The Last of Us second episode has Joel, Ellie, and Tess out of the Quarantine Zone and facing the Infected! This episode is directed by Neil Druckmann, the creative director of the game and co-creator of the show. We start with a flashback to Jakarta, Indonesia - September 24th, 2003. Twenty years before the current time and time Joel was in Austin, Texas with Sarah. Two military types enter a restaurant and the cashier points out a lady with glasses (Christine Hakim) having her meal. They take her for a drive and the woman asks if they have the right person. One official says her name, Ibu Ratna, Professor of Mycology, the study of fungi. Ratna is taken to a medical facility to examine a sample under a microscope. She identifies it as Ophiocordyceps which grows on ants. The lieutenant general, Agus Hidayat (Yayu A.W. Unru), says it came from a human sample! I like seeing the world perspective and also the military and scientific look at the outbreak. She walks in a biological suit and goes to examine a naked woman. The military official tells her it is on her left leg, Ratna examines it, and takes scalpel to cut the wound.
She then uses forceps to take a sample from the Infected’s mouth. Ratna draws out a fungi mycellum (thread-like) and it starts to twist! She drops the forcep and leaves the room as more mycellum wave from the woman’s mouth! At a room, on a couch, Ratna is disturbed, the lieutenant general explains that the woman suddenly acted violent at a grain factory. She says it is “A perfect substrate”, an environment for the fungi to grow. The worker bit three others, she was killed by police, and the Infected were taken for observation. The military official says there are fourteen missing workers. She tells him there is no vaccine. Lt. Gen. Hidayat says what she recommends and Ratna says one word, “Bomb”, the whole city! She is tearful and just wants to go home with her family when bombs fall. A very dark beginning. Morning, we have Ellie asleep and curled up next to her backpack. She wakes up and looks at the sunlight pouring down to her from a hole in a house’s upper floor.
There is some forest growth on the floor, kinda magical, Ellie hears something and turns to see Joel and Tess sitting behind her. The greenery reminded me of the underground jungle in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) . Joel has his M-16 pointed at her, Ellie shows the bite mark on her arm, and says she is not Infected. They are both wary of Ellie as she goes to the restroom. Tess and Joel argue, he wants to take her back to the QZ, Tess wants to go on. Joel thinks of Ellie’s life as already ended. They snack on ration bars as Ellie eats a chicken sandwich. Tess walks over to Ellie to ask her why Marlene thinks she is important. Ellie hesitates to tell them Marlene’s secret, but explains that a Firefly camp to the west is working on a cure. She says she is the key, but Joel thinks it is all a hoax. Ellie is a human reaction to the Cordyceps like an antifungal like a Polyenes? Tess is more rational, she says to him that all that matters is that the Fireflies think Ellie is the key. Joel agrees, but warns about if Ellie twitches so she plays being Infected until Tess stops the joke. This is the best relationship between characters.
Ellie asks for a gun, they refuse, and she says she will throw her sandwich, very funny! Joel opens the door, it sounds peaceful with birds chirping, but the outside is just ruins. Beautiful scenary of destruction. Ellie checks out a bomb site to which Tess says the big cities were bombed to slow the Infection. Tess points out the two ways, the long way and the short way, to the State House and Joel says they should scout the location from “the hotel.” They start walking, Marlene asks how Ellie was bitten, she says it was the “old mall.” A man bit her and Ellie explains that she is fourteen which impresses Tess. Ellie wonders about the Super-Infected that explode spores on victims and another rumor of Infected that “split their heads open to see in the dark like bats”, sounds like the Death Angels in A Quiet Place! I love the endless questions by Ellie whom all of this is new. Also, Ellie's trust in Tess so at least they can have a conversation. They hear a distant shriek. I would have some Molotov cocktails or at least a few aerosol cans with a lighter.
Ducks are paddling around the green waters of a flooded hotel. Joel starts walking into the pond which makes Ellie says she can’t swim. He just jumps the rest of the way in so the water only comes to his knees. This time he has the smart remark to Ellie! She walks into the pond, past a half-submerged piano, to pretend she is checking in to the hotel. Ellie moves the piano which dislodges an Infected skeleton! They reach the tenth floor, Joel is walking point and finds a locked door, and Tess sees the wreckage in front of them. She climbs over it to unlock the door. Bored, Ellie asks about Joel and Tess who is from Detroit, but Joel is done with questions about himself. She asks about how long the Infected last and Joel answers months to twenty years. Tess opens the door, leads Ellie to a balcony, there are piles of bodies spilling from a building. Tess says that people head to the QZ drawing out the Infected. Their bodies start to writhe and Ellie points out that they’re connected! Tess tells her that there are underground fibers that can bring in Infected from over a mile!
Ellie says the long way is out. Joel says, “Museum.” They walk up to the Bostonian Museum which is covered with withered Cordyceps fungi. Joel takes out a heavy duty flashlight, Ellie gets her flashlight out, and Tess has two guns drawn. At the gift shop, Joel sees the fungi are “cooked”, and Ellie finds the body of soldier who was recently bleeding. They start to whisper and Joel says they are “silent.” He moves slowly up the steps, it is a tense scene with creaks, darkness, and the fungal growths, Joel opens the door to a dusty room with war artifacts. Tess pulls down Ellie as wood starts to collapse from behind a door! An Infected shrieks, shivers, then it makes gutteral noises from the corridor! They start to draw back and take cover as the Infected shambles in. It makes croaking sounds on the other side of the rifle case they are hiding behind. Ellie tries to close her eyes, but her breathing is ragged, and the Infected turns to scream. Its head is a mass of spores! A Clicker, the third stage of the Infected! Joel struggles with it as another Infected runs in! “Infected” is a great episode of Last of Us with creepy tension, horror, and characters that connects with audiences apart from the survivalist narrative!
Five Fungi Out of Five!
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