s decent enough needlework from when she attempted to sew up his gut hole from a stab wound that we know now was inflicted by Hannah’s father, who was then killed by Joel, as Joel protected Ellie.

Source: Mashable / Joel’s condition hasn’t changed.

Hannah is a girl Ellie’s age and her father was one of the raiders who attacked Ellie and Joel at the university when they were looking for Fireflies who could take Ellie and make a vaccine out of her immunity superpowers.

Well, folks, this story comes full circle in this episode as Ellie, goes hunting for food, slays a deer and goes head-to-head with David (Scott Shepherd), former teacher pre-Cordyceps, now preacher and leader of a cult of cannibals, for who is going to take that deer home. This entire scene between David and Ellie is so good because Ellie doesn’t give anything away. She comments that has people she’s left behind to get the deer and in the end, she gets David’s henchman to go and get Penicillin for Joel which ultimately saves him and allows Joel to take out a few of David’s henchmen. She leaves the deer with David though so she has to be real hangry at this point.

The obvious

To make The Walking Dead, Terminus connection between Silver Lake, is easy enough. Both communities had people that appeared less sinister on the surface and yet they also had a motive to kill and eat the people they killed. This doesn’t make the Silver Lake townspeople bad people by these actions alone - no judgement on food scarcity decisions here - just not a community you want to hang with. Silver Lake feels like Terminus 20 years into the future with a little more desperation peppered in and a narcissistic leader who justifies immorality on a regular basis.

Oh David…

David, the leader of the cult community, warrants an entire post just for his expertly played, albeit brief stint as a cringey, yet charismatic and on-the-surface merciful and beneficent father figure.

Also, he digs people referencing him and telling him he’s a father figure.

It’s possible David is not even his name, but his ego led him to think he was on as grand of a mission as King David. By the end of the episode though we know it’s a marketing ploy to feed the sheep and keep their bellies full and their minds dull. He’s their shepherd. He says this. He needs them to do what he says.

He wouldn’t be the first cult leader to use the King David brand to play up that association. David Koresh, cult leader of the Waco Branch Davidians, whose corruption of that community in the infamous siege was well sensationalized and a “ripped from the headlines story” which rocked my youth and made me never want to visit the state of Texas, claimed he was a direct descendent of King David and changed his name, cashing in on the intrepid faith of his followers of his divine appointment, and using this to justify bedding and wedding underage girls.

I wondered, I asked, 'Is this God or is this horny old David?'
--Clive Doyle, Branch Davidian

The same quote could be ascribed to our Last of Us David. We spend the entire episode wondering why he’s taken such a keen interest in Ellie and keeping her alive, locking in her in a cage, only to realize that our most depraved, and yet instinctual thoughts were actually “bingo” - the right call. Sure, Ellie is called out for her “violent” heart and super keen leader like qualities of supreme intelligence, by David, as a way of playing up what they have in common, but it’s all a manipulation. David tells Ellie all the things she wants to hear, as if the script was taken from a caricature of an 80s pedo pervy perp from an after school special and the continuation of that theme in modern context, on LMN (that’s Lifetime Movie Network for all you oldies). So in the end, after his whispering of sweet nothings, when David finally makes physical contact with Ellie as he weirdly caresses and strokes her hand, with her locked inside the cage still, we are not at all surprised that Ellie’s “violent” heart wins through when she bites him.

This enrages David and he comes back with his cleaver and some human reinforcement, his number 2, James. Ellie is already on to him as there’s human appendages on the floor of the cage room/kitchen and she knows she’s next. After they restrain her and hold her down on the commercial grade kitchen utility table, Ellie tells David she’s infected and they look at her arm. This throws the guys off, and in their confusion, Ellie manages to wound David AND take the other dude out - and all this from her vantage lying, restrained atop this table. It’s pretty damned spectacular.

The bloody mess of a David

There’s an Ellie and David showdown after she turns definitely down his pedo child bride advances (which btw worked on Hannah, or so we suspect) and the mess hall earns its stature as a bloody mess hall as David and Ellie play cat and mouse. After using a Molotov Cocktail or at least something to light the place on fire, Ellie sees the wooden building catches fire like crazy (go figure). David finally manages to catch her and attempts to assault her sexually, overpowering her, but luckily David meets his maker in Ellie’s knife. She stabs him at least 50 X.

