With the ending of episode six, Joel is out of commission – and it’s up to Ellie for both of their survival. Lost and confused, she must take what Joel taught her and use it to survive the harsh winter.

Before she leaves to hunt food, Joel – who is at death’s door by this point – tells her to go and leave him, and get to Tommy. Ellie is shown deep in thought, but as she turns to leave the door, the scene becomes a flashback.

The majority of this episode takes place as Ellie is in the F.E.D.R.A. school. It’s made obvious she doesn’t get along with the other kids as they bully and mock her. They mention how Ellie’s friend is no longer there to help her and Ellie strikes back, attacking a girl named Bethany.

After her fight, she’s brought in front of Capt. Kwong (Terry Chen) who tells her that, if she learns to control her emotions, she can become a great leader – as well as an officer for F.E.D.R.A. – but if she can’t, she will be stuck doing the jobs no one wants.

Ellie seems to reaffirm her belief in F.E.D.R.A.’s cause, as she agrees before going back to her room to sleep. In her sleep, the aforementioned friend Riley (Storm Reid) sneaks through her window and wakes her.

Ellie says she thought that Riley was dead, but Riley reveals she ran away to join the fireflies. They briefly talk about how they disagree with each other’s beliefs, and Riley reveals that she made big plans for that night.

It’s revealed that Riley had made plans to sneak into the abandoned mall within the QZ.  They make their way into the mall, but just inside the entrance is the body of a man who took his own life by mixing pills and alcohol.

Riley notes that the corpse is new because she was just inside the mall yesterday and he wasn’t there. They then grab the open bottle before the floor below the body collapses.

The dialogue as they explore the mall is sharp and funny. Showing that, even when the world has gone to hell and your best friend is leaving to join revolutionaries, there is still time for laughter.

They go on the carousel, drink more, use the photo booth, and play a couple rounds of Mortal Kombat – which Ellie had talked about in episode three.

These moments of bliss are disturbed when Riley says that this is supposed to be a farewell, telling Ellie that the fireflies are making her go to another QZ. This revelation comes as we see our first glimpse of an infected for this episode, showing it’s a matter of time before they get attacked.

When the attack did come, it was violent: Ellie and Riley get easily overpowered as the frantic camerawork emphasizes the horror of the scene.

Briefly cutting back to the present, the scene follows Ellie’s search for medical supplies, before returning to the mall where Riley gave Ellie two choices: end it all right now, or make the most of their remaining time together.

“We can be all poetic and s— and lose our minds together,” Ellie said.

Ellie’s decision to stay shows she isn’t one to leave someone in the face of death. Joel had protected her this whole time, and Ellie understands it’s her time to stay by his side and return the favor.

This episode covers Ellie’s background, her experience with loss, and her actions in these situations. It’s made more clear why Ellie is the way she is: she doesn’t ever want to experience a loss like Riley again, so she stays with Joel.

Opening episode eight with deep snow and a pastor, David (Scott Sheppard) addresses his haunted-looking congregation. After breaking away from his reading to comfort a sobbing girl and her mother, it is revealed that this is the family of the man Joel killed in episode six.

The pastor finished by saying that the ground was too cold to dig, and her father would be buried in the spring; one of the first hints at the pastor’s horrific secret.

David’s congregation is more of a cult than anything. A banner reading, “When in need, he shall provide” is above the saloon door. With how David talks later in the episode, it’s evident the “he” in question is David.

As David’s group goes out to hunt, the scene switches to Ellie hunting by herself in the woods. She successfully hunts a deer, but runs into David and one of his group members, James (Troy Baker, Joel’s in-game voice actor), when approaching the deer.

She makes them lay down their weapons, and they agree to give her penicillin for half of her deer. In doing this, she reveals who they are to David’s group.

David waits with Ellie while James goes to get the penicillin. In the meantime, David tries to sway her into joining them – but Ellie makes it obvious she doesn’t want to.

During this talk, James comes back and points a handgun at Ellie. David tells him to let her go and give her the penicillin. Ellie takes the penicillin and flees quickly, leaving her half of the deer behind.

