The Last of Us Ep.2 ReCap: Clicker Anatomy
Did you know the creators of The Last of Us originally weren't going to have Clickers? The plan was to have the game be peoples against peoples. They didn't want to be just another zombie game; they still hit that mark. Episode two focuses on learning about the Clickers and what they have done to the world.
Ellie is sleeping on the nice grass bed inside a building with beams of sunlight shining on her and butterflies fluttering around. Butterflies signify hope and rebirth, which is what Ellie is. We get a friendly sparring match of wisecracks between Joel, Tess, and Ellie. A little lunchtime where Joel and Tess are eating what looks like beef jerky if you left it on the dashboard of a Toyota Corolla for 20 years and then wrapped it in asgusting dog cocka(spelling? I Just realized I've never written it out). I thought Ellie was eating ziti in between bread before she said it's chicken. I guess refrigerating food no longer matters when you are immune to super mushroom death sickness. Eat that room temp chicken and mushroom-infested bread, homie.
Some more script ripped straight from the game. They need to head out west to doctors to get them the key to finding the vaccine, Ellie. Stop me if you've heard this before. Ellie does some funny twitching, and Joel does his favorite thing before they head out. He moves a cabinet, and they are off to the State House. Ellie asks if there are infected with split open heads that use sound to map their terrain like bats. That's exactly what the tickers do, but not all the infected have lost their vision. In the game, some clickers can still see you before they go all caps and become full-on mushroom heads.
Shoutout to the set dressers on this show because, holy shit, they cover everything in vines and overgrowth. It looks like a video game. I love the Ravaged Ritz Carlton set, complete with a piano-playing frog. That water is so green, and it looks ripped straight out of the subway scene in the game. Playing through the storyline again each week made me appreciate the subtle nuances in the IP. You shine a flashlight in Ellie and Tess's faces; they cover their eyes. When you're running through the sewer and poowater hits Joel's head, he puts his hands up, and his hair gets wet and poopie.
Back to the show, Joel and Ellie open up a sliver to each other. Joel explains that some Clickers last longer than others, and some have been walking around for 20 years. We learn that the clickers have a hive mind, so if you hurt one, others can feel it from miles away and will ride for Frodo. How the fuck are you supposed to avoid that. It's better than the game, where the spores are airborne in some spots and can infect you that way.
Time for a night at the museum covered in mushrooms. Joel says it's dry, which means they are all dead...maybe. It's also flashlight time in the Bostonian Museum, so prepare for jump scares. They get upstairs, the building falls, and we hear the creepy ass clicker noise for the first time, and they are close. This one's a full-on mushroom head. We get a good look at their puppet-like movement, which is spot on because that's basically what the humans are to the cordyceps—meat puppets.
You'd think Joel would be a better shot as he loads into the Clicker's belly. Joel shines a light right in its face, and it has no effect. At the climax of the action, some blood pours out of the Clicker Joel just shot. So, even though it appears these clickers have been infected for a while, they still have blood in them. Here's my theory. Based on what Joel said earlier about them being dried up, the cordyceps lose control when the host body runs out of blood and water.
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