HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us had a lot of ground to cover – and we're not just talking about the physical distance Pedro Pascal's Joel and Bella Ramsey's Ellie travel throughout its nine episodes.
There was the outbreak, the different stages of the Cordyceps virus, new characters, and, of course, the main duo's slow-burn bond to explore. It's understandable, then, that episode 2's surprise reveal that the infected actually share a hive mind, a detail not present in the game, didn't really factor into the subsequent seven installments. Now, though, co-creator Craig Mazin has assured fans that the curious connection will be "brought forward" in The Last of Us season 2.
While the show's pilot established that the Cordyceps brain infection was spread via tendrils, not spores as it is in the game, episode 2, saw Tess (Anna Torv) tell Ellie (Bella Ramsey) – and in turn, us as viewers – about the infected's connection.
"The fungus also grows underground. Long fibers like wires; some of them stretching over a mile. You step on a patch of Cordyceps in one place, you can wake a dozen infected from somewhere else. Now they know where you are, now they come. You're not immune from being ripped apart," she ominously tells the bitten youngster. We're excited to see the repercussions of that in the future...
For more from the series, check out our guide to the major Last of Us episode 9 changes from the games and a terrifying look at the Cordyceps fungus.