When David returns to his group, he reveals they have found the people who killed one of their members and that they will track Ellie’s footprints in the morning.

David lies to his community, saying that the meat they are eating is venison, when, in reality, it’s the body of the father that Joel killed. The oblivious community eats quickly, while the few members who know the truth eat at a much slower pace.

Ellie administers the antibiotics the wrong way, but it still works. When the hunters finally come and Ellie fails to evade them, Joel seems to be working at full capacity again as he takes out three of the hunters.

He brutally extracts the location of the community from two of them before he kills them and starts making his way to save Ellie.

David shows his cruel side to Ellie as he reveals they have been eating humans, but tries one last time to get her to join his community. Just when he thinks he has her by reaching his hand out to grab hers, Ellie breaks his finger and David storms off in a rage.

As Ellie is being prepared to be killed and eaten, she uses her bite to distract David and James. Claiming her meat is tainted by cordyceps before using her spare time to kill James, she hits him with the same cleaver that was supposed to be used on her.

She quickly runs off before David grabs the cleaver and follows suit. At one point, Ellie throws a flaming log at David, but misses and lights a massive fire inside the building they are in.

Eventually, David overpowers her and displays how truly horrific he is. As the fires of hell erupt around them, the false prophet, David, tries to force himself onto Ellie.

Ellie reaches for a knife, just barely grabbing it before brutally stabbing David over and over again in an emotionally-motivated scene. She screams and cries as she stabs him repeatedly for 20 seconds straight. Ellie exits the burning tavern to see Joel outside. Joel sees her covered in blood and visibly in shock, and for the first time since the death of Sarah, Joel refers to Ellie as “baby girl.” This signifies how Joel now sees Ellie as his daughter and has taken his barrier down.

Episode nine begins, and there is a distinct switch in how the characters act around each other: Joel has taken the joking and fun persona, while the now traumatized Ellie is much more reserved.

This pattern continues until Joel and Ellie find giraffes at a zoo, giving Ellie a return to self and the hope to see through her journey and develop a cure. During this encounter, Joel realizes what he’s lost and he misses being a father.

When approaching what is supposed to be the firefly base, Joel and Ellie calmly talk until suddenly a flashbang is thrown and Joel is knocked unconscious.

After waking up, Joel sees Marlene – who explains Ellie is being prepped for surgery. She explains how Ellie’s immunity works, saying that the cordyceps she has tricks other cordyceps into thinking Ellie is already infected.

To make a cure, they have to remove the cordyceps. Joel mentions that cordyceps grow in the brain, meaning Ellie would die. Marlene confirms this, and has guards escort Joel out of the hospital.

When inside of the staircase, Joel fights back against the armed guards and overpowers them. The now-armed Joel goes back into the hospital, determined to save his surrogate daughter. 

No one in his way stands a chance. He guns down everyone in his path until he reaches the operating room and executes the surgeon before taking Ellie and leaving.

Inside the parking garage, Joel encounters Marlene, who tells him that he can’t protect Ellie forever. With Marlene pointing a gun at him, he is in the same position as episode one, when he loses his daughter. Joel, this time, doesn’t hesitate to shoot the threat and save his daughter.

The episode ends as they are on the road, as Joel lies to Ellie saying that the procedure didn’t work and there is no cure. He even promises to her that his story is true.

My Review

This entire series should be an example of how games should be adapted to film: an incredibly loyal depiction of the game that isn’t afraid of changing small things to further connect us to characters within this story. 

Throughout the whole series, there are so many examples of these changes. The changes to Henry and Sam’s story made it so much deeper to the viewers. Allowing a deeper connection of the two that the show uses when they eventually die, and the audience feels almost exactly what Joel and Ellie feel.

The TV show invests lots of time in the characters’ past, and builds a complex relationship between Ellie and Joel.

This makes not only a great TV show, but keeps those who are fans of the series extremely happy, which is reflected from the accolades already claimed by this show.