The Last of Us Episode 8 Introduces the Show's Most Horrifying Villain Yet

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Episode 7 of The Last of Us, "When We Are in Need." Read at your own risk!]

In The Last of Us Episode 8, the stakes are higher than ever. For one, Joel (Pedro Pascal) continues to be bedridden from his wound and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is trying everything she can to nurse him back to health. And even though Ellie has found a temporary refuge in the basement of a home, there doesn't seem to be any food. To make matters worse, it's the dead of winter right now. Ellie may have significantly upped her shooting game thanks to Joel, but one step outside and it becomes clear that this is not the ideal environment to hunt in.

Still, Ellie is nothing if not persistent. She successfully kills a deer, and upon tracking its body crosses paths with The Last of Us' most horrifying villain yet. Meet David (Scott Shepherd), a pastor in the town of Silver Lake who seems innocuous enough at first glance. In fact, David appears to be a real angel compared to his partner James (portrayed by Troy Baker who, fun fact, portrayed Joel in the video game). James immediately takes a dislike to Ellie, and is confused when David shows kindness toward her. When James reluctantly agrees to go to Silver Lake to get medicine as part of an exchange for the deer — the residents of their town are starving — David and Ellie have a bonding moment. David shares about how he found God after the apocalypse, and it's here that Ellie says one of my favorite lines in the entire series: "So you went from teacher to preacher because what, it f--king rhymes?" 

As the pair talks, Ellie begins to soften up. She also realized that the man Joel had killed at the university was the father of someone in David's town. And the pastor makes (part of) his intentions clear: Joel needs to be punished for his crime, but Ellie should be spared. In fact, David wants Ellie to join him in Silver Lake.

Our protagonist, of course, wants to stay with Joel. She gives him the medicine that James brought, and we are treated with the warm scene of Ellie lying closely to the still-sickly Joel. But everyone knows at this point that wholesome interactions don't last long in The Last of Us. In Silver Lake, the people are calling for Joel and Ellie to be hunted down. David and James lead a group of men on the excursion — the former seems to be the only one who wants Ellie to live — and Ellie panics when she sees them approach. She leaves a weapon with Joel and takes off on horseback trying to lure the men away. But it doesn't take long before James captures her and, though he wanted to murder the girl, David stops him.

In Silver Lake, Ellie is kept in a cell. When she spots something on the ground, it dawns on Ellie — and on us — just what type of monsters she's facing. There is an ear — yes, a human ear — that makes us realize the Silver Lake residents are cannibals. Remember the venison that was brought to the cook earlier, before David and James returned with the deer? Or when David told the girl at the start of the episode that they can't bury her father until the spring because the ground is too cold now? It was all lies! David and a select few have been feeding their people human meat to stay alive. And for all we know, most of them have no idea what they've been consuming.

When David appears to talk to Ellie, another layer of his villainy is revealed. The pastor once again tries to convince Ellie to stay and start a partnership with him, and creepily touches her hand. She tries to escape and fails, and when David and James prepare to kill her — and eventually eat her — she tells them she is infected (smart, Ellie!). Ellie kills James as she runs away, but is trapped inside the lodge. The building starts to burn as David tries to find her, and when he does it's an absolutely painful moment of the pastor sexually assaulting Ellie. Not only is David a cannibal, he is a cannibal fueled by pedophilia. 

David is far from the only human villain we've seen in the show. Kathleen (Melanie Lysnkey) brutally hunted down Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard), and her tunnel vision on vengeance caused all of Kansas City to be wiped out by the Infected. But at least she was driven by vengeance and love for her brother. David's motivations are not explained, and he seems to rationalize his actions by viewing himself as the savior — the savior of Silver Lake, the savior of Ellie. And nothing is scarier than a villain who justifies their evil deeds with twisted morality. His attack is thankfully stopped by Ellie, who grabs a knife and kills him. But enough damage has been done.

While Ellie was captured, Joel has miraculously recovered and took down the rest of the men sent for him. He tortured them to get directions to Silver Lake, and after he arrives in town we see perhaps the most grotesque shot in the entire series. Joel comes across a storage room where beheaded human bodies are strung from the ceiling. This is likely where David and co. have been preparing their meals away from the townspeople. Joel realizes Ellie is in grave danger, and he finds her after she has run out of the burning lodge. She is safe now, thank goodness. And we are brought to tears as she sobs into Joel's chest, and he calls her "baby girl" — what he called his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) — to comfort her.

The Last of Us continues Sundays at 9/8c on HBO and streams simultaneously on HBO Max.