‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 5 Finally Brings the Arrival of Spores

Warning: This article contains spoilers for this week’s episode of “The Last of Us,” which is available now to stream on Max.

“Feel Her Love,” the latest episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us,“ begins with a cold open signaling the arrival of Cordyceps spores, infectious air particles expelled by the infected in their last stage of infection. Finally. While season one excluded them entirely despite their prevalence in the source material, The Last of Us Part II video game features some important story beats that involve the spores, including a pivotal moment that “Feel Her Love“ foreshadows with its grim opening scene.

Episode five is action-packed and wastes no time refocusing on Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina’s (Isabela Merced) pursuit of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), with Dina proving what an invaluable asset she is by triangulating the WLF movements, pinpointing their path forward to avoid detection. The noticeable gap in the WLF patrol route is a rather large building that Dina and Ellie rightly deduce is likely filled with the infected, which is why the soldiers avoid it.

While Ellie and Dina quickly discover just how infested this building is, it’s not the same one referenced in the opening that’ll come into play by episode’s end: a Seattle hospital where a handful of unfortunate soldiers assigned to clearing the basement of Clickers instead found themselves sealed off after discovering the toxic spores.

The spores were a huge part of the games from the start, though noticeably absent in the series adaptation thus far. “If we wanted to treat it realistically, and there are spores near, characters would wear gas masks all the time,“ Druckmann told Polygon during Season One. “Then we lose so much, which is maybe the most important part of the journey, is what’s going on inside behind their eyes, in their soul, in their beings. For that logistical reason, we were like, Let’s find a different vector.“

Whether they were biding their time to introduce the spores to the series more organically, as with the recent introduction of the Stalker, or The Last of Us Part II’s story beats made it inevitable for their inclusion, the spores are finally here in “The Last of Us” Season Two.

Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

Ellie and Dina’s journey getting their comes rife with danger, including an intense encounter with Clickers that leaves Ellie almost overrun until she’s saved by the surprise arrival of Jesse (Young Mazino). That’s quickly followed by more danger when they cross paths with Seraphites in the woods, right as the cultists make a ritual of disemboweling an enemy. The trio are forced to split up when Dina gets an arrow to the leg, prompting Ellie to offer herself as bait so Jesse can get her to safety. 

It’s a thrilling sequence that winds up fortuitous for Ellie; after evading the Seraphites, she finds herself in that aforementioned hospital where one of Abby’s group, Nora (Tati Gabrielle), is tending to injured patients. The series adheres to the game’s sequence pretty well as Ellie chases Nora through the hospital and straight into the basement. Because only the high-ranking WLF officials knew the truth of why the basement was deemed off limits, Nora unwittingly ran straight to her doom, and she was infected immediately.

Ellie, on the other hand, walks freely through the spore-filled dark corridors, passing by the awful aftermath of those doomed WLF soldiers, until she finds Nora, on the floor and struggling to breathe. Nora quickly puts together that Ellie is immune, therefore the one that Joel massacred the entire Firefly hospital to save. It’s here where Ellie learns Abby’s motive behind Joel’s murder, one that Ellie rejects with apathy. She tells Nora that she knows what Joel did and doesn’t care, before brutally torturing her for intel on Abby’s whereabouts. 

Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

The violence, cast in the glowing red lights, quickly cuts to a flashback that sees Joel (Pedro Pascal) warmly wake Ellie back in Jackson, a happier time before the falling out that left them estranged. It’s a welcome sight that feels almost like a soothing balm after the brutality of what came immediately before, but the brief closing moment also deepens already forming questions over Ellie’s soul and how her unwavering desire for revenge erodes it. The flashback is a stark cry from the Ellie in the present, one who bludgeons an already dying woman for intel.

That will shape the trajectory of the rest of this season and beyond, especially now that Ellie has committed her first murder out of cold-blooded revenge; and she’s one step closer to Abby.

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