\n<\/p>\n
HED:<\/p>\n
DEK:<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, The Last of Us<\/em> has taken a lot of care to be a self-sufficient adaptation\u2014a TV series that even someone unfamiliar with the video game can follow along just fine. But that sturdy feeling has started to slip a bit in the last few episodes of season two, as the show introduced the Seraphites<\/a> and the soldiers of the WLF<\/a> without a whole lot of context. As discussed in previous weeks, it might be a very long while before that context comes\u2014making recent episodes feel a little lacking.<\/p>\n But Sunday\u2019s episode, “Feel Her Love,” is the first time this season that it\u2019s really felt like knowing the source material would be genuinely helpful. So much happens so quickly\u2014in the shortest episode of the season thus far\u2014that it’s genuinely a little disorienting, even if you’ve played the games.<\/p>\n As writer\/co-showrunner Craig Mazin<\/strong> is fond of doing, the episode begins with an original vignette in which a WLF officer (played by Hetienne Park<\/strong> of Hannibal<\/em> fame) is being interrogated for killing the men under her command. She explains it wasn’t that simple. After hunting down some infected in Seattle\u2019s hospital, she sent a team down to its basement levels, where they disappeared. She then sent another team after them, led by her best soldier, Leon, who radioed back with terrible news: The cordyceps growth beneath is out of control, filling the basement with spores. She listens to Leon’s last moments: The spores are choking him, and he knows he’s doomed, so he tells his commander\u2014his mother\u2014to seal everyone in. As the interrogation concludes, the WLF officer is commended for her sense of duty, and given condolences for her loss.<\/p>\n Here’s the first little annotation worth making: This scene isn’t just setting up the episode’s ending, which takes place in the hospital’s basement levels. It’s also revisiting the show’s most substantial change from the video game. In the PlayStation version of The Last of Us<\/em> and its sequel, the cordyceps infection spreads via spores, much like other real-world fungi. As you know by now, things are a bit different on the show; the infection spreads via tendrils that penetrate hosts, usually through bites. When the TV version of The Last of Us<\/em> launched, Mazin and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann<\/strong> talked about this change at length<\/a> without entirely leaving spores off the table. Now here they are\u2014but it’s not really clear why, other than as further evidence that the cordyceps infection is changing. Those changes, and the hospital basement, are also setting up one of The Last of Us Part II<\/em>‘s most memorable monsters\u2014but we likely won’t get to see the HBO version of it until the show’s third season.<\/p>\n After the cold open, we then rejoin Ellie (Bella Ramsey<\/strong>) and Dina (Isabela Merced<\/strong>) in the theater where they’re holing up. As Dina works out a safe route to sneak into the hospital, Ellie roots around the theater stage, finding a rack of guitars. She picks one up, plays the first few bars of a song, and then seems to get too emotional to do more. It’s a little strange, considering she just finished playing all of “Take On Me” last episode\u2014but this episode in particular feels like it\u2019s trying to cram in a lot of relevant bits of plot from the game in a very limited span of time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n