Despite the showrunners saying we wouldn’t see them in the series, spores have been introduced in The Last of Us season 2.
In episode 5, spores – another way to become infected by the Cordyceps virus – is introduced. It’s much more disturbing than it is in the game, and I’m holding my breath just thinking about it.
You might remember that the virus was initially spread through products like flour and cake mixes, etc., while the most common way to get infected in the show and game is through a bite (though we did see that weird tendril kiss in season 1). Spores make the virus airborne, which is somehow much more terrifying than coming face-to-face with an infected.
Warning: this article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 5, as well as The Last of Us Part 2. If you haven’t watched The Last of Us season 2 episode 6, turn back now. If you’re all set, scroll on down to read more.
What are spores?
In episode 5, we open to Alanna Ubach’s WLF leader character having a sit down with another leader named Sgt. Park. Ubach’s character asks why Park would kill all of her own men, but she explains that this is not the case: Park sent her soldiers into the hospital, which she has jurisdiction over, and they found cordyceps in B1 – but it was eerily quiet and there were no infected. Because killing infected is the their job, she sent in another group, this time led by her son Leon, to B2. When Leon radioed in, he could barely breathe. She asked if he had been bit, but he said, “It’s in the air.” Under his orders, they sealed off B1 and B2, leaving all the soldiers – including Leon – to die in the hospital, so that no one else would become infected.
When Ellie later encounters Nora at the hospital, she eventually chases her into B2. Ellie can see the cordyceps all over the walls – growing in a terrifying, tendril-like form – and, of course, is completely unbothered due to her immunity. The infected, who are stuck to the walls and are growing spores out of their faces, are expelling the virus into the air with every single exhale. Nora is slowly, and most likely painfully, dying as Ellie interrogates her about Abby’s whereabouts.
How do spores differ from The Last of Us TV show and The Last of Us game?
The concept of spores in The Last of Us TV show does differ from the game, however. In The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2,
During the release of season 1, showrunner Craig Mazin said he wasn’t sure spores would be included in the show, telling Comic Book: “In the game, there are these where you encounter spores and you need to put a gas mask on. In the world that we’re creating, if we put spores in the air, it would be pretty clear that they would spread around everywhere and everybody would have to wear a mask all the time and probably everybody would be completely infected by that point. So, we challenged ourselves to come up with an interesting new way for the fungus to spread.”
In the games, spores grow after an infected human has died – usually in a wet, dark place, which is why we see them spread across walls, floors, and ceilings. As the fungus grows, the body is consumed, and spores are therefore released into the air and able to infect anyone who breathes them. Eventually the corpse is reduced to a skeleton (much like we saw briefly in The Last of Us season 1), and what’s left of the body is covered in a kind of moss that essentially never stops growing. It dies, however, when exposed to sunlight.
In the show, the process seems to go like this: when a living human breathes in spores, they start to slowly but surely die – but not before sprouting mushrooms and tendrils all over their bodies, which then attach to the walls and floors around them. The infected person essentially becomes a living, breathing, spore-covered zombie that is trapped in place by the overgrowth and breathes the virus into the air with every exhale. The person eventually dies where they’ve been trapped, and the spores continue to grow and live in the air.
The Last of Us airs on Sundays in the US on HBO and Max, before landing on Sky and NOW in the UK the following day. Ensure you don’t miss an episode with our guide to The Last of Us season 2 release schedule.
