The Last of Us Episode 8 Ending Explained: Does Ellie Manage to Save Joel? What Happens to Food in David’s Town?

The Last of Us Episode 8 ending and spoilers, After the emotional chapter in the form of a flashback focused on Ellie’s past and her relationship with Riley, The Last of Us returns to the present to solve his most important question: Will Joel survive? Ellie goes out alone to try to get food and medicine for her partner and ends up meeting David (Scott Shepherd), the leader of a religious community who seems nice at first, but ends up revealing himself as a manipulative tyrant, blinded by power and even… Cannibal. But let’s not anticipate events. Ellie’s determination and loyalty are marked by her life experience, so if you think that The Last of Us Episode 7 is a “filler episode”, you are not understanding anything. Ellie points her rifle at David and his henchman James (played by Troy Baker, the voice of Joel in The Last of Us video game) and gets penicillin to treat Joel but discovers that the assailants who stabbed him were from David’s group and that they seek revenge for the death of one of them.

The Last of Us Episode 8: Plot Summary

In our lowest hours God will provide the new episode of The Last of Us starts with a group gathered to listen to a preacher read Revelation 21 from the Bible. A woman begins to cry and asks when they can bury her father. They decide that in spring, winter has hardened the soil. Between rabbits and deer, they calculate that food can last a maximum of two weeks. David (the preacher) and James (a hunter) set out to find more food. Meanwhile, Ellie continues to take care of Joel, but she is also hungry, so she decides to take the rifle and try to hunt. She sees a rabbit, but she falls trying to catch it. She later finds a deer and shoots it. She manages to hit him, but he runs away badly injured.

David and James find it, but Ellie doesn’t let them take the prize: she tells them to drop their weapons. They tell you that they are part of a larger group of very hungry women and children; Ellie lies and says that she does too. They negotiate an exchange: half a deer in exchange for two vials of penicillin. James goes for it while Ellie and David build a bonfire and take shelter. David tells him that he found God after the Apocalypse, he was a math teacher. He ran away with a few when the Pittsburgh quarantine zone fell. He explains that they did not expect such a harsh winter: anything grew and there is hardly anything to hunt. He also tells her that nothing happens by chance. That a disturbed man killed the father of one of the women in his community and that he was traveling with a girl, and he knows it was her. James is behind Ellie, pointing a gun at her.

Against all odds, David tells James to give him the medicine. He knows he’s not with a group and he won’t last long alone out there. Ellie runs away and injects Joel with penicillin directly into her wound. In David’s community kitchens, they prepare a meat stew and set the tables in the dining room. Once reunited, he tells them that they have found the girl who was traveling with the man who killed Alec. The idea is to catch him and prosecute him, but his daughter says they have to be killed. David slaps her so hard that he knocks her out of the chair. He tells her that even though she already believes that she doesn’t have a father, she does have one and he must show her respect when he speaks. He then blesses the food, and they prepare to eat.

Ellie continues to take care of Joel and injects him with the medicine. A party of six men approaches the cabin. James wonders what they will do with her when they find her: if they take her away she will be another mouth to feed. David seems to have plans for her. Sensing danger, Ellie tries to wake Joel up: she gives him a knife and tells him there are marauders. She’s going to try to mislead them and get them away, but if they get to him she has to defend herself. She shoots at them and flees on horseback. David says he wants her alive, so James shoots the horse, causing it to fall heavily into the snow. Ellie is knocked unconscious, but David prevents her from being given the coup de grace. He picks her up in her arms and carries her away. He orders two men to drag the horse. The rest records the place. Joel finds the strength to hide and attack one of them from behind, sticking a knife in his neck. Ellie wakes up in a cell. David tells her that she is afraid of him because she has proven to be dangerous. He asks her out, but she tells him that she’s not alone. He explains that that part of her life is coming to an end for her and that he is offering her a new beginning. She has to make decisions.

Joel attacks another of David’s men. He goes to catch them one by one and interrogates them to find out where Ellie is. He tells them that they have her alive in Silver Lake: a complex that does not correspond to a town as such but to an isolated community. Despite him giving him the information, he wants, he kills them both. David brings Ellie food. He swears that it is deer meat, but despite being hungry, she does not trust her word and is afraid that he will tear her to pieces. He tells her not to judge him but she tells him that she knows he is an animal, and that he eats people. She hides behind the fact that she cannot starve those who have entrusted her with their lives.

David tells her that she reminds him of him, that she is a nothing, loyal and violent leader. She also tells him that she reveres cordyceps: she doesn’t think it’s a bad thing, but something that multiplies and is violent if necessary to survive, like himself. He tells her that he is honest with her because he is a shepherd surrounded by sheep and he sees her as an equal with whom he wants to have a future. David tells her that he will stop following Joel but that he needs her help. He shakes her hand through the bars and she breaks his finger, bites it, and tries to steal his keys. Her move backfires, she misses them, and he slams her face against her bars.

