Poll: What Did You Think of The Last of Us - Episode 8?

Week after week I've been coming here commenting how great the show is. But this chapter felt much better in the game. David trying so hard to convince Ellie to join them made no sense in the series, they should have found other reason to get her captive. Felt the same about Joel's miraculous recovery from being almost dead to a vicious killer in a minute. Personally, this was the weakest episode of a great show.

@Pikki I agree. Haven't complained about the lack of infected in the series until now. But they are being sidelined in excess. Don't think we'll see much of them in the finale either, leaving only 2/9 episodes with a serious infected presence.

Can't wait for UK based members to complain about how the image and title of this post are apparently huge spoilers, as every week

Honestly, they didn’t really need to rush the whole first video game in one season. Two seasons with it being fleshed out would’ve been perfect. Weird decision to me since it clearly was going to a success from the start.

Mixed feelings. I can’t deny the intensity of the episode. It felt the most gut-wrenching of any of them. The way the plot unfolded had a few issues, imo, but it did finally get to the same place as the game, in the end.

I've been hate watching the last few weeks. The show is just terrible and has missed the entire point of the game. The core of the game - Ellie and Joel - just seems to be an after thought. The best parts of the game are ignores. The world doesn't really feel threatening at all. Bella is a terrible actress and doesn't have the gravitas necessary to carry the role. Worst of all, the show is suffering from one of the worst problems of scriptwriting from the last few years - it tells and doesn't show. Joel's a bad man because the show says so. Ellie is a natural leader because the show says so. Ellie knows how to survive because we're told she can.

The first game was obviously great despite Neil, not because of him. One more episode and I can be done for good. Such a disappointment.

@PSfan4Life22 Blunt, fair and honest.
I totally agree. I continue to be perplexed by this show being held up as greatness.
Every episode squeaks by as just good enough, barely, to keep watching.
Yet every episode I see them strip out scenes and dialogue that were character building and instead the show rushed through all series.
And they must have expected the show to bomb, since the budget is ridiculously low.
I gyess it's more a blessing than a curse they can't afford to have much infected, since when they do show up they look so cheap.
To each their own, but the games are done so much better in the little details and conversations.
Which I still can't believe a videogame surpasses a tv show in acting and dialogue.
This show is consistent though. Consistently basic.
Each episode I hang onto hope it gets better.

@Ambassador_Kong Other than the Neil slap, I feel ya! They cut everything a show should have built on.
It feels like the tv people were afraid people were too stupid for subtlety or nuance and needed to spell everything out for them.

For a show that has been consistently engrossing week-to-week, it's hard to get down on an episode that was simply 'Good.' It just felt like a quick side-episode before the sure-to-be-rushed finale. Each game should get 2 seasons, minimum.

God, the visuals in this episode were so flat and uninteresting. Why did they light and color correct what should be the most disturbing episode to look like a ski resort travelogue?

The series feels rushed. It feels like I'm watching a catch up sequence through each episode.

@Ambassador_Kong I agree. Considering this is a HBO show I expected so much more. There have been a few highlights but overall the series has been a disappointment at best and a complete disaster at worst.

It's not anywhere near as intense as the games. Really feels watered down. Not bad though

I hope they include the giraffe scene but I’m worried it won’t feel earned. I’m just not feeling any genuine emotion or character development between Joel and Ellie on the show, sadly.

@LN78 Yea but thats not what i mean with being forced. The other side forcing such content in almost any serie or movie coming out is the way you should think.

"It's not TV. It's ~ThE~OthEr~SiDe~" Nah, doesn't really have the same ring to it.

I liked how Joel is set up for Part 2: We got to see a bit more of his 'crazy man' dark past. Main actors (including Troy Baker) all did a really good job. (edited for typos)

@Ambassador_Kong omg someone else who gets it! "Show, don't tell" is like the first rule of any visual storytelling. But yeah, no one seems to know this anymore.

Also, just as an aside, I told my family that we'd never see the infected hive mind thing play in again after it was introduced and I'm thinking I'm right. Like other terrible shows it was contrived for convenient plot purposes for one episode.

Compared to the absolute bore fest of last week this week's episode feels like it should be nominated for awards.

I agree with Ambassador though, that the show does tell us what to think too much. It doesn't bother me tremendously but it's still annoying that the showrunners dictate our morality and judgements for us.

Like others have mentioned, there is so little interaction with the actual infected that they could have removed them entirely and still been able to have almost this exact same show. That part is very disappointing.

