Doctor Reacts to THE LAST OF US // Episode 5 

I think for Ellie with the blood scene it was 3 fold. 1. She's naive and thinks it might work. 2. She wants to save this new friend of hers so badly. 3. Partially, comfort for Sam, because clearly he's upset, and she wants to help him feel better

Sam did not attack Ellie during her sleep because he was deaf and was looking to the window for the sunrise.

In the game the Big Boy is called a bloater, they are super old infected so the assumption is that they just survived and kept growing for a long time and all the fungus has formed a hard shell around the original human. They also launch spore bombs to infect other people but the spores have been cut out for the show so they are just beefy boys but that's plenty enough 😅 A thing I really liked in this episode is that Kathleen's pathological obsession for revenge led to their doom she kept making short sighted decisions, killing a doctor who I suppose would be a very very precious asset in this context for a community, and postponing the infected issue to focus on Henry, making bad decisions all around because of this compulsion, it's a very human character even if she end up being the "villain" from our point of view

The Bloater's actually an aged variant of the infection.... Like 10 years.

That final scene was a real punch to the gut. Bella's acting in the moment was incredibly impacting, much more so than simply showing it would have been.

Theres a few explanations for the Ellie blood scene. Most important one she's a child and probably doesn't know how the human body or medicine works. This seems like a reasonable idea to someone with very limited understanding and is desperate for any ideas given the situation. Also Sam is a child and could easily be convinced this would work making his last few hours more calm. Sam would've been scared all night if he knew he was going to turn in the morning. I'm glad he was able to have hope for his survival in his final moments.

Bit of lore here This is based on the game, could be different in the show.. Ellie isn't technically immune, she is infected (this is why she tests positive on the scanner in game and show), but she's infected with a mutated variant of the infection that has no bad symptoms, she is effectively immune to the bad variant because there is no 'room' for it to spread if she gets bit because she is already full of 'good fungus' There's a line "the cordyceps inside her, the growth, it somehow mutated, its why she's immune" from an audio log in the game or something

NO! Don't make me suffer through ep5's ending again! I just got over my depression.

I think it was said in the The Last of Us official podcast that the big boy (bloater) situation happened to people who were already very big and could "endure" the fungus for a very long time, hence why they look a lot like a giant walking mushroom. Smaller infected people stick to the walls when the fungus "notices" they are no longer viable (like how we've seen on episode 1 with Tess and Joel), so basically people had to have a predisposition prior to the outbreak to become bloaters

"kid you better be dying, for the sake of science" =P jokes aside, stellar and humorous as always!

Well, it's not quite decapitation... but for all intents and purposes it's the same. The Bloater rips the man's head open by pulling his mouth apart. The eye sockets are used for better gripping. A grisly way to go for sure.

Ellie's only 12-13 in the game and show, so it makes sense that knowing she's immune to cordyceps, she'd *think* that rubbing her blood on a wound could potentially work.

A bit disappointed you didn't talk about the leukemia part when Henry tells Joel about Sam being sick and what medicine that it would have been that Sam needed. Also it would be interesting to talk about what if they had known Sam was bitten in the ankle, would he have been able to survive if they had cut off his leg or would it not have been even possible without a skilled surgeon?

The Bloater is just an infected that’s been active for a very long time, we’re talking decades. This Bloater has probably been infected for maybe 15-20 years and so the fungus that grew all over his body and through his musculature made him stronger and essentially armored.

Just when I thought dr. Hope has nerves of steal, seeing him react to Sam and his brother was priceless.

You’re reaction at the end scenes made me love this channel.

yo i used to watch ur vids when i was younger and it inspired me to study medicine ‼️ keep it up fr‼️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Can't wait to see your thoughts on episode 6. Joel's injury at the end. Would love to hear your thoughts on how he is injured in the game too (much more intense and pretty much impossible to survive from hence why it was changed)

That is one of the best episodes so far in my opinion, and Ellies reaction to Henry killing himself was just heartbreaking and perfect acting.

in the game the infected have various stages. Warning, spoilers! runners: recently infected stalkers: about a few months clickers: a year to a few years bloaters: over 10-20+ years shamblers: i think they're in-between bloaters/clickers but near water there's another one called the rat king but it's not a stage but more of an amalgamation of all stages of infection.

nooooo i was especially excited to see your comments on this weeks episode 6 😭 five weeks is gonna be a long time but at least we will have more of your reactions to look forward to after the show ends :) i hope you enjoy your trip!

