Well,
That was a fun episode. That was much more in line with what I was watching this show for. I do not mind Flashbacks, but devoting entire episodes to them is a bad formula when you have 9 episodes.
As has been said, I did not view the leader as religious, even if he thought he was. That was a cult. Given how he approached Ellie in the end, I do not think he "found" god. I agree that the meat cleaver chop chop chop should have left Ellie coated in red and gray. I kind of felt bad with everyone who got left. I wonder how long it takes the sheep to get out and find the shepherds all dead. I have no doubt that humans would resort to eating humans in a world like that. Starvation is a powerful motivator. You could even use humans as a great mulch during the spring for planting crops.
Way to much left for the first game to be over in one more episode unless it has a run time of 3 hours.