I thought the episode was good. If you didn't play the game I'm pretty sure you would enjoy it alot more because watching it you see how much the cut it out. Still like all things I take everything for what they are and not what I think they should be.

@GreatAuk Considering the game was so brilliant in letting the player come to their own conclusions about Joel and his actions, it seems really odd that they're really trying to go down the route of Joel deserving to be beaten to death because he was such a bad man. Of course we don't see him being a bad man, but his brother said they did bad things, so it must be true.

I would think all the survivors of an apocalypse would have done bad things or they would be dead. The original game boiled down to a question - do you allow someone to die to save a world that is already dead? Anyone with a child already knows the answer to that.

Every episode has resiculous and lazy aspects that make no sense. Here are a few for this one:

1. That was a very clean horse. Never pooped in the garage.
2. Notice that it went from snowing to not snowing between one camera cut at the end.
3. Building was burning down and no one showed up to help.
4. Why were Joel and Ellie walking towards the lake at the end of the episode? Where were they going?
5. How does a man on foot get in front of a galloping horse?
6. Awfully convenient that Joel and Ellie come across the town that just happened to be the home of the person that they killed two episodes ago.
7. If they know Joel is dangerous, why do they search in partiesbof one?

I could do this for every single episode. The show just feels cheap and thrown together.

@PhantomMenace84 I'm really at a loss. If there was ever a time for Joel to Hulk out, this would have been it. Like the last episode where Ellie's trip to the mall for medicine was completely stripped out, it feels like they have removed all of the action scenes from this series and just left us with characters sitting around and talking.

I think I cried in every single episode so far. This last one was tears of rage. That’s a personal record that I don’t think will ever be beat.

I really liked this episode, but to be fair, the game is better in every aspect in my opinion. Still enjoying the show very much!

@Ambassador_Kong I can understand people not liking it if they were expecting and wanting a more action focused series, but saying Bella Ramsey is a bad actor is absolutely criminal.

I wasn't too pleased with the casting but Bella has been smashing it out of the park in the last few episodes!

This is the episode I was most looking forward to as it is my favorite part of the game. I thought it was okay. I wasn't buying the actor they went with as David. This version was no way near as charismatic as he was in the game. He was definitely creepy in a pedo way but didn't give off the impression of a manipulative leader. Was John Hawkes even approached for the role? He would have been perfect. Would have been a really cool if Troy Baker actually played the role because he did look better for the part and could have pulled it off. The episode also felt rushed and the payoff fell flat. I actually cried when Joel called Ellie "baby girl" in the game. Felt nothing here. There was just no emotional weight. He just hugs her and they walked off. The scene should have just cut to black with her bawling in his arms. Was cool to see Joel go on a rampage though but there could have been more. He just waltzed into town without even getting attacked and the snow storm didn't feel as strong as it should have been.

@Corc11 Opinions. I feel very comfortable predicting a future when the hype of the show has died down where people will reevaluate the show and ask themselves why they thought Bella did a good job.

@CaptainBasch
Yep, they should have cut to black. Instead the final shot is them walking towards a lake. My son was laughing at it and asking - "Where are they going? Are they going to swim?"

Okay, so I don't have proper experience with playing through the game myself, thus there are bits I've missed and I have no real loyalty to it yet.

But as a normal viewer, I thought that episode was fantastic, true to form, and Bella was really good in the end scenes. It was just overall great TV drama for me.

I understand those who already have a love for the game go in with expectations, and this are kind of looking to nitpick (subconsciously) which is fair enough, but regardless of those expectations, it might be worth standing back and saying that actually, that was a great penultimate TV episode.

It's fine that the game did it better too, as that will never be taken away, and I myself as a gamer but with no die hard affiliation to TLoU, still think throughout the season there was things that could have been given more time, it would suit a much slower pace, for sure, even just as TV. But just think, hey at least this sh** ain't Max Payne 😁😁😁

And always get whatever enjoyment you can from it, and be happy that they will never actually butcher the source material.

I imagine this episode will have been a huge hit with those new to the IP. I haven't heard the general overall reaction, as I was avoiding comments until I'd watched, but the poll looks fairly strong now.

Hyped for the last episode now 😀

@Ambassador_Kong

"Where are they going? Are they going to swim?"
Haha! Dude, I think I said the same thing!

@Ambassador_Kong I don't know about you but if I'd just been inside a boiling hot, smokey burning building fighting off a man I'd probably want some water to be honest