Joel finds a trail of blood and follows it: it leads him to the place where they keep the meat. And, of course, he finds not only the deer but also human corpses hanging from the ceiling, decapitated. David and James are about to cut off Ellie’s head, but she stops them by telling them that it is infected and showing them the wound. Since she bit David she tells him that he is too. She attacks James, kills him, and flees by setting fire to a curtain: everything starts to burn. David tells him that they are locked up and he has the keys. She suspects that she is not truly infected by his way of fighting for her life. She attacks him from behind and stabs him with a knife. He climbs on top of her and tries to rape her but she reaches for the knife and stabs him to death. She manages to get out of there bloody, sore, and very scared. Joel finds her. He takes off his coat, covers her, and hugs her as they walk away, comforting her that everything is okay.

The Last of Us Episode 8 Ending Explained

David follows Ellie’s trail along with four armed men and they find her whereabouts. Ellie tries to escape on horseback, but she is shot down and, although James is about to give him the coup de grace, David interrupts them. He wants her alive. So, they take Ellie back to town and begin a door-to-door search for Joel. But why does David want to keep Ellie alive, facing off against his community? David insists that he only wants “a friend” and reveals that he sees himself in her since they both have “violent hearts”. He mentions that since he is the only leader of a community that looks up to him, he needs someone he can see as an equal. David insists that Ellie is that person and that the two of them can do amazing things by running the community together. Remember that Ellie is 14 YEARS OLD and the actor who plays David is 56.

If that weren’t enough, Ellie discovers that David has been serving his people human meat without their knowledge and that her choices come down to either giving it to David or ending up sliced ​​up and roasted for dinner. But David was right about one thing. Ellie has a “violent heart” and manages to escape from the cell in which she was held captive, she kills James and has a final battle in a fire with David, which ends up revealing her dark and disturbing intentions. “You don’t know how good I am. You don’t know what I could have given you if you’d let me”, David yells. “I’ve decided you need a father, so I’ll support you. And I’ll teach you,” he continues, making it clear why he was so insistent on keeping her alive.

Although the original video game hinted at David’s pedophilic inclinations, in the HBO Max series it is much more evident and leaves no room for doubt. David’s last sentence before being savagely murdered by Ellie is defining: ” That they resist is the part that I like the most. There is no need to fear love”. Finally, Ellie manages to reach David’s knife and brutally murders him, letting out all her rage. Escaping the building, she is reunited with Joel, who has managed to track her down through equally brutal “interrogation methods”, displaying a lack of mercy and violent animal instincts that have come to frighten us. But what is coming can be even more shocking…

What Happened in Episode 8, When We Are in Need?

Episode eight of The Last of Us begins with the introduction of David (Scott Shepherd), a herdsman and the leader of a community of survivors in which food and supplies are in short supply due to the great frost that falls in the region. Meanwhile, we see how they talk about the death of one of them when they went out looking for food (yes, the one that Joel killed and the one that left him seriously injured), and how under the hope of religion they seek to fight hunger.

At the same time, we see Ellie healing Joel and picking up the story before the flashback that led us to Ellie’s life in Boston. With the teenager desperate before Joel’s condition, she decides to go out into the woods in search of food, to which she hunts down a deer. However, as she is about to pick up the prey, she sees David and his right-hand man James (Troy Baker) standing by her. Threatening them at gunpoint, Ellie asks them to get off her, to which David begins to engage her in conversation about her town and her need for food. Ellie reacts instantly and asks that in exchange for half a deer they give her medicine to cure Joel.

Does Ellie Manage to Save Joel?

Agreeing to the trade, David asks James to go into town for penicillin, while David and Ellie take refuge. While waiting, David explains that he is the preacher of a town that chose him as a leader. In addition to inviting Ellie to join the group, he goes on to say that he was a math teacher, but when the apocalypse happened, he became a preacher (‘from teacher to preacher,’ Ellie scoffs). However, at the moment David tells him that everything happens for a reason, James arrives pointing a gun, David explains that they sent 4 people to look for food in a nearby town, but that only 3 returned when they were attacked by a man and a girl. Emphasizing the phrase, ‘everything happens for a reason’, David lets Ellie go with the medicine and with the message that he can protect them.

Later, we see how David and James arrive at the town with the deer. Faced with the apathy of the people, due to the news that their leader let the murderer of one of their escape, David is confronted by the daughter of the man who died at the hands of Joel and asks them to pay. The preacher answers with a blow and asks for respect before starting to eat and pray. The next morning, Ellie realizes that they are looking for them in the town. We see how James confronts David about what to do with Ellie and Joel, to which the leader of the group tells him that they only stay with the young woman, to which James rebukes that if they give the teenager shelter, it will be a mouth more to feed. At this, Ellie, who had injected Joel with the medicine the night before, explains the situation to Joel, giving him a knife to defend himself and riding out to distract them from the shelter. However, at Ellie’s heroic departure, James manages to bring down the horse with his rifle, sending Ellie flying high and unconscious.

