[Editor’s note: this piece contains spoilers for the most recent episode of HBO’s mega hit drama series, “The Last of Us.” If you haven’t watched s1e8 “When We Are in Need” yet, you may want to do that before reading past this point.]
Episode 8 of HBO’s “The Last of Us” is on everyone’s radar. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) come across the religious cannibal cult led by devout zealot, David (Scott Shepherd). The series — and by extension, the game — sees Ellie acting on her own, desperate to protect Joel while he recovers. What unfolds pushes her to desperate actions for survival, and a fear she never expected.
Ramsey recently chatted with The Last of Pods about Ellie facing horror she’d never expected.
“It’s definitely a shift. She’s experienced traumas before, but this is nothing that she’s ever experienced,” Ramsey said. “Of all the things that could’ve gone wrong in this world, all the time she could’ve died up until now, she did not anticipate this.” Worse than simply coming up against raiders, Ellie is captured by the leader of a group who has been cannibalizing their dead. In the name of survival and providing for his flock, David tries to assure her that it was their only alternative.
As Joel, still recovering from a severe stab wound, desperately tries to find her, Ellie faces death yet again. Backed into a corner, Ellie’s forced to take violent action. The end result being a bloody end for both James (Troy Baker) and David. That violence seems to scare Ellie, while simultaneously bolstering her. She realizes what she’s truly capable of on her own and it leaves her rattled. “She’s also I think maybe more afraid of what she did to him,” Ramsey continued. “And that violence that lives within her…we’ve seen her be violent, but not like this. And I think that scares her, what she’s capable of.”
Catch “The Last of Us” on HBO Sunday nights. You can watch Bella Ramsey’s full interview with The Last of Pods below:
