Warning: the following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode eight, “When We Are In Need.”
As phenomenal of an adaptation as The Last of Us has turned out to be over the past eight weeks, boy oh boy has it fallen victim to some unfortunate editing or continuity errors. The past two episodes have had three between them, and this week yet another one has been spotted.
An eagle-eyed observer on The Last of Us HBO series subreddit who was paying more attention to the floor (we jest) than to Bella Ramsey’s stellar performance of a concussed, mortified and defiant teenager, spotted that the bowl of ‘deer meat’ she kicks back in David’s direction ends up right back at her feet a few moments later.
We went back to have a look at the scene in question ourselves, and it checks out. To David’s chagrin, Ellie gets very judgemental about his community’s cannibalism and boots the bowl of what is still definitely deer meat. The shot cuts to David delivering dialogue, then cuts back to her Ellie. While this first instance shows food splattered on the floor, the next time the scene cuts back to Ellie, the bowl is back in front of her.
What we’re going to over-dramatically dub ‘bowl-gate’ joins the ranks of Ellie reaching up to her face to remove her mask twice, a horse handler’s hand reaching up over a stable, and a camera crew caught in the outskirts of a wide overhead shot.
Minor continuity and editing gaffes aside, you can be absolutely certain that we’re going to be tuning back into The Last of Us finale next Sunday when it airs on HBO Max. From the trailer, it’s looking like everything we’ve been eagerly anticipating.