The Last of Us – Infected

By: Kelly Kearney

In the second episode of the series Joel, Tess, and Ellie manage to leave Boston’s quarantine zone on their way to a Fireflies base camp at the State House. There, they plan to trade Ellie for a truck battery to help in their mission of finding Joel’s brother Tommy who hasn’t been heard from in weeks. But getting through the fallen city littered with the dead is no easy feat, and in this action-packed and emotionally devastating hour, we see how quickly things can go from calm to chaos in the sound of one blood-curdling “click.”

In The Beginning…

Just like the first episode of the series, the second begins with a flashback to before the world was overrun by fungal-infected zombies. It all started in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where we meet Ibu Ratna (Christine Hakim), an esteemed Professor of Mycology, is apprehended by police to investigate an organism taken from a human corpse infected with something they don’t know. After taking a look at the sample, the PH.D. determines it’s the insect fungus, Cordyceps, but she doesn’t believe it could come from a human. The police officer proves her wrong by taking her to the morgue where the infected woman was sent after she was killed by police during an attack thirty hours earlier. This seemingly normal woman bit her co-workers and then turned on the police when they arrived to take her into custody. Not only was she shot, but the people she bit also had to be executed and now there are fourteen others from her factory that are missing. It is unknown if they are infected too. That’s when Ibu discovers a bite wound on the patient’s ankle and the truth is undeniable: not only is there fungus in the wound but its strands are creeping out of the dead woman’s mouth! Shaken to her core, Ibu Ratna’s professional opinion on how to handle this outbreak is chilling. There is no vaccine for this. The only way to save humankind is to bomb the city and everyone, including herself and the police, right along with it. Clearly realizing this is probably her mortal end, she asks the officer to bring her to her family before the world is reduced to ashes.

Immunity

Back to the present and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is sleeping under the armed and closely watched eye of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv). Both smugglers are unnerved by her admission that not only was she infected but she somehow overcame it and is now cured. Nobody gets cured from this thing, so they (but especially the untrusting Joel) think the infection must be dormant and will rear its ugly fungal tendrils soon enough. No matter the fact that Ellie’s bite wound seems healed and isn’t spreading, the girl can’t be the walking dead because she has jokes! Mostly at Joel’s nervous expense. The sarcastic teen knows he is waiting for some big dramatic fungal turn so she does her best Oscar-worthy performance to convulse and convince him she had. With his finger on the trigger, her jokes go over as well as a bullet to the head, but at least she’s laughing-Joel, not so much! That’s when she reminds him she isn’t infected by showing him her healed wound and claims that’s why Marlene, the head of the Boston Fireflies, needs her alive. She rescued Ellie after the bite and the woman kept her locked up until it was clear she wasn’t sick.

While Ellie goes off to use the bathroom, Tess and Joel argue about what to do with her. Tess thinks the girl must be immune because she never changed over the course of the night, but Joel isn’t convinced and thinks they should take her back to the Boston QZ as soon as possible. Tess disagrees and thinks Ellie is at least worth the supplies Marlene promised them. When Ellie returns they ask her why she is important to Marlene, and against orders, the girl spills all the Fireflies’ tea. Out west Marlene has established a base camp with doctors working on a cure and Ellie could be the key to them finding one. Joel is all “I heard that before” and is not interested in getting his hopes up which must have happened many times over the last two decades. Tess disagrees and insists they finish the hand-off, because what if?

A New World In Disorder

Boston is our first look at a city after the apocalypse, with its toppled skyscrapers and burnt-out buildings. There humanity is but a memory, but in its place nature thrives. As the three travelers walk through the city, Tess explains why Boston is in ruins. All the major cities were bombed to stop the spread of the infection like Professor Ratna said they should and, while it worked in Boston, it didn’t in other parts of the world. Now the city is quiet but the tension is gripping knowing that somewhere lurking beyond those destroyed buildings and the city’s crumbled infrastructure is an army of the infected just waiting to eat. When Tess and Joel notice their path to the State House is blocked they go back and forth about taking “the long way around” or the shorter “we’re f**king dead way.” They take the long way and Ellie is definitely relieved because she is unarmed and just recovered, she isn’t thrilled about risking death again. However, she does notice that the city isn’t currently overrun by the dead and questions whether or not the rumors inside the QZ about the outside of it are really an exaggeration. From the reaction of Joel and Tess (who’s been leaving the QZ for a while now) Ellie couldn’t be further off the mark. As the three make their way through the city, Ellie confides in Tess about how she was bit. She was exploring an old abandoned mall by herself and since she is an orphan she didn’t worry about any parents or family members coming to look for her if something went wrong. Of course, something did go wrong and lucky for her Marlene was lurking to swoop in and rescue her. But it was too late as the Cordyceps tagged her arm and the rest is Fireflies rescue history.

Eventually, their chit-chat leads them to the doors of a flooded hotel where a nervous Ellie mentions she can’t swim. Besides the fact the waist-high greenish water could be the perfect hiding spot for the infected, the water itself looks like it has its own deadly possibilities and the teenager isn’t keen on wading it in to get to the exit. Unfortunately, there is no other way forward so the three get into the water and slowly make their way across the room. Suddenly, Ellie bumps into a floating skeleton and freaks, which forces Joel to step in and lift her out of the water, but it triggers a flashback from his last moments with Sarah and he is visibly shakey.

