Episode 8 shows what the series can never achieve

It’s 2013. I’m fidgeting on my couch, my heart racing. I clutch my Playstation 3 controller as if it were a rock of safety in a stormy sea and finally pause the game. “I can not do this”, I say quietly to no one, and notice that my hands are shaking. It doesn’t feel like I’m playing a video game right now. I feel like I’m in very real danger. The Last of Us brings me to the brink of a panic attack.

That’s 10 years ago. The series adaptation of The Last of Us is currently running on Sky/WOW – and in episode 8 it shows exactly the scene that broke me back then. I know what’s happening in season 1. Which emotional low blows the series takes over from the games. I knew I would cry again. But the Moment when The Last of Us reveals its greatest monster, feels different in the series. Instead of an anxiety attack, I only get slight creepy goosebumps. And that’s for two reasons.

Following spoiler to The Last of Us Episode 8 and the winter section of the video game template.

The Last of Us Episode 8 shows a cannibalistic cult of God – but the real horror is in the details

In the middle of the snowy north of the USA, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) faces a difficult task: Joel (Pedro Pascal) is seriously injured after a fight with several looters. The teenager has to tend to her unconscious companion, so she grabs Joel’s gun and sets off alone – in search of food and medicine.

Check out the trailer for The Last of Us Episode 8 here:

As she chases a shot deer, she meets David (Scott Shepherd) and James (Troy Baker). The two are part of a large group and claim the slain animal for themselves. Ellie eventually has to give up the deer, but gets penicillin for Joel from the friendly-looking David. The situation seems resolved, but Ellie is followed by the group to her safe house and taken prisoner. When she wakes up in a cell in a seedy restaurant, she finds out: David worships the zombie mushroom like a deity and… fed human flesh to his followers, so that no one starves.

The scariest thing thoughthat he has sexual interest in the 14-year-old and wants to make her his partner. Ellie manages to break free but is overpowered by David. When the teenager finally gets the upper hand, she madly hacks at David with a knife. In front of the restaurant she meets Joel, who takes the trembling girl in his arms.

A traumatic experience from start to finish for those on and in front of the screens. Also, because the staging and acting performance are terrific. And yet, Episode 8 of The Last of Us proves why certain scenes just work better in the games.

Reason 1: The Playstation game only hints at what David really wants from Ellie and is therefore more menacing

In the game, the encounter between David (Nolan North) and Ellie (Ashley Johnson) plays out a little differently. In the series, David is the leader of a very Christian group, in the game we don’t learn anything about a religious background. On the show, they bond over a conversation while waiting for James to get the penicillin. In the game they have to fight several infectedwhich makes Ellie trust the stranger.

But the most significant difference for me is another: In the series, David says straight out that he wants Ellie as his partner. Not in game. Here I gradually built up a hunch. How the grown man talks to the teenage girl. How he touches her hand. There’s something beneath the surface. The kind of instinctive understanding of an otherwise threatening situation that makes me want to sit in another compartment or slide away from someone who gets too close.

When I then have to sneak through the restaurant and hide from David, who is shouting threats through the building in an increasingly agitated voice, I panic. But not, ‘Cause I’m running from a cannibal who wants to slaughter me. I’m convinced that this man wants to rape me, the teenage girl I’m controlling right now. No wonder I need hours for this one boss fight and several times I’m close to abandoning the game completely.

Reason 2: The Last of Us is an excellent series but fails to achieve one important thing

That David does not state his intentions clearly, that the sexual only resonates subliminally, until the danger becomes acute that many, especially male players from my environment do not pick up these vibrations at all because they have never been afraid of sexual assault – all this makes the situation even more realistic. And more traumatic for me.

This is how the fight between Ellie and David plays out in-game:

Having to act this scene myself blurred the lines between game and reality for me. In the game, I’m the girl at her mercy, scared to death who only suspects that something completely different than her life is about to be taken from her. I see a horrible situation on the show and I hope that Ellie finally manages to stick that damn knife in David’s heart. It’s not up to us if Ellie tricks David. We are uninvolved. The game of cat and mouse between the two loses intensity in the series.

As David kneels on Ellie, squeezes her neck and gasps “You don’t even know what I’m capable of”is that the Climax of an all too real horror scenario. This intensity, this moment of absolute psychological terror, can’t be conveyed by a series, no matter how good it is.

When Ellie later tries to explain to Joel in a trembling voice what just happened here and after “He wanted me…” can’t go on, I think I know what she wants to say. Because I felt it myself. And only one game can do that.

More than The Last of Us: The 5 best zombie series to stream

Whether you watch The Last of Us or not, the zombie series genre is more diverse than meets the eye. That’s why we’re introducing you to five representatives in the podcast stream that you shouldn’t miss. They can be streamed on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon or even free of charge in the Arte media library.

Each of the zombie series presented makes something special in its own way. Be it that it takes you to a historical setting, approaches the topic with humor or, as a social drama, deals with how ex-zombies can be reintegrated into society.

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