Ellie is taught some valuable lessons about survival from Tess (Picture: HBO)
Warning: spoilers ahead for The Last of Us episode 2.
The Last of Us is continuing to shed light on how the outbreak of a parasitic, fungal infection caused destruction to the world in this fictional tale, with episode 2 providing more concrete answers about how the pandemic began.
The TV series, which is based on the video game franchise of the same name, follows a smuggler called Joel (Pedro Pascal) who’s tasked with transporting a teenage girl called Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the US, as she carries immunity to the infection and could therefore be the key to finding a cure.
In the first episode, Joel meets Ellie for the first time with his smuggling partner Tess (Anna Torv), as they sneak Ellie out of the Boston QZ (Quarantine Zone) where they live.
When they make it to the main city, Ellie learns more about how the world changed over the past two decades, as the group face life-threatening dangers.
Flashback to beginning of outbreak and horrific origin
The beginning of episode two opens with yet another flashback, this time to September 24 2003 in Jakarta, Indonesia, when the authorities sought the expertise of Ibu Ratna (Christine Hakim), a professor of mycology at the University of Indonesia.
The second the professor realises what’s happening, she knows the world is doomed (Picture: HBO)
After looking at a specimen that’s been presented to her, Ibu explains that it’s ophiocordyceps, but is sceptical when she’s told it was taken from a human, as she stresses: ‘Cordyceps cannot survive in humans.’
However, all of that changes, when she inspects a dead body, cutting into the cadaver’s leg to discover fungi inside, before pulling fungal strands out from their throat.
The professor is told that approximately 30 hours ago at a flour and grain factory, the woman in question ‘turned violent’ and bit three coworkers, before being shot by the police. While the people she bit were also executed, the person who bit her was still at large, and there were also 14 workers missing from the factory.
While the authorities hoped Ibu might be able to help, she stressed that there was no medicine or vaccine available, before advising that they ‘bomb this city and everyone in it’, and asking if she can be taken home to be with her family.
Several viewers were left astounded by the revelation that fungus in flour was likely the cause of the spread of the infection, especially after hints were dropped in episode one, such as when Joel and Sarah (Nico Parker) didn’t eat pancakes at breakfast, and also avoided eating biscuits offered to them by their neighbours.
‘The end of the world being caused by FLOUR is wild,’ one person tweeted, while another wrote: ‘So the flour theory is true then.’
Joel and Tess take Ellie into city after discovering her arm bite
In episode one, Joel and Tess were taken aback when a device used on Ellie appeared to indicate that she was infected.
Ellie is still showing no symptoms of being infected despite being bitten weeks before (Picture: HBO)
However, she explained to them that while she had been bitten, the incident happened three weeks previously, and unlike anyone else they’d heard about, hadn’t turned into a monstrous creature.
Tess is more confident than Joel in carrying on with their mission, and so they proceed with their plan to transport Ellie to a squad of Fireflies.
When asked by Ellie about a crater in the middle of the road, Tess explains that when the outbreak happened, the city was bombed in an attempt to slow the spread of the infection.
Meanwhile, Ellie tells the story of how she was bitten, claiming she went exploring in an abandoned mall by herself when she encountered an infected individual, who bit her.
At one point, Ellie references spores in the air spread by infected – which have appeared in the game, but are yet to be shown in the TV adaptation.
She also learns about how the infected are connected, as the fungus grows long fibres underground, and so if a person steps on Cordyceps in one location, they could end up waking up a dozen infected individuals elsewhere.
Trio face terrifying Clicker attack in museum
On their journey to reach the state house where they believe the Fireflies are located, Joel and Tess take Ellie into a museum, as there’s a route at the top that leads to another building.
Joel signals to Ellie that the Clickers can’t see, but can hear (Picture: HBO)
After they walk in, they find a large clump of infected dead people, but the fungus has dried up at this point.
Nonetheless, they’re not completely on their own, as the trio end up facing a couple of Clickers – infected people whose stage of infection has reached the point that they’re blind, but use echolocation to find their prey and are extraordinarily strong.
Joel and Tess fight the Clickers off, with Joel shooting them both dead, and while Ellie sustains a bite, fortunately for her, it doesn’t turn her into an infected.
Firefly plan left in tatters – while Tess reveals her doomed fate
Joel, Tess and Ellie finally make it to the Firefly base at the state house… but everyone there is dead, with Joel realising that there was a fight between healthy and sick members of the squad.
It’s the end of the road for Tess (Picture: HBO)
Tess, who has been acting in an increasingly brash manner, desperately searches for a radio among their equipment, before Ellie realises that the reason why she’s so frantic is because she’s infected, having been bitten on her shoulder.
Tess pleads with Joel to take Ellie to two men they know called Bill and Frank, saying to him: ‘I never ask you for anything, not to feel the way I felt. This is your chance to get her there. You keep her alive, and you set everything right.’
An infected man on the ground begins to move, and Joel shoots him dead – but this alerts other infected in the area to their location, through the connection of the fungi in the ground.
After staring at Tess in their final moment, Joel grabs Ellie and drags her out, as Tess struggles to set alight her lighter, which she plans on using to cause an explosion of gasoline and grenades when the swarm of infected arrive.
As the infected enter the building, one walks over to Tess, before planting a horrific kiss on her, complete with fungal strands in his mouth.
Tess finally manages to strike up a light, and the building explodes, with Joel looking stoic as Ellie’s eyes water at the sight.
The Last of Us is available to watch on Sky and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays.
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