Who Are David’s Group? The Last Of Us Episode 8 Villains Explained

The Last of Us episode 8 introduces David and his group to the story, a new group of villains for the HBO adaptation’s penultimate episode. After The Last of Us episodes 6 and 7 focused on Ellie’s attempts at saving Joel’s life after he was wounded, The Last of Us episode 8 ramps up the pacing in an action-packed episode. Much of the action and tension comes from the introduction of David’s community and their impact on Joel and Ellie.

Given that Pedro Pascal’s Joel was gravely injured in The Last of Us episode 6’s cliffhanger ending, David initially seems like a blessing in disguise to Ellie. The man offers to trade some Penicillin to treat Joel’s infected wound for a deer Ellie hunted. However, with Ellie’s attempts to save Joel in The Last of Us episode 7 only working to reduce Joel’s blood loss, the too-good-to-be-true trade deal soon turns sour as David’s true intentions and dark nature come to light.

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David Is A Preacher Who Leads A Religious Group

Before David (Scott Shepherd) and his group are revealed as the true villains of The Last of Us episode 8, the episode showcases David as a preacher chosen to lead a religious group. While David’s followers are not overtly shown as religious, David later explains that they simply needed someone to lead them, something that David — and through him, God — can provide. David holds regular sermons, with a sign in the community common room that reads “When we are in need, He shall provide,” with the first part lending its name to The Last of Us episode 8 titled “When We Are in Need.”

David’s Last Of Us Backstory Explained

An interesting element of David’s backstory in HBO’s The Last of Us season 1, episode 8 is that he was not always religious. Despite acting as a preacher for his community, David reveals he was a teacher before the outbreak. He states he was a math teacher and taught children around Ellie’s age.

David reveals that he was initially part of the Pittsburgh quarantine zone after the outbreak, a neat Easter egg to the original The Last of Us game, as the story of Henry and Sam takes place in Pittsburgh in the source material. David states that after the Pittsburgh QZ fell, he and a group left and started gathering more people. Rather than settling in one place for too long, which drew raiders, they moved around a lot until settling in the town shown in the episode.

David’s Group Link To The Last Of Us Episode 6’s University

The Last of Us episode 6’s ending starts David’s turn from a seemingly friendly man to The Last of Us episode 8’s main antagonist after the reveal that he links to the men from the end of the former episode. David reveals that the men who attacked Joel and Ellie in Colorado belonged to his group, and they know Joel murdered the man who stabbed him. This causes Ellie to panic, fearing that David will take retribution on her.

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However, David insists that Ellie remain alive. Despite this, David and a group of men follow Ellie to where Joel is, intending to bring him to justice for killing the man at the end of Last of Us episode 6. While David and James — played by original Last of Us game actor Troy Baker — take Ellie back to their community alive, three other men stay behind to find Joel. While Joel is still weak from his injury, the Penicillin ironically provided by David allows him to kill one of the men tracking him. He then interrogates the other two men to find the town’s location to rescue Ellie.

David’s Group In The Last Of Us Episode 8 Are Cannibals

Perhaps the most shocking reveal for anyone unfamiliar with the original The Last of Us game is that David and his group are cannibals. One thing that The Last of Us episode 8 makes clear, though, is that only a select few people in the community are aware of this. The others are kept in the dark and told they eat meats such as venison or rabbit, a slight difference from the original The Last of Us game. While the reveal of David’s cannibalism comes later in The Last of Us, episode 8, there are some hints towards this earlier.

One comes in the first scene featuring David’s crew, in which a grieving young girl asks when they can bury her father, the same man Joel killed in The Last of Us episode 6. After sharing a look with James, David states that the ground is too cold to dig and that they will bury him in the spring. This is an obvious hint that they will never bury him but that the girl’s father will be fed to the community struggling for food under the guise of game meat. Another hint comes when James is reluctant to eat the meat, proving he knows its nature.

David’s Dark The Last Of Us Nature Comes To Light

After the reveal of David’s cannibalism when Bella Ramsey’s Ellie sees a human ear on the floor, another harrowing truth comes to light about his nature at the end of The Last of Us episode 8. Throughout his conversations with Ellie, David hints that he is not the benevolent, good-natured leader he claims. From his obsession with Cordyceps, stating that he admires its drive to secure its future through violence and that “it loves,” to state that he has a violent heart, David’s facade begins to fade.

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This is compounded at the end of the episode when David attempts to assault Ellie sexually. He states, “The fighting is the part I like the most,” after Ellie retaliates. This comes after David says that Ellie is special — after finding out about her Last of Us immunity — having touched her hands inappropriately earlier, states that he will “keep” Ellie, treating her as an object he can possess as opposed to a person. All of this was hinted at in the original The Last of Us game but is leaned into much more clearly in HBO’s adaptation, making David the true villain of The Last of Us episode 8.

New episodes of The Last of Us release every Sunday on HBO.

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