The Last Of Us 1x2 Reaction | Infected | Review & Breakdown 

Joel and Tess know the way through the hotel because they're smugglers, not Fireflies. But both types would use the same routes to get in and out of the city.

The reason Tess "allowed it" was because the Cordyceps recognize each other. Tess wouldn't have allowed it had she not been bitten, however, the tendrils wanted to seek something familiar. The cordyceps growing inside Tess wanted to "connect" to a familiar source. The tendrils coming out of the man was accommodating that need of sameness. According to Craig Mazin, the showrunner, the cordyceps love. It seeks companionship. That's why Tess allowed it. The last vestige of Tess as she had been is what lit the lighter to destroy the horde. As for how it spread.....next episode Anna. Any questions you have will be answered in future episodes. You just have to be patient. This show is a slow burn, but man is it worth it. The highlight is the chemistry between Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The next episode is an emotional one. Make you sure have kleenex and plenty of booze.

In the real world, there are mushrooms and fungi that can grow underground for miles, as one single organism, just like Tess explained in the show!😱 these organisms can also transmit electric impulses across the filaments of the fungi body, so the show is taking inspiration from that and making it almost as if the cordyceps are using these electrical impulses to signal “prey here! attack here!”😂🍄

The thick fungus on their bodies functions almost like armor. So sometimes it takes extra shots. They are also mostly unaffected by pain in my understanding.

Try not to worry about the cordyceps too much. They are just a tool to tell a zombie narrative and we are far in fictional science here. They just don't work that way and they have been around for millions of years before humans stood upright. A zombie narrative is honestly not about zombies but about humans. The cordyceps are not the bad guys. In fact because of the fungus nature is coming back. You see this in the game and the show does a good job showing this without saying it out loud. In fact the give away that is not a spoiler is that this is honestly a love story according to the show runner and the creator. Each show has been about love in some form or another. The theme that Neil Druckmann was building the story off of is that love will save humanity and that same love will doom us all. Don't worry about the horror, pay attention to the love stories.

The fungus is naturally occurring, the specimen they had was from The woman on the table. Twas not man made love WHICH IS EVEN SCARIER

All hail Piano Frog. Next episode, wear a bib and no makeup. No reason. :)

So you have one big misconception. Tess and Joel were never fireflies. They're smugglers. The Fireflies are rebels. Marlene and Joel are aware of each other because when you're dodging military you tend to run in the same circles. And they've possibly done business with each other in the past. Also Tommy was a firefly, so Joel has a little more connection than the average smuggler. So far they've stayed very close to the show. There are a couple insignificant differences. The biggest is the way the fungus works. In the game, when the infected bodies begin to grow into the environment, they start releasing spores, that spread the infection when breathed in. They took this out, in large part because they didn't want actors to constantly have their face covered. There is a nod to this when Ellie asks if there are infested that throw fungus spores. There is in the game. In the show, they removed that ability from that particular type of infested. To make up for it they added the thing about subterranean tendrils that connect the infected. It feels like this was added in as a "well we took out one scary aspect, we need to fill that void". The biggest change is upcoming in episode 3 though. That part is very very different, but we'll fill you in after that episode.

Jakarta scene..again absolutely incredible.. these details are why the show did the game justice.. adds so muuuch gravitas to the situation... Also hooks both fans and freshmans yo the arc ❤

The series follows the story from the game like 90% accurately. Tess also dies there at the State Capitol building, although under different circumstances. I love the music and sound design which is also pulled directly from the game. It creates such foreboding atmosphere. PS, I like your new hair color.

The first episode's prologue section has some stuff on the radio and TV in the background about bombings in Jakarta.

I discovered Anna was doing TLOU on ep. 3, so I had to backtrack through the pilot and here. GREAT reacts! ANNA, you are spot on about the story craft and production PULLING us as watchers through to a payoff... a resolution of some kind.... ...but the brilliance of this... so called 'resolution' of TLOU is... beyond brilliant!

