Reaction Review: The Last Of Us Season 1 Episode 8: When We Are in Need
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
EPISODE SUMMARY
Warning: major spoilers for The Last of Us season 1 episode 8, “When We Are in Need”, are throughout the entire review. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
It’s still winter. We see a religious pastor, David, giving a sermon with “When We Are In Need He Shall Provide” plastered on a blanket overseeing a congregation. He approaches a crying female patron and proclaims that God promises days without pain that lay ahead, but for now they are going to suffer together in these days of post apocalypse. This turns out to be a funeral for the crying girl’s father, but the weather is too cold to bury him in as the ground is rock solid; he is to be buried in the spring. Outside of the church, we see a community that looks a lot like Tommy’s (which we saw in an earlier episode), but it has clearly grown in a different way. David instructs one of his right hand men, James, to fetch guns to go hunting with (but only after he swears allegiance to him).
We cut to Ellie continuing to take care of Joel after his injury from two episodes ago. On the topic of guns, she spots Joel’s hunting rifle; the measly crumbs she is feeding him aren’t enough (and she herself can’t live off of them either). She heads out with the mindset that she will catch some proper food for the both of them. She spots a white rabbit which catches on to her presence and bolts; Ellie trips mid haste and decides to move on to the next target. Ellie hears a strange sound and prepares herself; it happens to be a buck that is traversing nearby. Ellie prepares her shot with everything that Joel taught her and strikes: the deer is hit, but it runs away. Ellie chases after it.
We follow the bloody footprints, but we find David and his hunting partner instead of Ellie; she is nearby instructing the two men to drop their rifles. They can’t steal the food quit like they anticipated. Ellie asks them to leave or to get shot; David tries to plead their case. They offer to trade some of the deer for medicine, but only if James tracks down the medicine while David stays at the end of Ellie’s gun and doesn’t move. James heads off, and Ellie isn’t taking her eyes off of David. He starts inquiring about Ellie’s need for medicine, wondering if her dad is sick; Ellie doesn’t want to hear any of this. After making some promises to help, Ellie agrees to come with David to the village, but David has to carry the deer. They set up a campfire, and Ellie still has her gun pointed at David.
They converse and try to see eye-to-eye for a little while. After a little bit of chinwagging, David reveals he actually knows who Ellie is (she and Joel are responsible for the death of one of their community members), and that James has had his gun pointed at Ellie this whole time (a pistol he must have had concealed on him). James has the medicine for Ellie and is instructed to hand it over; Ellie still has her gun out, and she backs away with the medicine and darts off. James is befuddled by David letting Ellie run, but it’s clear that there’s an ulterior motive here. Ellie makes it to Joel and begins tending to him with the medicine.
We cut back to the town, and it is snowing quite a bit. In a kitchen, there is mysterious meat that is claimed to be venison (hopefully the deer Ellie killed) being tossed into a pot. The community begins to eat. Suddenly, David and James arrive with the actual deer that Ellie killed, so… no. That likely isn’t venison. David begins to order his community to hunt Ellie and the mysterious man (Joel) that killed one of their own. The slain individual wound up being the father of the grieving girl at the start of the episode (the funeral we saw was his). After some words of grace, the town eats the dish prepared for them, whatever the hell it is.
The next day we cut back to Ellie and a cold, lifeless Joel (who is hanging on by a thread). His found appears to be healing a teensy bit, and so she applies some more. She opens the garage, where we spot the horse Ellie and Joel rode in a previous episode. Ellie steps outside for the day but she stops in her tracks; the cawing of a murder of crows makes her feel apprehensive in a cosmic way until she realizes they’re literally fleeing from something. She sees the footsteps from David and a few of his community’s members, guns in hand, ready to seek vengeance. They don’t want Ellie dead, and there are some whisperings about nefarious reasons to bring her back to the town. Ellie tries to wake Joel up, and he slowly opens his eyes; he’s barely responsive, but Ellie gives him a knife to defend himself with anyway. She pulls an armoire over the doorway that leads to him, hops on her horse, and circles around the group and fires her gun. They spread out and try to circle around her. James has a good read on Ellie’s horse and kills it, sending her flying through the air. The group runs towards her while she recovers. James wants to kill her until David stops him. Ellie has passed out by the time David reaches her. David is going to take her back to the village and instructs his team to find Joel by going door-to-door.
Joel notices that the armoire has been moved and that someone is coming downstairs to get him. He has rolled away from the mattress he was confined to in preparation. Joel is miraculously on his feet and stabs the assailant in his neck from behind via sneak attack. Despite this burst of energy, Joel’s clearly not one hundred percent okay. We cut to Ellie, who has been locked up in a cell (not unlike how the Fireflies kept her before). David is there to greet her. He is proud to tell her that he kept her alive when the others wanted her dead. He promises to protect her only if she helps him. Back near Joel’s stomping grounds, the party is still searching for him as stealthily as possible. One member spots one of their own down, and Joel socks him with the butt end of a gun. In the next shot, we see Joel interrogating both guys in his own way: by having them taped up and stabbing questions out of them (with some knife twisting to boot). He asks them to tell him where Ellie has been taken. After Joel gets the information he needs, he stabs one of the men to death. He has a lead pipe to bludgeon the other guy with.
Ellie is trying to escape from her cell when she spots something terrifying. As David pops in with her dinner for the day, he notices her gaze: she’s staring at a severed human ear. It’s suddenly all so clear: this community eats human meat to survive. David assures her that her meal is the deer that she hunted. David reveals why he wants to keep Ellie alive: she reminds him of the leadership qualities he possesses. Ellie refuses to agree. He then compares himself to the cordyceps virus: how it mutates, hurts, and feeds. Whatever is necessary to keep going. David sees this in himself and how he takes care of his town. All he wants is an equal, which he sees in Ellie. She promises that Joel will be spared if he doesn’t attack the town and listens to David. As he keeps promising things to her, he starts placing his hand on Ellie’s, and his intentions are starting to be clear: he has very awful intentions with Ellie. She breaks his finger, and David doesn’t react well. He reminds her that if she’s no help to him that she will likely be their next meal.
Joel stumbles towards the town that the two hunters lead him to. He spots the trail of blood on the ground left by the deer, and heads into a locked house. He finds her backpack there and knows she must be nearby. Their horse is dead and rotting on the floor of an adjacent room which appears to be a meat locker of human corpses. Yikes. David and James barges into Ellie’s cell to bring her to the butcher’s table to kill her. She then shouts that she is infected (we know that she is immune, but they don’t). She bit David in self defence. As they deliberate on whether this is a trick or not, Ellie slams a butcher knife — one that was going to be used on her — in James’ neck and bolts. David follows behind with the butcher knife. Ellie has a burning plank of wood that she tosses at David; she misses, but it sets the restaurant — whose kitchen she was being held captive in — ablaze. David refuses to leave. Joel is outside searching for Ellie in the meantime.
Ellie sneaks into the kitchen again to brandish a knife while David has his monologue. He tries to promise her that he won't kill her and he will instead be a father figure, which she knows is bullshit. While she tries to attack him, he catches on; she stabs him anyway, but he is able to throw her into the floor. Ellie tries crawling towards the butcher knife, until David kicks her in the stomach. He then threatens to take advantage of her, and Ellie -- thankfully — gets a hold of the knife and strikes David. She stabs him countless times out of rage; he is long gone. She heads outside of the blazing building and starts panicking when she is approached by a stranger: it’s Joel, who has come to save her. She is relieved, and they embrace. They leave this awful town, both hobbling along the way.
FIRST REACTION
Another very strong episode of The Last of Us, and we now have one episode left in this season. This penultimate part of the story greatly resolves the previous two episodes and what they stood for: how Joel is able to overcome his near-death experience, and how both he and Ellie will defend one another when the chips are down. At the end of the episode, Joel embraces Ellie like she is his daughter after dismissing her so many times before. The bond has been cemented: they are now family in the eyes of each other, and they would die to protect one another. It really drives the theme of doing whatever is necessary home. I think “When We Are in Need” is a good episode, but it becomes a great one since it arrives after the two one-off episodes (“Long Long Time” and “Left Behind”), since we’re spotting how awful some choices of survival can be. Additionally, seeing Tommy and his commune thrive is important as well. This here is a town run by hate and fear in order to get people to listen; these are scary times, but they don’t have to be run in such a way.
Even though I knew what would happen because I’ve played the game (this episode is one of the closest representations of how this chapter transpires in the game), I still felt sick to my stomach with the gradual pacing of the episode. I am noticing how apparent it is that characters come and go in this series, which translates a little bit better in the game than it does here, but the series excels in making these passing ships matter to our two leads (Joel and Ellie), not just via direct relation but also through allegory. David and his community are upset over the loss of one of their members, and Joel and Ellie are to blame. Who wouldn’t want to retaliate? The parts I can’t get on board with are the use of God-fearing tactics to cripple those that are already vulnerable in a time of need (well, that and the cannibalism). David is like Ellie: they’re born to be leaders. Ellie wouldn’t use this trait as a corruption of power, but David clearly has. The underlying theme of what we must do to survive takes a bit of a sidestep to instead showcase what we do on top of the necessities: how do we make the most of survival as individuals? As identities? As fellow people? That’s what makes “When We Are in Need” special, and this episode showcases the largest portion of grey area the series has shown so far. Let’s wrap this season up next Sunday!
Final Grade: 4.5/5
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.