The Last of Us has always valued its source material, adapting full scenes beat-for-beat, and even bringing actors from the original games. But that doesn’t mean the showrunners, original game creative director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin, are afraid to veer away from the saga fans grew to love.
One of the first signs that not everything would be the same is when it was revealed in Episode 2 of the first season that Infected don’t release spores like in the game. Instead, they sported tendrils, used to communicate over vast distances and seen when Tess gets bitten in Season 1 Episode 2. The reason for the replacement was such a mystery, but in Season 2 it all makes sense — the removal of spores was all leading up to a giant reveal.