Bloaters (big boy) would rip your face in half if you failed in the game, pulling the jaws apart. I think they gave homage to that in the show. You can't see it well, but it could be how Perry's head came off

Somehow this show finds new ways to break my heart every week. Such a well done emotional roller coaster of a show

On the ketosis front leaving you feeling awful, yup. can confirm that, managed to develop a stomach ulcer and been unable to keep down food for nearly 2 weeks now, the pain from my stomach combined with being really shaky due to not having enough calories is a really unpleasant situation to be in. and im just lying down at home, not on the run from the infected, could very easily see someone starving stumbling and getting either a nasty fall injury or a infection from a clicker. so if youre ever in a post apocalypse situation, remember to keep eating.

The big guy is called a bloater, they'be just been infected for a longer time.

Without wishing to spoil the story of the game for you, this episode really marks the start of Ellie's descent into disillusion. It goes out of its way to remind us that she is very much a child, still playing tag and getting invested in comics for 10 year olds. She confesses to Sam that her biggest fear is ending up alone, which makes sense. From Ellie's perspective, death follows her wherever she goes. She's an orphan, Tess was far kinder to her than Joel was and she died too, a couple of others, and now Sam. And the fact that she thinks curing Sam with her blood, well, child logic, but really, it's there to serve the story purpose of turbocharging Ellie's fear of ending up alone.

Safe travels Dr. Hope! We hope to see some of you while you are traveling! Thanks for another banger of an episode

Thank you for all of your hard work and content Dr. Hope! Have a lovely time on your trip!

Something I was hoping you'd mention is the child clicker. The way she was uncontrollably flipping was (in my headcanon) the fungus impeding her underdeveloped sense of balance.

Wow! This was filled with great notes and information!! Thankyou. I always watch your commentary after watching an episode

Cant wait for more medical breakdowns. I hope you have a great time in south America.

Enjoy your travels, Dr. Hope! We'll miss you.

I just stumbled onto this channel with the 1st episode of Last of Us and I gotta say it's an absolute blast to look at this show through another lens. Enjoy your trip, but absolutely looking forward to when you can cover the last 3 episodes of this season!

Thanks for your reactions! Safe travels!!

"[If] Sam somehow survives, I ain't gonna be happy here" is the sound bite we all need :D Great reaction, enjoy your travels to South America!

These videos are fantastic! Please keep them coming!

Damn I can see the teary eyes in your face towards the end. A fantastic roller-coaster of an episode.

Enjoy your trip! Love your videos cheers mate!

Your super serious reasoning behind why someone cant survive their head getting ripped off made me laugh 😂

Have a good time travelling! I'll be excited to watch when you get the chance to make another video after your travels!

Best of luck on your trick doc! Hope it all goes well and await for your safe return!

Hey Doc,been following you since COVID..keep up the good content man:) It's great.

Awww bummer you won't be around for the next 5 weeks but I hope you have safe travels in South America! I really really hope you do continue the series when you get back - even if it is delayed - because your commentary adds so much to the show for me, personally, and I'm sure it does for others too! Take care doc!

I never played the game but i can't believe that you somehow explained boss enimies in zombie games in a realistic way.

Try to pack light for your trip, since you'll be getting some 30ºC temperatures down here, and a sweater will not be of any use to you, probably. Enjoy your trip to South America! Greetings from Chile!

The "big boy" is called a bloater and is exactly how I feel after Thanksgiving and other holiday meals. No fitted pants or belts during those days.

"Where would you even doing rescue breaths?" Yes doctor, that's the most important concern 😆

7:27 "you can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half!" - Bart Simpson

Have a great trip! Excited to watch you catch up Upon your return.

Episode 5 was incredible, loved this one! Episode 6 is great as well for development, but 5 so far has been my favourite. Enjoy your travels!

I LOVE THIS SERIES! Can't wait for the next one. Travel safe.

I enjoy this channel and te community. Thanks for your reviews. This is great.

I love watching a reaction channel that begins a series just to sort of give their reaction for their fans, but then grow to love the show just as any of us viewers. Seems like you genuinely love this show now, which is awesome

The little side smirk when all the infected pour from the hole was hilarious! :D

I seaw a video about the cordicep fungus. It actually doesn’t use mind control but rather muscle control the ant. The spores take around one week to grow and spread inside the ant limbs and muscles. Without touching the brain. It will then control the ant like a puppeteer to go at specific location, on a specific plant, at a specific height, on a specific side, the exact environment the fungus is the most confortable to develop, with the ant biting ether on the side or the veins of the leaf. Then the ant dies after the fungus reach the brain and sprout out the head, to finally spread the spores onto ants walking below them. All that to say the ant is a prisoner in its own body. That might be the only inaccuracy about this fungus in the show. Still love it.