After hiking up to the 10th floor of the hotel, they come face to face with another detour- debris from the bombed-out building has blocked the exits. There is a small hole that a thin person would be able to climb through and check the dangers beyond the exit and being the smallest means Ellie offers to go. Tess shoots her down because if she falls then they lose their bargaining chip for the supplies. Tess climbs up through the hole instead and leaves Joel and Ellie behind. The mood as they wait is a quiet one. Eventually, Joel reveals he’s from Texas and that Tess is from Detroit and we quickly learn that the two are probably romantically linked but he refuses to go further when Ellie presses him on that topic. He isn’t the most talkative or forthcoming with answers to any questions the teenager has, but when she asks how long the infected typically stay alive, he responds with “a month or two,” but goes on to say there are some who have been walking around for 20 years with it! Always seemingly curious, Ellie then asks if it is hard to kill them knowing they were once people, and Joel tells her it is sometimes but stops short of offering those same sympathies to the FEDRA guard he killed during their escape.

Tess is back and the coast is clear so the three make their way out to the hotel balcony where they can get a better vantage point on their next path. Below them is a sea of the infected swarming the grounds between the hotel and the State House-their final stop. The scene is Ellie’s first look at the infected en masse and she mentions how they seem connected by the fungus. Tess elaborates on that by saying the Cordyceps grow underground and it does keep them connected to the point where if one of them is alerted to their presence then any others nearby will target them too. They are hive-minded with the fungal parasite being the Queen who controls them. Ellie might be immune from their infection but not to their feeding frenzy of flesh eaters. They can still kill her if they get the chance.

Clickers

Leaving the hotel, the trio makes their way to the museum, the second stop on their journey to the Fireflies’ base, and they’re instantly greeted by a dead man who seems like he was recently murdered. Ellie points out that the man wasn’t killed by a Cordyceps attack and she should know as she survived one. This was something or someone else. Tess turns to Joel and says she hadn’t heard anything – meaning these two are pros at recognizing the signs of danger and she isn’t picking up on any. They both tell Ellie from here on out they need to be completely silent, which is easier said than done when the roof unexpectedly caves in! The sound of the cave-in and their reactions alerts a new form of the infected called “Clickers.” With eyes completely blinded by fungus growth, these Clickers use their hearing to track their targets before ripping them apart like the man in the entrance. They’re called “Clickers” thanks to the terrifying click-like screech they unleash when sprinting toward their prey. This time their prey is Elie, who makes a noise right as one of the Clickers blindly passes them by. The beast turns to attack and, since Joel refuses to give Ellie a gun, he and Tess have no other choice but to run into danger with their guns blasting. One Clicker goes down, but another is on the hunt thanks to Joel stepping on a piece of glass. The crack from the shard sends another Clicker right toward them and it tackles both him and Ellie. On instinct Joel protects her by shooting the Clicker off of them. Just as they manage to get to their feet, it reanimates again until Tess steps in with an ax to the head followed by Joel unloading his gun until it’s finally dead.

With all the Clickers down the trio regroup to make sure they’re all ok. Unfortunately, Ellie was bitten again in the same spot as before, so she covers it up with a makeshift bandage and some hope that this one won’t turn her. Joel isn’t so sure and thinks the second time is her unlucky charm, but Tess again disagrees. For some reason she is counting on this child’s immunity and asks Joel to have a little faith.

A Shocking Goodbye

After clearing the museum, the three head to the State House for the teenage cargo drop-off, but when they get inside they see trails of blood and bodies littering the building. All the Fireflies are dead thanks to one of them who was obviously infected. The attacks must have sparked some sort of chaotic shootout that left Joel, Tess and Ellie without a clue of what to do next. Do they go back to the Boston QZ and end this adventure right now? That’s not what Tess wants. She wants them to figure out where this western base is that’s working on a cure and take Ellie to them. Joel tries to tell her that the idea is over and they need to go back home, but Tess screams that she doesn’t have a home. That’s when she reveals that she’s been bit! “Our time had to run out sooner than later,” she says and Joel can hardly believe it. The infection is spreading from a bite on her neck down to her shoulder and it is moving quickly. She begs Joel to believe that Ellie’s immunity could be a cure and then she makes him promise to take the girl to Bill and Frank if he can’t deal with her. He isn’t interested in continuing on without her but Tess reminds him of how she has never asked him for anything- not even to return her feelings which she knows he can’t. This, this he can do and she needs him to say yes. Ellie is Joel’s chance to reset the world and Tess won’t take no for an answer.

He doesn’t have much time to mull over his options when the dead man reanimates and forces Joel to shoot him in the head. That’s when the long-reaching arms of the fungus burst out of the ground and connect to the body, which in turn, alerts all of the infected in the city to their location! The hungry fungi horde is coming and they have roughly one minute to make their escape. Tess chooses to give them a head start when she begins kicking over barrels of gas and tossing out boxes of grenades that the Fireflies have been storing. Tess says to Joel – who understands what she is about to do – that they can only “save who you can save” and that’s Ellie. Joel grabs the girl and makes a run for it just as the horde breaks through the door. Tess attempts to ignite her lighter but it won’t catch a flame, but instead the noise catches one of the infected’s attention as the rest run past her. As it approaches the tendrils of fungus reach beyond its lips, pulling Tess into a deep and very disturbing final funky kiss. The second the parasite enters her, she flicks the lighter and its flint catches! In one flame the whole State House explodes! As Joel realizes what’s happened he is visibly upset. He just lost one of the last people on earth he cares about. Their trio is now down to two and without a location to the medical base and no idea how to get there without a truck and supplies, this adventure is about to take a new and terrifying turn neither Joel nor Ellie could’ve predicted.