And were they eating the dad who died? |
Yes, I think that was the subtext. When they leave the compound to “look for food” or “go hunt,” they actually kill people they find and use them for food. They won’t waste a dead body, even from their own community. This episode was grisly. Do we think Joel may have eaten other humans in the past with his brother in order to remain alive? |
So the group that first saw Joel/Ellie earlier was probably hunting them for food? Hadn’t thought of that. |
Neither had I, nor had I considered that they were eating the girl’s dad. Gross gross gross. |
I’m guessing they don’t fare too well in snowy environments |
got it |
Are you serious? Because its the lead and for the lead you need a known, famous, leading actor, not a complete unknown who only otherwise does voice work. |
Exactly. At the time I didn’t consider the implications, but after the last episode I realized that’s exactly what they were doing. They were going to kill Joel and Ellie at the university campus and bring their bodies back to feed the commune. There’s a point early in the last episode where David (the preacher) and James talk about the most recent group that went hunting. James says “The men say they saw a deer last night” to which David replies “Yeah, but they see what they want to see at night.” This indicates the lack of game animal available, particularly in winter. It seems that finding an actual animal to eat is a fairly rare occurrence. |
I feel like it can't be THAT straightforward because honestly, if you are desperately hunting food, they would have taken the horse. The horse was a clear bird in hand there. Why search for potentially dangerous humans when you can just walk away with a healthy horse? |
I didn’t realize it, either – until Ellie did. I knew something was really wrong and ominous, but when it clicked, I was straight up stomach-turning horrified. I doubt they were intentionally hunting people – they were hunting anything they could. |
I agree that trying to put traditional morality onto apocalypse life is really difficult. I think where we typically draw the line is terrible things being done reactively or proactively. IE, faking an injury to get a car to stop and then doing something terrible to those people who were just traveling is different from killing people who tricked you into stopping and tried to rob you. And clearly Joel has done some proactive bad things. But I do agree it is not always so cut and dry. Are you faking the injury to get the car because you're starving? It does not seem like Joel, to me, has done bad things because he ENJOYS doing bad things, but because he wanted to protect/provide for people he deemed important. So he is kind of a grey area, which makes sense. I think the idea that Tommy would be comfortable with the opinion his wife shows of Joel is less believable though. |
They have a lot of mouths to feed at their commune. They wanted the horse AND the human bodies AND whatever supplies Joel/Ellie were carrying. In a situation where you’re starving in winter, nothing and no one goes to waste. |
Scientists today believe it's still possible to stop climate change if we make significant changes. You'd think a complete shutdown of society would stop the earth from getting hotter, especially when trees and nature are able to grow at a faster rate, taking over buildings, cities, etc. |
In the game when Joel is interrogating the men he captured one of them refers to Ellie as "David's new pet" or something like that. I was surprised they cut it because I think it gave some additional context for just how violent Joel becomes in his attempt to find her. From what we are shown, Joel doesn't know that Ellie is in serious danger just that she has been captured. That line makes his beating them to death, knee cap torture, etc. feel more paternal than psychotic. |
Guess global warming fixed itself 20 years after human society gone for good. |