Sorry last message..am so glad you played that scene.... so glad.. thanks..

Happy traveling, good video like always

The episode actually explained why the 'big boy' got so big in a tiny detail - he was the only infected that wasn't super skinny! So going back to refeeding syndrome the infected are 'dead' in that they stop eating once the fungus hijacks their system. So they must be using catabolic processes of metabolism which is why the infected are generally super thin as they will die once they run out of energy. The bloater has visible fat after 10 years so likely was a former athlete or soldier who became morbidly obese in retirement as having large stores of fat means lots of ketones! We were taught that a obese person could survive a year without food, so if the fungus slows the host metabolism it makes sense that the majority of clickers are stick thin, weak and 'desperate' to reproduce as the host is slowly dying! Wheras the big-boy had so much free energy that the fungus was able to grow far denser giving him the tough/woody appearance...and he'd easily outlast all the other infected. He had to be 'fit' prior to obesity to provide the strong bones needed to carry the extra weight. Plus because he's not starving he was able to defend himself vs rushing at the nearest person in a last ditch effort to reproduce.

I really loved and liked Episode 5: "Endure & Survive". I like how the word & the number rhymes (5 or five & Survive)

I always look forward to you reactions doctor 🔥🔥🔥

I was waiting for this!

That episode was brutal. Have a nice trip!

Another great episode.

Your reactions are awesome and soo funny xD Also of course there is much to learn

if the decapitation is anything like in the videogames, then the head was actually ripped off at the jaw (leaving lower jaw and neck attached to the body)

I also feel like for Ellie, she thought it might be worth a chance because she grew up without TV and all the medical dramas and movies the rest of us have seen by her age. So she probably doesn't even know what a proper blood transfusion is.

Thank you doc, safe trip!

Could you in one of the next episodes also talk about psychological trauma? I think it's a big part of the show. In this episode, I felt Ellie getting sort of closed off similar to how Joel usually behaves while he was sort of opening up a little because of his bond with her. What do you think?

Best wishes on your travels and work.

Waited very long for episode

Hope you end up reacting to the last few episodes! I was wondering whether amputation of a bitten limb would be a potential prevention technique and how that might go in a post apocalyptic world?

In the game there isn’t much knowledge on the variants of infected other than time. The infection grows and grows until it spreads out of the host, the fungus hardens on the outside creating a sort of armour. The bloaters are said to be the oldest infected so 10 yrs or more thus, no real tests could be run on them.

Pretty sure the conditions to become a bloater are A) Be infected for a long time and B) Be resilient enough in the first place for your body to withstand that much cordyceps.

Note for Dr. Hope: the different varieties of infected have to do with how long they've been infected. Runners are freshly infected, stalkers (like the one that was crushed under the wreckage and got its head cut open by Ellie) are a little older, then clickers, bloaters (your head ripping big boy)... the second game also had shamblers, but they looked a lot like bloaters to me. But the game logic has to do with the length of duration of infection.

Ketogenic diet doesn't work "because fat is less efficient of an energy source" it's actually a really efficient energy source at 9 calories per gram. (Protein is 4 calories per gram but the conversion of proteins to glucose uses up some energy, so more likely 3 calories per gram). Carbohydrates are efficient...but too efficient. They move through you body more quickly, especially simple sugars. Fats take longer to digest, thus keeping you feeling fuller for longer, and they don't block leptin signalling when eaten without fast carbohydrates, so you get the "I'm full" signal faster. Fast carbs will spike your insulin levels and block leptin signalling: that's why a plate of pasta take a lot to fill you up. Anyways, the ketogenic diet mostly works by making it easier for most of us to come to balance with our leptin response. We get hungry less often. Ketoacidosis is not the same thing as ketogenic. Ketoacidosis is a medical emergency. Merely producing ketones and relying on mostly fats for energy is not a bad thing and it DOES NOT make your blood more acidic. Blood PH is carefully balanced by the body, even in "survival" mode. Ketoacidosis is when that careful tuning goes wrong. This only really happens for diabetics who forget to take their insulin. But as long as you have a normal pancreas and are otherwise healthy there is nothing wrong with the ketogenic diet as a way to lose weight. I am not a medical professional, but I am a nerd on subjects that interest me. So if I got anything wrong take it with a grain of salt. Anyhow, as a doctor please try to properly inform people of ketogenic diet and not mislead them. Fast carbohydrates are the real enemy, not fat.

Hope you have a good rest, looking forward to your return

"That piece at the end blew me away!" ... Well.

I have never been ready for any explanation more than I am ready for "actually head somewhat necessary for medical survival"

Safe travels to South America, m'dude! Sounds like a huge opportunity!

