The Last of Us fans praise Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for heartbreaking final scene in latest episode

The Last of Us fans have praised Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey after they left viewers in tears with a heartbreaking scene at the end of the latest episode.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US EPISODE EIGHT (AND REFERENCES TO VERY GRAPHIC CONTENT...)

The penultimate instalment of the hit HBO series was certainly not for the faint-hearted, having introduced us to the chilling character of David (Scott Shepherd), a teacher-turned-preacher who serves as the leader of Silver Lake.

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Having run out of food in the dead of winter, the community has inadvertently had to turn to cannibalism to survive – something Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finds out the hard way after spotting a severed ear on the ground when she is locked in a basement cage by David.

Just as she is about to meet the same fate, however, she manages to attack David and his right-hand man James (played by Troy Baker, who voices Joel in the game) and runs upstairs to the town’s restaurant and meeting place, setting it alight before a twisted game of cat-and-mouse with the predatory pastor.

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After being pinned down to the floor, she is able to overpower David by stabbing him with a knife, before brutally leaning over his body and hacking him to death, in what is undoubtedly one of the show’s most horrifying moments yet.

With a blood-splattered face, she emerges from the building and is taken aback when she bumps into Joel (Pedro Pascal).

“It’s me,” he tells her as she screams.

An emotional Ellie collapses onto him for a hug, with Joel telling her reassuringly: “It’s okay, baby girl. I got you.”

HBO/Sky

Naturally, the highly emotive sequence left many viewers in absolute bits, with some admitting they couldn’t help but bawl as Joel stepped into the dad role to comfort the teenager.

One tweeted: “Standing ovation!! Tonight was so good!”

Someone else said: “SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP THIS EPISODE BROKE ME.”

A third wrote: “The best part I legit cried.”

HBO/Sky

A fourth said their developing relationship had been ‘perfectly written, then perfectly acted’, while another added: “This broke me that Joel called her the same thing he called his kid. This series is outstanding. I was bawling at the end.”

Others called for Ramsey and Pascal to be nominated for Emmys for their poignant performance, with one saying: “Give that talented man an Emmy award #PedroPascal #BellaRamsey.”

Another agreed: “I know I say an iteration of this every single week, but BELLA F**KING RAMSEY. My god. What Bella does as Ellie in this episode of The Last of Us is more than incredible. To me, it's an acting masterclass for a young actor who is exceptional — like WOW — hand Bella their Emmy now.”

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Speaking about the final sequence in the official The Last of Us podcast, showrunnner Craig Mazin said Ramsey was told they had ‘no restraints, no leash, no nothing’ for their portrayal, having been asked to ‘just do what needs to be done’.

Mazin said the moment Ramsey finally killed David, it was ‘so clear’ that he was ‘beyond dead’.

“It’s that moment that you realise that there’s just everything pouring out of her,” he said.

“And when she finally stops and she looks off, I don’t know how you could portray trauma better, more convincingly, more accurately than what is on her face in that moment, and what is in her eyes.

“It is so upsetting.”