So, a lot of the answers to your questions go back to the two opening scenes we’ve had - the TV show in 1968 and the Jakarta scene in 2003. Where did the fungus come from?? … It was always there (very real … look up zombie ants), just couldn’t live in humans till it adapted to rising temperatures (1968). Why does shooting seem to do nothing … because the fungus eats the human bit by bit, replacing the lost tissue with itself. It also prevents decomposition of the remaining tissue in the host (1968), meaning you are trying to shoot the parts that are still human (specifically the motor functions) because the fungus doesn’t have centralized systems. Why do they have to go through the buildings … because they bombed most of the major cities to slow the spread … meaning mostly cutting off roads to prevent infected from getting from place to place. Obviously some of this doesn’t work, and leaps were made in the science, but the mythology of the story is created very well. Even if we have antifungal treatments at the moment, not sure anything we have could prevent such an aggressive infection that spreads this quickly (the poster on the wall in Boston QZ after we jump to 2023 … Leg, Foot - 12-24hours … Torso, Arm, Shoulder, Hand - 2-8 hours … Neck, Face, Head - 5-15 minutes). Oh, and consider where Tess was bitten. She was already losing control of her body while she was asking Joel to take Ellie on … her hand was twitching, which she notices and then sticks it in her pocket (just like the kid in Sarah’s classroom with the shiny bracelet in the first episode). Pretty sure this is why she is unable to move away from the infected fellow as he comes in to “kiss” her. Not really sure why he does that … but it sure added to the creepiness of the whole thing. I think if you watch, you will find that most of the questions that arise are explained, if not immediately. In that way it is a pretty well-crafted story. You can question motivations of some of the characters, but nothing world breaking, I think. There is some amazing acting, but the writing is what I find most attractive about all the shows I’ve enjoyed. This, the Expanse, Andor (after watching Rogue One, of course), True Detective (first season especially) … all just really well crafted stories.

Yes, Tess went out at this point in the game, though it was slightly different, she died in a gun battle with FEDRA soldiers who had tracked them from the QZ, whilst trying to buy Joel and Ellie some time to escape. Why would you, why would you, why would you? Because Tess was well on the way to turning and just had enough of herself left to light the lighter. Another minute and she would have embraced that kiss.

So glad you are sticking with this show. And kudos for pushing outside your genre comfort zone - I don't think a lot of people are so willing. I loved your commentary on this though, that was really fun to watch. I can't wait for you to see the next one...

I'm so glad you are doing this show! Thank you for pushing through! Tess told Joel to take Ellie to Bill and Frank's, so that's where they are going next. What you just watched would be level 6 or 7 arguably (haha). Tess does die at this time in the game. Cordyceps is a real fungus, so it already is a product of nature. It is also very species specific. There is a cordyceps for this type of ant and another subspecies of cordyceps for another type of ant and another subspecies of cordyceps for this type of beetle, etc. So a cordyceps that mutates to attack humans wouldn't attack the ducks and frogs. It's a type of fungus that specializes.

I believe the clickers scene was played by the mocap actors from the game 😮 which is mad..but makes scense since it was incredibly shot 😂🎉

Piano Frog, hes just a hard working frog playing for tips to feed his tadpoles.

The cold open for this episode is one of the most powerful pieces of shortform storytelling I've ever seen, and you could quite easily take it out of the show and let it stand on its own, and it would still be brilliant without the context it has here. Christine Hakim and Yayu Unru were amazing as Ibu Ratna and the Lt Gen, especially with how much of their performances weren't vocal. As for Tess' death, others have probably already said, given how late I am to this reaction, but yeah she does die this early into the game though it ultimately plays out differently.

Ironically, when the game came out in 2013, Covid was not even a thought yet. Pay attention to the color, yellow. It’s symbolic of the cordyceps infection. Craig Mazin did the same thing with Chernobyl.

I just love this show. The games are great too! I'm glad you're reacting to this.

"how many days" that's hilarious 😅😅

22:56 Here now we inducted Tess into the Badass Hall of Fame. She is the most Badass of All Badasses. Rest well you Badass.

they do answer all your questions eventually

good to explore new stuff.. I do not do much of government drama type shows

Watching this with you is like watching TV with my little Sis. She also is a little slow

they take an angle-grinder to EVERY dam emotion as they work through season

Awww...poor Anna. Do you need a hug?

what happened to your subtitles.. really helps when the film conversation is low

Watch jawan in theatres.