The idea with the kiss thing is that it's connecting her to the network. It knows she is infected (one of us, one of us) but doesn't "know" her. It's uncertain whether she doesn't move because the infection isn't allowing her to, or if she is holding still because if she resists/attacks, the infected person will get violent and kill her before she can start the fire.
the actress playing the Dr for the Indonesia scenes was absolutely fantastic. I find some of the ideas they came up with for the infection fascinating. The Fungus is probably not just pumping in hallucinations, but causing Cortisol levels to skyrocket to create the violent urges. And how the fungus would likely not care about over exerting the body, or really about injury except for what would cause death. Have to also wonder how much of the person is still in there, how long before the infection in the brain causes it to really cease to be who we are. In the game, early in the infection, the infected could show signs of recognition even if they lost vocalization.
Such excellent points! From what I understand of cordyceps, the fungus takes control of the body but not the brain… so it would appear that the infected know EXACTLY what’s happening and can do nothing about it. I think that makes it even more tragic 😔
When it comes to how much a person is still in there, the game gives hints more than the show does. During the first stage of infection in the game there are parts in which you can hear the infected crying and even fighting the infection. One part in particular is where an infected woman is eating a corpse. If you don't alert her, you can hear her crying out "No! I don't want to!" and even trying to force herself to throw up what the fungus is forcing her to consume.
I really like the lady in the beggining. she fully sells how absolutely terrifying the situation is, how the first thing we should do is literally level an entire city cause we absolutely can't afford this ever leaving the city, without any type of trial or quarantine and that she is saying all this not just because she's scared, but because it's all we can do.
Parasitic Fungus and Networked Fungus, both things actually existing in nature is what makes this extra creepy, great show, and the Fungus has probably already attached to the wheat exported around the world, so it is too late for bombing to be very affective
30 hours, 14 missing potential victims not counting Patient Zero with a time table of 5 minutes to 24 hours to full take over. That is terrifying. And that is why this Doctor made that poor Military man poop himself with one word: Bomb. 4:48 Joel was a contractor so had could have had this type of hand injury on the job. 8:57 The jump scare is strong in this one, ten gold stars to the make-up department. Five Gold stars for the Actors as the Clickers. Five Gold stars for Set designers. 11:51 Tess is a Certified Badass, Most Badass of all the Badasses in the History of Badassiness. We are going to induct her into the Halls of Badassiness. Rest well you Badass,
SUCH A BADASS! I really loved her! Sad she only got 2 episodes (and if she magically comes back for some reason in future episodes, no spoilers please! 😉 I’ve only seen up until ep 3 so far! 😉) This show has been EXCELLENT so far 😊
Anna Torv (Tess) and cameo actor Phillip (officially credited as Infected Kissing Man) were nominated for Best Kiss at the MTV awards, but they were robbed. She's a great character, the natural leader of the team, much like Frank is of Bill and Frank.
The series takes a bit of a different approach to how the fungus can spread. You can still be bitten in the game, but there are infected that can spew fungus spores into the air as well and can infect people who breathe it in. That's why in the game you often had to wear a mask while in interior locations to prevent breathing in the spores. I'm really enjoying your reactions to this show and can't wait for more!
Thank you so much for the explanation!! 😊 I did read that they changed the spore spread thing from the game just for aesthetic purposes for the show! Thank you so much for the support! More coming soon! 🤗
@@JessTheMD In that world the best medical help is ether yourself or the person next to you... and also advancements in medicine stopped in 2003.... Also I recon there`s only 100 people within 10+ miles of you and that pushing your luck too...
Makes it all the more creepy! I haven’t played the game, so simply throwing out thoughts, but I just wonder how much of the Covid pandemic influenced how they portrayed it in the show. Truly don’t have anything to compare it to because I didn’t play the game! 😊
I think the fungal kissing is because cordyceps go into the brain and are concentrated there so its a quick way for it to exit the body from the mouth and enter into a new one from their mouth. So it is just convenient.
It's interesting to see what they changed from the game and what they didn't, in the game FEDRA attacks them in the Massachusetts Capital building, but here it's the infected.
Dr. Jess, just found your channel. Great reactions! If you hadnt talked about it in later episodes, if the cordyceps victim in this show n the game reaches the point where they have most of their head n brain taken by the fungal infection, they become Clickers, by that sound they are using for echolocation. Hunting by sound, they are also very tough to kill
The clickers look perfect like the game, the kiss is a different way to spread the infection because in the games the infection is airborne and spread by biting people, but in the show it is spread still by biting only and the tendrils that comes out of the infecteds mouth is new but the creator of the game and show wanted the tendrils in the game but did not look right.
