The Last of Us Episode 2 Confirms Major Fan Theory About Infection’s Origin

The Last of Us episode 2 confirms one of the biggest fan theories going around right now. HBO’s The Last of Us is a pretty brilliant adaptation of one of the best video games out there. Not only does it closely follow the source material, but it greatly expands on it to add interesting new nuggets for longtime fans and help deepen the experience for new fans as well. Although there are some tiny mentions and suggestions about exactly how the infection spread in the game, it’s not very overt. Part of the reason for that is because the game never leaves the POV of the main characters, so there’s no scientist to deliver a bunch of exposition.

However, the show has the freedom to do exactly that. Shortly after the premiere of the first episode of The Last of Us, fans began theorizing that the infection was spread through flour. A number of characters are seen eating foods with flour in them, Joel and Sarah specifically do not eat any flour-y food, Joel is on an Atkins diet, and so on. It may fly right over your head while watching, but upon closer inspection, it definitely seems like that’s all intentional and that’s because it was. 

The second episode opens with a flashback to Jakarta, a city in Indonesia, just days before the total viral outbreak in 2003. It is revealed that employees of a flour plant were infected and began biting each other, meaning the infection likely spread around the world from the flour made in this plant. Thanks to a series of random decisions, Joel and Sarah were ultimately spared from the actual infection, but countless others were not.

The Last of Us airs every Sunday night at 9PM ET on HBO. What do you think of this addition to the series? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder. For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight’s new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more. The podcast will release after every episode of the show on Sunday nights.