The Last of Us: 8 biggest changes from the video game in season 1

4. The Silver Lake pastor posse

After suffering a terrible injury at the University of Eastern Colorado, Joel lies at death’s doorstep for days on end. Players must take control of Ellie for the first time as she comes up against a group of cannibals led by David and his lieutenant James.

In the games, we don’t learn much about David, James, and their group. They remain one more party of malignant raiders, with the added bit of horror that they have taken to eating human meat. In both versions, David is a twisted psychopath, but on the show he’s a more complicated twisted psychopath.

In the show, we get a much better sense of how this group operates. David’s backstory about finding god is new, as are the group’s religious overtones. The events of “When We Are In Need” are largely the same as in the game, but these additions add a lot of depth.

There is something else that’s interesting about making David’s group a borderline religious cult, which is that it gets us acclimated to the idea of cults as a part of this world. This will be relevant as the story goes on, since the Seraphite cult is a major part of The Last of Us Part II. In the game, that cult feels a little like it comes out of left field, but I have a feeling that in the show it’ll feel much less abrupt in part because of these changes to David and the Silver Lake cannibals.