When We Are In Need is the eighth episode in The Last of Us. We have one more week until the season finale, and then we have to wait a year to get another fix!
Spoilers Below
I give detailed, blow by blow details as I review. If you want to skip the spoilers jump down to the Scoring!
If you have watched When We Are In Need let me know if you agree with my Scoring Below.
Revelation 21
Episode 8 opens with a preacher reading the bible to his congregation. One of the flock has fallen, but it is too cold to bury them. That will have to wait until the ground thaws. After the sermon the Preacher David asks one of the other survivors (James) how the food stores are doing. They are running out of food. The scene ends with the pastor slapping David’s arm and telling him they are going hunting.
Wounded Joel
Ellie is trying to give Joel food and water. He is either asleep or passed out. Ellie tell him she will be right back before going outside with the rifle. She scans her surroundings, not looking comfortable with the weapon, before heading into the snow covered wood.
Ellie sees a rabbit first but stumbles, letting it escape. She then shoots and wounds a deer. Preacher David and James find the deer before her. Preacher David tells her he is from a large group that is hungry. He is willing to trade. Ellie wants antibiotics for Joel. Preacher David sends James back for the meds to trade for half the deer.
Shelter
With James having an eight mile round trip to bring the meds Preacher David convinces Ellie to take shelter and start a fire. The two of them have a heart to heart while they wait. The Preacher tells Ellie a story about how had sent out a few scavengers to find supplies. Only one of his scavengers didn’t return. It is the man that Joel killed at the college!
Preacher David completes the trade, even though James wants to take vengeance. Elle runs back to Joel with the meds and gives him a shot of antibiotics.
Venison
With the trade complete Preacher David and James head back to their camp with their share of the deer. His congregation is quiet as he enters. He promises them that when the sun comes up he will go back out and find the people who killed one of their flock.
Hunted
While out gathering snow for water Ellie sees a flock of birds react to something in the distance. She immediately realizes the Preacher and his group have come for them.
More alarming, the preacher wants to kills whomever Ellie is with – but keep her alive. It is never a good sign when a religious cult leader demands the young girl be brought to him alive.
As Ellie tries to draw them off on the horse, the poor beast is shot out from under her by James. He is about to put her down when Preacher David saves her from his own men. He tells them to go door to door and kill anyone else who was with Ellie, while he carries her back to their main camp.
Joel Fights Back
As the Preacher’s men go door to door one of them finds the house Joel is in. Joel wakes up just enough to realize he’s in danger and sneak up on his would be murderer. Joel puts the man down quietly with a knife.
Creepy Preacher David
Ellie waked up in a cage. Preacher David tries to screw with her mind. He tells her he is the only thing keeping her alive
Joel Being Joel
Once Joel is back on his feet he quickly tears through the men that Preacher David left to hunt him down. In the process he gets one of them to tell him where Ellie is. Joel is pissed and he has a target.
We then cut back to Ellie in her cage. As Preacher David brings her food she sees an ear on the floor. The Preacher has been eating the dead in order to survive. Preacher David tries to gaslight Ellie into believing she is an equal, a friend, but all he really wants to do is to manipulate a teenage girl. He promises Ellie that he will call off his men if Joel will just leave. Of course it is all bullsh*t. The Preacher is just trying to get a lever on Ellie.
It is super creepy as he reaches through the grate wraps his hand around hers. She’s fourteen in the show right?
Blood Trail
Joel stumbles into town before finding a blood trail leading into a building. He finds bags and other items taken from survivors before finding their dead horse and multiple human bodies hung up for butchering.
As Joel is realizing what the scavengers have been doing Preacher David and James return to Ellie to turn her into dinner. She freaks out Preacher by telling him he’s no infected. It gives her just enough time to grab the cleaver and kill James.
With few weapons on hand Ellie ends up throwing a burning branch at the Preacher, setting the building they are in on fire in the process.
The Preacher tells Ellie how lucky she could have been as he stalks her around the locked up building. As they play cat and mouse in the building Ellie grabs a steak knife and uses it to stick Preacher David in the side. Things get super creepy as Preacher David tells Ellie the fighting is the part he enjoys. Thankfully Ellie gets her hand on the meat cleaver and finishes him off before things get truly horrible.
When Ellie makes it outside Joel grabs her and hugs her, telling her he has her. He gives her his coat before the two of them walk off into the snowy distance.
When We Are In Need Scoring
When We Are In Need was full of twists and turns and scored a well deserved 100/100. I couldn’t look away and wished the 50 minute episode was two hour long.
Things I loved about this episode:
- Ellie’s intensity when she finds Preacher David and James with her deer.
- The revelation that Preacher David’s lost survivor is the man that Joel Killed in Left Behind.
- The subtle show of Preacher David’s true disposition towards his own people. Slapping a girl who lost her father does not make for a good impression.
- The way Ellie realizes she is being hunted when she sees the birds react to the other groups passage.
- How Joel took apart the men searching for him once he was back on his feet. All he cares about is Ellie and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to find her.
Things I hated about this episode:
- Ellie injecting antibiotics into the area around Joel’s wound. If they gave her intravenous antibiotics would injecting them into tissue do anything at all?
- Cannibals? I feel like this is both a logical plot device but also one that has become a bit of a trope.
| Season | Episode | Episode Name | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | When You’re Lost in the Darkness | 100 |
| 1 | 2 | Infected | 100 |
| 1 | 3 | Long Long Time | 95 |
| 1 | 4 | Please Hold on to My Hand | 94 |
| 1 | 5 | Endure and Survive | 100 |
| 1 | 6 | Kin | 90 |
| 1 | 7 | Left Behind | 90 |
| 1 | 8 | When We Are In Need | 100 |
| 1 | 9 | Look for the Light | 100 |