Joel, in the meantime, who’s been trying to spare Ellie pain for 7 episodes, and rather unsuccessfully at that, ends up springing into action and back to life, using the knife Ellie leaves him to attack the Silver Lake Davidians when they come to kill him. It’s neat.

Most gruesome scene though is when Joel realized just how much of a threat these guys pose to Ellie and sees strung up HUMAN bodies hanging from the barn ceiling, like cattle. Are cattle generally strung up this way? I don’t know, but it feels wrong and Joel hauls butt to Silver Lake, finally reuniting with his “baby girl” and giving a warm hug to a shell-shocked, traumatized Ellie who just survived a fire, a sexual assault, nearly being force fed a human, and avoiding a painful dismemberment in <45 mins.

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Onto lighter fare

Show’s I’m digging on that I’ve been dying to tell you about.

Shrinking on Apple TV+

Jason Segal (How I Met your Mother) as Jimmy is doing dysfunctional duty or doody, picking up the pieces of his life a year after his wife’s unexpected death. He’s drinking and drugging, having late night orgies, being despondent, self-effacing, and trashing his nice life by indulging day after day in this reckless nonsense. And he’s now telling his patients what to do, as opposed to listening and helping them drive their actions. He has a teenage daughter, Alice, who is 16 going on 40, who has been on her own pretty much, being raised by the empty nester neighbor in a very “up in your business” manner, played by the lovely and talented, Christa Miller (Scrubs) and oh yeah, Harrison Ford is in it, playing a mentor and co-partner of Jimmy at their mental health/psychology practice who has Parkinson’s, alongside a newly divorced Millenial, Gaby (Jessica Williams). It’s telling that Ford (Indiana Jones) who is known for not taking just any role and hasn’t done too much acting in the last 40 years because he can afford not to - his privilege, not ours - is in this and it’s not the first thing I’m shouting from the rooftops. He’s good but the show is great.

Poker Face on Peacock

I started watching this quirky crime show by Rian Johnson (Knives Out director) starring Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll), and co-produced by Maya Rudolph (SNL, Forever - a must watch!) when it was released in January or February and then I put it down. But then I heard Lyonne interviewed on a this past Smartless episode and it made me want to give it another try. Inspired by the old school private eye novels, like the Philip Marlowe and yes, i’ll even say shows like Columbo, Lyonne plays the character of Charlie with that signature Falk (Columbo actor), befuddled and fugue-like confusion, but she’s of course, solving the crimes and catching the perps every time. I realize I’ve used the word “perp” twice in this post and boy, that’s a rarity, but get over it. Also, Charlie has this uncanny ability to detect a lie simply by watching someone. The first episode takes play in Vegas, because, duh, ‘poker.’ Each episode is self-contained and features a new story, but Lyonne is the consistent thread.

And I dare you not to sing this song’s title every time you say the name of this show out loud.

Daisy Jones & The Six on Prime

Riley Keough, who has been in the media lately, because she’s Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter and Lisa Marie recently died leaving her the beneficiary of the Elvis estate, happens to also be a formidable actress. Her signature self-confidence, ability to live and breathe in the comfort of her own skin, and “devil may care” attitude on screen is what beckoned me to watch the beloved Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, that was eaten up by Reese Witherspoon’s studio Hello Sunshine and stretched into this 10 episode series on Prime starring Keough as the eponymous Daisy and The Six played by a bunch of good actors, highlighted by performances from Suki Waterhouse, Camila Morrone, a newbie, and Sam Claflin (Me Before You). If you’ve read the novel, you are likely familiar with the premise: 70s rock band “rags to riches” Dunne brothers form a band, led by Billy Dunne (Claflin), make it to California and eventually cross paths with the “poor little rich girl” Daisy. They need her and she needs them and rock history and infamy made. It’s a soap opera, I’ll admit it. But it’s fun to watch (outfits, the actors’ beauty, the cigarettes consumed) and the music has some of today’s best musicians at the helm (Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford among them). Both Keough and Claflin do the singing in this and worked extensively with vocal coaches so I’m in it for this as well.

70s love ballad (but I’m here for it):

Like the bonus content? Want to see more of it? Tell me! And please tell me what you’re watching, and why. I want to hear you from you and so does the 4-year-old me.