![]() She munches on the last bit of jerky that was stashed in her backpack and leaves a piece atop an unresponsive Joel. Running out of water, Ellie hydrates her mouth with a few drops and dampens Joel’s parched lips with the rest. The wound that Ellie carefully closed with what was most likely a rusty needle isn’t looking too good. Joel is still breathing, however faintly he can, in the wretched state he is in. They’ve heard rumors of deer roaming the nearby woods, and they must attempt to hunt at least one if they wish for their group to make it through the winter. David’s “resort” that circles an abandoned steakhouse is without any traces of a life well lived, unlike the heaven that the people of Jackson lovingly shaped. It’s been a rough six months, and as faith doesn’t satisfy hunger, James is losing his faith in the priest. Even rationing out portions would only leave them with enough to last a week or two. But even James’ quavering state of faith doesn’t evade David’s eyes. Only one is by his side, through fear of him or the guilt of their shared transgressions: James (played by Troy Baker, aka the actor who voices Joel in the game). But instead of the fear of God, it is the fear of David that makes the group jitter. The faces of the apocalyptic flock echo the terror of a draconian convent. When spring comes and softens the earth, the little girl’s father will receive a place in the ground. All she wants to know is when it will be possible for the mouthpiece of God to offer her father a holy burial. She can’t possibly hark back to what comes after the verse that the preacher, namely David, is reading aloud. And the one whose tears flow clear in the icy terrain of a dreary Silver Lake is a little girl mourning her father’s death. Singing of the new heaven and the new earth rising from the ashes of the ones that are gone, a preacher borrows verses from Revelation 21 to uplift his morose flock. And there are miles of corpses to leap over before we get to the end that we can only hope would not leave us in pieces. Yet there are miles to endure before the light seeps through the crack. ![]() Has TV’s favorite dad opened his heart to another of his magic children? Yes. Nothing is as effective in fastening an emotional tie as being subjected to unimaginable horror together and getting away alive. Making up for not reimbursing fans’ therapy bills, “The Last Of Us” penultimate episode (What are we going to do with our lives when it ends?) relinquishes something we’ve been dying and pleading to see. ![]() The mangled psyche of sociopaths, further provoked by either a dicey interpretation of “holy” doctrines or a conscious urge to exploit the same, hoists up a tremendously disturbing tale in “When We Are In Need” and echoes the terror of Abbasi’s 2022 Persian thriller “ Holy Spider.” All that is helping us get through the freezing hell is the warmth, exuding from the reassuring campfire of hope. Leave it to Ali Abbasi to join Mazin in inflicting deranged religious horror on the already unnerving passage of two apocalypse survivors in “The Last Of Us” Episode 8.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |