The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8 Recap – who are David and James?

By Ricky Valero
Published: March 6, 2023 (Last updated: September 15, 2024)
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Summary

I’ve expressed some doubts about specific episodes of the series, but “When We Are In Need” was the best episode of the season. Bella Ramsey solidified herself as an Emmy powerhouse.

We recap the HBO series The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8, “When We Are in Need,” which contains spoilers.

In The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 7, we saw a flashback of a relationship between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Riley (Storm ReidMissing (2023)) and how it led to her not abandoning Joel (Pedro Pascal) while he was on the verge of dying. The series is on the brink of closing, and we have much to unpack.

The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8 recap

The episode starts with a man reciting “Revelation 21” to a group of people. Amid this happening, a young girl begins to cry, interrupting him, and he stops to calm her down. She followed by asking when can we bury him, and the man said, we can bury him in the spring. It’s too cold to dig. After the gathering, the two men discuss the upcoming plans and what they have left to survive.

We move to Ellie, who is hunting for food for her and Joel. As she struggles to kill a bunny and is slightly frustrated, she sees a deer, pulls the trigger (just like Joel taught her), nicks the deer, and the deer whimpers off. The two men stumble across the deer and don’t see anyone claiming it, so they plan to take off with it. However, Ellie comes up and tells them to back away from the deer. She asks them to make a deal, medicine for half the deer, and David obliges.

Who are David and James?

In The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 6, when Joel and Ellie go to find the Fireflies, they run into a group of three men. We find out that those three men were now at this camp, named David, James, and Alec.

Alec was the one that got into the brawl with Joel and ended up dying.

Were David and James in the game?

Both David and James were in The Last of Us video game. Shortly after the meeting, the duo began to trust one another and went on to lead a group of cannibalistic survivors. The game and the series play out almost identically, from how Ellie and they meet again to her finding out about them being cannibals.

David and Ellie begin to talk, and this is when we find out that these are the same guys that Ellie and Joel ran from after Joel fought the guy and killed him. Regardless, David forces James to give Ellie the medicine and let her go. But instead, she runs back to their base and injects the drug into Joel. When we returned to David’s camp, James informed everyone of who they had run into. The man’s daughter says they should kill him, but David smacks her. David does mention that they will go after and find them.

The crew arrives to track down Joel and Ellie. We see Ellie bolt on a horse and shoot at the guys. Sadly, she doesn’t make it very far when James takes out the horse. As the men are gathered around Ellie, James is about to shoot Ellie, and David stops them. Next, when one of the men finds Joel, he attacks him and can kill him with the knife that Ellie left for him.

READ: The Last of Us Season 1 Review

At camp, David begins questioning Ellie, who is now in a cell, about who she is and where she is from. He preaches that he wants to help her and that she needs to trust him. Next, Joel gets the best of the two men, tying them up and torturing them to find out where that man took Ellie. Eventually, he kills both men after getting what he wants. Finally, as she attempts to break the cell, Ellie realizes that in the camp she is at, they are cannibals.

Who dies in The Last of Season 1 Episode 8?

David and James are about to chop up Ellie, and she reveals she is infected, and now he is, too, cause she bit him. He doesn’t believe her but rolls up her sleeve, and now James is freaked out. Ellie grabs the knife, stabs James, and runs. As Ellie tries to escape, we see a now-dead James against the wall, with David pulling the knife out of his neck to defend himself.

The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8 Ending Explained

We see David creep around in an attempt to get ahold of Ellie. She keeps ducking and dodging him, eventually sneaking in and stabbing him in the chest. Even with that, David can get the best of her and gets on top of her. As he is about to try to rape her, Ellie grabs the knife and stabs him over and over and over again.

As she goes outside, Joel grabs her from behind, scaring her, but he comforts her as they walk into the woods.

What did you think of The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 8? Comment below.

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