Fans of The Last of Us have praised Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for their incredible performances in the latest episode’s harrowing final scene, which left many of us in tears after it aired.
WARNING: CONTAINS THE LAST OF US EPISODE EIGHT SPOILERS AND GRAPHIC CONTENT
In episode eight – the penultimate instalment of season one – Ramsey’s Ellie meets a teacher-turned-pastor called David (Scott Shepherd), who is the leader of a community called Silver Lake.
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At first, he seems pleasant enough, but we all know that the post-apocalyptic America of 2033 is not an environment for dishing out your trust lightly.
Our suspicions end up being justified when we find David has turned the town into inadvertent cannibals, having replaced their preferred game meat with human flesh.
After turning his attention to Ellie, the predatory pastor is hellbent on either using her for the next batch of stew, or taking her as a reluctant mate – neither of which are particularly appealing to Ellie, who ends up seeking her revenge by hacking him to death with a massive knife, in one of the most brutal and horrifying scenes we’ve seen yet.
As she runs outside, she is initially frightened as she bumps into Joel (Pascal), yelling: "Get off of me!”
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But he grabs hold of her and says reassuringly: “Look, it’s me. It’s me. It’s okay.”
As he brings her in for a hug, Joel then uses a term of endearment he’s not used since the death of his daughter Sarah: “It’s okay, baby girl.”
Naturally, the poignant moment that followed such sheer chaos left fans’ nerves completely shot, with many praising the two lead stars for their powerful performance.
One fan tweeted: "Once again I'm blown away by Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal... their acting is on point, incredible and this episode was insane."
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Someone else said: "Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal are f**king incredible oh my god."
A third wrote: "By far the darkest and most brutal episode of The Last of Us yet, and again just expert acting, craftsmanship, and writing. Just give #TheLastOfUs all of the Emmys.
A fourth added: "I know i say an iteration of this every single week, but BELLA F**KING RAMSEY. my god. what bella does as ellie in this episode of The Last of Us is more than incredible. To me, it's an acting masterclass for a young actor who is exceptional — like WOW — hand Bella their Emmy now."
Speaking about the final sequence in the official The Last of Us podcast, showrunner Craig Mazin said he told Ramsey they had ‘no restraints, no leash, no nothing’ for their portrayal, asking them to ‘just do what needs to be done’.
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Mazin said the moment Ramsey finally killed David, it was ‘so clear’ that he was ‘beyond dead’.
“It’s that moment that you realise that there’s just everything pouring out of her,” he said.
“And when she finally stops and she looks off, I don’t know how you could portray trauma better, more convincingly, more accurately than what is on her face in that moment, and what is in her eyes.
“It is so upsetting.”
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Mazin also spoke about the scene in an HBO behind-the-scenes video that accompanied the episode.
“In the end, the only person who can save Ellie is Ellie,” he said.
“And how? Violence.”
Co-creator Neil Druckmann explained how the experience ‘scars her in a way that forever changes her’.
“In a way, Joel saves her, but more emotionally,” he said.
“She’s just so broken, and she doesn’t know what to say, and she’s covered in blood.
“And then she just looks him right in the eye, and she leans forward and hugs him.
“And all he can say is this thing that he hasn’t said in 20 years, which is ‘baby girl’, which is what he called his daughter.”
Mazin added: “At the end of this story, you can see something snap in her. And the question is, is it permanent or can she find her way back?”
Featured Image Credit: HBOTopics: TV and Film