One of many benefits HBO’s The Final of Us has over the supply sport is the flexibility to go away Joel and Ellie’s viewpoint and increase the world and its characters to complement the story. This has occurred just a few occasions already, and is likely one of the principal focus factors of Episode 8, “When We Are In Want.” The episode breaks away from Ellie and Joel as a way to introduce David and his group previous to his interplay with Ellie within the woods. The present makes use of this time to discover David’s present scenario, in addition to his historical past to unveil disturbing layers of his twisted id.
Not solely is there extra info revealed about David, however the episode additionally explores his group and the non secular dynamic at play of their group. David is a pacesetter of a group that did not put together correctly for winter and despatched a scavenging get together to the college the place they crossed paths with Ellie and Joel. Ellie later stumbles upon David whereas she is looking and turns into tangled in his self-aggrandizing and perverted net.
In The Final of Us sport, David’s group is much less outlined than it’s within the collection. There’s a banner within the restaurant that seems additionally within the present that speaks to the non secular dynamic of the group, however how the group truly features underneath these parameters is not touched on because it does not go away Ellie’s perspective whereas she’s within the city. The present truly does discover this group. A younger lady named Hannah and her mom are important characters that assist to elucidate to the viewers how the group features, and the way David relates and controls his individuals. Hannah is grieving the lack of her father, and the expertise has made her understandably emotional. David manipulates her feelings and makes use of bodily violence as a way to keep and assert energy over her and everybody else who witnesses her abuse.
David’s group finally ends up functioning extra like a cult than a group due to David’s oppressive management over his followers. He believes himself to be their superior and makes use of faith as a instrument to keep up and assert management. By positioning himself as essentially the most educated of the group and the definitive decision-maker, he is ready to act in his personal self-interest and share info as he sees match. The truth that the group are cannibals just isn’t truly understood by all of the contributors, and solely a choose few are conscious of the extent of his failures as a pacesetter. Within the sport it appeared extra like David’s group have been lively cannibals fairly than within the collection the place most of the members have been unknowing contributors.
The collection expands David’s backstory within the episode as effectively. It reveals particulars about his life not solely previous to assembly Ellie, but in addition who he was and what he did previous to the apocalypse and finish of regular society. Before the outbreak, David was a trainer. A truth that’s bone-chillingly creepy with the reveal that he is additionally a pedophile. All his life he has sought out positions of energy over kids which showcases the true horrifying depths of his villainy. After the apocalypse occurred, he discovered faith and in doing so discovered one other approach to exploit individuals and acquire energy over these searching for management and safety. For him, it is all about the way to manipulate individuals as a way to exert energy.
David’s pedophilic attraction to Ellie is what finally results in his dying. His disgusting and egocentric impulses takes precedent over any self-preservation. He takes Ellie prisoner as a result of he needs to make her his spouse regardless of realizing that she is a part of a pair that killed one in every of his followers. When he lastly decides to kill her, he does not merely shoot her in her cage, however he pulls her out and lays her on a butcher block as a way to inflict as a lot ache as attainable, which provides her a chance to kill James and escape. Even on the bitter finish, he locks himself in a burning constructing for the chance to rape her fairly than save his personal life. For him, it is extra essential to exert energy than keep alive, and it permits Ellie the chance to kill him.
Total, The Final of Us explores David’s backstory in a method that wasn’t attainable within the unique sport. It’s revealed that David was a faculty trainer previous to the outbreak. Through the apocalypse, his narcissistic impulses led him to turn into a pacesetter of a spiritual cult that has been pushed to cannibalism due to his poor management. His pedophilia and personal sense of grandeur results in his dying by the hands of a traumatized Ellie in some of the intense episodes of the collection.