The Last of Us Recap With Spoilers: “Infected”

Spoiler Warning: This article will contain major spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us video game from 2013. 

The second episode of The Last of Us once again opens by showing us characters that are brand new to this series, allowing for new scenes not featured in the game. The audience is introduced to Ibu Ratna, professor of Mycology (the study of fungi) at the University of Indonesia, just several days before the outbreak in September 2003. She’s seen sitting at a restaurant in Jakarta, a city that is heard about on the radio in the first episode, and is abruptly picked up by the authorities without much explanation. She is escorted to a lab where she is asked to look at a sample of the cordyceps fungus, something she notes should not be able to survive in humans. However, she is then brought in to dissect the corpse of an infected woman. As she cuts into the corpse, she notices disturbing, unnatural organisms in the body before small tendrils begin to come out of its mouth, prompting Ratna to flee the room.

One of the officers who picked up Ratna then explains to her that they found the woman 30 hours ago in a flour and grain factory. The woman became violent and bit several coworkers who then locked her in the bathroom while waiting for the police. The police then shot and killed her while the bitten were examined elsewhere. It was then determined that they needed to be executed according to “procedure”, but they have no idea who bit the first infected woman, meaning they could still be out there. The officer reveals that there are 14 other missing workers, meaning that the situation could get radically out of hand very quickly. She notes that there is no vaccine or medicine capable of treating this and the only solution is to bomb the city to prevent it from spreading.

The “Infected” Kid

Back in present day, Ellie, Joel, and Tess are sitting inside of a building while the bitten teen is sleeping. She awakens and sees Joel and Tess keeping their distance, guns at the ready. Joel demands to see her arm and she begrudgingly does so, revealing the bite as more of a scar as opposed to a fresh wound. Ellie tells them that Marlene and the Fireflies were keeping tabs on her to make sure she didn’t turn, but Joel isn’t convinced that she’s actually immune. He tells Tess that they should just turn around and return her to the QZ, but Tess argues that FEDRA would just kill her on the way back in after scanning her. Joel thinks her death is imminent regardless and would rather sacrifice her over himself.

Ellie tells them that there’s a Firefly camp out west where a bunch of doctors are working to find a cure/vaccine and Ellie is the “key” to humanity’s survival. However, Joel being a total cynic thinks this is a repeat of false promises that he has heard many times over the years. Tess convinces him to keep going because regardless of whether that’s true, they still come out with the truck battery that they need to go find Tommy.

The group opts to venture back into the destroyed city to make their way to the Firefly meet up at the State House. As they’re trekking through the city, Ellie reveals much more about herself. She notes that she was bitten when she broke into an abandoned mall and was attacked by some infected and that she’s an orphan, so no one will be looking for her. After the trio enters a flooded hotel, Tess briefly breaks away from the group to open a barricaded door, leaving Joel and Ellie a moment to “bond”. Joel refuses questions about his personal life and tries to keep Ellie at arm’s length, emotionally speaking.

The trio regroups on a balcony at the hotel where they can see a huge horde of infected on the ground. Ellie observes that they seem to move and think exactly the same way, as if they’re connected. Tess notes that there’s fungus growing underground, creating tripwires of sorts that can alert hordes of infected like a hivemind.

“… Split Opened Heads That See in the Dark Like Bats”

The group enters a museum, which will look awfully familiar to those who have played the game. They find a dead body that has been mauled, which freaks Tess out despite the fact she’s pretty hardened when it comes to these situations. Joel emphasizes that they need to be absolutely silent when proceeding through the building, making for a very tense sequence of tip-toeing around. The ceiling loudly collapses on top of them, trapping the trio in a room. They begin hearing guttural sounds from inside the room, prompting them to hide. A figure begins to stumble around near them, making unnerving clicking noises. Joel motions to Ellie that it can’t see them, but it can hear them.

The figure walks right up to them, causing Ellie’s to breath just slightly harder. The clicker turns towards them and lunges at Joel who begins to fire his assault rifle while grappling with the creature. Joel manages to break free and knocks a statue into a glass case to distract the clicker. A second creature comes in from another room and charges Tess and Ellie, eventually resulting in the trio getting completely separated. Joel presses his back against a corner and begins to quietly load bullets into his revolver while a clicker stands mere inches away from his face. He manages to slip away and find Ellie, but he steps on a piece of broken glass. A clicker tackles him and Ellie to the ground, but he manages to shoot and kill it. The second clicker then sprints back into the room, but Tess puts an axe in its head. Despite this, it’s still moving, forcing Joel to shoot it in the head two times which highlights their absurd strength. The group reconvenes and Ellie reveals that she has been bitten… again. They head back outside and Tess appears angrier than normal, but everyone decides to keep pushing ahead to the State House.

The State House

The group arrives at the State House, but the Fireflies are nowhere to be seen. Joel begins to investigate and finds an abandoned truck and a ton of dead bodies. He determines that one of them got bit and it resulted in all of them killing each other. Tess starts to panic, hoping to come up with some kind of backup plan, but it is pretty clear this is the end of the line and they’ll have to turn back. However, that won’t be possible. Tess reveals she has been bitten, but her infection is far, far more advanced than Ellie’s, lending further credibility to her possibly being immune. 

Tess instructs Joel to take Ellie to Bill and Frank as her dying wish, assuming they will know what to do next. One of the dead, infected Firefly members begins to crawl toward them, prompting Joel to quickly execute him. However, they notice that a bunch of tendrils start moving on the ground… the hivemind has been alerted and a huge horde of infected is coming for the State House. Tess opts to sacrifice herself by flooding the place with gasoline and grenades, much to Ellie’s dismay. Joel grabs the kid and pulls her out the back door of the State House.

As the horde breaks into the State House, Tess struggles with a lighter. As she stands in the corner with the lighter, an infected man approaches her and puts his lips to hers, pushing his mouth tendrils down her throat. The lighter finally ignites and she drops it, causing the building to explode with all of the infected in it. Joel briefly takes a second to acknowledge what has happened and then walks away from Ellie.

Differences Between Game and Show

The second episode of The Last of Us is fairly faithful to the game, but there are some notable changes. As mentioned already, the entire pre-credits sequence is completely new and helps shed a lot of light with regards to how the outbreak began and the danger it presents. There are a lot of other scenes that are “new”, but they more or less serve as ways to fill in the dialogue that would be presented while you’re exploring the environment in gameplay. 

One of the key sequences from the game is also sort of teased in the show, but never seen. In the game, you have to enter the tilted over skyscrapers and that’s where the player is introduced to the clickers. However, it likely made more sense to just have one sequence with the clickers. As a result, the museum sequence is seen almost exactly as you see it in the game. 

The only other really significant change revolves around the State House scene. After Tess reveals she’s been bitten in the game, FEDRA pulls up and Tess stays behind to buy Joel and Ellie time as they escape. Joel and Ellie still have to fight various FEDRA soldiers to escape, but the show plays out quite differently. There isn’t much of a hivemind for the infected in the game, so it’s clear the team behind the show thought it would make more sense to demonstrate how that functions instead of a shootout with FEDRA soldiers.

The Last of Us will continue to air every Sunday on HBO at 9PM ET. What did you think of the second episode? 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.