Return of the spores: how The Last of Us season 2 integrates another scary way to get infected with cordyceps
The news contains spoilers for the second season of The Last of Us!
In the fifth episode of the second season of The Last of Us, the showrunners finally introduced spores, another way to contract the famous fungal virus. And the authors decided to tell more about this decision, because at first they were abandoned, and you could only meet them in the game.
Here's What We Know
In the world of The Last of Us, infection most often occurs through bites or wounds caused by infected people. However, in the fifth episode of the second season, spores appeared - fungal particles that spread through the air and can infect a person simply by breathing. This significantly changes the rules of the game, making infection much more unpredictable and dangerous.
The idea to add spores arose at the beginning of the first season, but then the showrunners decided to postpone this element due to difficulties with its visualisation and impact on the plot. As showrunner Craig Mazin explained, at the time, the use of spores would have required the characters to wear gas masks at all times. Now, in the second season, the spores appeared in the form of an infected hospital basement, where they had been spreading through the air for years.
In the episode's finale, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) chases Nora (Tati Gabriel) in the spore-filled basement. Nora begins to experience symptoms of infection, while Ellie, thanks to her immunity, remains unharmed. This scene vividly demonstrates the danger of spores - it is enough to simply inhale them to start an irreversible process of infection.
The developers of the series carefully studied the scientific component of this phenomenon. In an interview, Tati Gabrielle said that many questions to the showrunners concerned how spores affect the body. They wanted to make the infection as realistic and dramatic as possible.
The plot also shows that people infected with spores can stay alive for years, but are in constant suffering, breathing and exhaling spores that infect others. That is why characters trapped in an infected space are doomed unless they are immune, like Ellie.
Source: HBO
