“The Last of Us” episode 2 proved that last week’s episode wasn’t a fluke: the show is very, very good.
It begins with another chilling cold open that shows how the cordyceps fungus spread across the world from a flour and grain factory in Jakarta. “A perfect substrate,” declares a mycologist who’s called in to examine the first-ever infected corpse. When she hears about fifteen infected who are unaccounted for, she tells an army general the only way they can stop the spread is by bombing the city and everyone in it. Later, as Tess, Joel, and Ellie make their way through the city towards the Capitol Building, Tess tells Ellie that they bombed cities all over the world and that, grimly, “It worked here but it didn’t in most places.”
Where episode 1 set the stakes of the infection, episode 2 drives home how all-encompassing it is. Our trio’s journey is fraught with danger, whether it’s having to climb through the rubble of a collapsed hotel roof or watch where they step lest they awake nearby infected. Episode 2 also reveals one of the biggest changes the show makes from the game — the infection is spread by tendrils, not spores, and the infected are connected by networks of tendrils that act like a root system. Step on a tendril in one place and wake a thousand infected in another, who now know exactly where you are. It’s scary stuff, and a clever way to keep Pedro Pascal out of a gas mask for 60 per cent of the show.
Episode 2 once again recreates scenes from the game shot for shot, this time most notably in the museum. Here we’re introduced to a new type of infected, the infamous clicker. Clickers have huge fungus growths coming out of their faces which make them blind, and they use echolocation to stalk their prey. They get their name from the menacing clicks and screams they make to locate other sources of sound. In the game, the easiest way to take out a clicker is to sneak up behind it and stab it in the neck. Unfortunately, our trio in the show hadn’t crafted any shivs, so their plan was to slink silently through the museum, which worked well right up until the point it didn’t. Compared to other shows that never let up the action, “The Last of Us” is extremely slow; the museum and the finale are the only moments in episode 2 where anyone fires a gun. There are lots of long, slow scenes in the museum of Joel reloading his revolver or crouching behind exhibitions to wait for a clicker to pass. But instead of dragging or muddying the plot, the stillness makes the moments of action even more terrifying. Here’s a world where any kind of interaction is sparse but potentially fatal.
Episode 2 ends in tragedy for Tess, with her revealing a bite mark sustained from a clicker. She urges Joel to keep going, now convinced Ellie’s immunity is real and their best chance at creating a vaccine. And instead of letting herself turn, she burns the Capitol Building to the ground when a horde of infected storm it. But not before one of the infected kisses her, forcing the fungus tendrils from its mouth down Tess’ throat. It’s gross and not in the game and people have a lot of feelings about it.
In fact, they have a lot of feelings about the whole episode, so let’s get into them!
The Best Tweets About ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 2
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