‘The Last of Us’ Powerfully Illustrates How Humanity Is Often Its Own Worst Enemy

The Walking Dead and its spin-offs have time and again shown that people become the real monsters during a zombie apocalypse when left to fend for themselves in a lawless society. This point was driven home powerfully in the latest episode of The Last of Us, while also demonstrating how tough, steely and resourceful teenage Ellie can be.

While Joel (Pedro Pascal) remained ill, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) crossed paths with David (Scott Shepherd), a man leading a desperate group that looked up to him both emotionally and spiritually.

“It’s hard to trust strangers, I know,” David said when he first met Ellie, assuring her, “I’m a decent man.”

Yet despite a pleasant voice and sounding completely reasonable at first, David was exposed as a different kind of monster, resorting to cannibalism to feed his struggling flock, and eventually trying to sexually assault the teenage Ellie, who, thanks to her grit, he saw as a kindred spirit.

In one of the more horrific images the series has produced, first Ellie and then Joel witnessed the remnants of what David was relying upon for food, with the latter discovering a gruesome locker where bodies were being stored.

In order to rescue Joel, Ellie worked hard and exchanged a deer in exchange for antibiotics. After that Joel had gained enough strength to take revenge on David’s men by killing them so he could find her. As an added protection she took advantage of the fact that she was immune from the virus which bought her time when David threatened to kill her—ultimately saving herself with extreme violence.

Unsurprisingly, the odd-numbered episodes of this series have usually been more impactful than the even ones – as was seen in this last chapter. We can observe how their relationship has slowly changed over time, particularly when Joel found her at the end and spoke to her with a loving tenderness that contrasted sharply with all of the violence we’ve witnessed throughout these last few chapters. His words, “It’s OK baby girl,” were especially poignant and meaningful in light of everything they had gone through together.

HBO’s acclaimed series has already been a tremendous success in terms of audience and media attention, yet one more episode is needed to finalize its authenticity when Emmy awards season presses forward come spring. Warner Bros. Discovery realizes this is valuable for their prestige-TV fare, which will be remembered long after the season ends.

With an impressive list of guest stars, Pascal and Ramsey have not only a remarkable chance at closing the deal but are constructing an even more powerful case with each ticking hour. Needless to say, given this genre’s past difficulties in this area, it is no easy feat!