One of the more interestingtweaksmade during theeighth episodeofThe Last of Uson HBO involved the relationship and dynamics between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and David (Scott Shepherd), the cannibalistic predatory preacher she encounters.
While attempting to hunt for both food and medicine to help the stricken Joel (Pedro Pascal), who is still out of commission following a stabbing he received - at the hands of David’s scavengers, as it turns out - two episodes prior, Ellie shoots a buck and tails it, leading her to David and his right hand man James (Troy Baker). As James is dispatched to find medicine for Ellie, David invites her to sit and chat - seeing an opportunity to take a situation that’s out of his control and work it to his own twisted advantages.
In the game, not long after Ellie and David first encounter each other, Ellie lets her guard down when David assists her during a shootout with the infected. For a “zombie show”,The Last of Ushas kept the undead at arms' length - it’s never been about them to begin with.
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Mazin said the lack of infected was down in part to not wanting to have an additional threat in the background when David was sinister enough as it was, but also because it allowed the show to dig deeper into the preacher’s true nature, as he manipulates Ellie through his own twisted games, slowly revealing to her that it was in fact his group who found Joel and Ellie, and stabbed Joel in the events of episode six, where Joel and Ellie killed one of David’s raiding party.
He’s making Ellie feel like she’s in control the whole time. He’s already attracted to her - she was involved in killing. He’s a master manipulator, but he’s in control the entire time. Everything at that point was about the world shrinking down to two people in David and Ellie. David is carefully creating a circumstance where Ellie will lean forward, he won’t pull her but he will make her want to be curious. In the game, that discussion happens after David and Ellie fight a lot of infected. It’s a really tough encounter, so they’re bonded by a certain trust because of gameplay. In the game, you save each other. Here, we have to build trust via conversation. The plot implications of the infected being around would affect the episode, so we have to make it about the conversation. He lets her joke, doesn’t take things personally, lets her insult him. And then she says ‘but seriously’ - and that’s when he knows she’s interested.
The Last of Usconcludes on Sunday, March 12 on HBO and HBO Max at 9pm. Check out thetrailer for the season finaledown below.