The creators said that bloaters are as a result of a large host. So that the fungus has more body mass to 'consume'. And therefore stays 'alive' longer.

In the game it's explained as a matter of the length of infection. Runners are the first stage, the clicker is more advanced, the bloater here has been infected from the beginning.

I don't think the show covers this, but the types of infected is tied to how long they've been infected. The more time they've been infected, the more likely they will go through these transformations. The big ones called bloaters in the game are late stage infected.

One thing everyone seems to overlook when Henry shoots sam is he stares at him looking confused for a second and even says "Sam?" As if he temporarily switched off and went into survival mode and his brain hadn't processed what he had done or even remembered shooting him those seconds before

The difference between the infected is length of time. The basic infected, are fairly early on in the stages, clickers are about a midway point, and bloaters have been infected for years, allowing for more and more fungal growth.

I was just thinking I hadn't seen you in my feed for a while, wondered what you were up to, and there you are. ...I guess I should have turned on all notifications.

I swear this show show is aiming to make us cry every week.

It truly is brutal, emotionally to have seen that played out and to contemplate what you would do, feel in that situation.

The bloater (big boy) is from longer infection and a high nutrient source for the fungus in the body. It starts from larger bodied people, but it also usually requires bodies in the area to feed off of

In the game, the different types of infected are the different stages of the cordyceps infection, the “regular” ones being the early stage, clickers have been infected for so long that the fungal growths have burst through the eyes and the big boy as you put it, has been infected for over a decade with the fungus functioning as armor. I really like this aspect of infected in TLOU, it’s a very elegant way of having different types of infected imo.

Guess you're busy but.... Am looking forward to the next couple of ones tho. Hope this finds you well.

The stages are Runner (initial), Stalker (The one Ellie cut and the one that kissed Tess), Clicker, and Bloater (the big boy)

That'll be hell of a twist ? 😏

Dr. Nick really needs to play the games. This show will hit so much harder and more different afterwards.

I'm a type 1 diabetic and I've had doctors (not my endocrinologist) tell me I should try an extremely low carb diet (keto). You are the only doctor I've seen on social media that addresses the potential complications. Our bodies NEED carbs. It's all about moderation. Edited to add: I'm trying to catch up on your videos, but if you haven't covered the different types of diabetes, I would absolutely love for you to educate about it. As you know, type 2 (and even type 1 in some studies) is on the rise. Specifically if you could cover how to read nutrition labels, the danger of overeating sugar alcohols, and the different foods that contribute to high blood glucose. It's not just cupcakes!

the reason for the different types of infected is because over the years the cordyceps (in game/show) develops from stage 1: runner, stage 2: stalker, stage 3: clicker, stage 4: bloater/shamber ("big boy" as you called it) i guess you could call the rat king stage 5🤷‍♂

The first time I played it was one of the best fantasy experiences I've ever had. Without going on about the previous episodes, the brief time with Henry and Sam is a really good one. In previous episodes and the game, Joel and Ellie meet new people or established ones are torn quickly and harshly. Sarah. Bill. Frank is already dead but the part of the game story there is good for many reasons. Here, one act out of desperation to save someone else with little thought to consequences and then a final, brutal act on self as the overwhelming emotions are superior to rational thought. I don't agree with most of the changes largely b/c of Druckman but the original lore overall is amazing to say the least.

"This better not work!" No. No, it doesn't. Poor little Sam.😭😭😭

In the first game there are 3 types of infected, the runners: the most human looking ones, the clicker: we saw them, and the bloaters: the big we saw it this episode but in the game it can throw spore at you to infect you.

Love these, doc! You are doing every show the justice they deserve! Still, this show had plot issues in the way they handled the marauders. But medical science isnt about those. Cool note about the final invasion of the infected: The producers made every effort to stay away from CGI. Those are costumed actors wearing makeup and effects done in person slamming out of that hole! The Bloater big boi IS a real dude lol. I thought he was CGI but thats actual costume. Poor Sam and his brother at at the end. They stayed close-ish to the game and in many respects took right from it as well and kept this close too, and it was probably even MORE wrenching than the game to go through. That brought tears to my eyes. It was a tormenting choice to be made. And Henry doing what he did after? Could anyone judge him? FANTASTIC acting. And thank you for the medical info doc!

If you're interested in it, DayZ (another zombie game, however this time it's set in a fictional ex-Soviet country of Chernarus based on Czech Republic) is being adapted by 2 British companies. Production was set to be as early as this year, so remember about it and maybe in a couple of years you'll get a MASHTERPEES game in movie form.