The Last of Us Episode 5 Confirms Huge Details About Ellie and the Cordyceps Infection

HBO has dropped five straight episodes of groundbreaking television with their live-action adaptation of the hit video game series The Last of Us, and if the latest episode is any indicator, we’re in for a treat by the time the season wraps up. The series has pulled in some record-breaking numbers for the network and HBO Max, only being beat out by Game of Thrones‘ House of the Dragon spinoff, and it has already been renewed for a second season. Last nights episode is arguably the best episode of the series that has been released so far, and the attention to detail that co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann put into the episode is incredible. During the latest episode of HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast, Mazin, Druckmann and Troy Baker discussed the fact that Ellie is unable to heal everyone with her blood and that Sam was “still in there” after he was infected.

“In the context we thought that because of the nature of the relationship between our Sam and Ellie, which is that he looked up to her, that it made sense that he would trust her. And he’s so scared. And then we really wanted to show Ellie starting to believe that she could do something special.” To which Druckmann responded. “There’s also something about knowing what the audience is asking right now. ‘Okay if she’s immune, couldn’t she just give her blood?’ Like, I’ve seen since the game came out,  people ask that. I’m like ‘Let’s answer it.’ And the answer is no.”

In regards to the episodes final moments and that big moment after Sam became infected. Baker and Mazin were explaining how Sam was still in his body due to the fact that even in his infected state he was still deaf.

“Sam couldn’t hear and what that says is, it was still him inside. And that is… what a powerful thesis.” To which Mazin added. “Everybody can kind of create their own theory about what it must be like in there. And it’s reasonable, I think, to say, ‘Well, if you’ve been infected for a week, a month, a year, five years, you’re not — you’re gone.’ And people would also say, ‘Look, physically, his ears, the eardrums, the nerves, they don’t work in the way that they do in people go can hear. So why would they work now?’ But I think it’s still him. I think in that moment, where it’s just beginning, there’s just confusion. It’s a little bit like being on a bad trip. You can’t stop yourself. You don’t know what’s happening, and you’re reacting like you’re in a dream. And you may even realize in moments like, ‘I’m trying to hurt somebody that I love, but I can’t stop.’”

Mazin, the Emmy-winning creator of HBO’s Chernobyl, produced The Last of Us alongside Druckmann, the creator behind the hit video game series. In an interview earlier this year, the writer said The Last of Us is the “greatest” video game story ever told. “It’s an open-and-shut case: this is the greatest story that has ever been told in video games,” Mazin said in an interview with Empire Magazine. “[Joel and Ellie] didn’t shoot anything out of their eyeballs. They were just people. And that, in and of itself, is remarkably rare in games. The fact that they kept it so grounded, and really made you feel – I had never experienced anything like it, and I’ve been playing video games since 1977.”

Joining Pascal (Joel) and Ramsey (Ellie) include Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, and Elaine Miles as Florence. Original game stars Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, having played the part of Ellie and Joel in both video games, are also set to appear.

The first five episodes of The Last of Us are now streaming on HBO Max. The show’s first season is set to last nine episodes in total with new episodes rolling out on a weekly basis.

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