Why The Last of Us cut a big infected fight scene from Episode 8

It was another intense week for fans of HBO’s The Last of Us; the penultimate episode of season 1 subjected Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to her most horrifying ordeal yet. After being captured by a group of survivors who were resorting to cannibalism to stay alive, Ellie embraced the violence within to fight her way out of the situation, barely escaping with her life.

However, it could have been much worse. While “When We Are In Need” was a faithful adaptation of the 2013 The Last of Us video game, there was one big scene missing. Beware SPOILERS below.

Why there were no infected in The Last of Us Episode 8

Ellie meets David (Scott Shepherd) and James (Troy Baker) early in the episode, and it plays out almost exactly as it does in the video game, with James being sent back to Silver Lake to get penicillin while David and Ellie take shelter in an abandoned sawmill.

But then, the show leaves something out. In the game, David and Ellie are attacked by a swarm of infected while they’re waiting for James. They are forced to fight wave after wave of enemies, gradually getting to know each other under the worst circumstances possible. It’s only after killing off the horde — including a bloater — that the pair return to their campfire and continue their discussion. This makes David’s eventual reveal that Joel and Ellie killed some members of his group at the University of Eastern Colorado even more of a gut punch, because he and Ellie had just fought through hell together.

By contrast, the HBO show doesn’t feature any infected at all during this episode. Why were they cut? It ultimately came down to logistics, as showrunner Craig Mazin explained on the newest episode of The Last of Us Podcast. “Everything at that point was about the world shrinking down to two people, David and Ellie,” he said. “David is…carefully creating a circumstance whereby Ellie will lean forward. He’s not gonna pull her…he’s gonna make her want to lean forward. In the game, that discussion happens after Ellie and David have to fight a lot of infected together. It’s one of the hardest…yeah, it’s a really hard encounter. So, they’re bonded by a certain trust because of gameplay.”

Neil Druckmann, the creator of the original The Last of Us game, also weighed in. “In the gameplay, you save each other’s lives, and that’s how we build trust. Here we have to build trust through our conversations,” he said.

Why did The Last of Us cut a big infected fight scene from Episode 8?

When deciding how or whether do this scene, Mazin and company had to ask themselves a question: if there are enough infected around Silver Lake for them to be a spontaneous threat, then what happens after Ellie and David kill a group? Are there others just marauding about in the woods? As Craig Mazin explained:

"Yes, because we felt…while we could do [that infected scene], the plot implications of a lot of infected running around out there that can just get you at any moment, it would permeate throughout the episode, and we wanted it to function a different way."

Part of what makes “When We Are In Need” so terrifying is how the villains are all human. Trying to squeeze in a big infected action set piece might have distracted from that.

The season 1 finale of The Last of Us premieres this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CST on HBO and HBO Max.

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