The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 5 finally introduces spores
The Last of Us Season 2Episode 5 introduces a crucial part of the Cordyceps outbreak from the games: spores, and this is why they’re so dangerous.
TheCordyceps pandemicdidn’t start with Clickers terrorizing the streets. At first, it infected people via food, with the virus originating in a flour factory in Indonesia. Eventually, people transformed into the rage-fuelled, ravenoustypes of ‘infected’you see in HBO’s series and the original games.
If you’re bitten, the fungi spreads through your body, and there isn’t a cure. Similarly, if you’re scratched, you can still be infected.
However,The Last of Usshow has waited to introduce another method of infection, and it’s arguably the scariest one of all (okay, maybe not as terrifying as facing the Rat King).
Why spores are so deadly in The Last of Us
Spores are an airborne transmission of the Cordyceps virus in The Last of Us; aka, if you breathe it in, you get infected.
If you’re forced to fight an infected, even if it’s a Clicker or a Stalker, you have a chance of survival. If you happen to stumble into an area overgrown with fungi and you don’t have a mask, it’s probably already too late: if it’s in your system and you don’t have the benefit of being immune like Ellie, you’re doomed.
In the first game, there are areas where Joel needs to wear a gas mask to survive, but this wasn’t included in Season 1.
“I don’t necessarily know if we’re going to see any spores this time around, but to say that our world is devoid of them would not be accurate. We don’t quite know yet. That’s part of the fun of adaptation, leaving these blurry edges of the map for our characters to discover as the adventure continues,” Mazin earlier toldVariety.
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In a later appearance at SXSW before Season 2, Druckmann confirmed it would include spores – or, in his words, “an escalation of numbers and types of infected, but also, as you see in the trailer, an escalation of the vector of how this thing spreads.”
“The reason [we’re doing it now], I mean, we really wanted to figure it out, and again, everything has to be drama. There had to be a dramatic reason of introducing it now. And there is,” Mazin added.
Until next week, you may read ’s fate in The Last of Us games,what you need to know about the WLF, andwhy Eugene is so important in Season 2.
