The Last of Us Ep. 2 departs from game, grounding in real-world science.
A big adaptive choice works very well in most ways, but not as well in one.
The Short Take:
A tense, thrilling episode that cemented my attachment to these characters. A major change from the game draws from real-life scientific research and, in the process, creates a figurative layer that enriches the story.
Image Credit: Variety
[SPOILER WARNING: I’m assuming you’re reading this because you’ve agreed to trek beyond the Quarantine Zone. Make sure you’ve seen this episode before you venture further. A couple spoilers for the video game upon which the series is based as well, though I will not discuss any plot points ahead of the events of this episode.]
The Long Take:
There are no spores in HBO’s The Last of Us. And that’s fine. Mostly. It’s a metaphor. (Allow me to explain.)
For those who are not familiar with the video game upon which this series is based, its version of the apocalyptic infectious disease can spread by inhaling spores in the air. They float in cloud-like formations and characters frequently have to don masks to avoid them.
Unsurprisingly, showrunner Craig Mazin and company didn’t want to make a show where all these high profile actors cover their faces most of the time. That’s just not going to fly with most viewers at home, never mind the actors gunning for Emmy nominations. Incidentally, when I was fact checking the differences between the show and the game, I found this Polygon article that hilariously said, “This isn’t The Mandalorian, after all.” Shots fired, but fair.
What’s more, Mazin admits in the behind-the-scenes featurette following this week’s episode that they decided to forgo the spores because from a visual effects perspective, it would be too difficult to make them look realistic. They didn’t want to ask the audience to suspend their disbelief that much. After seeing this episode, I’d say that was the right call. The effects and production design here look amazing. The clickers are especially well-wrought (and totally creepy).
To replace the spore mechanic, Mazin explains, in the BTS segment and various interviews, that they conducted additional research about how fungi actually operate in the real world, and were inspired by some species’ ability to communicate, creating an extra dangerous and terrifying way for humans to accidentally trigger a massive zombie attack.
Image Credit: Mashable
As many of you know, when I’m not writing these reviews, I’m teaching writing. Lately, I’ve been teaching Advanced Writing in the Natural Sciences, and, as a result, I’ve actually had more than one student write about what scholars call mycorrhizal networks. A group of fungi that grow on the roots of trees can essentially function as a sprawling neural network, exchanging information and nutrients. So the hive mind characterization of the Cordyceps in The Last of Us is not as fictionalized as one might think. In general, scholarship on these mycorrhizal networks have raised a lot of new philosophical questions about the extent to which plants are intelligent or conscious. (You’re not alone if all this sounds terrifying.) A study as recent as 2020 used crops to observe that mycorrhizal networks allow plants to learn of the struggles and threats other plants around them face and then protect themselves. They, as the study’s abstract says, “eavesdrop to anticipate responses to improve fitness against stresses.” They listen and adapt.
This means that, for a fungal root brain, communication is a means of survival.
Knowing a little more about the Darwinian nature of mycorrhizal networks, I think back to this week’s episode and realize that these mushroom heart-to-hearts are actually a metaphor for Joel and Ellie’s relationship. Only by listening and communicating with Joel, by forming a bond with him, will Ellie be able to survive long enough to make it to the doctors she’s supposed to meet. By listening to him, she benefits from his experience and can survive what he’s already been through. And it’s not just that Ellie will survive because of Joel’s experience and expertise as an apocalypse pro; she will also survive because another young girl, Joel’s daughter, Sarah, did not. She can improve her own fitness against the same stresses that Sarah faced. This series, of course, is also Joel’s opportunity for redemption. Another chance to succeed with Ellie in a way that he failed with Sarah.
Tess says as much. Her final words to him before they part for the last time is “Save who you can save.” To me, this implies that Tess knew Joel couldn’t save Sarah, and so points out to him that he can now save Ellie (and maybe even the world). It’s a great moment because it makes Joel opening his heart up, even if it’s just a crack, a lot more believable. The loss of his partner in this moment would of course catalyze some kind of change within him. Joel benefits from Ellie as well, just in a different way. He must listen in and communicate with Ellie in order for his soul to survive.
I’ve already fallen in love with this version of Joel and Ellie. Especially Ellie, whose complicated personality fully blooms here. And I think that’s because the writers take the time during the trio’s sojourn across an abandoned and ravaged Boston to show how Ellie is fundamentally different in her outlook and way of interacting with the world. She’s only ever known life in the Quarantine Zone (or “QZ” for short), and as such has been extremely sheltered. She only knows what a hotel is like from books she’s read. She’s gone to school and gets offended when Joel assumes she knows nothing (“I went to school, you know.”), but then it’s clear that her education in isolation can only take her so far (“Well, it was a really shitty one.”). Since she’s spent her entire life trapped inside, she, in almost Disney princess-esque fashion, yearns for a life out there in the great wide somewhere. So much so that she sneaks out to a forbidden area just to see what it was like. She seems hungry and eager to put herself in danger and confront her fears.
Bella Ramsey plays this dichotomy extremely well; in certain moments she seems so child-like, stopping to ogle the sights and take in the view. In others, she seems hardened, even ruthless. And then just when we think she can hang, she looks scared stiff.
Image Credit: Slash Film
While the switch from spores to networked tendrils makes perfect sense and, as I’ve just discussed, adds an unexpected thematic layer to the story unfolding, I think that it messed with Tess’ death in a way that didn’t work for me. I’m not saying that Tess shouldn’t have died. Far from it. I think that her sacrifice is an essential pivot point in the story. She has to die so Joel and Ellie can survive together. But the manner of her death changes because of the nature of her infection and its relationship with this neural network — and not for the better.
Since the zombies that close in on her in her final moments are all connected through these whispy, spindly fungal threads that want to connect with one another, Mazin and the other writers have one of the zombies walk up to Tess and, almost in the style of an erotic thriller, kiss her as the threads grow into her mouth. It’s an unsettling moment, to say the least. The sexualization of the Cordyceps seems unnecessary or arbitrary. They’re creepy enough as it is; we don’t need to also make them looking for love in all the wrong places.
In The Last of Us game, Joel, Ellie, and Tess are actually on the run from FEDRA soldiers, and Tess stays behind to fight them off, in the hopes of buying Joel and Ellie enough time to escape. She really goes out in a blaze of glory and it’s great. The HBO series upped the creepiness, but considerably downgraded Tess’ badassery in the process. Yes, the suspense of her frantically trying to get the lighter working was well executed, but the fear and terror she exhibits in the meantime almost seems out of character.
I’d like to end on a positive note, though, because I really did enjoy this episode a great deal. A change from the game that I think does work is the opening scene, which is a flashback to when the fungal pandemic started.
Image Credit: GamesHub
I assumed the talk show interview in Episode 1 was just a one-off prologue, and that we wouldn’t see anything like it ever again. So when this episode opened with yet another non-protagonist, non-main narrative scene, I was a little taken aback, and in a good way. Like, ooo they’re really leaning into the dystopian world. This also demonstrates a commitment to taking a global view and not just privileging the POV of our main (American) characters. Christine Hakim, the actress who plays Ratna Pertiwi, a professor of mycology at the University of Indonesia, did an amazing job with the limited screen time she had. The final shot of her as she realizes what’s going to happen is absolutely chilling and heartbreaking. I’m not going to forget her anytime soon, even if we never see her again.
Will episode 3 continue this prologue per episode trend? I can’t wait to find out.