I interpret Joel's self-diagnosis for his hand as: 30% "I've seen/had this sort of thing before" and 70% "No medicine or X-rays or doctors outside of the QZ, so I'll be optimistic in front of Tess". Since Tess is very bright, I suspect that she was not fooled by this at all. The "zombie kiss" was not really a game thing, but in context it sounds like the mouth tendrils are what spread the fungus, so a bite or "kiss" is dangerous while airborne spores, infected blood, etc is fine. Not like most other fungi, but they made tradoffs to get the sort of world they want for the story, and as long as they are consistent with the rules, it seems fine to me. The whole "fungi connected by underground tendrils" actually happens in real life, though a different family of fungi than the zombie-insect family.
Thank you so much for all of the explanation! 😊 Agreed - I can see how Joel was probably putting up a front of “everything is ok, it’s fine, I’m fine” 🫣
I think the scientist didn't anticipate stopping the spread in the beginning - it's been 30 hours, a lot of people are missing, and some of them were not bitten. I think she realized by then at least half of the city is infected, and the only thing to do there is to delay it. A whole city, capital, infected with it or a few strays...it can make a difference in the future for other people.
If you want some extra fuel on the nightmares, how much consciousness is still there for the infected? Willpower is easily overridden by our hormones and neurotransmitters. Imagine an urge you can't control just like an alcoholic or a carb addict but they are still all there, fully aware. :)
Short story.. tess was losing her mobility due to the infection in her brain .. literally her last act was to strike the lighter..although that in of itself was tough.... The infection sorta works like ALS/MND it's not long before bonefide infected lose most motor function... Well not lose..but control.
So so scary and tragic 😔 I didn’t think of it like that but definitely makes so much sense! Losing control of your body. Again - so so scary and tragic 😔
@@JessTheMD show does a far better job filling in plot holes from the game... But yeah its why they are classed as infected rather than out n out zombies.. they are still there..... puppet's
Bomb. Based on how the professor was shaking, it was either "this city is dead" way or "the world is dead" way. Had they have nuked the city out of existence a few hours earlier, they may have actually stopped it
Utterly terrifying! I’m not sure that they could have stopped it. I suspect it was too late by the time they figured it out… it was in the wheat, which had already been widely distributed, as I understand. Maybe if it still weren’t distributed? But that’s soooo hard to say!
@@JessTheMD yeah, shipments of wheat were already going out. It was the food, not the biting. Considering the spores weren't adapted into the show, it makes me wonder exactly how some infected folks (who wouldn't continue on the work line) could have contaminated the whole supply. Or maybe the spores were the initial contaminant and the employees got sick from breathing flour dust?
That’s an interesting point. If I recall, I think they said something along the lines of it starting with the spores being in the wheat, that’s how some people got the initial infection, and then human to human spread was with biting? I could be totally off base here though!
In the game, the infection is spread by spore (as you mentioned in an earlier episode). However, they didn't want the actors to have to wear masks like the game, so they came up with spreading by branching and neurological infection.
Also the logic is that those spores get stuck to your clothing so the moment you take your mask off when you are out of the cloud again you get infected immediately if you don't decontaminate first.
@@JessTheMD Hmmm...I came back and my response doesn't seem to be there...maybe RU-vid doesn't like links...I think that this has happened to me, before.
In a lot of ways it doesn't really matter, buuut, these aren't zombies. In pop-lore zombies are reanimated dead hence "undead". In this world the infection doesn't kill you, you are alive the whole time, and who knows what part of the individual consciousness remains while the fungus is ravaging the body and the mind; therefore not undead, just a really nasty infection. There will be a line in episode three that I think was specifically put into the show to draw the distinction.
Thanks for the clarification! 😊 I’ll look out for that. I don’t remember it in episode 3, but that is the last episode I’ve watched so far. Entirely possible I missed it too. Will pay closer attention to that while editing 😊 thanks!
@@JessTheMD the line was "the dead can't be infected" when Joel was telling Ellie the story of what the army did with people they couldn't evacuate to QZs
@@gregs3845 ahhhh! Yes! I do remember that line! Thanks for that! 😊 I guess I would then say they’re more “zombified” than actual zombies 😉 I’ll make sure to use different terms moving forward when I film (sooo starting at episode 4 and beyond! 😊)
@@Mashford42 haha oh thank you so much! I was like “wait, Matthew has always commented that he appreciates my editing and all of a sudden he doesn’t like it?! What did I change so drastically??” 😅
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