A screenshot from the TV series The Last of Us showing a congregation beneath a spray painted sign that reads 'When We Are In Need, He Shall Provide.'
Don’t ask where the meat comes from (Pictures: © 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. Al)

The HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us is reaching its conclusion, as Ellie deals with a deadly group of cannibals – but were they in the game?

The TV version of The Last Of Us isn’t exactly like the video game but while a number of character details have been added or changed the basics of the plot are pretty much always the same.

Exactly how similar the finale will be remains to be seen but Ellie and Joel’s penultimate obstacle, with David the preacher and his flock of cannibals, has played out almost identically to the game.

So before we start talking about that in detail do be aware that we’re about to delve into spoilers for both the game and the show, although we won’t discuss anything that happens after episode 8.

Was David and the cannibals in The Last Of Us video game?

The basic set-up of episode 8 of the TV show is very similar to the original game (and its remake from last year), as Ellie tries to help a wounded Joel by hunting for food and searching for medicine.

While doing so she runs into a preacher named David, who turns out to be the leader of a group of survivors who are set up in an unusually large and well organised camp of their own. Their secret though, is that they capture and eat people to survive.

The story in the game is pretty much the same, with David quickly working out that Ellie is the girl who had been responsible for killing a number of his followers in a previous encounter. Rather than just using her for meat though he tries to convince her to join his group, before Ellie attacks him and tries to escape.

What’s different with The Last Of Us cannibals between the TV show and the game?

Most of the plot is the same for the cannibals in both the game and the show, with Ellie killing David, and his right-hand man James, entirely on her own. The sequence where she grabs a knife from behind her is almost exactly the same, although, to be honest, everything with the fire and having to hide from David is a bit more cinematic in the game.

The main difference is that in the game Joel turns up just seconds after David is killed, whereas in the show Ellie meets him outside.

In the game this is also the point at which Joel fully embraces Ellie as his surrogate daughter, referring to her as ‘baby girl’ for the first time – the same term he used with his actual daughter.

That seems heart-warming at the time but will have grave consequences for the end of the story…

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