What Happens to Food in David’s Town?

In a moment of maximum tension, we see how at the same time that Ellie wakes up in a cage, Joel manages to defend himself from his capture attempt, killing several of the looters. As David offers Ellie a fresh start, Joel manages to scare off his attackers, even going to the point of torturing them into giving him the young woman’s location. All the while we see how Ellie realizes the disturbing reality of the town when she sees an ear in the kitchen: the meat they eat to stay alive was human.

Faced with the discovery, David unmasks his true identity, one in which he finds parallels in Ellie’s type of leadership and in which he sees his reflection; therefore, his invitation of him to the group is his right hand of him. Explaining that his preacher facet is not for God or the Bible, that is the image he gives to the people; it’s really because of the Cordyceps itself. Seeing the fungus as something ‘good’ he defends his children, loving them and ensuring his future. And imagining what both could achieve as leaders of the people.

Following the disturbing confession, Ellie pretends to agree in exchange for Joel being released. After extending her hands, the young woman attacks him, biting and scratching him still inside the cage. David reacts by going for James to gag Ellie on a kitchen table, and when they are about to attack her with a knife, it is Ellie who stops them saying that she is infected and showing her scar from her. Which, David realizes that the young woman bit him, and taking advantage of her bewilderment, Ellie grabs the knife, plunges it into James’s neck, and flees.

Realizing that she is locked in the dining room, Ellie grabs a piece of wood from the embers and fans it, causing the building to catch fire. With David chasing her into the compound, Ellie attacks the pastor, and they engage in a knife fight. For, Ella Ellie manages to stab him, and, between struggles, she manages to get the knife and stick it into the pastor’s head. Culminating the eighth chapter of The Last of Us, when leaving the burning building, Ellie is reunited with a recovering Joel.

Who is David in The Last of Us Series?

A kind of God worshiped by the members of his group, David (Scott Shepherd) is a disturbing and evil man. Disturbed, the man even attacks one of his group partners, but sees Ellie’s resistance as something positive, at least for him. In this way, he invites the girl to be his apprentice and to live alongside him in the group that, by the way, were cannibals. The shocking revelation that they are all cannibals sickens Ellie, who begins to fight with all her might to get rid of the gang. However, noticing Ellie’s advances, David has no alternative and offers the girl’s body as the group’s next meal. 

However, the girl does not give up so easily and manages to seriously injure James and escape. Then she is chased by David, who has one of the most disgusting lines in the series. The man seems to want to have a life with the girl, which strongly suggests that the character is a pedophile. In a desperate and screaming act, Ellie gets a knife from the ground and stabs David several times, all while she screams desperately. It doesn’t take long for Joel to recover from his injuries and go to Ellie’s rescue, who ends up finding the girl. The scene is characterized by the man calling Ellie “girl”, as he referred to his daughter. 

Why Did David Want to Keep Ellie Alive?

Right after offering help with the medicine, it didn’t take long for David to reveal himself and capture the young woman for his group of cannibals. Shocked, Ellie is deeply scared, but does not decide to give up and decides that she will fight against everything and everyone. On the other hand, David offers a friendly relationship with the young woman; in return, he would teach Ellie everything and take her on as an apprentice. He mentions that because he is the only leader of a community that looks up to him, he needs someone he can see as an equal. David insists that Ellie is that person, and the two can do amazing things together if they manage the community as a pair. However, things become even more disturbing when David clearly shows signs of an unusual obsession with Ellie and attempts to sexually assault her. The obsession also comes through abusive and disturbing comments, which makes Ellie sick and panicky. Nevertheless, the girl decides to end it all by using a knife to stab David, becoming one of the hardest scenes to watch of the season.

Were David and His Group Cannibals?

Throughout the episodes of the series, we discover that it is not easy to live in a post-apocalyptic world where everything is scarce, especially food. Shortly after exchanging the medicine for half of her deer with David and James, Ellie manages to medicate Joel but has her location tracked by the group. It doesn’t take long for David and his gang to capture Ellie, who begins to discover horrific facts about David and his troupe. The first, of course, is that David and some members of the group are cannibals. The man reveals that food is scarce, even more so in harsh winters when some sacrifices have to be made.

The man points out that not everyone in the group knows about cannibalism, but that most, like him, practiced it. It was the way they found to survive the current chaotic world in which they tried to survive. However, there is more to the back story than viewers could comprehend. That the world is in chaos and food is scarce is no longer news, David and his group, at first, went around the neighborhood in search of survivors so that he could serve them as food. However, the man believed himself to be a kind of religious leader, a shepherd who takes care of his sheep. Therefore, for others to see him as such, he sought ways to supply them. After all, people will always trust those who can meet their needs.